How to Test Drive Linux

How to Test Drive Linux:

Acquire a copy of Puppy Linux or Slax from http://www.puppylinux.org or http://www.slax.org, respectively. This can be done by either going to the website and downloading the iso file or ordering the CD.

If you choice to download the iso file you will have to burn the iso file to CD. Note that the iso file is a CD image file. Normally the CD/DVD burning utility will be able to handle an iso file. That is it will expand the image file will it burns it to disk.

Once you have acquired the LiveCD disk, then place it in the CD/DVD drive that is first in the boot order when you start your computer and restart your computer. This will cause the LiveCD to be loaded as your operating system. Do fret, this LiveCD will not make any changes to your computer unless you specifically tell it to.

After the LiveCD has been loaded into memory, you get to wander around this Linux distro (distribution) as much as you like. With Puppy Linux you have to setup your network connection to access the internet.. Slax will do this for you automatically.

There will be two things you should notice right away; 1) It take less time to bootup than Windows, and 2) It is faster than Windows is. Part of the speed is due to the fact that it is running completely in memory. If you decide to install it on your harddrive you still will notice the same two things.

After you have gotten familiar with Linux, you can shut it down. At that time you will be given the opportunity to save your personal settings to your hard disk. This will make loading the LiveCD that much faster the next time you choose to run the LiveCD.

Because the LiveCD runs completely in memory, some people have chosen to only run Linux from the LiveCD. With Wine (Windows emulator) project you are able to run Windows right in Linux. As Wine is an ongoing project. not all Windows programs are able to be ran with Wine.

I hope you have found this article useful and maybe consider Linux as an alternative to Windows.

Comments (1)

bernijean said:

	... I took a Linux class and loved Linux, but I am so used to Windows it is hard to break the habit. I enjoyed your article very much!
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April 21, 2011
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