Help with getting started on linux :)

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

So i would like to get linux on my computer after some contemplation. The only reason that i would like to is so i can learn html and web design stuff etc... i would also like to know my way around the command line (i would really like to be proficient at it :) the command line thing is what is going to matter more for me :3

---------Ignore everything above here if you don't want a long story xD These are the important things below----------

 

 so i took a look at ubuntu website to get ubuntu 14.0.4 is this a good idea? or is there something better?

I am getting another hard drive so I can switch between linux and windows for different purposes, is this possible? (its gonna be 1tb)

How would switch between windows and linux, im guessing i would have to restart and choose boot order through the bios?

Any forums or youtube channels or something that could help me learn html and command line etc...

 

Thanks in advance guys, really appreciate it :)

 

2

Also i have been looking through the linux forums a bit ;)

3

If you've looked through the linux subforum, all your questions have already been answered.

You don't have to choose between linux boot and windows boot in BIOS if you're dual booting, the linux boot manager (GRUB/GRUB2/EFI/etc...) takes care of that.

If you still want to run Windows on bare metal (if you can, don't, virtualize it in linux instead, it's a lot more comfortable and safe and it makes Windows run faster), run it on it's own HDD. Get a second HDD or even better SSD for linux, and install the boot partition of linux on that second disk, not on the Windows disk. When you install linux on that extra disk, it will detect the Windows install and offer it up for boot when you start the system, thereby pointing BIOS to the linux disk. All the volumes you want Windows to access (where the Windows install is basically) have to be NTFS, so you're stuck with that crappy filesystem if you're running Windows on bare metal except for the linux disk itself (NEVER install linux on NTFS, you don't want Windows to be able to access your linux install). If you run Windows in a kvm container (or Xen or whatever), you can benefit from having all your disks formatted in linux filesystem formats.

4

For your purposes, I recommend you to start with running linux in a virtual machine.

If at some point you decide that you like linux as your main OS more, you can switch around and run linux as main OS with windows as guest.

I have Xubuntu in VMWare workstation and there's absolutely no noticeable performance impact, so it's perfectly usable this way.

Benefit of this approach is that you don't have to change anything about your current setup and you don't risk losing anything.

5

Are there any good Virtual Machines for mac? which one would you say has the best features for what i'm gonna do :) only because i always have my macbook with me, i only have access to my desktop 4 days a week. thanks for your help so far guys!

I've got a Macbook pro retina 15 inch, 8gb ram, running mavericks. Some kind of i7 (it doesnt tell me model etc...) etc, 256gb flash storage (with only 11gb left :\ but ive been at around 10 gb left for half a year now xD)

6

I have no idea about OS X software.

I know that there are at least VMware Fusion and VirtualBox, so I guess you can start with those. I use VMware on Windows and it works better than VirtualBox for me.

Don't forget to install guest tools inside the VM.

You can install linux on less than 10 gb and expand virtual hard disk as necessary. Though I doubt that you won't find something to delete to clear some space.