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I'm interested in Linux, however, I really have no knowledge about it.

I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as far as websites/distros/books that I should be looking at.

Thanks.

Linux is fun!
here´s the place to look for distros: http://www.linuxiso.org/
for a beginner it´s the best to use distros like Red Hat or SuSe, simply for the fact that these distros are really easy to install. but you can use Linux even without installing by using one of the "Live distributions", all you have to do is to boot them from CD (or maybe USB stick), Knoppix is the most used live distro I think. it´s a little hard at the beginning when you´re used to MS OSs because the file system is different and the usage of the terminal is inevitable.
books...well,you´ll find some in the textfile download-section, just take a look...and a very nice source where you´ll find answers is http://www.tldp.org/
have fun!

One of my friends was helping me install before, and it didn' go quite well so I've got a few questions.

Do you need to create a linux partition? (He had me make one in Partition Magic, but I don't think that worked either).

Also, if you have the CDs, do you just put them in, boot up, and install from there?

Yes, you have to create a Linux partition, because Linux uses formats different from MS´s NTFS. NTFS can be accessed by Linux, but is just able to read from NTFS and not to write. Well, imo it´s best anyway to use a MS- AND a Linux-box, but if you need to setup both on one box it´s better to do a backup first, just to be safe. The boot-record for Linux must be located on the first HDD, which can be annoying if you use the MS OS most of the time because when booting the linux-loader loads first and then you have to decide which OS to boot, needs pretty much time. When I used both OSs on one box I choosed to write the Linux boot sector on floppy, so XP started up as usual and when i wanted to work with Linux I simply booted from floppy (a USB stick works too if you BIOS supports booting from USB).
And yes, you simply boot from CD to enter the installation process. For beginners it´s best to write down the sizes of the HDD partitions so you can identify the one on which you want to install easily when it comes to creating the linux partitions. With distros like Red Hat or SuSe it´s very easy to install, so use one of the well-known distros until you have some experience...


Oh,and if you want to swap files between Linux and XP create a FAT32-partition too, because both systems are able to read/write on this format (you can do this with partiton magic and don´t have to do it out of linux)

I'm trying to install Red Hat to a secondary hard drive but I tend to get a message at the end of the install that says that there has been an "anac dump" and the packages can not be installed. I've tried looking online for an "anac dump" but I can't seem to find that bug. Has anyone else had this problem before?

Strange....
Well, what version of RedHat is it and what packets/installation type you used?

Anacron (like `anac(h)ronistic') is a periodic command scheduler. It executes commands at intervals specified in days.

You can try to install without this package, it´s not inevitable for the system...

I was trying to install Red Hat Linux Publisher's Edition Version 8.0. I finally got it to work after taking out some of the packages. Only problem is that X doesn't seem to want to work with my video card. I'm going to check some things and then try to use redhat-config-xfree86. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears .

Alright, looks like I got X up and running GNOME. Now I got to figure out how to install my internet connection since it requires the CD and Linux just doesn't seem to want to run it since it "does not have a program able to run Setup.exe". All in all, I really enjoy it. Keeps me thinking . If anyone can point me in the right direction to get this thing running I would appreciate it. Thanks.