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#132153 05/19/05 04:31 PM
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 354
P
pdh Offline
Member
Everything I can run on Linux, I do run on Linux. That's left less than a handful of things that still need Windows, none of which need any direct internet access (for the few files that go back and forth, they are transferred twice with one of the Linux desktops as the intermediary). So all the Windows stuff is on one computer still running an old obsolete Windows 98. So obviously I don't need to upgrade every time Microsoft wants me to.

As an old hand at Linux (since 1993) and even doing some development on it, I can't be a good judge of what is or is not user friendly to the average computer user. But I have tried installing some of the pre-packaged Linux "distributions" before with varying levels of success. A friend who actually wrote a book about how to use it recommended one that installed just fine with no need for me to intervene in any way (something I probably too readily do when I shouldn't). His book is about one called "Java Desktop System" from Sun Microsystems. The book at Amazon can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596007523/103-1695720-7347815

I personally use a distribution called Slackware, which is the earliest distribution of Linux still available. I like it because it lets me dig in and change it around very easily. But this is probably not for you unless you also like to explore and tinker around with computer software.

#132154 05/19/05 05:33 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 56
P
Member
I have been using Mandrake Linux for about a year now. My PC is a Win95-era machine, and when I had a hardware upgrade (more RAM + bigger HDD)the attempt to reinstall Win 98 failed and could not be persuaded to go. Mandrake loaded without a hint of a problem, and I've never really looked back since.

I have had a couple of problems, and in sorting them out I have found that although they seemed a bit daunting at first, when you actually delve into it the solution is not that difficult at all.

I bought the Mandrake Power Pack since at $NZ140 it seemed a fair price to me for a PC operating system, a large selection of pre-tested software, and access to support if needed.

Although I am operating in Linux-only mode, note that it is not necessary to boot Windows off your PC to try Linux. Most Linux distributions come packaged with a disk-partitiioning utility which lets you operate in dual-boot mode where you can select your operating system at boot-up time. There are also images available for download that you can burn to a CD to create a boot disk which contains the entire linux operating system and bundled software that all runs from just one CD.

For anyone who is curious about Linux, I do recommend that you have a play - its great fun, and it may well be the OS of the future.


Mark aka Paulus
#132155 05/20/05 07:44 AM
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 93
J
Member
Provided there is sufficient memory, VMWare can be very useful for supporting multiple OSs. http://www.vmware.com/

You can run Linux as the base OS, with all your regular apps, and then when you need to start up one of your windows apps, you just open a VMWare virtual machine session to boot copy of Windows XP/2000/2003/98 or whatever, and carry on as normal. The windows session can either run in full-screen mode or in a regular X-11 window under KDE/Gnome/some other window manager.

I have just installed six big linux servers at work which support three Windows 2003 test environments each, and they have been running like a dream. I wrote a few Perl scripts that control the Windows environments automatically (take down any of the environments, replace it with a clean one from a baseline archive, reset the Windows machine names etc, kick off the installation of prerequisite software eg SQL server, tar it back up, and deploy it on any of the physical machines). It is *far* easier than trying to do backups with Ghost and so on, and it has saved buying and installing a lot of extra hardware.

#132156 06/22/05 10:38 AM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 364
G
Member
Dear Trumpy,

I try to solve the whole xp problem by learning several free softwares' using. Now I don't use linux anywhere, but I'll try to build a pc, put only linux on it and use self-made softwares or open source sw's for all my problem.


The world is full of beauty if the heart is full of love
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