software

[kurdawane]

Hi there,
I'm totally new in this world, meaning I really know nothing about computers and alie. Very little.
I found this site a while ago, and it seemed one of the few serious ones.
My story (PC wise...) is quite short: I was playing Risk (dominategame.com), and suddenly everything switched off. Someone got into my laptop and repartioned it, obviously formatting it, too. It's taken me about ten days of hell, making new partions and starting to understand how it works.
What really annoyed me has been the idea of having to by another version of Windows Xp, after I had bought it with the pc. So I got another version, from a friend.
i installed it. And still got viruses. And downloaded free antivirus software, and got them again, somehow, not even downloading dirty pics, you know...
So today I tried to install Knoppix on my hard drive, what I need is an OS that is less likely to get a bloody virus, and it seems Linux doesn't have this problem as much as Windows. I just need a Word program, a secure one...
Apparently I've done it, but I don't know how to be able to choose at Boot level which OS I want to use. I have to install GRUB, I've read, but I'm not able to do it.
Could anyone please explain to me how to do it?
BUT very slowly, not jumping easily from one directory to another, I've never used a pc till two months ago. Step by step!!!
Please...
A very virtual ignorant.​

 

[kurdawane]

Today I went to the library and got a seriously heavy book about Linux, Red-Hat 7. It seems different, but at a certain level things are similar. If I got it right, I should make 6 partition, just for the Linux OS, plus the one with Windows xp on it. One of them is for / which, correct me if I'm wrong, is for the kernel, the current version of it. Another one is for /usr, that is the version of Linux (SuSe, Knoppix, Red Hat etc...) and another one for /var, that I haven't understood what it is, one for /home(? too) one for /usr/local(? again)and one for Linux swap.
If I got it right, I can change / whenever I want, putting the newer version instead. Or not?
And can I do the same for where i put the version of Linux I have(Like, a newer Red Hat)?
And can I, if I have yet another version of Linux, save it in another partition but use the same Linux swap partition?

I'm totally confused, but it's so exciting the idea of controllig this machine much more than what I've been able to do so far...
See you later,
dvd
​