Linux People
 

Alright, I'm a computer geek. Since like 5th grade, I've always been into computers, always loved them. I started on MS-DOS 6.1/Windows 3.0, moved to 95, rejoiced at 98, and cursed at ME. I have a copy of XP that works well for me.

And I want to take the plunge. I want to go to the dark side. The catch is, Linux is open sourced. meaning I could ask five different people and get five different answers on which package is the best. So I'm asking for some serious help.

1. I would like a guide on Linux and its console commands.
2. A free, stable distribution of Linux that is capable of running the latest drivers for ATI.
3. Any sound cards that you know of that work well with Linux.

System Specs:

2.0 Ghz AMD Athlon XP 2400
512MB DDRAM
ATI RADEON 9600 PRO
Sound card that doesn't support windows
160GB formatted in NTFS

4. I would love it if it supported a dual boot with Windows XP (Kind of like training wheels)
5. And I would greatly appreciate it if it didn't require a reformat of the entire drive.

Any ideas?

I use Gentoo myself. It's not exactly the most user-friendly distribution (for instance, the installation process is done pretty much entirely manually, although it isn't too hard provided you follow the instructions) but if you take the time to learn its ins and outs, aren't afraid of a commandline, and don't mind its fairly long installation times (since its preferred methon of installing software is to compile it from source) it's a really nice OS. Still, it's not for the faint of heart, and if you want a distro that lets you put the CD in, hit a button or two, get yourself a sandwich and come back to find everything installed and configured for you then you'd probably be better off with something like Mandrake. Judging by your post, though, it looks like you want to learn the nitty gritty details of the system, so I think Gentoo work work fairly well for you. I haven't tried the ATI drivers for it (my card is an Nvidia) but they are available for it and should install without too much difficulty.

As for a guide to the Linux console, I did some poking around and managed to find this, which should be useful.

Nearly all distributions provide an option during install to allow you to dual-boot, but many don't provide a utility to resize an existing partition if your current Windows partition is taking up your entire drive. You might want to try a utility like PartitionMagic if you want to re-partition without erasing everything. There's also some tools for Linux, such as Parted, that will allow you to do the same thing, but this should be done prior to install, before you get Linux on your system, and you should back up your important information anyway, since those programs aren't 100% reliable. If your drive is already partitioned, then you won't have to reformat your entire drive. You'll just have to re-format the portion of it that you want to devote to your Linux installation.

A whole lot of sound cards are supported in Linux now, so that shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm just using the built-in sound hardware on my motherboard right now, and it was fairly easy to set up (if you can call a process that involves re-compiling the kernel "easy". Still, most distributions, Gentoo included, include the option to set things up so that your hardware is auto-detected at boot-up. I just prefer not to do it that way, since where's the fun in that?) If you can tell me what model of sound card you have, I might be able to do some checking around to see if it's possible to make it work in Linux. If you're planning on buying a new card anyway, though, Creative Labs' stuff seems fairly well-supported. Again, if there's a specific card that you've got your eye on, post it here and I'll see if it's supported.

try some cult sites...you apostate! Burn the heretics!

((KIDDING))

My sound card is a C-Media Prowler 4.1

I was going to buy a new sound...except my financial situation mutated horribly at the hands of the ice queen of my cubicle. So...I guess I'm sticking with what I've got right now.

Im on a Gentoo box right now. I think its pretty good.

I did some checking, and the Prowler seems to be based on the CMI 8738 chipset, which is supported in Linux, so it shouldn't present much of a problem.

PartitionMagic isn't working...

Unfortunately, that's not really something I can help you with. I've never actually had to resize an in-use partition, so I'm not sure what the most effective way of doing it is.

Still, out of curiosity, what problem are you having, exactly? Is it giving you an error message of some sort?

No, it's just not working.

I installed it. Selected my primary drive. Used the little wizard to make a new 40Gig partition made out of FAT32. Hit the apply button. It gives me a spiel of how its an evaluation copy. Then it just clears the queue. I reboot, and no new partition. My main drive is totally unaffected.