Linux download = chaos

Alright, newbie here to the site wanting to venture out and try to make a linux box.
I have an old dell latitude laptop that I would love to download linux on. I have
done a little bit of reading, and it seems all chaotic!! How do you download
linux online? I see techtv.com rave about it all the time, and dont really
care to go out and buy a cd with and os that I can download for free!
Any suggestions, help, or comments? Should I stay with the Evil Empire of MS
and not even bother?
thanks,
Waltman

Download the iso from an ftp site.....Burn the iso on to a cd then boot from the cd and follow the instructions....and then you will soon become a linux god mughahaha
:)

1. No cd burner owned,

2. Just any iso? I have seen some sites like redhat with 2 different versions of iso, and two different
types of iso's?

Hmm....no cd burner....you could do it over ftp....i suppose...the iso should be for the i386 usally called install.iso or something
But in order for you to do it over ftp you going to have to make bootable iso floppys....and have a decent connection

You can make a boot disk that will get the distro straight from the server. Go to the distro site you want to download, whether it be RH or SuSe or whatever they have instrustions for that.

Good luck.. Might I recommend a good inexpensive cd burner tyo make your life easier? got to www.pricewatch.com. They are cheap, and they save you allot of grief.

Buy the CD, it's cheap.
Or buy a book that has a CD bundled with it.
You will need a book anyway, so why not?

The download is only practical if you have a
decent connection (not dial-up) and a CD
burner. Maybe you have a friend who will
download and burn the CD for you.
:cool: