The typical minimum disk requirements for desktop Linux (that is, the equivalent of a WinXP installation) are usually anywhere from 620MB to about 1GB on your system, depending on what you intend to do with the system, and how much apps you plan to install over time. A Linux install for server/specialized purposes may require much less resources, and can use as little as 50MB on either a hard drive, a USB flash drive, or RAM.
It may be most convenient for beginners to dedicate a second hard drive (perhaps a 20GB if you can still find one) entirely to Linux, however you can resize existing partitions on a single HD to make space for Linux, then dual boot between Linux and whatever other OS you have installed, such as WinXP, 2000, Vista, NT - even other Linux distributions.
All distributions (such as Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandriva, Fedora, etc...) will provide links on their websites to their software repositories, but independent websites such as Distrowatch give you quick access to all the various download locations as well as added information & reviews on all distributions you may be interested in. Check it out and see whether you find what you're looking for.
Last edited by JA2; Nov 25, 2006 at 06:07 PM.
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