What a week

[bootneck02]

Well I have had a hell of a week this week, the reason was I decided to go off on a tangent with my operating system which was Windows 7.I had been reading on line what a wonderfull new system a Linux version called Zorin was just what the PC user who uses Microsoft OS would find easy to use. Oh the idiot I was Oh I thoughtI will have a go at that, I know I will do a clean install that would be great if it is as good as they say it is.WRONG!!!!. Got it all downloaded, looks like Windows but does it work like windows, like hell couldent get my emails as I download them from my internet provider's server. Anyway the upshot was removed Zorin then had a problem with my 2TB hard drive it wouldn't boot the PC couldn't see it couldn't format it so installed a 1 TB drive and tried to install M7 again Microsoft refused to register it as I had installed it so many time not even over the telephone as they wouldn't believe that an individual would download a OS so many times. Ho bugger off to PC world to purchase a new Windows OS, sorry sir we only stock W8.1, thank you sir that will be £115, good night sir pleasure to business with you.
Well back home and install W8.1 and with trepidation install the new OS. Not sure I like the new start page but getting used to it and actually quite like the OS it is different to W7 but with a little use it is proving quite a good operating system. So it goes to show that not top belive all you read in the IT press and adverts. I have learned my lesson not to try new things from Linux unless you know what you are doing, I thought I did but now I know I know a lot less than I thought did In consequence I have been off line for several days but now back crunching again a few results should have gone through as I have the wife's PC is also crunching, by the way she will not let me go any where near her PC after this debacle. Don't know why???

 

[nivrip]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Anon_F]

I think it was one of our Linux experts that gave me good advice a few years ago.
I bought Linux on a USB Flash Drive and boot in to it on my laptop.
Everything is done within the flash drive without effecting the laptop.
Quick, easy & if do feck up it's only on a flash drive!!

Here the lesson ends birthday boy!!

 

[bootneck02]

Thanks for the advice NV and Fecit, trouble is I cannot help my self playing, the wife said it is the child in me, and I don't feel a day over 70

 

[muckshifter]

If Operating Systems Ran The Airlines...


UNIX Airways

Everyone brings one piece of the plane along when they come to the airport. They all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing non-stop about what kind of plane they are supposed to be building.

Air DOS

Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on...

Mac Airlines

All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look and act exactly the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don't need to know, don't want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know, so just shut up.

Windows Air

The terminal is pretty and colourful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.

Windows NT Air

Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.

Windows XP Air

You turn up at the airport,which is under contract to only allow XP Air planes. All the aircraft are identical, brightly coloured and three times as big as they need to be. The signs are huge and all point the same way. Whichever way you go, someone pops up dressed in a cloak and pointed hat insisting you follow him. Your luggage and clothes are taken off you and replaced with an XP Air suit and suitcase identical to everyone around you as this is included in the exorbitant ticket cost. The aircraft will not take off until you have signed a contract. The inflight entertainment promised turns out to be the same Mickey Mouse cartoon repeated over and over again. You have to phone your travel agent before you can have a meal or drink. You are searched regularly throughout the flight. If you go to the toilet twice or more you get charged for a new ticket. No matter what destination you booked you will always end up crash landing at Whistler in Canada.

Linux Air

Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself.

When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"

 

[crazylegs]

 

[EvanDavis]

I cannot help my self playing,

I am much the same. But when I play I have a spare disk that all the playing gets done on. If somebody tells me about a new Linux distro I will swap out the Windows 7 disk for a spare one then go ahead and do all the playing. When I am done playing I stick the W7 disk back in and get on with it. Mostly because I am to lazy to install W7 and all my licensed programs and games again then take days to do updates. But also because I know what M$ are like when it comes to activating Windows.

 

[Anon_F]

Evan, why not install Linux to a usb flash drive or to an external hard drive instead.
I have a few Linux & work related programs i do this with, as it's so simple to do.
And if it all goes wrong it does not effect the main pc.

 

[Abarbarian]

Most amusing Mucks

EvanDavis + feckit I installed Windows 7 to a hdd and this was the only drive in the pc at the time. This ensured that I had a clean and correctly set up Windows.

I then added another hdd and installed linux to it. I placed the linux boot stuff on this drive.The linux boot menu does not show Windows.

Now when I start the pc it kicks into Windows 7 automatically.If I want to use linux I have to access the pc boot menu and choose the linux hdd and it boots for me.

Windows never sees the linux hdd and runs as normal. I could set up the linux to boot first but I do not want to take the chance that something will go wrong with the boot process and bork me Windows which has taken such a long time to set up.

However I am being much more diligent about keeping backups as they do not take up much time now I am running everything with ssd's and will be tweaking to make linux boot automatically with a menu option to boot Windows. This will be much quicker as I will not have to enter the pc boot menu.

The best tip I can give anyone wanting to try out linux is use a seperate hdd/ssd for the linux and something like GPARTED from a live cd/usb to set up your partitioning scheme first.
Make a note of the drive names (devsda,devsdb etc) that you want to install linux to and you should find the linux install much easier to do.