Charles, I'm everlasting grateful you know about this stuff. I'll just say thanks!

Ubuntu is very nice! I still use plain old Debian for servers though; I don't get into dependency hell as often.

I will always believe that apt-based distros have much better conflict resolution than any DedRat distros.

BANG!

One distro that many Linux newbies would enjoy is LinuxMint

[Link: linuxmint.com...]

Makes it real easy to get a multi-media friendly setup running in a hurry.

re: #2 incanus

Ubuntu is very nice! I still use plain old Debian for servers though; I don't get into dependency hell as often.

I will always believe that apt-based distros have much better conflict resolution than any DedRat distros.

I've always used Windows and have no experience with Linux versions......will they run Windows applications?

...and it’s all free...

And here I was, all believing that "nothing in life is free..."

Charles :

I know it is a form of desecration and might cause rioting in Cupertino, but have you placed XP on VMWare? I know plenty have done it, but I have to throw down a finicky development environment (VisualStudio).

I am thinking of buying a Mac laptop is the reason for the question.

TIA

re: #5 eschew_obfuscation

I've always used Windows and have no experience with Linux versions......will they run Windows applications?

Not usually. But almost everything worth having comes in a Linux version plus a lot of stuff that you can't get for love nor money for the Doze.

re: #6 freetoken

And here I was, all believing that "nothing in life is free..."

The best things in life are free...

re: #10 buzzsawmonkey

Because you're minux
I walk the Linux.

YOU! OUT!

I've always been partial to Slackware, it's what's currently running on my server now. Although, for the longest time, I did run SunOS, followed up by Solaris. But, I got rid of that Sun Ultra because parts were just getting too expensive for that thing.

re: #7 karmic_inquisitor

Charles :

I know it is a form of desecration and might cause rioting in Cupertino, but have you placed XP on VMWare? I know plenty have done it, but I have to throw down a finicky development environment (VisualStudio).

I am thinking of buying a Mac laptop is the reason for the question.

TIA

Works for me under Parallels, and someone else in my group under VMWare.

re: #10 buzzsawmonkey

Because you're minux
I walk the Linux.

That son was by the band Free, right?
Or was it Johnny Cash?
Eddie Money, maybe?

re: #7 karmic_inquisitor

Charles :

I know it is a form of desecration and might cause rioting in Cupertino, but have you placed XP on VMWare? I know plenty have done it, but I have to throw down a finicky development environment (VisualStudio).

I am thinking of buying a Mac laptop is the reason for the question.

TIA

Yep, XP runs great with VMware. I haven't tried running VisualStudio, but it probably works.

re: #5 eschew_obfuscation

I've always used Windows and have no experience with Linux versions......will they run Windows applications?

Open Office is cross compatible with the MS Office.

re: #14 Izzy Dunne

g

The above letter fell out when I posted message #14.

Charles,

Just my tuppence worth:

I ditched Windows in '99, used Suse, Mandrake and Red Hat primarily (though all Linucists end up trying a billion distros) till Ubuntu started, used that till 2005 when I realised that I spent most of my time trying to make Linux act like a Mac.

I switched to OS X and finally every gadget I have works, as does wifi (most of the time - Apple quality control is down at the moment). I got so bored of fiddling with text files...

Of course you can install KDE, Gnome, and most of the major 'Linux' apps on a Mac. Though I am still impressed by seeing an OS running full throttle within a window of another. That novelty refuses to wear off ;-)

re: #5 eschew_obfuscation

I've always used Windows and have no experience with Linux versions......will they run Windows applications?

Not really. You can install WINE (which is a Windows Emulator), but it's slow and won't work well for many applications.

Linux is for select groups of people:

Students: everything is "open" in the sense you can open the hood and tinker with anything you like. There's an infinite number of learning opportunites.

Geeks: see above.

People who are tired of being trapped with Microsoft: If you need a word processor, spreadsheet, or database; chances are you can use OpenOffice.org or other Linux apps and be happy.

Linux is not for people who aren't willing to learn (this isn't a dig; most people don't have the time or inclination to learn the arcane bits of computer knowledge). It's not for people who are trapped in a Microsoft environment (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio). It's not for hardcore gamers since most games depend on DirectX these days.

I love networking so I find Linux gives me a lot of opportunities to play. My "cable router" at home is a Linux box running Debian; I have all the firewalling I want, multiple networks, controlled access for wireless users, etc. Is this for everyone? No ... but I like it. Currently playing with Asterisk (a UNIX-based VoIP/PBX).

I am a total moron on computers, BUT my brother put Linux Puppy on a thumb drive, and it works beautifully (so far)! And I can carry it to ANY PC, put it in, and it'll work, with all my files on it.

No more paying for Acrobat, Office, or Roxio, either, since it has programs that do the same thing, but will (he tolde me) interface with the original programs. (E.g., I send a file to my work email, it will work with the Office programs there.)

Has anyone else out there had Puppy? What do you think?

re: #7 karmic_inquisitor

Charles :

I know it is a form of desecration and might cause rioting in Cupertino, but have you placed XP on VMWare? I know plenty have done it, but I have to throw down a finicky development environment (VisualStudio).

I am thinking of buying a Mac laptop is the reason for the question.

TIA

XP runs fine in VMWare. you can also run XP from Bootcamp (I believe; I don't currently own a Mac).

re: #16 jcm

Open Office is cross compatible with the MS Office.

Is that true with Office 2008?

I don't like the mac guy on the commercial. I like the fat PC guy

re: #23 Shug

I don't like the mac guy on the commercial. I like the fat PC guy

Me too! Maybe I'm the same kind of neurotic?

re: #16 jcm

Open Office is cross compatible with the MS Office.

Thanks! I have that now.....I've started using open-source stuff whenever I think I'll need new software. Haven't had any problems so far.

This one's for you, Charles:

[Link: www.xkcd.com...]

:D

re: #7 karmic_inquisitor

VMWare seems pretty stable. I've run XP under VMWare with few problems; I can't speak to Visual Studio, but I haven't seen an app yet that could lock VMWare up or take it down. YMMV.

[Link: www.israelnationalnews.com...]

cool story.

re: #22 incanus

Is that true with Office 2008?

The answer to this is yes and no. For 2008 you either need to get some special plugins that can be a pain to use or wait for OpenOffice 3 which is rumored to be out soon. Since Microsoft was able to get their docx as the document standard you'll see a lot of cross compatibility with things like OpenOffice and Google Docs etc.

New tools! I love the smell of a new operating system melting in the morning sun...

Has anyone tried using Wubi to install Linux on a Vista/XP Machine? The last time I installed Linux with Vista I had to partition the disk and I don't really want to do that. I want to ensure that if I want to "uninstall" the Linux distro, I can do that and it won't lose the bootloader this time. Yes...I'm speaking from experience...

re: #30 Conservative in Liberal Hands

New tools! I love the smell of a new operating system melting in the morning sun...

Did you say Melt?

/Big Monkey is rippin us off!

re: #31 bryantms

Has anyone tried using Wubi to install Linux on a Vista/XP Machine? The last time I installed Linux with Vista I had to partition the disk and I don't really want to do that. I want to ensure that if I want to "uninstall" the Linux distro, I can do that and it won't lose the bootloader this time. Yes...I'm speaking from experience...

Do what I did, download a free copy of VMserver and run it in a VM just like Charles is doing on his Mac. Works great even in Vista.

One more strike against the big brother Nanny state;

CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

My favorite incident in all this was when they decided to put in security cameras to catch who was disabling security cameras.

re: #31 bryantms

Has anyone tried using Wubi to install Linux on a Vista/XP Machine? The last time I installed Linux with Vista I had to partition the disk and I don't really want to do that. I want to ensure that if I want to "uninstall" the Linux distro, I can do that and it won't lose the bootloader this time. Yes...I'm speaking from experience...

My pet peeve with Windows is that it always wants to overwrite the Master Boot Record irrespective of what I want. If I want to use GrUB to boot all my operating systems I should be able to do that! Blow me Microsoft.

If you are trying to get Linux and Windows to play together on the same disk it's best to install the Linux bootloader in the root partition, not in the MBR. That way the worst case scenario is you end up booting into Windows where you can then set the active boot partition.

