Lindows? OS's in general...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brandon
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Brandon

I am building a new system, Gigabyte n7400L, XP 2800 (not sure which core
yet, but probably the Barton), a Gig of Kingston ram, couple of 80 gig
Maxtor's an MSi FX5300 graphics board( for now) a Plextor burner and CDrom,a
3.5 and a card reader.
Been running 98se for years, just cant get myself to like XP, ( don't like
how process are just buried, and the "privacy issues" which I hear have been
"fixed"...sure)but figure I might convert anyway( to pro), just curious
about Lindows and its compatibility with most windows based software and
stability in general.
I would like to move to Linux when I have the time to learn it.
Thanks
Brandon
 
Brandon said:
I am building a new system, Gigabyte n7400L, XP 2800 (not sure which core
yet, but probably the Barton), a Gig of Kingston ram, couple of 80 gig
Maxtor's an MSi FX5300 graphics board( for now) a Plextor burner and CDrom,a
3.5 and a card reader.
Been running 98se for years, just cant get myself to like XP, ( don't like
how process are just buried, and the "privacy issues" which I hear have been
"fixed"...sure)but figure I might convert anyway( to pro), just curious
about Lindows and its compatibility with most windows based software and
stability in general.
I would like to move to Linux when I have the time to learn it.
Thanks
Brandon
Click to expand...

The short answer is, linux sux, as far as compatibility with windows based
software goes. (yes, I know there are workarounds, but that was the short
answer, appropriate for a newbie) Depending on what you do, you might be
able to get by with JUST linux (or lindows linux). But you won't know until
after you've installed linux and had a few months to tinker with it. You
will need Windows to fall back on while you are learning linux.

Here's your best plan of action:

On Hard drive one, install windows xp pro, and let xp use the WHOLE of drive
one for an ntfs partition.

On Hard drive two, let xp partition 65GB and format as ntfs. (the rest, a
little over 10GB probably, because hard drive manufacturers have a different
definition for "GB", will not be partitioned at all)

Now when you have time to tinker, pick up a copy of mandrake linux or fedora
(NOT lindows). During the install of linux (I STRONGLY recommend mandrake
linux), linux will set up a boot menu for you (to choose between linux and
windows XP) and linux will use the unpartitioned space on your second hard
drive to install the OS and swap space, etc. If you don't like linux, you
can always uninstall it later. Note that you do not need a lot of space for
linux, even if you install lots of linux applications. 10GB should be more
than enough. If you are worried about data storage space, linux can use the
windows XP "drives" to store data, also. -Dave
 
Dave said:
The short answer is, linux sux, as far as compatibility with windows based
software goes. (yes, I know there are workarounds, but that was the short
answer, appropriate for a newbie) Depending on what you do, you might be
able to get by with JUST linux (or lindows linux). But you won't know until
after you've installed linux and had a few months to tinker with it. You
will need Windows to fall back on while you are learning linux.

Here's your best plan of action:

On Hard drive one, install windows xp pro, and let xp use the WHOLE of drive
one for an ntfs partition.

On Hard drive two, let xp partition 65GB and format as ntfs. (the rest, a
little over 10GB probably, because hard drive manufacturers have a different
definition for "GB", will not be partitioned at all)

Now when you have time to tinker, pick up a copy of mandrake linux or fedora
(NOT lindows). During the install of linux (I STRONGLY recommend mandrake
linux), linux will set up a boot menu for you (to choose between linux and
windows XP) and linux will use the unpartitioned space on your second hard
drive to install the OS and swap space, etc. If you don't like linux, you
can always uninstall it later. Note that you do not need a lot of space for
linux, even if you install lots of linux applications. 10GB should be more
than enough. If you are worried about data storage space, linux can use the
windows XP "drives" to store data, also. -Dave
Click to expand...

Only if you partition as FAT32, not NTFS. Linux support for NTFS is
still flaky and writing to NTFS filesystems especially is not
recommended. Do the above by all means, but use FAT32 for WinXP - you
can always convert to NTFS later if you decide not to use Linux.
 
