Windows XP's Days are Really Numbered Now

If you want to try linux with absolutely no commitment, there is a program called Wubi. http://wubi-installer.org/
Run it, and it will install a working version of Ubuntu linux. Your computer will dual boot at boot up, meaning it will boot up into a menu and ask you which OS you want to run. There is no partitioning, Wubi takes a chunk of your hard drive, writes a big file (you can specify how big) and tricks linux into thinking that file is a hard drive. If you decide you don't like linux, no problem, just boot up windows, go to the add/remove programs app in your control panel and uninstall Wubi. linux will be gone, wiped out and your computer will boot right into windows like it did before. It's absolutely the best way that I know of to get your feet wet in the linux world without any risk of screwing up your windows install.

 

I have Vista running on 3 computers Two 64 bit versions and one 32. I have no problems with any of them.

I like Vista

 

Thanks, I'm going to do on my my backup puter tonight... I wonder if their will be a problem if I install it on the second hard drive (E), I can't see why it should mater.
Do you have any idea how big it is installed??? I was looking on the website and and it appears the download is only about 8 MB's... God, if that's the case I will be one happy boy, considering, XP takes up about 1.5 gigs and Vista, well we're not even going to talk about that.
Yep, I'm taking the plunge tonight after dinner, I'm just going to back up everything on that computer on the 1TB USB backup HD that I just had to have a few moths ago and have yet to even take out of the box... I wouldn't care about the old puter except that it has about 300 gig's of music files on it(basically my and my girlfriends and 3 ex-girlfriends music collection) which take up 2 ipod classics and one Zune(awesome, by the way, but I'm trying to get away from microsoft...lol).

Thanks!

 

There are many distro's of Linux to choose from. A google search will help ya there.
There are some distro's that will run from a CD and never install on your HD like Knoppix. Those are good for giving Linux a trial run.
Last time out, I dual booted with Linux Mint, it is pretty slick. It is very easy to install and use. Ubuntu and Mandriva are both very novice friendly and have lots to offer in software packages. Debian, OpenSUSE, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, Slackware are more of the big boys.

One of the big holdbacks for Linux is gameplaying. They are working on it, but alot of games dont work on Linux, some do......

Otherwise you can find just about any type app you need for Linux, all for free...... So build a pc and slap a free OS on it and call it a day!

 

MS is familiar and it comes in shiny box... Most Americans need a shiny box!

 

You can make it as little as 6 gigs I believe, you can specify the size right there in the installer. You can also choose what flavor you want, Ubuntu, which is the Gnome desktop, which kind of resembles the Mac OS, or Kubuntu, which has a GUI that resembles windows. Doesn't really matter which you choose, But I think Gnome is cleaner and you can customize it more. I'd be running Ubuntu myself, in fact I did on my older computer, but now I finally have a laptop that's capable of running the popular games, so I need windows. For everyday computing, linux blows windows out of the water. It will even play those music files, no problem.

 

You obviously don't use Explorer. It crashes like a SOB 3-4 times a day.

Are you running any unsigned drivers ??? I am, and Vista hates those too. It hates them so much, it won't auto boot. Unless you install Readyboot.

Don't get me wrong, I like Vista. But it's far from being a "good" OS.

And the ONLY reason I still use it, instead of Linux. Software compatibility.

 

• I had 3 dell computers in the past; the last 2 had windows xp. Never had any major problems with them. The latest xp1530 had Vista. I have had nothing but problems with it. It is a very contrary system which seems to pick and choose which programs it will permit to invade its domain. Dell told me that if I installed windows xp that some of the features on my computer would not work (such as the webcam). I , too, will go to apple the next time. I have not heard anything on the new windows operating system.

 

there is a linux program, it's not free, but it will let you play most of the latest games on a linux machine. It's called Cedega, i don't know how well it works. http://www.cedega.com/explore/