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Stuck on Win98 - How can I get out?

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JusLearnin:
Ok, I have really enjoyed reading all these conversations about OS's, and I totally agree with VoidMan on the long term threat that M$ poses to the industry. I am one of those experienced "users" who really is not that familiar with the architecture of the machine and how the operating systems work. I understand what a driver is, and the difference between software and hardware. But I am probably a typical middle age guy who uses M$ because my company does, and because my customers do. I use Word, Excel and Powerpoint (Office97) and also Adobe Pagemaker.

Is is possible to install a different OS and still use these programs? Or are their replacements that can be used and will "File Save As" so my customers can read what I am sening them.

I hear great things about Linux, but can I make it work for me and still use my Office programs?

I have made strides lately. When my Compaq crashed, I had a local guy rebuild it with a Pentium 3, new motherboard, 40 gb drive, CDRW, good sound and video cards and drivers. My kids a gamer and the system works great for him too. But, I would like to decrease my reliance on M$ products.

What can I do??????

voidmain:
I tell you what I would do if I were you.  You have a nice shiney new 40GB hard drive and I'll bet you still have a lot of free space right?  I would dual boot your machine for a while so you can try out Linux and not lose any of your Windows stuff, and you can choose which OS to boot into when you start your machine.  This will let you determine for yourself if you want to take the leap of faith.

The easiest way to do this is to find someone with a copy of Partition Magic (there are also free utilities that can do this but unless you are experienced and can recover from a problem I would not suggest this). With Partition Magic you can shrink your C: partition on your hard drive down so you can make some free space at the end of your disk for Linux. I would create at least 5GB of free space and leave a 35GB C: drive.

Assuming you have the ability to boot from CD (change your BIOS settings to boot from CD first) stick in the latest copy of your favorite Linux install CD (I'm partial to RedHat but most say Mandrake is better for newbies, SuSE is also good).  Follow the onscreen instructions, likely taking the defaults for most everything.  Just make sure you don't install over your C: partition.  Read though the install docs on the web site of whatever distro you want to install if it would make you feel better.

If you are really nervous, back up your critical data first. I have installed Linux hundreds of times on many different configurations and have never lost a Windows partition if I was setting up a dual boot but that's just me.  The worst that has ever happened is having to do an "FDISK /MBR" from a DOS boot floppy to restore the boot sector to wipe out LILO (boot loader) when uninstalling a Linux installation (this is something you would have to do anytime you remove Linux from a dual boot setup).

As far as Office compatibility.  There are a few office packages that claim to be compatible with MS Office apps although I find none of them are perfect.  Most Linux distros come with KDE windowing environment that includes an office package called KOffice.  It will read Word, Excel, Powerpoint files to a point.  StarOffice 6.0 from Sun (a free download) is also pretty good and similar results as KOffice.  There's Abiword and more.  There are also commercial Linux Office apps that are also file compatible (Applixware is a good one).

Good luck and let me know if you need any more pointers.  It would be best if you browsed the distro web sites first though.  Hopefully you have a high speed internet connection and a CD burner, then you can download the CD images and create the installation CDs.  If not you can buy them in the store or have a friend download and make the CDs for you.

[ January 10, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

voidmain:
And here is a good article on why it would be a good thing to become less dependent on Word/Excel/etc:

 linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-01-11-002-20-OP

[ January 11, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

gump420:
If you're looking for an alternative to Windows, you could consider a Macintosh. This may not be the most attractive solution, though, since you'd have to buy a new computer; on the other hand, it'd probably be quite a bit easier to learn Mac OS X than to learn Linux. There is also more commercial software for Mac OS than there is for Linux, and there's probably similar amounts of free softare for both since OS X is UNIX based.

Anyway, I'm a big Mac fan, as you may have noticed if you've read any of my posts, so I had to add my $0.02 worth on the issue! (-;

P.S. There is a project called Lindows in the works that is intended for people in exactly your position; it will ideally be able to run all Windows software alongside Linux apps seamlessly. In any case, you might want to look into that, since it might be just what you want.

[ January 11, 2002: Message edited by: gump420 ]

voidmain:
Gump, have you tried Lindows? I have not so I didn't make a comment on it but would be interested to hear your review if you have.  I'm pretty impressed with the Ximian work for Linux.  You should give it a try, especially Evolution.  Their "Red Carpet" installer makes life about as simple as it can get. It is a very easy graphical installer that will download, resolve any dependency issues, and install apps automatically, and if you are running RedHat/Mandrake/SuSE (and I think a couple others) it can download and apply any distro specific security and recommended updates, again resolving dependencies seemlessly.  It has to be the easiest installer I have seen yet on any platform.

And for those who work in a Microsoft shop with Exchange server, Evolution is an Outlook clone (I like it better than Outlook).  They even have an MS Exchange connector for Exchange 2000 so Evolution can utilize not only the Exchange mailboxes/folders but the user/distribution lists, the calendars, the task lists, and more. Just some more thoughts...

See: http://www.ximian.com/

NOTE: The Exchange connectors for Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2k are not available yet but should be any time now.  In the mean time you can still access Exchange mailbox/folders through the IMAP service and the Address lists through the LDAP service on Exchange.  I want to test out the connector as soon as it's released and I'll post a review.

[ January 11, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

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