Help ! I dont know where to start?

My first time with Linux , years of Mac and Win, but I’m used to an easy install. Is there a simple download or disk image? It seems I have to download a tone of things. What is compiling and do I need to do this? I guess my question is: Is there any simple way to do this.
I have partition Magic have set a 10gig primary partition, installing on a P3 1.2 and with CD and floppy.
Help?
Trying to install SlackWare Linux

Slackware's site has a basic guide to installation:
http://www.slackware.com/install/

A forum full of knowledgeable Linux gurus is JustLinux and they have a large library of help files here: http://justlinux.com/nhf If you follow the Installation link, you can find information on what compiling is and how to do it.

Oh, and don't forget about Google! If you can't find an answer through it, then it doesn't exist.

I hope that you can find some answers, come back if you have some more specific questions! Good luck!

You forgot the all important link.

http://linuxiso.org

You can download the images for your installation cd's there, then reboot, run a cfdisk/fdisk and create your partitions.

Then run setup.


I'd suggest NOT using Slackware if you are looking for a pretty GUI based installation. I would recommend Mandrake for that purpose.

However you learn a lot with slackware so it's a tossup.

Will XP dual boot or do I need something else?

Can I add a different interface to improve its look? After reading the posts here it seemed a good idea to install Slakware to learn a thing or two.

Yes, you can dual boot with WinXP. In fact, I currently have a WinXP/Slackware 9.1 machine. But as Brandon said, installing Slackware (especially trying to dual boot) as your first Linux installation experience is not always fun. I do, however, encourage you to try it as making mistakes is always a great way to learn. Just make sure that you have backed up all of your important Windows files and defragged before attempting the Linux installation.

As for the interface, there are many different window managers that you can try out. In fact, KDE and Gnome are really more customizable than the Windows desktop.

Thanks
Sorry to be redundant, but what should I use to start the dual boot process

When you get to the text installation you'll hit something called LILO, just do as it says there, it should autmatically set it self up to either a boot disk, your master boot record, or the /boot directory you set up, (your choice, I would try MBR, never worked for me, and then /boot, then the disk as a last resort. You may need to play around in bios to choose which hardrive is booted from first.

The look and feel thing you get over real quick. Installation is blah, but your Windows Manager, KDE or Gnome, or a variety of others, is/are easily customizable to your own taste's.

I may be misunderstanding thequestion, but are you asking how to initialize the actual install in a dual-boot setup?

The basic idea is to go into your CMOS/BIOS setup and configure your system to boot to the CD-ROM drive first.

Save to CMOS, place the bootable CD-R with the ISO on it into the drive and reboot.

Some linux boot managers tend to fubar the boot loader, so I prefer not to use either LiLo or Grub, just the boot disc.

The linux OS will offer you some choices as to how to partition enough space for your distro.

Once the install is complete and linux is working as it should, don't forget to reset the CMOS/BIOS to boot to either your A:\ or C:\ drives.



Hope this helps...


C.C.

Thanks, but I was actually looking how to install a boot manager or to see if one was included with XP.

I think there's one included with XP, but it only allows you to boot to other versions of windows IIRC. Micro$oft doesn't acknowledge the existence of any operating systems other than Windows

I explained up further that the bootloader will be installed with linux.

BadSpell68...

You get your dual boot going?

No yet. Problem down-oadng disk 2 of slackerware. Hope to jump on it tonight or AM.

I thought you were downloading linux, not windows