Loy Pressley wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
> I want to learn to use Linux. MS Windows is becoming more and more 
> trouble and much more intrusive. Learning and using the Linux operating 
> system is a way to begin weaning myself from Windows. I have an old Dell 
> 800MHz computer on my home network. The hard drive in it is one of a 
> number of backup locations for my data files. Turning it into a Linux 
> based machine would help me to learn the operating system.
> 
> The Dell currently has WinXP Home as the operating system, 512K of ram, 
> and lots of empty disk space. Should I format the hard drive and install 
> Linux on it? Would it be better to dual boot and install and run Linux 
> in a separate partition on the machine? How do I install Linux and set 
> it up to dual boot with Linux and WinXP? Will I loose connectivity with 
> my home network if I install Linux on the Dell computer?
> 
> Thanks in advance for the help and guidance.
> 
> Loy


I would strongly encourage you to start by downloading and creating Live 
CDs.  These are Linux distros that you can download, burn to a CD, and 
then boot from, and run from the CD.  When you're finished, just shut 
down, eject the CD, and next time you start up, you're back in Windows.

The advantage is that you can try several distros, find the one you 
like, and find out which ones run on your machine.

You can find hundreds of distros at www.distrowatch.com.

When you finally choose one, you can install directly from the Live CD - 
either a full install, or a dual boot.  Good luck.

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