This stuff needs to be easier. A pox on PCs.

Let Israel Nuke Uran XXX.

I guess I'm one of those rare people that likes Vista. Vista Ultimate x64 installs and works perfectly for me (well, when my hardware isn't acting up). But then, I'm a gamer, so neither Linux nor Mac are an option for me.

Wow! Who'd thought there were so many geeks here!

re: #32 Thanos

MELT There is, in my possession, a signed copy of a comic strip by Johnny Hart of "Tumbleweeds". It shows "Ole Moleeye", the scout - always shown in profile- with one arrow sticking out the front and two out the back. The caption beneath is one word... "PIONEER".

One of the prices we pay to be on the bleeding edge is occasionally, the edge cuts our @#$%^ out. The price for progress, I guess.

Thanks all for the VM tips.

FWIW on linux - I am a bit old school on linux. I actually LIKE having a command line interface when dealing with UNIX and derivatives. GUI implementations always seem 'awk'ward (old geek reference) unless they completely hide all concepts that are UNIX (like mounting devices and file systems).

/continues having animated conversation with self on arcane observation shared by few...

OPENSUSE, OPENSUSE, OPENSUSE, but sometimes just suse 'cause it needs to work with novell.

re: #40 karmic_inquisitor

Thanks all for the VM tips.

FWIW on linux - I am a bit old school on linux. I actually LIKE having a command line interface when dealing with UNIX and derivatives. GUI implementations always seem 'awk'ward (old geek reference) unless they completely hide all concepts that are UNIX (like mounting devices and file systems).

/continues having animated conversation with self on arcane observation shared by few...

I know what you mean. Even in Windows, I still use the command line often to do certain tasks. Coming from the DOS days, it just feels more natural to me.

re: #37 Jito463

I guess I'm one of those rare people that likes Vista. Vista Ultimate x64 installs and works perfectly for me (well, when my hardware isn't acting up). But then, I'm a gamer, so neither Linux nor Mac are an option for me.

I have Vista on my HP Quad machine. It inexplicably restarts on its own..I get those plain text screen that has F1 for one thing, F2 for another...and then asks if I want to do a NORMAL REBOOT...

I had quite a few other problems, like widgets that disappeared...and I wanted it back! Frustration is to put it mildly.

I put HP Care on it and it won't install...or show up on the screen...oh well...

re: #34 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

CCTV boom has failed...

Better than broadcast TV :P

re: #41 tiber

I started out as a SuSe aficionado but got annoyed when I looked for help and all instructions assumed you were using Red Hat -- and, of course, SuSe put everything in different places from RH. Still, it was pretty cool.

re: #40 karmic_inquisitor

Thanks all for the VM tips.

FWIW on linux - I am a bit old school on linux. I actually LIKE having a command line interface when dealing with UNIX and derivatives. GUI implementations always seem 'awk'ward (old geek reference) unless they completely hide all concepts that are UNIX (like mounting devices and file systems).

/continues having animated conversation with self on arcane observation shared by few...

Yup, this is why I run Debian on my servers and appliances. I don't want to wait for a GUI, and most of these boxes are headless so I'm SSHing in anyway.

Some people freak out when they see CLI ... to me it says POWER.

I feel the same way about routers, firewalls, etc. People who "configure" routers and switches using a GUI should be kicked out of the industry. If I am going to make a config change on 100 switches I sure as hell don't want to be using Java for that (I use expect =)

re: #37 Jito463

I guess I'm one of those rare people that likes Vista. Vista Ultimate x64 installs and works perfectly for me (well, when my hardware isn't acting up). But then, I'm a gamer, so neither Linux nor Mac are an option for me.

I have 32-bit Vista Home Premium, and it's never given me more than minor headaches. Sure the security systems can be a royal pain in the butt, but I use my computer for homework and the Internet (usually both at the same time) and a few games, so I like Vista too.

Then again, I'm know basically zero about programming, which seems to be the subject of threads like this. I guess at some point I'll delve into it further, but for now Vista is just fine for me.

re: #43 Psaturn

I have Vista on my HP Quad machine. It inexplicably restarts on its own..I get those plain text screen that has F1 for one thing, F2 for another...and then asks if I want to do a NORMAL REBOOT...

I had quite a few other problems, like widgets that disappeared...and I wanted it back! Frustration is to put it mildly.

I put HP Care on it and it won't install...or show up on the screen...oh well...

Shut off the shadow copy service. Mine was doing that exact thing too.

I've pulled down several distros lately for a friend who's on dialup. Gotta burn some CDs now.

re: #19 incanus

"It's not for people who are trapped in a Microsoft environment (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio)."

I would also (just) add that Linux is (probably) not for people trapped in an Adobe environment (such as Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Audition 3 (an incredibly cool audio program -- like Photoshop, only for audio), Adobe Illustrator, etc.) Ubuntu allows you to install Photoshop CS2 -- but if you're using Adobe products on a daily basis -- then, I think it's pretty much required to have a Windows/Mac OS (Windows kept somewhere -- either on another partition of a drive, or on another computer.) So, it's maybe not the best thing to think that you can completely wipe-out a Windows operating system...(have to think in terms of portability of products you're using).

I'm gonna try running linux within Microsoft VirtualPC.

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

re: #51 Ward Cleaver

Hope you have time on your hands.

re: #49 Ward Cleaver

"Burn, baby, Burn!" A blast from the past...

re: #46 incanus

Some people freak out when they see CLI ... to me it says POWER.

C has the same effect on me. Raw horsepower.

re: #52 bosforus

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

*snicker*

Hahahahahaha

Completely unexpected. Good one.

re: #43 Psaturn

I have Vista on my HP Quad machine. It inexplicably restarts on its own..I get those plain text screen that has F1 for one thing, F2 for another...and then asks if I want to do a NORMAL REBOOT...

I had quite a few other problems, like widgets that disappeared...and I wanted it back! Frustration is to put it mildly.

I put HP Care on it and it won't install...or show up on the screen...oh well...

HP Care is completely worthless. It came installed on my computer when I bought it last year, and every day (right about now, actually) a little bubble pops up at the bottom to tell me that its "Health Check" is running. When I open the window to see what it comes up with, it says that a scan has not yet been run, and it won't let me start one myself. All the other little tools that come with it are pointless, since they don't run -- even on an HP machine. It does basically the same thing as Windows Defender, from what I know, so I'd just use that.

re: #33 bj1126

Thanks for the tip!

For some reason I thought that VMware products worked only on a Mac. It's nice to know that lizards know what the hell they're talking about.

re: #46 incanus

me thinks you may be from the Brotherhood of the Scripting Guild as well.

All hail the Scripting Guild!

The thing I love about scripts is that they are so re-usable. After a while you have hundreds of tools for almost anything. Toss in nice editor (GVIM is my fav) and you're off to the races.

I protect my scripts better'n grandma protects her recipes!

re: #58 bryantms

Thanks for the tip!

For some reason I thought that VMware products worked only on a Mac. It's nice to know that lizards know what the hell they're talking about.

Nope, I've run VMWare on my Windows PC to test my preinstall discs (for automatic installations of Windows).

re: #56 Jito463

That's just how I feel during these Linux threads. Since I know jack about it.

Here is a cool distribution.

[Link: www.batbox.org...]

#31 brayntms

I found the easiest way to solve that was install windows first, then let linux repartition the drive. Grub takes care of everything from that point on. Caveat being thats for the x386 kernels.

But seriously, what is going on with the 64 bit distros? I can launch them from CD, install them, boot them, and then...dead box. Grub errors 1, 2, 4, 5, and so forth. My problem specifically is with the AMD64 distros. Been browsing the forums at AMD64, no love. Anyone else have luck setting up linux on AMD64 boxes with arrays of RAID 0 drives?

Linux r0xx0rz j00r b0xx0rz, period

Sometimes when a user (and/or virus) completely screws up a Windows installation, I use a live CD to backup the user data before a re-image. My favorites are Knoppix 5.01 and Ubuntu 7.10. I keep an eye on "distro watch" for linux news, and to see which are the most popular distros.

re: #20 Former SSG

I am a total moron on computers, BUT my brother put Linux Puppy on a thumb drive, and it works beautifully (so far)! And I can carry it to ANY PC, put it in, and it'll work, with all my files on it.

