Switching to linux

[Demon Furor]

i want to switch to redhat linux v9 but, will redhat be able to use my windows drivers. namely for my printer and graphics card.

[skroo]

i want to switch to redhat linux v9 but, will redhat be able to use my windows drivers. namely for my printer and graphics card.

The short answer is no. Linux and Windows are very different architecturally, and software (which includes drivers) written for one will not work on the other.

The longer answer is that you probably don't want to go to RedHat anyway, seeing as how they've dropped all support for the consumer version of their OS (or rather will, as of April 30th). Their suggested replacement - Fedora - is largely considered substandard compared to previous relacements.

For what you're probably going to want, check out Mandrake - it's closest to what RedHat was offering. Also, CD images of many distributions (and links to their sites) can be found at linuxiso.org.

[dYn4mic]

Any of the major distros will PROBABLY support your video card. But if your looking to have openGL ..... good luck. If you have a Nvidia card, they have drivers for *BSD and Linux, they are easy to install too...
I suggest going with Mandrake / Red Hat 8/9 for your first distro..
Good luck..!
Checkout Distrowatch.com for lots of distro news and info...

If you just want to play with linux, and not touch your windoze, then you could get Knoppix, its a 'live' CD baised distro (or HD install) that you can boot on your machine, run linux, then reboot and it never touch's your hard drive. You can even mount your windoze HD in Knoppix and access it in Read Only mode. (so you can play music or whatnot..)
(remember to backup anything you can't live without)

[Vitreal]

Linux redhat fedora isnt as bad as you think. support is just an inch away and they still update yum/rpm packages weekly. Security on fedora linux is so far is rock solid.

if you get fedora linux. and are running a Radeon vidja card. id suggest downloading the fglrx from www.ati.com and install it without using the internal AGP GART i repeat. dont use the internal one. it will skew the kernel. If you are using a Nvidia card. should run out of the box.

My experience with Fedora using this system

AMD Duron 1.6ghz unlocked and OC to 2.4ghz@200x12
Mushkin PC3200 512mb Ram 6/2/2/2.5 single channel
Asus A7N8X Motherboard Nforce2 Chipset
Maxtor Diamond Max + 8 40gb Hard drive
WD Raptor 15k s-ata hard drive
Sapphire Radeon 9500 non-pro
Intel 536ep Fax Modem (Hardware)
Lite-On 52x 32x 52x cd-rw

and i have no problems running fedora. if your specs come close. id suggest fedora.

[m3m3tic]

Demon Furor , whatever distro you are considering you can go to their website and they usually list the hardware they support. RH9 is pretty good, it supports many hardware configs. Just keep in mind, if you choose rh9 and you are running win2k, ntfs format is a bit unstable to move files to and from the linux partitions. I have done it a few times and was fine, but a few of my desktop pics lost chunks of pixels once.

good luck and have fun swithin to linux,

m3m3tic

ps check out linuxquestions.org lot's of info there