confused about linux download

Ok , what about damn small linux? Can it be installed onto the HD?

Yeah , I'm looking for a desktop.

Thanx Reed.

I downloaded a version of DSL and burned the iso to a cd but when I try to use it...nothing. It was on a clean drive and it said invalid system disc.

I would guess that either your BIOS isn't set to boot from a CD, it doesn't support booting from a CD, or it was a bad burn. Here's a guide on changing the boot order: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/bootorderchange.htm

To install CentOS 5.x (they are at 5.2), you need to download the disc image from either the i386 (32bit) or x86_64 (64bit) directory. If you have a current (recent) desktop computer, then I strongly recommend the x86_64 distributions - I use CentOS 5.2 64bit on my system with great success for software development, video/audio processing, running Windows in a VM, etc. Anyway, that will take you to a page with a bunch of mirror links - pick just about any of them - and select the ISO images you need. The ISO images will download directly. The torrent files will require a bittorrent client. I usually get the DVD iso since then I get everything on one disc. After you get the ISO image you will need to burn it to a blank disc, load that into your computer and reboot. It will walk you thru the installation process. FYI, CentOS is the free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and is widely used for 24x365 commercial and technical operations such as web sites, stock trading servers, scientific computational work, so it is very robust. [Modified by: Rubberman on January 09, 2009 12:14 PM]

Sometimes real fast is almost as good as real time. Remember, Google is your friend!

Googled your invalid system disk. http://www.harddiskrecovery.net/invalid-system-disk.html If you have a Floppy drive, I wrote a tutorial on booting up and installing Damn Small Linux on a Laptop with no capability of booting up ISO from cdrom. If you are interested, Here http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2008/10/damn-small-linux-40-install-on-compaq.html

[quote=Reed]I would try a different distro and see if you get the same results.[/quote] I'm on a gig budget with this internet [quote=Reed]Also, are you sure you burned the iso image to disc properly, ie, you didn't accidentally burn it as a data disc for example? What program did you use, what steps did you take?[/quote] Using this laptop with windows vista ,I burned it as a data disc , yes. What should I have done? I guess I shouldn't have followed the instructions provided by one of the links that said to burn it as a data or music disk? noob in distress regards [Modified by: thenoob on January 10, 2009 02:14 PM] [Modified by: thenoob on January 10, 2009 02:16 PM]

[quote]Using this laptop with windows vista ,I burned it as a data disc , yes. What should I have done? I guess I shouldn't have followed the instructions provided by one of the links that said to burn it as a data or music disk?[/quote] I don't know which posted link said that, but it is wrong. I'll post this link again. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto There is a link to the infrarecorder site and a guide to burning an iso using infrarecorder there.

Glad you solved the iso-burning problem. That is not at all obvious as we come over from Windows! If your install must be light, take a look at Puppy Linux. The hardware recognition is better than DSL and it is designed to work directly from the LiveCD, because it will load entirely into memory when you boot it. Unlike most LiveCDs you can save settings you customize. Worth Checking. If Puppy is still to clumsy try Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop, which is to say Xubuntu. It does not make quite the demands Ubuntu does when running the larger Gnome or KDE environments. Playing with a few LiveCDs should help you choose.