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Hey I'm quite new to Linux, in fact I haven't even installed the distribution that I own (Fedora Core 1), for the reason that I loaned the DVD to my friend, who has yet to return it.

I was wondering if anyone can give me some pros/cons of Windows 98/XP to Linux. I have a Windows XP computer in my house, a Windows 98 computer in my house, and a computer with a completely new hard drive without an OS on it.

I have some questions about Fedora Core 1 as well
>How does Fedora Core 1 run with a small hard drive (3gb)?
>How long does Fedora Core 1 usually take to boot up/shut down?
>Do you need to have a version of Windows installed on your pc in order to use Wine?
>Is all Linux software the same? (ex. Can I install something for SuSE or Mandrake and also install it on Fedora Core?)
>Does Linux/Fedora Core 1 have a version of the BASIC programming language?


Sorry for so many questions and for seeming/acting like like the beginner to Linux that I am :cheesy: .

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by pty
Member Avatar for pty

1) FC1 should run fine with a small hard drive so long as you don't install too many packages on it. Probably best to start with a default install then add more as and when you need them

2) Boot speeds depend on the specs of your computer. Shouldn't take much over 90 seconds even an older machine

3) You don't need Windows installed to use Wine.

4) The different distributions use different package managers to manage software. Redhat/Fedora and SuSE use RPM (redhat package manager) to manage packages so in theory they should work together; however it is reccomended that you use Fedora packages with Fedora and SuSE packages with SuSE due to the configuration of the system, dependencies and so on.

Alternatively compiling programs from source should work pretty much the same on any distribution.

In my opinion you are best downloading a later copy of Fedora (or whichever distribution you like most). Versions 4 and 5 (possibly 3 but I dunno) use YUM in addition to RPM. YUM allows easy software installation by automatically finding and installing dependencies for applications. For example to install firefox you'd type

yum install firefox

So for example firefox needs libpng, if it was not installed on your system Yum would download and install that too thus avoiding rpm hell

5) gambas may be what you're after

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