Well, I'm am going to disagree with 99.9% of the above posts!!
Here is my reason:
When I started using computers (early-mid 80's) I started with DOS and got windows 3.1 and so on.
I learned alot about DOS and Windows through the years because this was the only platform I ever used.
But I never really learned a damn thing about "computing" till I started using linux about a year ago.
So, my point is thus, if this guy is "brand-spanking-new" to using computers, he really should start out
with using *nix. What better way to mold yourself? From the ground up.... Before you learn bad habits and make
yourself stupid beyond belief by using windows?
To akanicknick:
Take whatever version that shipped with your new computer and BURN it NOW!, Do not give it to some harmless
little child and ruin his life.
Go out and buy Mandrake 8.1
When you get home with it, boot your machine and whack the DELETE key a few times to go into BIOS and
look for the section that says something like "Advanced BIOS Functions" and make sure you "Boot from CDROM"
Slap that BadBoy MDK Disk #1 into your cdrom and reboot. Mandrake's install is even easier to use then M$'s
When you get to the partition section of the install, just click on Auto-Partition everything else pretty self explanatory.