No more paying for Acrobat, Office, or Roxio, either, since it has programs that do the same thing, but will (he tolde me) interface with the original programs. (E.g., I send a file to my work email, it will work with the Office programs there.)

Has anyone else out there had Puppy? What do you think?

I experimented with various live CD's to carry for emergencies in case my laptop HD goes when I am away from home. All gave me trouble getting a wireless connection, except Puppy.

On the other hand it doesn't have the polish and apps available on some of the others.

re: #53 joncelli

Hope you have time on your hands.

It's a Core 2 Duo E6750 with 4Gb of RAM. That should handle it.

re: #58 bryantms

No problem. I ran into the same issue actually. Trying to dual boot Vista is a nightmare so I gave VMware a shot and it worked great.

re: #24 Former SSG

Me too! Maybe I'm the same kind of neurotic?

There is no doubt that the mac guy drives a Volkswagon Jetta, Drinks Caribou coffee and buys his eggs at whole foods.

and he loves obama

PC guy drives a ford explorer. he enjoys a good steak medium-rare or rare. he likes football and beer. He thinks McCain is too liberal but he'll vote for him anyway

Anybody here using dsl (damn_small_linux)? Like it?

Is it me, or is it getting pretty geeky in here?

Saw this in the Chicago Tribune:

Indiana GOPers 'Rush' to vote Democrat

There are signs that Republican voters may be turning out in force to vote for a Democrat in Indiana's open primary elections today.

And that Democrat, for any voters following the marching orders of Rush Limbaugh looking for some havoc in the Democratic Party and a boost for the Republicans in November, could be Hillary Clinton. But then again, some of the Republicans around Indianapolis say they are voting for Barack Obama.

Operation Chaos is working perfectly. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I run Fedora 8 on my home server and sometimes on my desktop. I'd run it all the time, except for the few Windows apps that simply have no equal in Linux: Adobe Audition and Premiere (or any non-linear video editing app.)

Also, there's Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield 2. Games are still best played in Windows.

It'll be interesting to see which Linux Distro Charles chooses. What about the rest of you guys? Are you mainstream Linux like Ubuntu or are you interested in other versions of Linux?

re: #68 Shug

There is no doubt that the mac guy drives a Volkswagon Jetta, Drinks Caribou coffee and buys his eggs at whole foods.

and he loves obama

PC guy drives a ford explorer. he enjoys a good steak medium-rare or rare. he likes football and beer. He thinks McCain is too liberal but he'll vote for him anyway

O.O That's exactly what I've always thought about those commercials!

Another cool distribution for those looking for the smallest footprint possible.

[Link: www.damnsmalllinux.org...]

re: #70 Honorary Yooper

So I totally agree Honorary Yooper. I live in Indiana and I went to both an Obama and Hillary Rally (it was tought, but I made it through both). I've met more than a few people who were there just for the fun of it.

re: #69 Ward Cleaver

Yes. Speed on old hardware. What could be better?

re: #50 J.S.

"It's not for people who are trapped in a Microsoft environment (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio)."

I would also (just) add that Linux is (probably) not for people trapped in an Adobe environment (such as Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Audition 3 (an incredibly cool audio program -- like Photoshop, only for audio), Adobe Illustrator, etc.) Ubuntu allows you to install Photoshop CS2 -- but if you're using Adobe products on a daily basis -- then, I think it's pretty much required to have a Windows/Mac OS (Windows kept somewhere -- either on another partition of a drive, or on another computer.) So, it's maybe not the best thing to think that you can completely wipe-out a Windows operating system...(have to think in terms of portability of products you're using).

incanus, you raise a great point. Adobe has pretty much cornered the "tools" market space. I DO NOT like the idea of being "single sourced" for my livelihood.

The damned links didn't take. Argh!

re: #70 Honorary Yooper

Is it me, or is it getting pretty geeky in here?

Saw this in the Chicago Tribune:

Indiana GOPers 'Rush' to vote Democrat

There are signs that Republican voters may be turning out in force to vote for a Democrat in Indiana's open primary elections today.

And that Democrat, for any voters following the marching orders of Rush Limbaugh looking for some havoc in the Democratic Party and a boost for the Republicans in November, could be Hillary Clinton. But then again, some of the Republicans around Indianapolis say they are voting for Barack Obama.

Operation Chaos is working perfectly. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

For the corporate world, there is a huge hurdle...management. How can you make it work with Active Directory and Group Policy.
Sorry, but Microsoft is very good at one thing that I would say is not up for argument and that is AD. Redundant, flexible, simple interface [primary interface...but you could always ask for trouble ;)], WAN friendly. It's an awesome LDAP directory.

Then there are the applications; they are competing with Office. No matter how you slice it, it a great suite of applications...Is there a OneNote equivalent (if you haven't used OneNote, don't, you might get addicted).

Then there is .NET. Sure there's Mono, but it's always a few steps behind...don't give me that Java non-sense either...major bloat and incompatibilities (and years of headaches here).

Microsoft does some things right. When are these desktops going to start to conform? Being able to hook into AD for authentication is not enough...it should be able to hook in with group policy as welll...i.e. be managed.

re: #75 bryantms

So I totally agree Honorary Yooper. I live in Indiana and I went to both an Obama and Hillary Rally (it was tought, but I made it through both). I've met more than a few people who were there just for the fun of it.

Good Lord. How many showers did you have to take?

re: #72 bryantms

I work at a data center so I'm fairly interested in things like that DSL linux. We run mostly windows boxes but our DNS is on linux and well if you're just running DNS you don't need much in the way of bells and whistles.

For home use I have Fedora 8 running in a VM. I'm really interested in Fedora 9.

From Byron York at National Review Online:

Michelle Obama's latest whiny-ass masterpiece.

In short, Obama says, the little girl, just ten, knows that the bar has been moved far away from her, and she “feels that veil of impossibility, and it is suffocating her.”

[...]

Even Michelle Obama herself. “I’m not supposed to be here,” she tells the crowd. “I am a statistical oddity. As a black girl raised on the south side of Chicago, I’m not supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to go to Princeton. They said my test scores were too high” — surely a verbal slip, because in the past she has said she was told her test scores were too low — “I wasn’t supposed to go to Harvard Law School, because they said it might be a little too hard for me.

Got that? Michelle's benefitting from affirmative action to get into top-notch schools is terribly, terribly unfair.

To her.

Her husband has been doing just that, Obama explains — raising money, building an organization, winning caucuses, winning primaries, and amassing a large number of delegates. And yet he still hasn’t won, because nothing is ever enough for those unnamed adversaries.

“You start working hard and sacrificing, and you think you’re getting closer to the bar, you’re working and you’re struggling, you get right to that bar, you’re reaching out for the bar, and then what happens?”... “They raise the bar. Raise the bar. Shift it to the side. Keep it just out of reach.”

Gosh, Michelle, maybe we should just dispense with this whole "nomination" and "general election" business, and just skip straight to Obama's inauguration?

I'll stick with my XP SP3... too much relearning to move to linux.

re: #82 Occasional Reader

From Byron York at National Review Online:

Michelle Obama's latest whiny-ass masterpiece.

Someone's been reading LGF, methinks.

Gosh, Michelle, maybe we should just dispense with this whole "nomination" and "general election" business, and just skip straight to Obama's inauguration coronation?

re: #79 wholm

Well Linux does a good job of integrating with AD now days. The new versions of Ubuntu and Fedora both are supposed to have greatly expanded on this as well.

As far as Office goes I actually think Microsoft winning the standard race there will work counter to their efforts. You're not going to need Office with Google's corporate offerings and OpenOffice integration there's not much need for Office. Especially if you're running Exchange 2007. The OWA is now so good there's not much need for even Outlook.

I do agree with you on .NET in many regards though. They've done a great job there and in fact I have been impressed with most of their products recently. Their open source push is refreshing to see and they seem to have improved the quality and functionality of their products.

