TonyB wrote:
> 
> Great... even if it will be the slave HD?

Linux needs to boot from one of your first two IDE drives if you're
using IDE (I don't think this requirement holds for SCSI).  It also has
to be on a partition in the first Iforgethowmany cylinders.

> >Then you prepare several partitions (SuSE has a GUI for it) for
> >LINUX on the HD, which should be documented in the docs of the
> >distribution and format the HD.
> 
> OK, so why do I need several partitions, and how many shall I need?

You really only need two: root and swap.  You should have a swap
partition (unless you have gobs of memory), and Linux prefers (very
strongly) a partition dedicated to that purpose.
 
> Could you elaborate more on this? I've also heard of Gnome and KDE. Are
> these better than XWindows?

X provides a very low-level GUI and doesn't include all the fancy bells
and whistles you're used to from a GUI (right-click menus, task bar,
drag & drop between windows, that sorta stuff), though it does provide
the low-level support for such things.  They end up being provided by
other software packages that runs on top of X. Gnome and KDE combine
aspects of a GUI API and a higher-level GUI with which applications can
interact, and each provides some such applications.  Then you also have
a window manager, something like fvwm, Enlightenment, AfterStep, etc.
that provides more of the look and feel as well as the widgets in your
window frames.  It's all very modular, highly customizable, and still in
development. :-P
  
> =) I've read something about that. Isn't that LILO? Can I also use the Boot
> Manager from Partition Magic?
> 
> >I don't know Mandrake but heard nothing bad about it!

LILO should be an option (not sure how well it gets along with Win98). 
I don't know about Partition Magic.
 
> I hear it is basically a derivative of the RedHat distribution.

There's a religious war between KDE and Gnome, and Red Hat sided with
Gnome, largely for ideological reasons.  Some people preferred KDE
(which is more mature than Gnome) and built a KDE-oriented distribution
around Red Hat (something like what Red Hat would be like had they
chosen KDE instead of Gnome).  That's how I understand Mandrake,
anyways.
 
> But I need to ask more... :(  I know so little...

Ask away.

-Mark Gordon

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