Linux or Windows?

[Juridian]

I don't think one is truly better than the other...just better for certain needs. They both have their issues. If the box you are getting is truly that low when it comes to resources I'd pick up a linux distro and learn to play with it.

Gotta love the goobs that spout 'i don't really know linux but i know it's more secure because my other friends who don't really know linux told me so'. The security of your machine is only as good as you make it.

[Junk]

As for the stats on the computer I'm not sure. My neighbor is this really old guy and he says that the computer is about 6 or 7 years old. He says he knows it has a pentium 2 but that is all. It currently has Windows 95 on it and I would imagine the HD has a few gigabytes on it. As for the video card I couldn't even begin to guess. I will go ask him later. I was thinking of putting at least RedHat 6.0 (where the graphical version start I think) on it. I hope this helps in the way of stats... but I don't really know the stats either.

And I was thinking, it does sound pretty cool to experiment with Linux... so I think I am leaning in that direction and I know I can put Windows and Linux on seperate HD's but is it possible to put them on the same HD??

[Juridian]

I'd go with at least RH 7.3 ... 8 can be a bit of a hog until you learn to trim things down as you need em. You can put both windows and rh on the same hd. Just look for some dual booting tutorials on google.

[darkes]

Originally posted here by Junk

And I was thinking, it does sound pretty cool to experiment with Linux... so I think I am leaning in that direction and I know I can put Windows and Linux on seperate HD's but is it possible to put them on the same HD??

Yes it is, but you need to partition your HD.
If you use FDISK then you'll destroy your existing copy of Win95.

Some linux ditros (like SuSE) include a disk partitioning program as part of the instal.
In other words it moves the data around on your HD, and uses the free space to set up the partitions that linux needs, whilst keeping your version of Win95 intact.

[D0pp139an93r]

One quick note for Red Hat

After you install Linux, you will need to do some serious tweaking. Linux has the ability to "overcommit memory." Essentially, Linux software has the tendency to allocate far more memory than it needs, thereby killing what little resources the computer has. Overcommiting memory helps fix this for low RAM systems. Linux also starts up with far more services than you need running. Look at what you do, and figure out the what needs to be running.

One last note, as you install, you have the option of customizing what goes on. Make sure that kernel development tools is included in the installation. There is some usefull stuff in there.

I run RH 9 on a PII 300 Dell Latitude, and it runs just fine. Thanks to Dell I can only have 128Mb RAM, but that is enough for most applications. As long as there is a sufficient SWAP partition.

Good Luck

[breakology]

If you wanna try Linux out before installing, try out knoppix http://www.knoppix.org - it's a version of linux that boots from cd and runs completely from the cd-rom, no installtion required.
I use at home a lot when I get tired of looking at IE, or need access to a linux shell.

[ric-o]

No offense Junk but asking this question is just going to "stir up" the old Linux vs Windows debate.

I recommend running both: they both have very good uses!

[Juridian]

Erm....if he wants to ask questions about this, let him. Just make sure you stick it in the appropriate forum (wherever that might be).

[|The|Specialist]

Originally posted here by ric-o
No offense Junk but why are you asking this "religious" question on a security site?

Why would this be a religion issue? Well it would be if you are one of those hardcore religious types who would refuse to run a box with BSD cause saying "BSD" makes everyone think about S&M and then theres the demon...

[ric-o]

|The|Specialist: Nope, hardcore religious type I'm not! I use both Linux & Windows - each have their own strengths/weaknesses/uses.

All,
My post was simply saying that this L vs. W debate is old and tiresome and a waste of time. I would hope that this forum would be a place where we could get beyond that.

I do respect the fact that Junk wants others opinions and maybe he wanted more info on the security aspects but I did NOT want to see this turn into yet another L vs W thread that inevitably ends up with everyone attacking one another.

Just my .015 cents!