I don't give them too much grief over Vista because it was more a case of giving people what they wanted and then people not really liking it. Aside from it's memory use issues it's a fairly solid product and SP1 did a decent job of cleaning that up. It still needs work though no doubt. I'm also very interested in their new foundation push to develop a new OS from the ground up baed on C#. I expect some good stuff to come from that.

Even Michelle Obama herself. “I’m not supposed to be here,” she tells the crowd. “I am a statistical oddity. As a black girl raised on the south side of Chicago, I’m not supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to go to Princeton. They said my test scores were too high” — surely a verbal slip, because in the past she has said she was told her test scores were too low — “I wasn’t supposed to go to Harvard Law School, because they said it might be a little too hard for me.

I'm sorry but I'm calling bullshit.

Who is they?

I've been running Debian 'Sarge' on my Macs for months. I can run a private webserver in the background seamlessly. A great way to send large files to clients. BTW; make sure you upgrade your VMWare Fusion. There have been two upgrades since my initial install. I also recommend the Linux program Wireshark network tool. If you are running a wireless network or a combo, it shows ALL attempts to hack you.

Tom

re: #65 Opinionated

Well, I'm not a polish and apps kind of girl! So it will probably be great for me.

re: #68 Shug

OK - I know which I would choose - think PC guy was in the Army?

re: #20 Former SSG

I am a total moron on computers, BUT my brother put Linux Puppy on a thumb drive, and it works beautifully (so far)! And I can carry it to ANY PC, put it in, and it'll work, with all my files on it.

No more paying for Acrobat, Office, or Roxio, either, since it has programs that do the same thing, but will (he tolde me) interface with the original programs. (E.g., I send a file to my work email, it will work with the Office programs there.)

Has anyone else out there had Puppy? What do you think?

I ran across Puppy a while back and love it. I've used it to recover data off of machines as well as a workstation without any problems. Of all of the mini-distros, Puppy is my favorite. It is stable, fast and portable.

For full blown distros, I'm partial to Ubuntu Ultimate Edition. It is a stock Ubuntu install with all the eye candy and more apps than you know what to do with pre-installed.

re: #68 Shug

ALSO, Shug, he's just be analyzed by lefties, maybe he'd be fine if we stopped making him express himself, and just get on with things?

FYI -- best supported Linux distro under vmware is RHEL, and if you don't feel like paying for it, CentOS is a support-free binary compatible (with RHEL) distro. Everything should Just Work.

re: #86 Ben Hur

I saw a piece (listed here, I think, in the articles list?) - she got into Princeton because her brother was a scholar/athlete. Legacy. Smacks of elitism...

re: #84 Fat Jolly Penguin

I do believe that Michelle Obama thinks that the presidency should be given to Barry as an affirmative action, minority set aside.

Been running almost exclusively Kubuntu since 6.04

Compiz makes it just soooooo nice to use for work on one screen - eg:laptop

XP VM'd for online banking that requires ActiveX and a couple multimedia apps, and an XP install on a partition for the time-wasting 3D applications :-)

VMWare is still the best IMHO, but VirtualBox is quickly gaining ground for usability.. as soon as they can handle OpenGL drivers I can lose the physical partition... who needs Antivirus software anyway?

BTW, I also love my little 12.1" baby with XP, OSX4.11, and Kubuntu 8.04 Tri-boot

:-)

Charles, as someone who is planing to move to mac and Leopard from Windows because of the great things said about that OS, I'd like to know what do you find deficient with Leopard that you feel a need to use/try Linux too?

Or is it only curiosity and interest in learning new things.

Michelle reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West.

I just wish she would go away (and take Obama with her).

If only games like World of Warcraft ran on Linux ... /sigh

re: #90 KeithW

My biggest problem is that my hard drive crashed, so running from the Thumb is ok. BUT on the list for little chips that are in wireless cards, I can't figure out which one works for my Linksys card, so I am disconnected at home until I do, or figure out what new card to buy that will work. It seems like companies don't put the name of the chips on the boxes...

re: #93 Former SSG

I saw a piece (listed here, I think, in the articles list?) - she got into Princeton because her brother was a scholar/athlete. Legacy. Smacks of elitism...

It could also be the result of the Bar Association and bodies that provide accreditation for law schools. I saw an article (which I cannot now find) at FrontPageMag.com last week about George Mason University having to radically lower entrance requirements for minorities in spite of a robust minority recruiting program because they were threatened with the loss of accreditation due to low minority enrollment.

What will the OS of choice be in ten years when people are wearing their computers?

/hate to drop a question and run, meeting and all that, just something to think on.

I’ve been a bit surprised by the number of LGF readers interested in using the Linux OS as an alternative to Windows or Mac OS.

Oh hell yes!  Current laptop is a dual boot machine with Windows 2000 Professional and Ubuntu.  My next project is to get a three-backed beast going: Windows XP, Hackintosh, & some variant of Linux.

}:)     [Do I get hacker cred for these revelations?]

re: #97 Irene NYC

Michelle reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West.

I just wish she would go away (and take Obama with her).

That picture is seriously demonic.

BUT WAIT! The role of Wicked Witch of the West has already been filled!

re: #97 Irene NYC

Michelle reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West.

I just wish she would go away (and take Obama with her).

Michelle like to orate about her hard scrabble life growing up on Chicago's South Side.
Her father was employed at a City of Chicago Water Filtration Plant.
Those are Civil Service jobs at Union Scale.There is promotion testing,but pretty much you move right along based on seniority.
Michelle Obama did not grow up poor.

re: #100 eschew_obfuscation

That's probably true for Law School, but her test scores were low for someone going undergrad to P-ton.

re: #94 opnion

I do believe that Michelle Obama thinks that the presidency should be given to Barry as an affirmative action, minority set aside.

Like I said, a coronation. Awarding him the prize without any effort on his part, simply on the merit of his existence.

First, WINE is NOT a windows emulator.

I'm running Kubuntu 7.10 currently with very few issues. There are a couple things that I haven't got to run in Linux but I don't care that much at the moment. Mainly ToonTown for my granddaughter. My main purpose at the moment is running World of Warcraft which actually runs better under Linux than Windows. Too many video problems in XP.

Open Office is a good replacement for MS Office. For photographs I was using GIMP in XP and it has a native app for Linux. If wanted to pay than I could use Crossover and get more MS apps to run but I'm happy with what WINE provides. And WINE is the basis for Crossover.

I'm extremely pleased with the upgrading and installation of software with Adept Manager. Kind of nice to just look in a list of over a thousand items and just click to install. I know some people like Synaptic better but YMMV.

And finally I like the fact that I can be up and ready to go in seconds instead of minutes with XP.

Ubuntu's just an offspring of Debian, so I would just go with the Debian distro.

Happy Birthday Israel

What will the OS of choice be in ten years when people are wearing their computers?

Your mind.

re: #109 WrathofG-d

Happy Birthday Israel

Goy DITTO'S!

re: #98 TheUnrepentantGeek

Yeah - I've managed to get it installed with WINE, but on loading I keep getting this weird issue that as far as I can tell, allocates 2Gigs RAM for WOW, and another 2Gigs for IE... it's one of the very few things I've managed to freeze Kubuntu with.

Now I'm more interested in getting the game to work than actually playing it :-)

re: #111 eschew_obfuscation

The AP invents a people.

In 1948 the "palestinians" were the Jews.

re: #110 Pent.

Your mind.

I already have that......but it's an early release!

re: #109 WrathofG-d

Happy Birthday Israel

And here's how the usual suspects are celebrating.

re: #110 Pent.

Your mind.

I already have that......but it's an early release!
I heard the beta was buggy.

re: #109 WrathofG-d

Happy Birthday Israel

Indeed! :)

(((Wrath))) How are you doing?

re: #115 lawhawk

I was listening to the radio where they were discribing the creation of Israel as "al Nakba". Now, sure I know this is what the Arabs call their inability to destroy Israel and maintain the Caliphate...but I didn't expect the MSM to refer to it this way.

The "creation of Israel" as a term is apolitical fact..."Al Nakba"....not so much!

re: #116 Pent.

re: #110 Pent.

Your mind.

I already have that......but it's an early release!
I heard the beta was buggy.

Kind of hard to debug, too!

re: #113 WrathofG-d

The AP invents a people.

