This series of articles is for those that are thinking about their first installation of Linux, or taking their first steps in Linux. It's written by a beginner with a beginner's terminology and thought processes. If you're an advanced user I promise the occasional chuckle, and the mistakes that all beginners make, but that's how we all learn. This one may not be for you if you're an old hat at Linux. Failure is the fertilizer that is required for the flower of knowledge to grow. That said I've made my share and learned a lot.

There are a lot of choices to make if you want to install Linux on your PC. My goal is to document what I had to learn, what decisions I made and hopefully help you avoid some of the pitfalls that I made beginning with Linux. By explaining errors I've made, I hope to help you avoid the same errors. I must warn you that even though I have years of experience in Data Processing most of it is in IBM and Microsoft operating systems. I know very little about Linux or a Unix based operating system. This will be a discovery experience for me, and if I make an error you're going to be the first to know about it. Anything new requires effort to learn, and anyone that has worked in Data Processing or PCs can tell you it's a continuing education. New hardware is developed as well as new software every day. It's a growing and changing environment. That's what makes Linux and PCs great. We get new toys to play with every day.

I want to start at the beginning. I was watching TV one day and the Linux was mentioned in passing as the new up-and-coming Operating System. The news piece went on to point out that the release of Red Hat 5.2 was available and much cheaper than other Operating Systems. Of course I had to run out to my local Mega Store and buy a copy.

Quickly I ran home. opened the box, and discovered a pretty little book and several CDs. Reading the manual I discovered that since I had two hard drives in my system the installation wouldn't be that difficult. Following the directions very carefully I was up and running a dual boot system in a matter of hours. It wasn't long after this I found that the games I wanted to run were not available for Linux. I couldn't find any software to run the TV/Card in my system. My scanner wasn't supported and the list of issues went on. Everything I had hoped for wasn't there. I kept reading and even started surfing the Web looking for information. I found that there were a lot of great features to LINUX, just not everything I wanted. So Linux sat alone on its own drive where I would visit it to play a game of asteroids once in a while. Then one day the other drive was out of space and Linux was sacrificed in the need for more space on the Operating System that did what I wanted.

Time passes and my job demands that I take data from the Mainframe and feed it to a Midrange Application. Questions start to flow. What Operating System are they using? The answer comes back, Unix. I start thinking Linux is a Unix like OS. Now I know I've got to learn about Linux. It's the next logical step. If I'm going to feed Data from the Mainframe to a Midrange system, then I want to know more about the type of system. I can't afford a Midrange box and all the software for it. The company I work for won't pay to cross train me in a new system. Linux is the logical choice. It may not be Unix but it'll allow me to learn about a UNIX-based system. The Die is cast and I've made the decision on how to get the knowledge I need.

Now the real questions start racing around my mind; and worries too. What's available, what can it do, is there anyone I know that can help me when I get lost? What hardware is supported? Will my new SCSI card work? It's got to work because the hard drive I want to use for Linux is SCSI. So the research starts.

A little surfing and Debian Linux pops up. Free! All you have to do is download it. A few phone calls later, a friend claims that Mandrake Linux is the way to go. He's using it for network server at home. I ask about my SCSI card, will it be supported? He checks and tells me it will work. Just install following the instructions in the book that comes with the Pro edition echoes in my head. OK. Off to the store I go. This is my first mistake. Too few questions are asked of my new source. I hadn't checked all the details.

I learned this one the hard way. Make a list of hardware in your machine. Not just what you consider unusual. Everything should be suspect. Then hit the Web for the version you are considering. Mandrake has a list of compatible devices that they auto detect and will handle during the installation for you. I didn't check it, and guess what, my Network Card isn't on the list. So it wasn't detected during the install. My ATI video card is supported but not the TV portion of it.

All is not lost and the learning process has just begun. Of course I have already bought the software. Another version may have been a better choice, but there are options. I can always download Debian for free from the Web, and I want to cover that one, too. The idea of a Free Operating System is just too good to resist. I've got to try it. So I promise I will cover that in a future article. I will even compare the difference in what you get between Debian 2.4 and Mandrake Pro version 7.2 at a high level. Check the list of Web sites at the bottom of this article, and research the options for yourself. I would pay special attention to what hardware is supported if I was doing it again.

Now as for the unsupported NIC Card (Network Card). The manufacturer claims it's supported in Linux. The driver diskette that I had filed away a few months earlier contained drivers to install it under Linux. ;-) You guessed right. It isn't anything that works by just copying the files on the diskette to a directory on your Linux hard drive. I have to compile the source using the MAKEFILE on the diskette. That would be all right, except I haven't installed any of the Development software during installation, and that brings up the installation process. I didn't tell you about that. That's right - it's the next article.

I want to address just a few more things like getting DVDs, TV, and installing a little game called Quake3 on the list of things to add to this system. I will start with a Windows 98 system and converting it to a dual boot system running Linux on one drive and Windows on another. I can't give up my DVDs, and this machine also is the print server for my home network. So it will remain a dual boot system until I can replace those functions in Linux. After I get Linux to that point I can kill Windows. After killing Windows I can replace it with Debian for comparison. Then I can compare Mandrake Linux on one hard drive, and Debian Linux on the other drive.

This will allow me to explore the added value of purchased versions of Linux against the free version of Linux. Of course some things are a given. Like all the software and games that is installed by the Mandrake version, but I have a feeling there may be some surprises in store. I had a few already so more have to be right around the corner. I hope that gives you an idea where I'm going and what to look forward to in future articles.

Informational Links
http://www.tucows.com/
http://www.redhat.com/
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/
http://www.slackware.com/
http://www.suse.de/
http://www.debian.org/