Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX
GERONIMO!!
Gonusto:
Grrrr . . . I already went through the process of posting this once, when I was summarily struck by a "Blue Screen of Death" and lost everything. So after a few good kicks, I had everything unplugged and the window open (I live on the fourth floor) when I realized that it was my computers fault per se . . . It's that fucking piece of monkey shit Window's fault! Which makes the answers to the questions I'm about to ask even more imperitive (for my sake at least).
First of all I want make a couple of thanks and disclaimers. Thanks to all you people who have been posting answers to everyone else's questions. I've spent the last week or so trudging through most of the old postings, trying to find answers to my questions so that I wouldn't post questions that have already been asked a dozen times.
And I ask that you all have patience with me and my ignorance. Some of you have been working with computers for almost as long (or longer) than I've been alive and have an incredible amount of knowledge (as has been evidenced by some of the other posts I've read). Me? I'm not so knowledgable, that's why I ask questions. I appear to be an "inquisitve idiot" (as BadKarma would say), it's only because I've realized the depths of my own ignorance and am trying to find my way out . . . with some help from you guys hopefully.
With that all said and done, let me get to the point (for any one who's still reading this). I've finally decided to make "The Leap of Faith", but before I jump, I was hoping somebody (anybody) could answer a couple of questions for me. And in no particular order . . .
1)Are there any cons to dual booting? I'd like to take it slow and start of with that until I have to time to really learn the ins and outs of another OS. Unless of course somebody can give me a couple of good reasons why I shouldn't . . .
2) What do I do if some of my hardware isn't supported (according to the distributor's website)? Will I have to write my own drivers? Because I don't think I'm competent enough to do that yet.
3) Will I still be able to read and edit text documents that were created under Windows? Or would I have to boot up in Windows evertime I wanted to view one of those documents?
4) This next one is going to make me sound like a dweeb, but do Linux (or any other alternative OS) have any sort of chat program (AIM, ICQ, Trillian, etc). It makes talking to my girlfriend every night easier and cheaper than calling her long distance.
5) What would be the best way to repartition my harddrive. It's 40 gigs partitioned 4 ways. These are:
C Drive (4.75 GB total, 2.29 free) - Used for Window's system and program files.
D Drive (532 MB total, 292 KB free) - Used for swapping
E Drive (16.4 GB total, 2.95 GB free) - Used for games, movies and personal documents.
F Drive (16.4 total, 2.25 GB free) - Mostly MP3 files.
Would repartitioning even be the best thing? Or should I just buy a new harddrive and install the other OS there (then I could move it out if I ever got enough money and parts for a second rig).
6) And finally (for now), what OS would be the easiest to switch to? I've noticed (both here and other places) that a lot of people reccommend Linux-Mandrake. What I'm looking for (at least for now) is something that I won't have to spend a lot of time relearning. In a few months, when I'm out of school and have more time, I'll ready, willing and able to learn something a bit more complicated. (In a nutshell, I'm looking for a different OS that's not purely command line . . . at least until I have more time to sit down and learn how).
Bottom line is I'm looking for a way to escape Microsoft and I'm asking for your guy's help in doing so. Any other general advice or links to online literature (I collected a few from other threads) would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm sorry if I was a nuisance.
-Gonusto
voidmain:
quote:Originally posted by Gonusto:
Grrrr . . . I already went through the process of posting this once, when I was summarily struck by a "Blue Screen of Death" and lost everything. So after a few good kicks, I had everything unplugged and the window open (I live on the fourth floor) when I realized that it was my computers fault per se . . . It's that fucking piece of monkey shit Window's fault! Which makes the answers to the questions I'm about to ask even more imperitive (for my sake at least).
--- End quote ---
Very funny!
quote:
1)Are there any cons to dual booting?
--- End quote ---
No. (other than still having a virus ridden OS residing within your computer case)
quote:
2) What do I do if some of my hardware isn't supported (according to the distributor's website)? Will I have to write my own drivers? Because I don't think I'm competent enough to do that yet.
--- End quote ---
There are several things you can do short of writing your own drivers but I can say that most if not all of your "critical" hardware will likely work (motherboard, hard drive, video card, sound, etc). If you have some sort of WinModem there is a chance that it will work. If you have a lot of USB devices (printers, scanners, webcams, etc) there is a chance it will work. Options are to get compatible hardware or search the net to see if there is a driver project for your hardware, or write your own driver (probably something you will not want to tackle unless you just want to learn how to program and write kernel level code). Dual booting gives you a chance to try it out without wiping out your other stuff.
quote:
3) Will I still be able to read and edit text documents that were created under Windows? Or would I have to boot up in Windows evertime I wanted to view one of those documents?
