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[tahujdt]

Dear geeks, nerds, and people who debate about the difference between geeks and nerds, of Bay12, this morning I woke up feeling particularly masochistic. I have decided to run Linux. How would I go about that without deleting Windows? Can I run it off of a CD? Can I run DF? What knowledge will I need? And what in Armok's name do people mean when they talk about the "candy"? Please help!

[Sir Finkus]

Try a Mint or Ubuntu live cd.  There is a DF version of linux, but it can take some fiddling to get working.

[i2amroy]

And what in Armok's name do people mean when they talk about the "candy"? Please help!

People are referring to Adamantine.

[Virex]

There is a DF version of linux

What?

[Darvi]

I think that was an extreme spoonerism.

[Skyrunner]

You can use Oracle Virtual Box to run Linux along with Windows in case you are attached to it.

I tried Linux once, but it was too unfriendly :c
Also, I couldn't figure out how to compile libraries and link them using Code::Blocks. Bad experience all-around...

[GlyphGryph]

Skyrunner's unfriendliness was based around compiling c++ code with heavy use of libraries through an IDE, though. That will always be a nightmare, and doing it an unfamiliar environment doesn't make it any easier. For normal use, Linux is no less friendly than windows - except for the part where you have choice, and some of those choices are bad, when getting it.

The other bit of Skyrunners problem was my suggesting a terrible, terrible Desktop for her at first... If you do Mint, don't use the Cinammon desktop.

(And in some ways it's friendlier - though those aren't ways you're likely to use it either, except maybe the package manager, which can go either way. I just got so fed up with doing remote web service with windows that I downloaded Cygwin to handle it, hah.)

[Max White]

When people feel like choosing an OS they are not used to, such as Linux or Apple, I like to ask them: Why?
Don't take me as a pessimist, I'm not trying to imply there is no good reason. There are plenty of good reasons to change OS... to Linux. But you need to make sure they are the right reasons for you.
So, why do you feel Linux can serve you better than Windows?

[GlyphGryph]

How would I go about that without deleting Windows? Can I run it off of a CD? Can I run DF? What knowledge will I need? And what in Armok's name do people mean when they talk about the "candy"? Please help!

Partitions or Virtual Machine. You'll have to look up both of those, they are big questions in their own right, but there's plenty of resources for those processes. It's super easy if you new you were going to install it in advance and set Windows up in the right way, but I doubt that happened here.

As has been said, you can run off a CD (or DVD, for most of the new editions that don't have CD versions), though obviously installing stuff might be a bit sticky.

Once you get an actual copy, yes, DF runs without any issues in my experience, and has for a while.

Linux has no adamntine.

[tahujdt]

So, why do you feel Linux can serve you better than Windows?

I would like to try something that would test my programming skills. I saw something of Linux when I was imaging computers for the call center at my dad's office, so I thought I'd give it a try.

[alway]

I recommend Ubuntu with the Windows Installer: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer
Just run that, fill in a few boxes as needed, and click next until it's done. It's super-easy, and my first time using linux, I had it up and running within ~ an hour, mostly dependent on download speed. No messing around in BIOS or anything particularly scary; just run the exe in windows, and follow the instructions. It lets you do a dual-boot configuration, giving ubuntu a specified amount of free disk space from your windows partition; so you don't even have to bother with formatting drives. Again, super-easy-mode.