How do I delete the partition Vista is installed on + general Linux Mint questions?

Question

Alright, so I have Windows Vista, and I want to install Ubuntu/Linux Mint. I've searched across the Internet, and so far nothing's provided useful answers.

Firstly, deleting the partition Vista is installed onto (I know, back-up your pictures and movies, blah blah). I know that through the Disk Management application you can delete a volume and then the partition itself, but I know you can't delete the OS partition while the computer is running, and I have no clue if you can uninstall the system reserve partition with Disk Management, or if it would be safe. Would the Live CD of Mint give me the option of deleting these two partitions when attempting to install Mint? Or would I have to do it some other way, and how?

Secondly, installing programs onto Mint. I know that the program Wine is used to sort of emulate a Windows environment to run Windows programs (I would use it mostly to run games, I've heard it's fine at doing so but not all games are 100 percent compatible). Does Wine come pre-installed with Mint, or would I have to download it (Firefox comes pre-installed with Mint, if I recall right, so I wouldn't have a problem downloading Mint). How easily can an Internet connection (Ethernet or WLAN) be set up on Mint? One last question; I've heard that many programs have to be extracted (this seems mindlessly easy to do with the GUI, thankfully), but then have to be installed onto Mint using the Terminal (I'm terrible when it comes to CLIs). How hard is it to set up a program using the Terminal when required, and how hard is it to get a program on start-up?

Thanks in advance for anything helpful you might post,
Guy who is utterly sick of Windows (all of them), and wants to have a try at Linux.

Answer 1

email me at [e-mail] or IM me at dsans10 using yahoo messenger and i am running linux mint right now and i know how to manage partions really well

Answer 2

1. Ubuntu and linux mint are virtually the same. I slightly prefer ubuntu because of its excellent documentation and tutorials. The first link has a lot of info and if you are looking for something not listed in the menu you can type a search work in the search box at the top of the page. When you install linux you will have the option of using the entire hard drive (erase everything and reformat the entire disk), or delete and reformat selected partitions. If you are going to only reformat select partitions be aware that linux uses different terminology for the partitions: /dev/sda is the first entire hard drive and /dev/sdb is the second entire hard drive, etc. On the first hard drive the partitions are numbered /dev/sda1, sda2, sda3, etc. You can delete the system reserve partition if you no longer want the ability to reinstall windows.



2. I believe that Wine is only installed by default if you use the linux mint dvd version, which has additional software. 99.9% of all software should be installed including Wine using the linux built in package managers; either Synaptic or the Software Center. You simply browse the software entries and select what you want installed. Everything will be installed with one or two clicks. You are right about Wine and its incomplete ability to install all windows software/games. Don't overlook linux native games. See the third link. You can find more by googling for linux games.

Firefox is installed by default in both ubuntu and mint.

Ethernet connection is always set up by default. Most of the time the wireless connection is also installed. There are a few oddball wireless cards that linux might have a problem with. You can run the linux live cd/dvd and see if everything works out of the box including the wireless, to your satisfaction.

You very very rarely have to install software by extracting it using the terminal (called installing from the source code). It is not very hard to install a program from source code if you follow the instructions. The real problem with installing software from the source code is that the software has not been prepared for your particular linux distro and might be missing some important dependent files, (libraries) or does not find some default files where it expects to find them and ends up crashing. All the software from the built in package manager is prepared for your specific distro and will have all the required dependent files and knows where to find the other files that it needs. For a person new to linux it is recommended not to try to install software from source until you are familiar with the linux file structure and the basic commands for the terminal. Here is a link that explains how to install software from the source code.

The secret to using linux is realize that it is different from windows so you have to learn a different way to use it, and to read the documentation. There are also forums where users of the same distro help each other and discuss ideas and problems.

Hope your venture with linux goes well

Answer 3

You don't need to do any thing special. Boot Mint Linux and install it. When it comes to formatting have it use the entire hard drive, unless you want to retain Windows for dual boot purposes. Wine will do you no good with out Windows. You use Mint Linux program Synaptic to install all the software you need or want. It does install Mint Linux about as complete as out of the box and installs all the proprietary files, that other distributions do not install, since this is a remaster and not a main distribution. Once installed you tweak it to suit your needs and requirements. Basically customize it to suit you. Linux sets itself up and finds all the required files to work with the hardware and equipment in your computer. There are only rare occasions where you would need to use Synaptic to find the drivers. Don't worry or be concerned about console or terminal commands. These are only needed when Synaptic can't install a program or you need root access to make changes that can't be done in the GUI environment. Terminal and Console commands are basically for power users, not the average person. You can email me if you have other questions that I may be able to answer. My email is the same as my user name. I'm also on Yahoo Messenger most of the time. I think you are taking the Adventure of not Being a Microsoft Hostage. I use Linux 90% of the time and Windows only when I need it. Right now I am running Linux on an external hard drive, but my other computers are set dual boot on their hard drives. I haven't tried a Linux Live USB device yet. There is about 7 of us who come in here and discuss Linux.



Just a hint I forgot to add. You can go to the top of Q&A and type in Linux in the ASK box and it will bring up all the questions asked about Linux and all the answers given.

Answer 4

Wow, couple of great answers there!

Where this cli myth comes from I've no idea. Maybe it's how windows users justify staying away from linux...



The cli is not needed to do 98% of what a user needs to do. The reality is that, these days, for the average user (including windows refugees) the terminal is not much more than a speedy way to do things that you can already do using the normal gui interface. Of course for the power user it is a powerful tool, but it is not some harrowing rite of passage that a linux user need subject oneself to.



Once you get your linux legs you will find the terminal a useful way to edit your fstab or reign in errant permissions on imported files, but you won't need it for much more. Most of the time it is just copy and paste from the community support, although you need to understand what you're doing

before you do it!



As for wine, it's a nice idea, but don't rely on it. Native apps are the way to go for many reasons, but if you can get windows apps to run on it then power to you. If you really want to play windows games, then it is best done on windows. Dual boot and have the best of both worlds.