[microsound] Linux on Mac

[The Expert <expert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hello list,

this is a technical question, so pardon me for bothering the list.
Before you delete this mail I just want to highlight that I'm on the
list for a few months by now, with just a single announcement posted at
the beginning. I didn't read all the postings so far but appreciated
certain topics and I'd like to say a big thank you to all – especially
for letting me discover Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" (a great
book, also in German), and directing me to highly interesting sites on
the web.
Due to the discussions on open source software and interface design I'm
about to install LINUX on an APPLE Powerbook G3/500 (Pismo). Any advice
is heartly welcome, please contact me offlist at

expert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The questions deal with the decision for a certain LINUX distribution
and preparation of the hard disc. Most appreciated would be a look to a
similar hardware/OS-combination like mine. Also, keep in mind that I'm
using Apple Computers for a decade now (I'm a graphic designer) and
that I'm quite familiar with Mac OS from 7.0 (where I started) to
9.2.2. I'm working with 10.3.2 at the moment (and I love it), but I'm
completely new to the Unix system as well as Linux. Don't start asking
me "Why Linux"? I'm also teaching design basics and had a screen design
lecture last year. For that purpose, among others, I want the chance to
have a look at yet another popular OS and interface. And I'm willing to
learn at least the basics in understanding how to really operate a
machine (that most of the time gives me a sign language to goal instead
of asking me to type in a command ...).

I've got a 60GB disc in there in 4 partitions (OS X = 11 GB, OS 9 = 5
GB, 32 GB for storage and some 7 GB already formatted for unix file
system – I decided to leave a single partition preformatted as I had to
run the computer shortly after putting the bigger hard drive in there
and I read somewehre that there are tools for re-partitioning the unix
partition without touching the other 3 MAC OS-partitions).

Questions arise:

1. Is it possible to re-partition the aforementioned hard drive area
without touching the other areas (HFS+)? What tool do I need?

2. Regardless how question 1 is answerd: Are there
"one-size-fits-all"-rules for partitioning (/boot, /swap, /usr etc.)?
What are the "must-be"-partitions and do they fit for popular Linux
distributions? Can someone give me a scheme that works in 90% of all
the possible cases?

3. I came across Yellow Dog and Mandrake distributions that seem to fit
for my purposes, with a final decision still pending. Are there any
recommendations for these? Others?


I've had a look to quite a few sites and a read through a lot of "how
to partition"-articles without finding the right one yet. As I need the
Powerbook for daily work I can't risk a complete data loss by starting
with the wrong steps. I'm able to clean and re-install the powerbook
for complete re-partitioning, if that is necessary, but I'd love tho do
this only once ... ;-)

Thanks in advance for your patience and help!

Jochen (the expert, that is)

expert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Mit freundlichem Gruss,
Jochen Kleinhenz
Dipl. Designer (FH), AGD

+++

kleinesgrafischesbuero
Frankfurter Str. 5
97082 Würzburg
Deutschland

Tel. 0931-2879620
Fax: 0931-2879621
Mobil: 0171-2427394

http://www.kleinesgrafischesbuero.de


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