In 1948 the "palestinians" were the Jews.

Yeah....I collect stuff when I can find it on the history of Israel. My dad's mother was a Jewish war bride. And I just love the jews I've known in my life.

re: #102 Kulhwch

A friend of mine tells me that it is possible to use a standard Leopard install disk on a PC, but I'm guessing the hardware has to be pretty specific...

The OSX on my Tri-boot works great except for no Wireless driver, but I don't really need that for my nefarious purposes anyway

re: #117 gop_patriot

Doing fantastic thank you. How you doin!?

re: #97 Irene NYC

No, more like the Grinch. All she needs is a pot belly and a hapless dog and she'd have it down pat.

re: #106 Fat Jolly Penguin

Like I said, a coronation. Awarding him the prize without any effort on his part, simply on the merit of his existence.

Anything less would be racism & Michelle would not be proud.

re: #103 Fat Jolly Penguin

Hillary had to be all dressed up to play the Wicked Witch of the West.

Michelle did it all on her own.
;)

re: #110 Pent.

Your mind.

In the future, you'll be able to spam yourself with pr0n.

Science!

re: #55 karmic_inquisitor
Speaking of horsepower, check this out (scroll down about half way).
500,000 ponies.

/I have absolutely nothing of value to add to this thread...

re: #123 joncelli

Well, the pointy finger is very Grinch-like, I must admit.
;)

re: #117 gop_patriot

Here's to the Establishment

re: #116 Pent.

re: #110 Pent.

Your mind.

I already have that......but it's an early release!
I heard the beta was buggy.

Kind of hard to debug, too!

Yeah....but rebooting is fun!

I prefer Jack & Coke!

re: #127 UFO TOFU

Speaking of horsepower, check this out (scroll down about half way).
500,000 ponies.

/I have absolutely nothing of value to add to this thread...

See,I do. I have successfully located the computer power button, countless times.

re: #125 Irene NYC

Hillary had to be all dressed up to play the Wicked Witch of the West.

Michelle did it all on her own.
;)

Well, that's true, I guess -- but the Wicked Witch wasn't whiny. And she cackled.

For what it’s worth I just finished loading Apple’s Leopard on a spare Dell Optiplex here at work (OSX thinks it's a Mac Pro). Looks gorgeous. To bad we have to ruin it and overwrite it with XP soon.

re: #123 joncelli

No, more like the Grinch. All she needs is a pot belly and a hapless dog and she'd have it down pat.

She already has the hapless dog.

Here Bamy come here Bamy sit Bamy HEEL BAMY!

re: #122 WrathofG-d

I'm doing well! Hubby is looking for a new job, but we're all healthy and happy. :) God is good.

Hope you have a great week!

re: #106 Fat Jolly Penguin

Like I said, a coronation. Awarding him the prize without any effort on his part, simply on the merit of his existence.

I'd like a little detail from her first about how the "bar" has been unfairly moved on her inexperienced husband's bid for the presidency during this campaign season.

Let's see... oh, yeah, there were those States whose early Dem primary voters were disenfranchised by the Evil White Men of the DNC!

Oh... wait... he benefitted from that, didn't he.

Hmm, there must be examples around here somewhere... okay, look, the bar was just, like, raised, okay?! So can we coronate him already?!

re: #135 gop_patriot

Thanks. It is starting off pretty well.

re: #136 Occasional Reader

I'd like a little detail from her first about how the "bar" has been unfairly moved on her inexperienced husband's bid for the presidency during this campaign season.

Let's see... oh, yeah, there were those States whose early Dem primary voters were disenfranchised by the Evil White Men of the DNC!

Oh... wait... he benefitted from that, didn't he.

Hmm, there must be examples around here somewhere... okay, look, the bar was just, like, raised, okay?! So can we coronate him already?!

Remember, detail on things like that would be hurtful and it wouldn't help her chiiiiiiiiiiiiildren.

re: #133 FreeIowa

With an ATI card or Intel?

re: #138 Fat Jolly Penguin

Remember, detail on things like that would be hurtful and it wouldn't help her chiiiiiiiiiiiiildren.

Yeah, but she's been DISENFRANCHISED!

TADA!

re: #129 Alkmyst

Beautiful! :) (((Alkmyst)))

Are there big celebrations in Jerusalem today? I haven't looked around much yet, just got online a little while ago. Stay safe, God bless.

re: #140 eschew_obfuscation

TADA!

?

re: #139 Alkmyst

With an ATI card or Intel?

You know, I didn't check. It's the built in one on a Optiplex 330 so it's probably Intel.

This windows Vista desktop is the last windows system I'll ever buy.

re: #138 Fat Jolly Penguin

Remember, detail on things like that would be hurtful and it wouldn't help her chiiiiiiiiiiiiildren.

Indeed, can't her children just eat their waffles (which the Obamas can barely afford... and forget about fruit topping), without us pestering her for all these racist facts?

The work of the rightous is never done.

/the protector of Israel never sleeps.

re: #142 Fat Jolly Penguin

?

From a post a week or so ago from some muslim apologist where he ended a rather irrational argument with "TA DA!".......as if that was the final word on the issue.

re: #147 eschew_obfuscation

From a post a week or so ago from some muslim apologist where he ended a rather irrational argument with "TA DA!".......as if that was the final word on the issue.

Thanks.

/How-TF does TADA! end an argument?! Weirod.

Are we talkin' bout Hillary and Obama yet?

re: #145 Occasional Reader

Indeed, can't her children just eat their waffles (which the Obamas can barely afford... and forget about fruit topping), without us pestering her for all these racist facts?

OMG, I just had an awful idea.

Arugula waffles.

Ugh.

/garnished with Spanish ham!

One last geeky thing (before the boss catches me). For you Mac users out there. More Displays. More 3D. More to Love: VMware Fusion 2.0 Public Beta 1 Now Available The video shows a Mac running Windows apps on 8 different monitors, very nice.

re: #148 Fat Jolly Penguin

Thanks.

/How-TF does TADA! end an argument?! Weirod.

O.K.....my turn...

why is 'wierd' so often spelled 'weirod'?

I think I understand the pr0n thing....keeps LGF from getting listed as a naughty site....and blocked

Well, I learned a lot here, but no idea on my big issue. Thanks for the education, though!

Gotta go home...

re: #19 incanus

... It's not for hardcore gamers since most games depend on DirectX these days. .

Yea that's what really hurts, I have to leave my bestest fastest rig running Gatesware because I'm addicted to games that will only be released for MS and NO, they won't run on VMware, Wine or name your favorite emulator, not w/ any performance worth a piss that is.

re: #141 gop_patriot

Getting ready for them - downtown JLem has a huge lightshow setup going on - tomorrow I'm gonna head to Har Hertzel for Yom Hazikaron, tho (Memorial/Veterns Day)

Tonight I was over at the taping of Tuesday Night Live

re: #49 Ward Cleaver

Check with Barnes & Nobles or any other quality book store. There are at least three magazines monthly with DVDs with at least one to ten flavors on the DVD. Plus the magazines have informative articles. Usually you can live boot from the DVD without touching the hard drive.

re: #152 eschew_obfuscation

O.K.....my turn...

why is 'wierd' so often spelled 'weirod'?

I think I understand the pr0n thing....keeps LGF from getting listed as a naughty site....and blocked

According to the LGF dictionary, it's a deliberate mis-spelling of weirdo.

re: #143 FreeIowa

Yah likely - the ATI is PCI-E

Cool!

re: #155 Alkmyst

Great site. I'm probably coming out to Israel in a couple months. I have been there before and seen all the tourist things...anything I have to see? Wanna give me a personal tour of Yesha?

re: #82 Occasional Reader

affirmative action explains why she's so angry. michelle o. knows people way more qualified got passed over because of her. she can't feel thankful and happy for her windfall. she feels guilty and defensive. she has a terrible attitude for anyone, let alone the first lady of our country. she is a strident mean woman who says america is mean. it's all projection.

re: #154 shotgun

Hardcore gamers oughten t'have a PSP, Wii, or XBox360, shouldn't they :-)

re: #157 Fat Jolly Penguin

According to the LGF dictionary, it's a deliberate mis-spelling of weirdo.

