My first bit of advice

Right, all day I have been looking online at sites and forums all about Mandriva and Linux and have come up with my first tip to people who are thinking of embarking on a journey like this.

Research, Research and Research. Today I realised that I have purchased the wrong version of Mandriva 2007, they have released a newer version (2007.1), this isn’t a major problem because I can just upgrade, but it just shows how easy it is to make a mistake when embarking on something new.

I would advise signing up to the community around the linux distro you are going to use, most major distro’s will have a forum and that is where you will get all your answers and information, Mandriva’s forum can be accessed through their club (http://club.mandriva.com), I have had a lot of my questions answered and it is a great opportunity to talk to people who have went through the same process, you will be suprised how many ex-windows users there are helping newbies to Linux and they are always helpful. Been part of a community like this will make the process of converting much smoother.

Next step completed

I have ordered my laptop, it’s an Acer Aspire 3692WLMi, with an Intel Celeron M420 1.6GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 80GB hard drive (split into two 40GB partitions) DVD±RW Drive, 5-in-1 Flash Memory Card Reader, and pre-installed Windows XP Media Center. It has up to 224MB graphics using the Intel GMA 950 chipset, hopefully this will all run Mandriva properly and with the beautiful XGL.

The second part of the second step was to purchase (or download) Linux, I decided to purchase a copy of Mandriva 2007 instead of downloading the 4GB+ file because this would have taken ages and my internet connection has a cap on it (currently 2GB or 5GB, BT won’t tell me which). I have also put my name on Ubuntu’s list which means that I should get a free (yes, totally free) copy of Ubuntu in 6 – 10 weeks, so if Mandriva doesn’t do it for me, I can switch to Ubuntu.

Next step will come after my birthday on the 30th April, when I will get the laptop and start using Linux. I will probably install it before my bday though, so come back soon for step three.

Thank you for your pre-support

When I posted a post on my main blog The Computing Expert about what I am intending to do, I would like to thank everybody who read it and commented, I have got some good tips and hope that this will continue throughout my conversion

Welcome

Welcome to The Linux Convert. I bet your wondering what this is all about, OK I suppose I’ll tell you.

I have since junior school used nothing but Windows, I still remember using painbrush on Windows 3.1. But now I think it is time I grew up. Windows has been a disaster for some years, and since I installed Windows Vista, I have become, well, annoyed with how bad it actually is. So, now I am gonna be moving to Linux. More specifically Mandriva 2007.

This blog is designed to tell you how my converting gets on, what problems I come up against, what things I like and what things I dont like, so that other people may follow in the same way. Linux is no longer the operating system for nerds, it has become as user friendly and easy to use as Windows, especially Mandriva.

So come back soon. I will not be starting the journey properly until I get my laptop for my birthday which is at the end of April 2007, I will be dual booting it with XP, so come back after then and stand by me when I need help, help an old Windows fanboy become a Linux enthusiast.

Thankyou!