If you're looking for compatibility with Windows programs, then Lindows
isn't the way to go. It doesn't have any built in support for them.

You're best bet is to go for Xandros Deluxe. That has built in CrossOver
Office, which allows you to install and run many windows programs including
the entire Office suite, Photoshop, Quicken, IE.... In addition, I've been
very successful in getting other unofficially supported Windows programs to
run without a hiccup. Not all work however (for instance I couldn't get
Winrar to run).

You could also just buy Lindows and then buy Crossover Office serperatly.
Xandros is one of the best Linux distros though, especially for a windows
convert, IMO.

As others have suggested though, if you have some programs which you really
love, I'd dual boot the machine with windows and linux until you're truly
ready to make the switch.
 
BarryNL said:
Dave said:
I am building a new system, Gigabyte n7400L, XP 2800 (not sure which core
yet, but probably the Barton), a Gig of Kingston ram, couple of 80 gig
Maxtor's an MSi FX5300 graphics board( for now) a Plextor burner and
Click to expand...
[...]
On Hard drive two, let xp partition 65GB and format as ntfs. (the rest, a
little over 10GB probably, because hard drive manufacturers have a different
definition for "GB", will not be partitioned at all)
Now when you have time to tinker, pick up a copy of mandrake linux or fedora
(NOT lindows). During the install of linux (I STRONGLY recommend mandrake
linux),
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I'll second the recommendation for Mandrake. It's newbie friendly
yet fully featured. The only downside to Mandrake is that it's
_too_ fully featured. The default install can't decide whether
it wants to be a desktop workstation or a powerful server--so it
combines both. For a linux newbie trying to get a feel for all
that Linux has to offer, this is awesome. However, for someone
looking to do some serious work it's definitely bloated for either
purpose.
Only if you partition as FAT32, not NTFS. Linux support for NTFS is
still flaky and writing to NTFS filesystems especially is not
recommended. Do the above by all means, but use FAT32 for WinXP - you
can always convert to NTFS later if you decide not to use Linux.
Click to expand...

I'd go a step further and partition BOTH drives with large Fat32
partitions. That would leave the most space for data files
accessable to both OS's.

Actually, I'd partition the second drive as a single FAT32 partition
for data. The first drive would have 3+ partitions--one for WinXP,
one FAT32 partition for data, and the rest for Linux.

I'd note that I have had difficulty using WinXP to format any 80+
gig drive with FAT32. WinXP was completely adamant about formating
it in NTFS and refused to even give an option to format in anything
else. At the time, I was visiting a friend's house, where his only
computer was WinXP.

I got frustrated quickly and just brought the drive home to use
one of my Win98 machines, so I don't know if there's a WinXP
workaround.

Isaac Kuo
 
If you want to try Linux then I use Knoppix, www.knoppix.com

Mainly because it is a ISO file that you burn to a CD and then boot from the
CD, thus you can play with it, without having to instal on your HDD.

the_gnome
 
It's also a great boot disk if your Winders goes south.
On my system Knoppix boots from CD, finds all the hardware;
dual ultra 160 SCSI cards, 8 hard drives, 2 CDRWs, onboard sound,
onboard gigabit LAN, ti4800se AGP vid card, PCI NIC, overclocked
3.06 CPU, etc, loads drivers for them and as soon as it boots it
connects to my cable modem and I can surf looking for files or parts.

Beats the hell out of looking around for an old 6.22 DOS disk to boot from
that won't even see my NTFS disks.
Come to that.... it runs the system entirely in RAM (if there's enough)
and won't care if there are ANY hard drives in the system.

If you want to try Linux then I use Knoppix, www.knoppix.com

Mainly because it is a ISO file that you burn to a CD and then boot from the
CD, thus you can play with it, without having to instal on your HDD.

the_gnome
Click to expand...
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