Thanks.....probably just appeared on a thread like a lot of the rotating titles and I missed it......shoulda checked the dictionary.

re: #160 nyc redneck

affirmative action explains why she's so angry. michelle o. knows people way more qualified got passed over because of her. she can't feel thankful and happy for her windfall. she feels guilty and defensive. she has a terrible attitude for anyone, let alone the first lady of our country. she is a strident mean woman who says america is mean. it's all projection.

Affirmative actions means you couldn't make it without a hand out and undercutting someone who worked harder.

re: #159 WrathofG-d

Dunno if I'd have the time available - pretty busy these days - but I have a friend who does tours, and packs a .44 - so you'll be in good hands :-)

re: #164 Alkmyst

I'll definately keep it in mind. I want pictureesque places in Jerusalem and tours of Hevron, the tombs etc. I've seen all the usual joints.

Michelle Obama "almost" getting herslf into trouble

Now, if this had been Bill C, back in the good ole days, it might've gone like this.......

" Why I just wanna rip her panties off"

{Nervous glare from aide}

"Ha, oh, ya see, just kiddin, thats what gets me into trouble"

re: #163 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Affirmative actions means you couldn't make it without a hand out and undercutting someone who worked harder.

and then at least, somehow, be thankful for your opportunities. and not a bitter resentful jerk.
(goes to show you just can't help some people.)

re: #79 wholm

The thing you are missing is that Microsoft wants it that way.

Look. I'm a certified and trained Windows MCSE, and have been working in the field for nearly 10 years. So please understand that this is not coming from some rabid Linux fanboy. MS is my daily bread and butter, and hardly a day goes by that in my heart I don't thank Bill Gates for giving me a way to make a living.

That said, Microsoft didn't invent Active Directory. They actually copied it from Novell. Active Directory is little more than a clone of Netware group policy. Right down to the terminology. I think it was a very GOOD clone, and Microsoft has made some good improvements to the concept. But the AD concept was around before Microsoft got it.

Why is that important? Because of Microsoft's policy of "Embrace and Extend", which is more often a situation of "Embrace and Extinguish". This is what happened to Novell. Microsoft copied the group policy concepts from Netware, changing them just enough to avoid Patent problems.

Now, I don't want to get into a huge discussion of Netware, but what happened there has happened many many times with Microsoft. Basically, if they can't copy it or control it, they try and kill it. I could give you many other examples (The browser wars of the late nineties, The Windows Media Player lawsuits, and on and on.) but I'm sure you can research them on your own. Knowing this, it becomes quite clear that the reason that you don't see Linux and Mac boxes able to be AD managed is because Microsoft WANTS IT THAT WAY. They have made it virtually impossible to manage anything but a Windows box through AD because they won't release the AD specs.

Without the specs it's impossible to model around AD and make your stuff work properly with it. So you get the situation where we can AUTHENTICATE to an AD server with a Linux or Mac login, but nothing else. Once you are in all the permissions and access to the local machine is managed locally, and AD group policy doesn't (and can't) apply.

It sucks, but it's Microsoft's fault it's that way.

re: #155 Alkmyst

Great site! Thanks for the link. Enjoy the celebrations!

/I assume though, that tomorrow will be quite somber...

Kuwaiti Envoys Son Kidnapps and Threatens Jews Visiting Poland.

Good afternoon, Lizards.

The only college that didn't accept me was Brown (a blessing in disguise, I know). Later that spring I was visiting another college, and while I was waiting for the train, I started to chat with another high school senior. He mentioned that he'd been accepted to Brown.

His SAT scores were lower than mine.
His GPA was lower than mine.
He didn't have the academic honors and leadership positions I had.
But he was black.

I think there's an explanation for the sudden interest in Linux. Begins with a V, I think - can't place it.

re: #165 WrathofG-d

Can we do LGF email? I'll send you my details

re: #172 Bard

V iruses
I ntruders
S pyware
T rojans
A dware

?

re: #173 Alkmyst

Wonderful. I can always be contacted at WrathofG-d@hotmail.com

Rosie O'Donnell: Rev. Jeremiah Wright 'Made Sense to Me'

Rosie O'Donnell defended Rev. Jeremiah Wright on the "Today" show on Monday, saying Barack Obama's former pastor "made sense to me."

The comedian also compared herself to Wright, saying "some people confuse passion for rage." She also came to Wright's defense on his views on the origins of AIDS.

/and that's all you need to know

re: #176 Killian Bundy

Yea and some people confuse passion for truth. IE: just because a leftist gas bag says it with ferver it doesn't automatically make it true.

re: #172 Bard

I can tell you mine - happened when the AMD64 1.8GHz Compaq laptop I bought with pre-installed XP apparently had already at that point a known issues (for over a year) in which that particular chip with that particular motherboard and XP would only work at 800MHz - - - less than half the speed I paid for.

Software hacks, Physical overclockling - nothing worked.

I installed Fedora 6, opened up /etc/cpuconfig
Changed " K7 " to " K8 "
Voila

Haven't looked back since

re: #176 Killian Bundy

NO MORE WIRE HANGERS EVER!

re: #96 Opinionated

Charles, as someone who is planing to move to mac and Leopard from Windows because of the great things said about that OS, I'd like to know what do you find deficient with Leopard that you feel a need to use/try Linux too?

Or is it only curiosity and interest in learning new things.

Well, I have to keep up with this stuff because it has a direct bearing on the work I do at LGF -- some people are using Linux to view the site, and I need to be able to test and fix problems if they're reported.

I'm also a very curious cat, and always have been, and I actually have fun messing around with OSes.

But Mac OS is still my first choice - the GUI is outstandingly consistent across applications, still hands-down the best in my opinion.

re: #175 WrathofG-d

You got it...

re: #176 Killian Bundy

From your link:

GIFFORD: Which part makes sense to you?

O'DONNELL: It made sense that ...

GIFFORD: That we introduced AIDS into the black community?

O'DONNELL: But Kathie Lee, you know what it's like for someone to pull one quote out of context for you.

He was comparing it to when the government did give syphilis to black Americans for 40 years. What he was saying is in his history, in his genetic memory, he knows what it's like for the government to infect his own people because he lived through those Tuskegee experiments. And that's what he was talking about.

While many people "know" this, it happens to be a lie.

The Tuskegee experiments did not involve infecting anyone with anything. The men involved were already infected, and suffering from then-untreatable tertiary stage syphillis.

re: #77 Conservative in Liberal Hands

incanus, you raise a great point. Adobe has pretty much cornered the "tools" market space. I DO NOT like the idea of being "single sourced" for my livelihood.

Thanks, but that was J.S.'s point =)

There are industries where you MUST run software from X. It blows but whaddya do ...

re: #182 lobo91

Word! they didn't give it to them....they just let them keep it, and watched what happened.

/which is still pretty messed up.

re: #79 wholm

For the corporate world, there is a huge hurdle...management. How can you make it work with Active Directory and Group Policy.
Sorry, but Microsoft is very good at one thing that I would say is not up for argument and that is AD. Redundant, flexible, simple interface [primary interface...but you could always ask for trouble ;)], WAN friendly. It's an awesome LDAP directory.

Yeah, cos LDAP and Linux don't work together at all. Also with Linux I can't run apps off a server, or Citrix clients, or RDP to a Windows server ...

/s

re: #182 lobo91

and eitherway, the U.S. government "giving" Blacks syphillis over 40 years ago, and giving them AIDS today...are not the same.

Its as if you claim that the U.S. Gov is killing Indians and stealing their land on a daily basis....because we "did so" hundreds of years ago.

Further, Wright never gave that excuse....funny how Rosie knew what he REALLY meant....

re: #98 TheUnrepentantGeek

If only games like World of Warcraft ran on Linux ... /sigh

Google WINE + WoW. I won't do it because I like my WoW to just .. work, but people have done it.

re: #184 WrathofG-d

Word! they didn't give it to them....they just let them keep it, and watched what happened.

/which is still pretty messed up.

There was no successful treatment available at that time for syphillis infections that had progressed that far.

While you can argue over the ehtics of not telling them about it, the fact is that even had the men been informed, there was no treatment available to give them.

re: #108 Pent.

