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damned microsoft

R

Rogue

New Member
My lovely little word just crashed and failed to save anything I did in the last 50 minutes. I hate microsoft.
So that was the last chance. I going to install linux as soon as I've figured out how to do it.

So what version should I get? SUSE?

I've kinda two harddrives with 10GB each. Can I run linux on one and windows on the other till I figured out enough to cope with linux?

Can I run progams like winamp on linux? (NO?)
 
How much do you know about computers? Linux is a lot more "hands on" than windows is. You had better do your research into Linux before you decide on trying it. There are, however, a lot of forums and help sites dedicated to help people with Linux so do a google search on it :) Do your homework!!!!

Go for red hat. It's the closest to windows. Easy to install and maintain.

Secondly, yeah, you can dual boot.

Thirdly, not sure if there is a version of winamp for Linux. I think that there is. Again, do your homework! Go have a look at winamps site. You can find out in a couple of mins if there is or not. If not, there are plenty alternatives. out there :) Also of course you can't run IE and there are a lot of games that don't get relased for Liinux so if you are into games you are screwed.

What version of windows do you run? Windows XP is very stable. If you are using an older version of windows then time for an upgrade if your machine is up for it. If not then forget about running Linux as the system requirements re even higher!!!! What are your computer specs? Linux is very system hungry. If you think Microsoft is bad wait till you see how hungry Linux is! You need about twice the machine to run linux over windows. That said, once installed it runs faster and will use up less system than when windows runs.
 
Rogue said:
My lovely little word just crashed and failed to save anything I did in the last 50 minutes. I hate microsoft.
So that was the last chance. I going to install linux as soon as I've figured out how to do it.
Click to expand...

Good on you, personally I'm a Windows-user for the most part, though there are definitely parts of Linux that I vastly prefer (learning a fair amount of shell and shell-scripting can save you a TON of time with automating tasks that might not be too practical in Windows/DOS)
I think it's a good thing to see what else is out there beyond Windows, but be prepared that it can be intimidating when you first enter. New software, completely new ways of setting up things etc. As SillyWabbit said, it's a lot more hands-on, but it shouldn't be any big feat, at least as long as you stick with one of the friendlier distros. Still, most of the bigger distros take a lot of lessons from Windows and other big operative systems, so it won't be too alien.

I recommend trying Mandrake first, as it's very user-friendly, and comes with a ton of useful software right off the ground too, if you get the 3CD or 1DVD release. It's also generally very simple to install and upgrade software on it.
Winamp doesn't exist for Linux, but there are plenty of other programs you can try instead, which should be just as good overall.

Dual booting is no problem, so you should be able to retain your current installation of Windows. I do recommend that you read up a bit before you take the step, as you may want to consider how you wish to partition your harddrive etc (since you'd probably want to share a certain amount of space in a way so both Windows and Linux can access it), and just generally are prepared for what's awaiting you.

I've kinda two harddrives with 10GB each. Can I run linux on one and windows on the other till I figured out enough to cope with linux?
Click to expand...
Definitely a good idea, just make sure you actaully do use it. I know a lot of people install Linux on dual-boot when they first head there, but end up never actually booting it up :)

Be warned though, moving to Linux won't fix your biggest problem:
You really ought to get in the habit of saving your documents frequently, or at least turning on the auto-save feature, which I'm sure major programs like Word has. You won't be entering some magic new environment where everything works and never crashes, so the danger will be lurking nonetheless.
Heck, you can even install the free program OpenOffice in Windows, which is also available on Linux. That way you can have a single familiar suite of desktop programs running in both OS's.
 
SillyWabbit said:
If not then forget about running Linux as the system requirements re even higher!!!! What are your computer specs? Linux is very system hungry. If you think Microsoft is bad wait till you see how hungry Linux is! You need about twice the machine to run linux over windows. That said, once installed it runs faster and will use up less system than when windows runs.
Click to expand...

I'm having a hard time parsing what you're trying to say here. To me it seems like you're first saying that Linux demands a lot more resources, but then you go and say that it requires far less?
Anyways, it depends a LOT on which Linux distro you have, and what mode you're running it in. Since it's obvious here that a Windows-like environment should be preferred, I'll just say that I find the latest Mandrake to run about the same on my machine (512mb RAM/1,3hgz processor) as XP does.
 
Øystein said:
I'm having a hard time parsing what you're trying to say here. To me it seems like you're first saying that Linux demands a lot more resources, but then you go and say that it requires far less?
Anyways, it depends a LOT on which Linux distro you have, and what mode you're running it in. Since it's obvious here that a Windows-like environment should be preferred, I'll just say that I find the latest Mandrake to run about the same on my machine (512mb RAM/1,3hgz processor) as XP does.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah sorry I explained badly :)

What I was trying to say is the inital footprint maybe higher but the actual cost to running it on your system will be lower.
 
Øystein said:
I'm having a hard time parsing what you're trying to say here.
Click to expand...
Definitely a programmer, then, Øystein? :)

I've tried both Red Hat and Mandrake, and for user-friendliness - stick with either of these - but I prefer Mandrake actually.

When you asked about whether Winamp can be run in Linux, could you mean whether standard/staple windows applications (not just winamp) can run in linux? If so, then the answer is no - because the OS is different. You can find freeware alternatives for almost anything you've been using in Windows, so it shouldn't be a problem. Or find even linux versions of the same program you've been using in Windows.

My problem had always been missing binaries during application install, and I find installing stuff sometimes a little more hassle that it has to be - though with a good distro this would be kept to a minimum.

ds
 
Rogue said:
My lovely little word just crashed and failed to save anything I did in the last 50 minutes. I hate microsoft.
Click to expand...

It's hardly Microsoft's fault; it's yours for not saving regularly. :)
 
Rogue said:
Considering that the auto-save function was on it was microsoft's fault.
Click to expand...
Had you saved manually at least once so that the program had something to save to?

Just curious about your misfortune. I have nothing constructive to add.
 
Wolhay said:
Had you saved manually at least once so that the program had something to save to?.
Click to expand...
Yes it was a document in progess. I saved several times before that 50 min slot. I really expected word to recover my lost paragraphs, but it refused.

By the way my notebook is full of viruses and I just can't get rid of them. I've got about 5 good programs but as I'm in a network in my dorm and I don't have a firewall it's no use. I heard rumors that there arn't any viruses for linux.
 
Rogue said:
Yes it was a document in progess. I saved several times before that 50 min slot. I really expected word to recover my lost paragraphs, but it refused.

By the way my notebook is full of viruses and I just can't get rid of them. I've got about 5 good programs but as I'm in a network in my dorm and I don't have a firewall it's no use. I heard rumors that there arn't any viruses for linux.
Click to expand...
Not as many viruses for Linux but there probably are some... Just wanted to give you a link to a firewall since you could probably need one.. Sygate it should help a bit, and its easy to use..
 
since no mod has pm, i guess probably i forgot to hit the submit button, so im going to post it again

i have no experience in linux, but some guys in another forum were talking a lot about this: slax
its a linux bootable cd, which you can download, burn, and then run linux from the cd without installing it in your computer.
(o thats what i understand)
 
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