Linux-How to Install

There are a few terms to know before installing Linux

Swap- Its like the pagefile space just that in linux it is a separate partition,even if u dont make it
Linux will still make it out of the partition in which you intsall it, so its better that you do it urself
Swap partitions are ideally the size twice of your ram,but now when people have 4GB rams they may go for a
4GB swap

Desktop Environments- The desktop environments are the GUI between the user and the OS
.There are many DEs available there, the best is KDE.Another good one is GNOME

Boot Loader- The boot loader contains the information about the various OSs running on your comp
say if you run Linux with Windows.The most used boot loader out there is GRUB.Another is LILO.


Well then now that we are ready,lets see how to install it

Well the installation is a piece of cake except for the disk partioniong where most of us get stuck.Just follow the on screen instructions until u reach the partitioning stage.Till then you will be asked is the regional info, keyboard setup you want and some small stuff like that.

when you reach the partioning stage the idea is to have a partition of say 10GB partition (thats a decent size, the minimum can be even 4GB) in which u want to install Linux.
First make a swap partition of double the size of of your ram.Do this selecting an empty partition, click the delete button so that u have unpartitioned space.Then click the new button and select the size of the swap partition and select the type of partition as swap.
Do the same for the main partition and select the type of partition as ext3 and mount point as "/".

Then you will be asked to select the packages u want to install and then the type of boot loader u want i.e (Grub or Lilo) and the root password.
Then the installation will start.

Well i ve covered only the main points because other things are the same as installing XP. Happy Hunting.If u people have any probs installing linux pls feel free to leave a comment.

LINUX- A STARTERS GUIDE

Linux………….all of us know that word, know bits and pieces about it. We all want to try and install it on our systems and use it, but how many of us really do that……v don’t want to get away from our “precious” Windows(no offence Mr. Bill Gates……). The main reason that its hard for Linux to cement its place in India coz piracy is cool here (literally) , no strict laws or anything. Its just coz the other software companies aren’t releasing their applications for Linux, like games and other heavier apps; hence the ppl with Linux have to do it themselves and release an alternative. But its more than just being free that makes Linux special………it outscores Windows in every department ( its actually a shame I am writing this in MS Word……).well lets c how………

How Linux is better than Windows:

1. Stability: Linux is more stable than Windows any day. The system rarely crashes if u know what r u doing ie if u aren’t tinkering with the system folders
2. Security: Over 90% of the world’s servers run on Linux. Case Dismissed.
3. Choice: There are a lot of distributions available out there and u can definitely find a flavor that suits you perfectly.
   A few food ones : Ubuntu, Fedora , PC-Linux OS, Mandriva,
4. Freedom: Still cant find a flavor u like…….well how about creating one of your own????????
   The source code is available for every Linux distribution and u can take any distro and edit its source code to make it behave as u like though only a few ppl can do it…..(I cant).
5. Freeeeeeeeeee: All softwares that come bundled with the installation cd of a distro are free……..and yes, they are as useful as their windows counterparts, while being thousands of times more stable.
   Just for an example: GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the one of the most powerful image editing software you will ever find (rivals Adobe Photoshop in terms of RGB image editing abilities) and it comes with practically every distro……free.

Watch this space, next time ill post about how to install any distro of Linux