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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).
Very funny!
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1)Are there any cons to dual booting?
No. (other than still having a virus ridden OS residing within your computer case)
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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.
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.
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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?
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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).
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).
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6) And finally (for now), what OS would be the easiest to switch to?
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.
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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.
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).
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Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm sorry if I was a nuisance.
It's a pleasure helping people escape the wrath...
[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
