Forum Moderators: bakedjake
I've been studying Linux for months as I try to decide which direction to move in. I need something very user friendly, as I simply don't have a lot of time to tinker with Linux on top of all my other work - mostly research, writing and web design.
It's also clear to me that I can't completely abandon Windows for the near future, even though Windoze problems are a key factor in my interest in Linux.
I finally added a second hard drive and got RedHat Linux installed on it at a local installfest. (I have a dual-boot system.) I was playing with it as I found time but hadn't made much progress when I was suddenly denied access. Apparently, I forgot my password or username. (I didn't want one in the first place, but the person who installed it said I had to have one, and I only had a few seconds to choose one.)
Anyway, this is what I'm thinking of doing:
Get a THIRD hard drive installed and install another copy of Windows XP Pro on it.
Then get RedHat reinstalled on my Linux drive AND get another distro - perhaps SuSe installed on it, too.
That will give me the following hard drive/OS options:
1. Windows XP (current drive)
2. Windows XP (a leaner drive, with only the essentials to help me escape all the problems I can't fix on my current drive)
3. Linux (with a choice of RedHat or SuSe)
When I boot up, I could choose between booting to Windows XP, Windows XP2, RedHat, or SuSe.
Here's some more background information:
I'm pretty much sold on RedHat because it seems to be the most popular distro in the world of servers and Apache software - something I'd like to learn about.
SuSe sounds like another good option because they're currently marketing an apparently popular user-friendly version (pre-installed on some computers). Also, it sounds like SuSe has some sort of software that makes the installation especially easy. Nevertheless, I'll probably take my computer to the next installfest and get RedHat installed from scratch, then add SuSe.
I'm very active politically and want to promote Linux, so it would be nice to have some knowledge of at least a couple distros - though I'll probably never be an expert on any one of them.
One more question:
I also purchased an external hard drive to copy all my files to as a back-up. (I don't really understand "ghosting" and wanted something really simple that I can actually observe working. Also, I can remove the external hard drive to another location for added security.)
Can I copy files from my Linux drive to this external hard drive, or just Windows files (which are currently stored there)?
Thanks!