--- End quote ---
Yes, assuming you really mean text (notpad etc). But note that a text document created in Win*/DOS has every line terminated by a CR/LF (carriage return/line feed). Lines in Linux/UNIX text files are terminated with LF only (why waste space?). Linux/UNIX has no problems reading text files created in DOS/WIN and most Windows apps have no problems reading text files created in Linux/UNIX (notepad is one that will not properly read the Linux text file. Wordpad, Word, and DOS EDIT can read them just fine). It is trivial to convert the file between the two formats though if you so desire.
And also "yes" for Word Documents if you install one of several wordprocessors able to read the proprietary MS Word format, such as Abiword, OpenOffice, Applixware (Applixware is not free), etc. These word processors are getting very good at converting/reading MS formats (even though they had to be reverse engineered because of said proprietary format). A really complex Word document may not convert perfectly but close.
quote:
4) This next one is going to make me sound like a dweeb, but do Linux (or any other alternative OS) have any sort of chat program (AIM, ICQ, Trillian, etc). It makes talking to my girlfriend every night easier and cheaper than calling her long distance.
--- End quote ---
Yes, most/all Linux distros come with an ICQ client and there is also a Linux AIM client that may or may not be included. If not, see: http://aimtoday.aim.com/get_aim/linux/latest_linux.adp
quote:
5) What would be the best way to repartition my harddrive. It's 40 gigs partitioned 4 ways. These are:
C Drive (4.75 GB total, 2.29 free) - Used for Window's system and program files.
D Drive (532 MB total, 292 KB free) - Used for swapping
E Drive (16.4 GB total, 2.95 GB free) - Used for games, movies and personal documents.
F Drive (16.4 total, 2.25 GB free) - Mostly MP3 files.
--- End quote ---
One of the reasons I stopped partitioning my drive in multiple segments like this quite some time ago (even in Linux) is because you end up with 2GB here, 3GB there, but if you need a 4GB chuck you're stuck without moving data around. What I would do is combine your E: and F: drive into one large E: drive and leave 4GB of unpartitioned space at the end of the drive. If you have partition magic you can probably accomplish this without backing up and deleting any partitions. It will take a couple of steps though:
Create an E:\MP3 directory (or similar) and move as many of your MP3s off of F: onto that directory. Load up Partition Magic and shrink F: as much as you can (leaving the free space between E: and F: ), then expand E: as much as you can. Move more MP3s and repeat until you have all of your data off of the F: drive. Delete the F: partition and size the E: partition so there is 4GB of unallocated space at the end of your drive. Install Mandrake (if that is the one you want, I use mostly RedHat but they are all nearly identical once installed). Mandrake should set up your dual boot for you. Ask some of the other Mandrake heads in here for more tips on getting the Mandrake install and dual boot thing working but it's nearly noob proof I believe.
quote:
Would repartitioning even be the best thing? Or should I just buy a new harddrive and install the other OS there (then I could move it out if I ever got enough money and parts for a second rig).
--- End quote ---
That would be up to you but you might want to try it before spending any money and see how it goes. If you like it, build your second boxen. Hell, you can even run some Linux distros right off the CD without installing (expect it to be very slow of course).
quote:
6) And finally (for now), what OS would be the easiest to switch to?
--- End quote ---
Like I mentioned earlier, the only big differences in the major distros in the installation method and some graphical administration utilities. I don't believe there is enough of a difference to recommend one over another although I continue to use RedHat and am very satisfied with it. You will find most on here recommend Mandrake for newbies.
quote:
Bottom line is I'm looking for a way to escape Microsoft and I'm asking for your guy's help in doing so. Any other general advice or links to online literature (I collected a few from other threads) would be greatly appreciated.
--- End quote ---
You will certainly be able to escape Microsoft with Linux (and not have to spend any money). As far as documentation and online resources there is probably as much or more info out there for Linux than there is for Microsoft. When you install Linux there will be a "wealth" of documentation installed with your system. Usually under the "/usr/share/doc" directory.
