[ILUG] Switching to Linux from Wins98

[Steffen Higel]

On Fri, Nov 17, 2000 at 07:47:36PM +0000, Simon Curtis articulated:
> So, basically what I need help with is:
> (1) Is 6 GB enough for all that I want to do with the Linux partition?

More than enough, I think. I have Debian 2.2 doing pretty much all the
things you mentioned within 1 gig, though  am sure I could cut that down
if I tried. If you want to experiment with different Desktops or install
some of the bigger productivity apps, like Star Office, 6 gigs is still
loads.

> (2) Do I need to get a boot manager to make Linux the default OS, while 
> retaining Windows98 as an alternative (an alternative that has more of the 
> hard drive).

There are two things you need. A partition resizer and a boot manager.
FIPS comes on most distros I have seen, and (given that you have taken a
number of precautions first) will allow you to resize your windows
partition to fit Linux in.
The boot manager that you will most likely have installed is lilo, which
boots up Linux as default unless you tell it otherwise. On Debian it
required a bit of editting to get it to load windows.

> (3) Will I have any difficulties running the machine as a server? (eg: do I 
> need special cards to be present in the computer?).

If you are connecting it to a network, then you will need a network card.
Check in the device manager in Windows to see if there is one there.
Most distros these days leave a large number of services (like telnetd and
fingerd) enabled as default (a bad thing imo). You can switch them off by
commenting out the appropriate lines in /etc/inetd.conf
So basically, most Linux installs will run as servers out of the box.

-- 
Steffen Higel | web:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~steffen | ICQ:40021936

"But I'm not afraid of any 100 developers. 1-3 great chefs gives you a
great restaurant. 100 chefs gives you McDonalds." 
				~Tim Sweeney