All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software

Getting Microsoft Out of a comp...

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Calum:
i can see this will turn into a quagmire of "yes it is", "no it isn't" posts if we're not careful.

linux does have a lot more software available than beos, purely because it has a much wider user, and therefore developer, base.

your windows only programs will not run natively under linux. there are two problems with this, the graphical environment in linux is totally different from the one in windows, so any programs using a graphical user interface need the graphical parts of them rewritten if they want to run on the other, the second problem is that this is totally impossible to do with closed source programs. most programs for windows are closed source, for a number of reasons, largely historical, while probably a majority of linux programs are open source (meaning anybody can edit the program code, recompile it on their machine and run it again, eg to get it to work better, or with your hardware or whatever).

BUT there are a couple of projects, most notably one called "wine" and a derivative called "winex" that attempt to translate all communication between your windows program and your linux system so the program thinks it is running under windows and your system thinks it's running a linux program. your mileage may vary here, i have always found this method to be slow, buggy, unreliable and pointless. i would *strongly* recommend finding alternatives to your programs that run natively under linux, or keeping windows on your computer to reboot back into when you need to use those programs. and if your computer is that old, i suggest you make it windows 95 on that partition right enough (or 98 if you are really insistent).

There's a lot to decide when installing linux, first which linux vendor to get a distribution from (a distribution is a complete system plus applications packaged up in a hopefully nice way). There are many. All are hugely configurable, and most have unique ideas about how the default configuration should go, so depending on what you want, and what they think you should want you could spend a lot of time, or not much time, configuring your system to your comfort. the internet will help you with this, trust me.

I would recommend red hat (recent versions known as fedora) or suse as your linux version, close runners up include mandrake, or if you don't mind using a slightly off the normal track linux then i might suggest slackware or xandros. it's a good idea to get a knoppix disk too, this is a bootable linux system on a CD, which you do not need to install but can run right off the CD. this has its advantages and disadvantages. i have never really needed one, but as a new user you might get use from it to familiarise yourself with the system and its gui.

you also need to think about partitioning. this is usually easy with the installers of distros such as fedora, suse and xandros etc, but you do need to know, generally speaking, what you are actually doing before you go ahead and have a go. also, back up your stuff first. honestly, back it all up. yes all of it. i mean it.

now, you are going to have to put in some time figuring out how to customise your new system. i am still learning after several years. everything (more or less) is customisable in a linux system, so be prepared for it to be a lot more involved than using windows. i usually recommend this enormous tome for people unused to a unix environment. it contains information on everything you need to know about unix systems: http://docs.rinet.ru:8083/UNIXy/

your questions about windows emulation, and others about windows filesharing are not covered there, but they tend to be the sort of thing you'll get answers about on forums.

good luck, post again if req'd and have a nice linux!

Kintaro:
Uhm, Crossover Office will probably run the applications you need to run, if they run on 95, I doubt that it would have a problem running them.

Linux supports most HP Printers.

Please reply.

Please post the following information about your machine in your reply...
* Processor Speed
* Amount of Memory (Right click your "My Computer" icon and click "Properties" for more information on this)
* Type of Graphics Card (Goto your device manager, uhm, I cannot remember exact directions to it, I will VMware later and get them if needed).
* Size of Harddisk (Open "My Computer", right click icon for your C drive and tell us how much Total Space there is (not free space)).
* Any other hardware information (Modems, Network Cards, Sound Cards, SCSI Controllers, anything).

Linux will be your best option, it has better hardware support then any other alternative out there, more hardware support then Windows 95 by far. Linux is in my opinion the most secure operating system in the world (for arguers, keep in mind I run SELinux, snort, apt-get nightly updates, and other things), Linux also cannot get Viruses, they simpily cannot get into the system without major user error.

creativedisco:
Ok, lessee here...

MrX. et al:  Duly noted...I'll do a little digging around and a little more research and see which one will be best for my purposes, but many thanks nonetheless.

e7ement:  Me no speakie computerie.  At one time, I thought there was an article on here that walked one through, step by step, how to do such things as deleting a Windows partition, making a dual boot, etc.  Perhaps I'm mistaken.  But, as you can see (if I my own idiocy hasn't already made that apparent), I'm not that skilled when it comes to the inner workings of a computer.  IOW, how do I do these things?

Calum:  I certainly hope it doesn't come down to that.  I've considered Fedora and some other things...as with Mr.X, more research is required.  Yes, I shall back up everything first as per your orders *salutes*.  
 
kintaro and Aloone:  Let me get back to you on that.  Perhaps it would have been a good idea for me to make note of those BEFORE posting here.  Oh well, live and learn.
 
All:  I appreciate greatly your input/advice.  I'll get back with the specs as soon as I'm able to.  As a temporary measure, I'm going to go ahead and put in 98 since he has the disk and he wants to have something going pretty soon...definitely sooner than it will take me to get all this stuff together.  And since that poor computer's already corrupted with 95, I don't think that it'll be that big of a deal.  It'll buy me some time until I can figure out something decent to put in there.
 
A note on the programs...like I said, those programs are designed for libraries.  One of them, I believe, is a program designed for keeping track of what books a library has in stock (check in, check out, etc).  I'm not sure what the other is for.  I can always ask, though.
 
CD

Kintaro:
Have fun with 98, it is just like 95 however redmond managed to integrate their wonderful webbrowser into every aspect of the Operating System.

creativedisco:
"redmond managed to integrate their wonderful webbrowser into every aspect of the Operating System."  :nothappy:

Psht.  Actually I went back today (forgot to get the specs again ) and it wouldn't read the Windows CD that they had.  In fact, the computer didn't even seem to recognize that it had a CD-ROM drive.  Under My Computer, all that it had was the A:/ drive and the C:/ drive.  Then, I remembered that the folks who actually own the thing that I'm working with had taken it down to get the motherboard replaced....soooo, I'm thinking that whoever replaced that motherboard probably neglected to hook up the CD-ROM drive or something.
 
But I pretty much told them that they're really better off just getting a new computer, and they seemed to agree, so for now, problem solved.  But, I'd still like to salvage it if I could and put something decent on there, so I'm not giving up quite yet.  But at least it means I don't have to fool with 98.  :thumbup:

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