Unless, of course, you want to completely leave Windows behind completely! Then let Linux take over your entire drive, mwahahaha!

No, but seriously, look in another topic, and I go over how to set-up the partitions for linux. I don't remember the topic name, but there aren't many linux ones (not recent linux ones anyway), so it shouldn't be hard to find.

It was called Install Ubuntu Linux. That's the topic where I got help installing linux, courtesy of Kllrnohj

wasn't there a tutorial posted earlier on how to use Linux? I can't seem to find that link

How to use Linux? It's different for just about every variation and build, so I don't think there is a "standard" Linux manual.

Do you know where I can find an Ubuntu linux manual? I tried googling, but I could only find installation guides and french documents

same with FC4

MANUAL? not really. However, ubuntu forums and wiki are good places for specific problems... generally, when you need help, just do a google doing something like "<distro> <problem>" like say "ubuntu audio skipping" or "fedora ndiswrapper" - you don't need to include "linux" in the google search (if you keep getting windows stuff tho, go to www.google.com/linux and do your search there)

NOTE: NOT ALL DISTROS ARE THE SAME! Help for redhat/fedora will more than likely NOT WORK for ubuntu.

If you can't find your problem, however, post in the distros forums. Watch out tho, if it turns out that a simple google search reveals it, they will generally tear you appart for laziness. So do make sure you did some digging around yourself first

Then where would I go if I wanted to, say, learn about how to use any of the linux commands?. As it stands now, I still haven't figured out how to get into the command line. I'm also having a problem with the password protection for the root stuff. Whenever I am prompted to have to log in as root, I type in my password and hit enter, but nothing comes up. These are the kinda questions I need help with. Not the advanced stuff yet. But I have no idea where I can go for help with this because I doubt that the linux forums would have the time of day to help me find out how to access the command prompt in the same sense that we might not have the time of day for someone that can't figure out how to get to the program editor on the calculator. Is there some sort of help file at least that I can find?

Kind of the way we do with n00bs. So lemme see, I seem to remember DSL having a "bash" shortcut on the desktop, but I dunno about Ubuntu. Anyone?

Chip: I can give you a quick primer

A command line is also called a terminal. There are two ways to get one. First (and older) way, just hit Ctrl-Fx where x is 1-6 for a command line, and 7 for the GUI. Second, in System Tools in your apps menu there should be a terminal there. Or you can do the 'run' prompt (i think ubuntu has one), and type either 'xterm' (generally accepted as the best X terminal) or the one for the gnome console (i forget the name of it right now, i'll look it up when i get home)

NEVER run as root. Period. End of story. Use 'su' (or for ubuntu, its 'sudo') for temporary root privelages.

When it asks for a password, it is asking for your USER password, not the root's password (since ubuntu doesn't have a root password by default, it is disabled). To change your password, go to a command line and type 'passwd <username>'.

If you don't like typing sudo before every command you want to do as root (like me), you can forcively give the root a password like so: 'sudo passwd root' which will let you create a root password so that you can do the "normal" 'su root' and then enter the roots password

Command line navigation:
cd - change directory
ls - list (files/folders - similar to dir)
cp - copy
mv - move

Your new favorite commands:
<command/executable> --help or -h or -? - lists the help and or calling parameters
man <command/executable> manual page

Excellent, complete guide. I might also point out that if you're used to the DOS level of detail in directory listing, you can use 'dir' instead of 'ls'.

BOO! NEVER! n00b!!!

Actually, LS and DIR by default output the exact same thing, lol, which makes sense, of course, as dir and ls are the exact same program

instead, use one of the command options, such as ls -l (for file size, ownership, etc..) or ls -a (shows hidden too)

Something I forgot to mention. Learn to love the tab. Tab auto-completion is by far one of the most helpful things (or so I have found) when in a command line. Unlike DOS, it doesn't pick the first one in the alphabetical list when it comes across multiple possibilites. Instead, it stops at that spot so you can type the next letter(s) or number(s) - hitting tab twice at that point will list any possibilities. The autocompletion works pretty much anywhere, either when completing file or folder names as arguements to commands, or as the commands themselves (for example, i can type 'r-h'[tab] and it automatically finishes out 'rhythmbox' to execute)

Oh, and the Gnome Terminal is called just that, 'gnome-terminal' <- used the [tab] completion to figure that out, btw (i told you it was helpful)

Every linux distro I've used (SuSE, Ubuntu, Gentoo...) has a dir command that provides a "Details" view, whereas "ls" is like a "tile" view in XP.

Thanks for the help. I will definitely try that out. As for the root thing, when I wanted to "Add applications" or access hd1 it said I needed to be root and then asked for a password. I supplied the password, but it still didn't work. I know I'm not supposed to be logged in as root all the time, but I need to be able to access this stuff and I can't.

I'm in gentoo right now and dir outputs the same thing as ls for me sans-color (ls color-codes directories, executables, etc...)

Sorry, not Gentoo. I meant *SuSE, Ubuntu, DSL.

Ctr-F1-6 is not working. When I press it, nothing happens. I can't find the terminal under applications/system tools. I also can't find any 'run' thing.

What password are you giving it? Those pop-ups want your user password, not the root password. You can't log in as root by default in Ubuntu. In fact, GDM (the login manager Ubuntu uses) blocks root from logging in at all.

I give it my normal password (which is the same as my root password--Is that a problem?).

Umm....how did you enter a root password? Last time I installed ubuntu you don't ever enter a root password to set up....

Having the same password isn't really that bad....(its not as secure, but if its just your desktop comp, its not that big of a deal)