I have a few questions, mainly about the start, and difficulty.

1.) In Junktown, a man asks to remove a dog from his doorway. It's called Dogmeat, and I decided the best way to 'remove' it would be with my 10mm pistol. After being killed (On easy. I don't play many RPGs), I thought that as it shares the same name as the dog from FO3, you might be able to 'befriend' it. Are you supposed to kill it, or would it become an ally?
2.) I've been killed so far by: A raider, a molerat, another molerat and dogmeat. Any tips/etc for not dying as much?
3.) And, finally: where do find some stronger weapons? The 10mm pistol and knife aren't very... strong.

Thanks for taking the time to read and (hopefully) answer my questions!

EDIT:I bought both Fallout and Fallout 2 today, so I'm pretty new, yes.

1. Yep, Dogmeat can be a companion

2. What skills are you focusing on?

3. While they certainly aren't great as long as you pick your fights with some care they should be OK for the first few levels . . . providing your skills with them aren't bad.

1.) Dogmeat can be a companion? How? I ATTEMPTED to talk to it, but all it said was: Woof. No options to say nothin' either.
2.) I'm gonna focus round Intelligence, Speech, those kinda things
3.) Yeah. I'm gonna stay away from any enemies until I get some decent armor and guns.

Eh, thanks for replyin' so quickly!

EDIT: Fixed spelling.

There are two ways to beat this quest and gain dogmeat as an ally:
1: How do you befriend any dog?
or
2: Talk to Phil. He has a few clues for you. Clothes Maketh the man.

Do the quests in Shady sands and clear out V15 first (for XP). Theres also an opportunity to hire some help in shady sands.

There's a decent weapon in V15 that will last you for a while.

Eh.. No idea. How do you befriend a dog? Never done it, real life or otherwise. (Well, I did befriend him in FO3, but that's some very simple text options) Ha! And, also, I talked to Phil, but stupidly didn't ask him nothin'.

Thanks. I think I'll try to get dogmeat/etc to join me, as I think I'd fare pretty terribly withought allies.

If you have poor weapon skills you'll have trouble regardless of the weapons you use. Sure the powerful ones will make things a bit easier but you'll still be having trouble.

Fallout is certainly a game you can play without focusing on combat but you'll probably find this very difficult for your first play through if you don't have an obvious way to circumvent combat (like stealth). Does this mean you should abandon your character or start pouring pointing in to a weapon skill? No. It does mean that better weapons probably aren't the solution to your problem.

Darn. In FO3, it was pretty easy, as It mainly relied on my FPS skills, but in the original games, I'll actually have to think! It'll be harder to avoid fights too, as in FO3 I could rather easily walk round enemies.

It can be easier to run in FO1/2 - you just need to reach the exit grid to get away.

You can go kill the raiders that capture Tandi(from Shady Sands). I get a crapload of leather armor and Desert Eagles from them, plus a metal armor.

To get dogmeat you need to wear the leather jacket, then he will follow you. Dogmeat rocks and is one of the best companions, primarily cause he never shoots you in the back like some of the others do!

You could also just feed him in order to befriend him.

If you play your cards right, you can actually play through Fallout without once going into combat mode, if I remember right (and if you're lucky enough to avoid random encounters). That said, you'll probably run into a few combat encounters through the game, but it is nowhere near as focused on combat and killing as Fallout 3 is. Still, yeah, you need to boost your weapon skills in order to hit anything if you do get in combat, and armor is very useful for avoiding death.

I've been playing FO1 earlier, and I came across a random encounter of Super Mutants: Before I'd even ventured into Vault 15. I had a pistol and thought it'd be best to run. my turn ended, and a super mutant pulled a minigun out his behind and I ended up with -63 HP. I really should venture into Vault 15 next time, and find some guns.

Sounds like you went the wrong direction....