Ubuntu's just an offspring of Debian, so I would just go with the Debian distro.

I wouldn't, for a desktop, for a newbie. Ubuntu has a lot more polish.

re: #38 Psaturn

Wow! Who'd thought there were so many geeks here!

These aren't geeks... these are nerds.

Milhouse: "I'm not a nerd, Bart! Nerds are smart..."

re: #35 incanus

If you are trying to get Linux and Windows to play together on the same disk it's best to install the Linux bootloader in the root partition, not in the MBR. That way the worst case scenario is you end up booting into Windows where you can then set the active boot partition.

This stuff needs to be easier. A pox on PCs.

Yeah, Apple was very right to make dual booting easy.

Anyway, you give an interesting solution there, I use a totally different style, but I'm very happy with it. It does take a little work though.

Assuming you start from a clean box:

1. Get two hard drives
2. Install the one you want to be the windows drive as master.
3. Install Windows on the master.
4 Make the windows drive slave and install the to-be Linux drive as Master.
5. Install Linux.
6. Add the following to /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title Windows XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1)
chainloader +1
boot

This tricks the windows drive into thinking it is the master when you boot windows. This also has the advantage that if one drive fails, you can always boot to the other. Recently my Linux drive started to fail, so I switched Windows back to Master and just ran a Windows box until I got a new drive.

re: #161 Alkmyst

Hardcore gamers oughten t'have a PSP, Wii, or XBox360, shouldn't they :-)

Nope, some games are more playable on a PC.

re: #186 WrathofG-d

Wright never gave that excuse....funny how Rosie knew what he REALLY meant....

I agree. Total BS.

He meant exactly what he said, which is that the US governemt literally infected people with HIV.

He's as loony as the people who believe the CIA introduced crack into the black community.

I am using PCLinuxOS on my box and Fedora 7 on my laptop (compaq armada e500). The problem with fedora is that it is best upgraded by a clean install. For wireless use at Starbucks, I use a live PCLinuxOS DVD to get my TRENDnet wireless card to work. The PCLinuxOS works well with youtube without having to tinker with it.

I try all of the live DVDs/CDs as they are available. Keeps me busy at times. Mulvane, Ks had a city wide garage sale and I picked up some old pcs to play with. As I am visiting here there is not a lot of room for excess gear, plus Wichita does not have a good recycling plan available. Small town USA.

re: #192 incanus

Nope, some games are more playable on a PC.

We have every console/handheld system currently on the market in my house, and I rarely touch any of them.

I've never yet found a FPS that doesn't work better on a PC.

re: #193 lobo91

Let's say that the CIA actually DID bring crack to the Black community.....did they also force them to smoke it then sell it?

I was in a fraternity where there was a good amount of cocaine, and gambling going on....I did neither.

re: #195 lobo91

re: #192 incanus

Nope, some games are more playable on a PC.

We have every console/handheld system currently on the market in my house, and I rarely touch any of them.

I've never yet found a FPS that doesn't work better on a PC.

I honestly don't own any... all my games are on XP...

Psychonauts!

Within two weeks I should have a new computer assembled (Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS, 500GB SATA hard drive) and while the first thing I install will be Vista 64-bit Home Premium, if at all possible, I'm seriously thinking about leaving 50 or 75 GB aside for a dual-boot Ubuntu or Fedora partition. If that's even possible. I haven't messed with Linux for many years, since tweaking Red Hat on an old 300 MHz Intel Celeron.

I gotta have my Microsoft since I'm a hardcore gamer...but I use OpenOffice anyway, and Linux interests me.

What about 64-bit versions? With Vista (ok, lets not get started on it, just accept that its what I have to work with atm) the 32-bit only supports 3.5 GB of RAM which is alittle frustrating, and the 64-bit version is a compatibility nightmare! So how does Linux 64-bit stand up? Charles mentioned it in an earlier post but he didn't elaborate.

Also, what about dual boot with Windows and Linux? 2 HDD's aren't really practical on a laptop!

I've used Linux while doing research at various institutions but not on my own machines. So I'm alittle bit of a newb. Please forgive me ahead of time...

re: #198 Moose4

Dude - save the $$$

Gigabyte P-35 board
E2180 (2.0 GHz)
Serious CPU cooler

Overclocked to 3.2GHz

I've used Knoppix to edit an XP and NT that wouldn't boot. Got both of them working again.

re: #98 TheUnrepentantGeek

If only games like World of Warcraft ran on Linux ... /sigh

World of Warcraft, LOTRO and most other MMOs play great under Linux. I haven't played WoW in quite some time, but LOTRO seems to play even better under Linux. WoW is still on the "Platinum" list for running under Wine. Here is the link: World of Warcraft

Can't I just eat my huge omelet?

In other operating system news, Microsoft released Service Pack 3 for XP to the Web today.

re: #199 Conservative Physicist

Also, what about dual boot with Windows and Linux? 2 HDD's aren't really practical on a laptop!

Kubuntu's installer allows you to repartition - shrink down the MS partition, then use the freed space to install Linux.

Otherwise, you can use a Ubuntu 7.10 or higher liveCD to run the program " QParted " which is as good as Partition Magic IMHO - it'll handle the NTFS resizing.

Key thing, as someone mentioned before - MS doesn't play well Re: MBR, so install it first

^^^ sorry

QTParted

re: #204 Ward Cleaver

In other operating system news, Microsoft released Service Pack 3 for XP to the Web today.

Be very careful about that service pack. I lost some very expensive software when it was installed. Used DriveImage XML to back it up before installing SP3.

Ubuntu is the most newby friendly distro, with a huge support and forum base. I regularly check out new stuff, but stick with Ubuntu. It has caught up with Windows and closing on MacOS.

re: #191 jrleek

OK, I'm enough of a geek to follow your train of thought. I played around with Red Hat Linux 5-7 years ago on another machine. Let's just say I found it very interesting and I wish to re-visit the Linux option. My main machine now is a laptop with Duo Centrino 1.83 processors, 2 gigs of ram and 2 120 gig hard drives with Vista Home Premium installed on C:. From your post, I gather that I could install Linux on D: and have a dual-boot machine, correct?

I kind of like Gentoo myself-- the problem with Gentoo is, if your platform is slow, compiling each piece of code fresh using emerge can be a real pain in the butt. Debian's probably the best choice for embedded systems.

My biggest gripe about Linux is that so many manufacturers refuse to open source their drivers; it's ridiculously hard to get say. a Colorvision Spyder working, so any kind of color matching is out of the question. Seems like there should be a media/photography based distribution with the option to create ICC printer and screen profiles to get properly matched color.

re: #95 Alkmyst

Yes ActiveX is a lock-in. Other lock-in is VBA in Excel or other Office apps. Then there is the music licenses issue for stuff purchased from MSN Music (now defunct) or WalMart (WMA, but they now have switched to MP3). There will also be all kinds of software that won't run on Wine, so for the foreseeable future keeping Windows around on virtualization is the only course of action. Wish I could just use Linux for everything, but legacy is the ball and chain :-(

re: #194 FamHistoryGuy

I think that's actually the best bet -- that is, to buy some older PC and play around with a Linux OS. (I think it's much safer than doing something drastic -- like re-partitioning a hard drive to try out a dual boot system, only to discover one of the partitions doesn't boot, etc.)

After playing with the three systems I installed, I'm kind of leaning toward Fedora 8, and looking forward to checking out version 9 in a few days.

re: #79 wholm

Article in May issue of Windows IT Pro (of all places) on AD and OpenLDAP intergration.

re: #99 Former SSG

My biggest problem is that my hard drive crashed, so running from the Thumb is ok. BUT on the list for little chips that are in wireless cards, I can't figure out which one works for my Linksys card, so I am disconnected at home until I do, or figure out what new card to buy that will work. It seems like companies don't put the name of the chips on the boxes...

