Trying to get a friend on Linux

[caspian]

I've got a friend who sortof likes Linux. He's dabbled with Linux before... and knows the basics on how to survive on Linux.

The only thing is that he's still using Windows on his main computer because he's got to use Windows for work (he has a laptop which he uses for personal and work purposes). I've tried to encourage him to partition his harddrive and dual-boot into Linux and he says that he would -- if he had enough disk space.

*Sigh* Is there any way I can help him install Linux? (Like, is there a distro that requires very little disk space?)

[mstlyevil]

I've got a friend who sortof likes Linux. He's dabbled with Linux before... and knows the basics on how to survive on Linux.

The only thing is that he's still using Windows on his main computer because he's got to use Windows for work (he has a laptop which he uses for personal and work purposes). I've tried to encourage him to partition his harddrive and dual-boot into Linux and he says that he would -- if he had enough disk space.

*Sigh* Is there any way I can help him install Linux? (Like, is there a distro that requires very little disk space?)

Sorry I hit the wrong button. I left your post intact. ](*,)

Buy him a cheap hard drive as a gift. Then he will have more than enough space to dual boot.

[taurus]

Depending on how much stuff you want to install, it could take as little as a couple of GBs (probably more like ~1GB) to a few GBs. If you can spare 5GB, that's would do it, assuming you don't plan to install everything, including a kitchen sink. But if you have about 10GB, then you should have plenty of space...

[Mustard]

I've got a friend who sortof likes Linux. He's dabbled with Linux before... and knows the basics on how to survive on Linux.

The only thing is that he's still using Windows on his main computer because he's got to use Windows for work (he has a laptop which he uses for personal and work purposes). I've tried to encourage him to partition his harddrive and dual-boot into Linux and he says that he would -- if he had enough disk space.

*Sigh* Is there any way I can help him install Linux? (Like, is there a distro that requires very little disk space?)

Puppy linux or Damn Small Linux are both very small distros.

[caspian]

Well, he's got a laptop. (Hmm... did I forget to mention that?) I just checked and his model laptop would cost at least $200 to upgrade to a larger harddrive :(. External harddrives are also pretty expensive.

(Sorry to be a pessimist)

:KS Maybe I'll just convince him to quit his job so that he doesn't need to use Windows anymore so that he can use Linux :mrgreen:

[YuHoo]

Buy him a cheap hard drive as a gift. Then he will have more than enough space to dual boot.
I wish I had a friend who would buy me computer hardware:mrgreen:. If you're looking for a small distro check out slackware. If it's a laptop he uses as his main computer suggest dual booting his desktop with your generous gift of gigabytes. If he has his desktop as his main computer, he can do what I did. I left my desktop totally intact with windows and the moment I got my laptop (literally, I opened it up and put the Ubuntu install cd in before it even got to windows) I dedicated it to linux. But good luck to your friend, Linux is both fun and satisfying, as well as making you feel like ripping the plug out of the wall (which is a perk about laptops not letting you do that).

P.S. you can also look to buying 3rd party dealer's hard drives for really cheap.

[bored2k]

With Gnome, XFCE, KDE and a few more applications installed, this is what my df -h shows me:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3 4.5G 3.0G 1.6G 66% /

Moral of the story? a 3.5gb partition/drive should suffice.

[mstlyevil]

Well, he's got a laptop. (Hmm... did I forget to mention that?) I just checked and his model laptop would cost at least $200 to upgrade to a larger harddrive :(. External harddrives are also pretty expensive.

(Sorry to be a pessimist)

:KS Maybe I'll just convince him to quit his job so that he doesn't need to use Windows anymore so that he can use Linux :mrgreen:

Nothing to be sorry about. I wouldn't mess with upgrading a laptop for someone either. How much space can he spare on his drive?

[ssam]

dont try to make him give up windows and switch all in one go, that bound to fail. maybe let him play with linux and the apps on your comupter. or see if he can find a cheap second hand comeputer to play with. something like 500mhz, 265mb ram, and 10gb hd.

also get him using things like openoffice, gimp, firefox, thunderbird, inkscape etc in windows. if he can use all of those then the actual switch to running linux will be much easier.

[mips]

Well, he's got a laptop. (Hmm... did I forget to mention that?) I just checked and his model laptop would cost at least $200 to upgrade to a larger harddrive :(. External harddrives are also pretty expensive.

(Sorry to be a pessimist)

:KS Maybe I'll just convince him to quit his job so that he doesn't need to use Windows anymore so that he can use Linux :mrgreen:

1. What size HD does he have ???
2. Anybody thats pays $200 for a HD is getting ripped off. You can get a 2.5"HD for like $60 these days.

[Zerocool10482]

Just try to get him into using a live CD. I know my friend likes KNOPPIX. Try to get him to use that. I know some people like to keep there windows world.

[caspian]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.

I think that I'll burn him a Knoppix CD and help him set up a persistent home directory.

[nalmeth]

Maybe if you bought him crossover office he wouldn't be forced to use windows? You didn't mention what windows apps he was locked into