advice for a linux n00b

[megah0]

going to be installing Mandrake on an old spare box to have a play, what tips would you give me?

cheers

[directhex]

find all the EXACT specs for your monitor (horizontalk & vertical refresh ranges), just in case.

--jo

[tonicblue]

Check the Version Is compatable with all your hardware. Download all the drivers before hand and bong em on CD.
I am not an expert, Infact I only had linux on my box for a week but i didnt have any of the drivers sorted out and it was awkward to set up. My network cards refused to work and my sound card apart from that it worked nicely. As soon as I would have had inet access It would have been fine and I would have probably kept it but I got sick. I'm gonna try again when I get a new HD. Hope that helps

[c0w]

mandrake is a nice simple yet powerfull distro to start off with..

best tip everything importand starts with

"drak"

once your started type drak and tab you will see a list of things thats more or less the tools you will need to get the ball rolling

c0w

[lampPost]

once you've got it all running and you're using KDE or whatever. try to learn a bit about how to use it just in textmode, jsut simple commands and where stuff is etc. that way you can get your self out of trouble if anythign screws up

there's probably a decent guide on just that somewhere infact

[tonicblue]

this should get you to grips with the text based side of it so you know how it works.
http://www.linuxlots.com/~jam/guide4.html
I only skimmed it but it seemed to look good and useful, gonna book mark it for when Im in your position

[Raz316]

use alt+f2 for the windows equivilant of start > run

if a window freezes/crashes, use alt+f2 and run the command 'xkill'. Your cursor will change, now click on the window you want to kill to get rid of it

Be patient oh and read everything

[megah0]

ooooh, its all good so far, thanks people

keep it coming though