-- Posted by yoshiness at 2:31 pm on April 5, 2008 I want to move to Linux, but my computer does not have the ability to partition if I want to keep anything from Windows... I'M PRETTY SURE IT CAN NOT BE PARTITIONED WITHOUT FORMATTING. I don't have time to back up all system data... >.> My second problem... Can I use my printer that appears to only have MacOS & Windows installation executables? Same with my scanner... 3rd... Would DSL be best for my computer, as it has less than 400 MB of RAM? Or would some other distribution be better? I'm planning on running a website from my computer... That's also a "Which one allows...?" 4th... I have lots of computer programs. Some of such as Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, and some others... I heard there's a way to run Windows applications on Linux, but with some certain software or something... Does Linux have it's own distribution of these softwares? -- Posted by jake619 at 2:32 pm on April 5, 2008 mmm -- Posted by mike is teh sex at 2:35 pm on April 5, 2008 Quote: from jake619 at 2:32 pm on April 5, 2008 mmm great help there buddy ask a professional if u need help... linux should have a support site or something like that -- Posted by Ryan Potter at 2:38 pm on April 5, 2008 you'll need to find an emulator if you want to run native windows programs on Linux... be very familiar with Linux before switching, because if you're not, you'll be lost. -- Posted by espresso8097 at 5:56 pm on April 5, 2008 O, since you are new I will suggest something like Ubuntu; of Ubuntu variants I like a 3rd party one called LinuxMint. For partitioning you can do it from a Linux live-CD.  Boot up from the CD and shrink your Windows partition from the partition manager (GParted is the name I think).  Then install to the new free space.  Then you can configure GRUB (boot manager) to have both OSes installed. As for printing, could emulate or try to find working drivers.  Some printers have pre-made drivers already integrated into the OS or available in repositories or tools to emulate them. DSL (damn-small-linux) can run on just about everything, but using it normally can be harder to learn.  More things have to be installed/managed manually by the terminal.   As for your Windows programs, some may run with WiNE, some may not.  There are freeware (GPL) programs that can do many of the functions of many of the costly programs, but will not have as many features.  You can just keep Windows around to use those programs with the way of dual-booting I mentioned above.