I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that you are using the Linksys WPC54G wireless card. Linksys puts out a few cards that use the broadcom chipset which has problems with Linux. The way around that is to use ndiswrapper with the MS Windows driver for the card. This link is to a thread on how to set up ndiswrapper and the drivers for the WPC54G card. The directions are for an Ubuntu based system, but the directions should be the same for Puppy. If I remember right, Puppy even comes with ndiswrapper pre-installed. I use the Fire Hydrant Inferno flavor of Puppy which is a kitchen sink install that is still under 500mb.

yeah, its difficult to pick.. until you deal with rpm hell! Stick with deb based distributinos (debian and ubuntu) and you will never have package management problems. Otherwise, every major distribution is great!

ahhh my first hat tip! (savoring the moment)
I am still pimping my linux of choice Klikit!

Two years ago or my patience with Windows ran out. After reading about DRM in then upcoming Vista I decided that I wasn't going to let other people tell me what I could and could not do with my own computer.

I wiped the HD in my laptop, installed Fedora 6 and have never looked back. No dual-booting, no VM. I'd consider myself a Windows power user and using Fedora is at least as intuitive as using Windows. I had almost no learning curve at all to deal with. My non-nerd wife doesn't find it any harder to use than the XP on her laptop. I don't use the command line any more than I did in Windows, it's not neccessary for daily operation.

If you're getting annoyed with Windows, try booting from a Linux Live CD and take'er for a spin!

Oh, and don't forget, Ubuntu has jungle drums!

/can't remember if jungle drums are racist

MrSilverDragon is right, slackware is the way to go if you want a lean clean fast machine.

How is Fedora 8 as a desktop machine?

re: #133 FreeIowa

For what it’s worth I just finished loading Apple’s Leopard on a spare Dell Optiplex here at work (OSX thinks it's a Mac Pro). Looks gorgeous. To bad we have to ruin it and overwrite it with XP soon.

What model Opti? Did you have to do anything special to install or just boot it up off the Leopard disk and run the installer as if it were Apple HW?

I prefer Debian since many distros are already based on this. I can install a minimum OS and get only the packages I need for whatever purpose that particular computer will serve.

I also run Visual Studio 2003 .NET 1.1 and Visual Studio 2005 .NET 2.0 both in VMWare Fusion without any problems (to date). I think I had an issue with IIS at first, but I think I solved that using the network bridge option in Fusion. So far so good.

re: #213 Charles

After playing with the three systems I installed, I'm kind of leaning toward Fedora 8, and looking forward to checking out version 9 in a few days.

Have you messed around with any of the 64-bit versions yet?
If you have lots of RAM and a modern computer, most of the VMware compatible stuff feels pretty peppy.
With VMware you can sample a bunch of Linux O.S.s side by side that way.
Bagvapp makes it damn-near painless.

After taste-testing every 64-bit Linux distro I could get my hands on for about a month, I finally went completely to the dark-side and installed Vista-64 Home premium.
The difference between 32-bit Vista and 64-bit Vista is almost like night and day.

Going on 10 years of Linux desktop use. Started w/ Redhat 4.2 , then moved to Debian, currently w/ Gentoo. Much Much better than it used to be. Gentoo works great, and fits together the best, but takes lots of tinkering and compiling.

I've moved the rest of the family to Mac OS, I may go that way for the next laptop.. but I suspect I'll miss the flexibility of GPL Linux.

re: #121 Alkmyst

A friend of mine tells me that it is possible to use a standard Leopard install disk on a PC, but I'm guessing the hardware has to be pretty specific...

The OSX on my Tri-boot works great except for no Wireless driver, but I don't really need that for my nefarious purposes anyway

No wireless driver?  Hmm ... I think I'd be lost.  Then again, that's why you have a tri-boot system, no?  This is what I'm looking at for the Mac contingeant ...

}:)     [Looking at TinyXP or TinyVista for the Windoze requirement ... ]

re: #209 GeeWiz

Maybe, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. There are a few facts I'll lay out before I get long winded:
1) Dual-booting Linux and Windows is not unusual, and doesn't even require 2 drives. The only thing special about what I do is that it is safe.
2) My method relies heavily on the ability to physically switch drives around, this can be a pain on laptops, so I can't say if my method will work on your laptop. (How many laptops have 2 physical hard drives?)
3) The new version of Ubuntu (8.04) has a new feature called "Wubi" that apparently allows you to install Linux as a big file on your Windows drive. You can boot it from there. This means it is a completely safe way to try Linux. I haven't tested it myself, but it might be a good place to start. Wubi

Long-winded nerd stuff and history:
So, dual-booting Linux and Windows is fairly normal. Here's how it usually, historically, works. You have 1 drive. You partition it into Linux and Windows sections (partitions), install Windows, install Linux. What could go wrong? Lots.

First, you always have to install Windows first. Windows is pissy, and it wants to be the first partition on the first (master) drive. Also, the way your computer boots is by checking a special sector on your master hard drive called the Master Boot Record (MBR). When you install Windows, it will always over-write whatever you have there with Windows, and it doesn't allow any sort of dual booting, so if you installed Linux first, you can no longer boot it.
So, Linux gets around this by being installed second, then going and writing it's own boot loader (GRUB) into the MBR. GRUB allows you to boot any OS you tell it about.
Problems:
1) If you ever need to reinstall windows, it's going to over-write the MBR and you can't boot Linux any more.
2) If anything goes wrong with GRUB, you won't be able to boot either Linux or Windows any more, and your attempt to play with Linux has become an emergency situation of trying to salvage the data on your Windows drive, or fix the MBR. This happened to me far too many times with Debian pre-2002.

My method gets around these issues by never allowing Linux to modify the Windows MBR, and fooling Windows into thinking it's on the master drive when it's really on the slave. I do this by physically switching the drives in the machine, so you have to be able to do that. A single partitioned drive will not work.

So, my method is more work than most people want to go to, and Wubi may be a better option for the merely curious. However, I need dual boot, and adhere to this method religiously. It is deeply rooted in the horrible pain I went though many times of installing Debian have having it hose my MBR. (No one else I talk to seems to have had this trouble. Debian hated my machines for some reason.) Also, it's really great when one drive fails, and I can just switch over to the other one.

re: #188 lobo91

There was no successful treatment available at that time for syphillis infections that had progressed that far.

While you can argue over the ehtics of not telling them about it, the fact is that even had the men been informed, there was no treatment available to give them.

Well (according to damninteresting.com, which is often wrong, I admit) the study continued for 40 years until the subjects were all dead, during which time a cure, penicillin, was discovered, but deliberately kept secret from them, along with the name of their disease.

Drive C: is by RAID array which has XP. Drive D: is a single drive with Fedora. I am quite paranoid about how the installation process of one OS handles a different OS installed on another drive or partition. In my case, to prevent any risk of calamity I simply disable the RAID array from CMOS Setup, install fedora on the single drive, then re-enable the RAID array. I then boot into Linux by selecting its drive from the BIOS boot menu at startup.

My laptop is a Dell 1420 that came PRE LOADED with Ubuntu Gutsy.

Lets just say I've gotten lazy in my old age and don't wnt to configure drivers anymore:)

It works great. and everything works, including the soft modem.

I cut my linux teeth on Slackware - which is IMO the best server distro: HANDS DOWN. Altghough theyve GUI'd it mroe recently, it just runs great, especially from a CLI.

However, with Ubuntu, my wife and my mother can use my laptop without fear.

Thanks Dell for taking Linux seriously.

Office is linux and mac, linux on servers and mac on the desktop... Some of our users are so used to the "do anything you want" rules of mac (spaces in file and directory names) which breaks stuff on the server, but other than that it works great....

only use MS stuff for checking the way pages render on IE...

hey charles,

i use the Moka5 virtualization tool to install Ubuntu, SuSE, and Fedora linux OS's on top of my Windows XP OS. I could have all four OS desktop running simultaneously without any interfering with the others. It is good for beginners to experiment and use them. Moka5 has some out-of-the-box configs for linux.

the only caveat to above is i would recommend at least 2gigs of RAM. 512 just won't cut it for two OS's running at the same time.

Can you run only one OS in VMware or Parallels? I want to put XP and the latest release on my Macbook Pro. Not sure if I want to do a partition for one and parallels for the other. Or exactly what I want to do. I've heard that Ubuntu's graphics don't work too great if you use it under a parallels etc. Anyone?

re: #215 KeithW

Thank you ! I will try it.