[techtalk] Newbie in Need of Help!

[wny-tc at juno.com]

First off, hello to all on the list.  This is my first post.  My name is
Keith, and I am located in the Depths of the Great Bergen Swamps in
Western NY (near Rochester, NY)

I have been wanting to install Linux for ages  it seems, and learn how to
use it in lieu of the WinDoz packages of whatever flavor.  For my
birthday, my better half (Anne, who has put up with me for the last
quarter-century!) bought me the Linux for Windows package from Macmillen
Software.  This package alleges that it will allow me to install the
Linux-Mandrake 7.1 OS right in with Windoz95/98 and let me just click on
an icon in  my desktop and switch OS's.  That's what it sez...

HOWEVER, first off it won't install.  It makes the Lnx4win directory and
writes the linuxsys.img file, brings up DrakX, scrolls thru a  bunch of
files it sez that it's installing (this for 4 - 5 hours) but nothing is
actually copied.

What I think that I really need to do is to somehow install a Linux OS
into the second drive in the box (a 1.6 GB Western Digital), but the
installation package won't let me pick such an option.

Support?  What's that?  I got nowhere with their online support  site,
could not even find the package I have listed and have not received a
reply to my FAX to their support people in a week.

It was suggested to me by a member of an amateur radio List I  am active
with that i post my questions here.  I would be overjoyed if there was a
local Linux Users Group out here in or near the Swamp, but I have not
found one as of yet.

One party on the QRP-L  recommended getting the Caldera 2.4 package
(Thanks Caity!) and another said that I could probably so a direct
install to the second drive, skipping the LNX4WIN directory and the image
file (which will just s-l-o-w everything down...), but I don't know where
to start.  Maybe I need the Linux equivalent of the old VW manual I used
to use, the "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, A Step-by-Step Guide for
the Compleat Idiot..."  type of self-help book...

Any and all advice  will be appreciated!

73, Wm. Keith Hibbert, WB2VUO, Technical  Coordinator, WNY Section, ARRL
ARRL Life Member, President/Brockport Amateur Radio Klub
Ph - 716.494.1239
mailto:wb2vuo at arrl.net
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