I would also suggest browsing throught the web sites of the distribution makers (www.mandrake.com, www.redhat.com). Then there is www.linuxdoc.org and a bazillion other sites. Google usually finds just what I'm looking for for me (and Google is all run on Linux servers BTW).
quote:
Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm sorry if I was a nuisance.
--- End quote ---
It's a pleasure helping people escape the wrath...
[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
lost:
Adding my 2 cents here for what its worth.
1)Dual booting is usually not an issue. There are a few complications however and none being technical. Mainly people will default to whatever they know best. Grow up on microsoft and it can be a long slow process of being ripped away for no other reason than its what you know how to use. If you dual boot a machine how often will you boot into linux if windows is available? if your booting into windows it takes away te need to learn how to do it in linux. i found the easiest way to learn another OS was to completely remove the ones i knew and depend on learning how to fix a problem under the new OS rather then running back to the old ones. Stuff might not work for a while but it adds motivation for fixing a problem.
2)Hardware vendors aren't the ones to really be checking for driver support. One of the reasons to use linux over any other *NIX OS is for exotic hardware, things you just arent too sure about being supported. Good idea is to catalog all the hardware you have, video, network, sound, modem and check them against a linux hardware list like on redhat.com, but more then likely anyting you have is gonna have some type of support, you just need to figure out what level and if its acceptable to your needs.
3)Document viewing can be me a major setback. If you cant do everyday things why switch OS's. Luckily there are some good projects going on that help get your windows documents working. Star/Open office and abiword under linux can take are of most of your document needs. But just recently i picked up a commercial office suite called hancom office (http://www.hancom.com) because it is able to read most known microsoft office formats. This includes .doc, .xls and whatever the powerpoint extenstion is. $50 bucks for a full office suite aint to bad.
4)AOL has an official linux client, however it blows goats, check out gaim (gaim.sourceforge.net) most of the features are there. There is definetely a ICQ client for linux, dont know what its called though. However gaim has a plugin for ICQ since they are the same protocol anyway.
5)Partitioning, partitioning, partioning. Over time you will find a partitioning system that works for you. i have different things grouped off like /boot /tmp /home and /usr for various reasons. But i think in your case it would be a better idea to just take a chunk of yur HD and make it an linux partition. 4Gb is a good size since you can mount your other partions with FAT support in the linux kernel.
I personally would recommend just picking up another harddrive so you dont have to waste time figuring out partioning.
6)Again it comes down to personal preference. GUI or text, manual configurations or lots of installers and configurators. A great desktop replacement OS would be SuSE (http://www.suse.com) comes with every utility you could ever want on like 8 CDs. But make sure to have A LOT of space (2-4GB) for the installation. Mandrake is nice too for learning, very simple to install, lots of GUI. I hate redhat so i wont say anything good or bad. Slackware however is the funnest distribution and it makes you learn the inner workings of linux. But it might be more then you want.
Final advice. if you want to escape microsoft, remove it completely from your life and force yourself to use linux. Anything that windows does can be done on linux, even the blue screen of death (screensavers rule). Don't let this learning experience kill you though. find a good learning pace. all these are just suggestions that can hopefully get you to your end result of fucking microsoft.
voidmain:
Hey, whadya know, I have gaim installed on my machine and it seems to work fine. I don't use AIM/GAIM/AOL or ICQ for that matter as you can tell. Thanks for your expertise in this area.. BTW, I am confused by your "Operating System of Choice" in your profile... What's up with that?
Gonusto:
Thank you both for responding so quickly. The quicker I get my questions answered, the quicker I can get away from Windows. I feel a whole lot more confident about making the switch now. In fact, I think I'll start the process by downloading the Mandrake ISO's tonight and putting 'em on CD. I realize that the best way is probably just to throw myself into Linux . . . and I would if I had that luxury. Unfortunately I'm in the middle of a semester right now and if anything were to happen, I'd be royally screwed (papers to write, online research to do, etc). But once things settle down . . . so, oh . . . when summer gets here, you can bet one of the first things I'll be doing is completely getting rid of Windows.
Well, that's all the questions I have now. But you can bet I'll be back later with some more once I finally get things up and running. Thank you both for all your help and patience.
Now if I could only find a copy Partion Magic lying around . . . or enough money to buy another hard drive . . . didn't I see something about free partioning software in another thread . . .
-Gonusto
P.S. Happy belated birthday, lost. Hope you enjoyed it.
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