Linux Install Event (just Now)

[Deverill]

Hi gang,

I just wanted to share an experience I just had, and hope to continue having for some time.

 

I was e-chatting with my best friend who is in NC and he said he may have some contract programming (I'm a programmer) for me in Linux. Well, when he was here in Key West we both worked for a company using FreeBSD so he knows I know Unix and have played with Linux.

 

The problem is, I've not touched Linux in some years. I decided to do something proactive in my life and get this contract work he was talking about. What do I do, I thought.

 

My situation is that I HAVE to use XP on my main PC. I have an old PC but I plugged it in and it's shot... dead... kaput. I can't really afford a new one right now so I thought about a dual boot --- but which distro?

 

That was easy, I just jumped on here and found the recent discussion which had several people talking about Ubuntu (thanks guys!!!). I went to the site and found out that they have a Live-CD version which means you boot off the CD and try it out. You can't really save anything but it's a great test and it doesn't touch the OS that's on the computer!

 

I loaded the live CD and found that everything works - DSL, etc. So I thought about partitioning - what a scary thought on a populated hard drive. Then I had a brain storm. After all the snow and sleet cleared from that I realized I have 2 HD's in this computer and only use one of them so I cleared out the cobwebs and got the install-the-real-version CD. I did about 10 minutes of reading on the internet about the dual-booter program and any precautions to take and I was off.

 

Literally, in under an hour and a half I now have a Win XP/Linux dual-booting machine! The prompts were obvious for me (a computer pro) and would be pretty easy for even the newest computer user to follow. The hardest thing was telling it which drive to use and I was terrified I'd give it the wrong one so I went back to XP, aborting the install) and checked the make on C: and D: so I'd get the right one - yep, format the Maxtor! - so then I had to re-cover the ground I lost for that but the rest was easy!

 

When it finally booted the last time and everything was set up I was delighted with the packages that are already pre-installed too.

 

Again, thanks to all of you who educated me that Ubuntu even existed and encouragement to anyone thinking of trying Linux. So far the only thing I miss is button 4 on my mouse going back a page - but there's probably a setting for that too!

 

This review brought to you by the letter U and the number 2.

 

Oh yeah, one more thing - you probably won't need them but as always MAKE BACKUPS FIRST!!!

[tattoovampire]

  Literally, in under an hour and a half I now have a Win XP/Linux dual-booting machine!  The prompts were obvious for me (a computer pro) and would be pretty easy for even the newest computer user to follow.  The hardest thing was telling it which drive to use and I was terrified I'd give it the wrong one so I went back to XP, aborting the install) and checked the make on C: and D: so I'd get the right one - yep, format the Maxtor! - so then I had to re-cover the ground I lost for that but the rest was easy!

 

  When it finally booted the last time and everything was set up I was delighted with the packages that are already pre-installed too.

 

It's amazing how far Linux has come in just a few years. I think I've probably tried nearly every major distro except Slackware - Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake and most recently Xandros.

 

Xandros 5.0 is a beautiful piece of work, period. You guys who slam this distro for being too Windows-like can just hush. It's got the basic apps you need - you won't find a dozen text editors or six web browsers - and everything just works.

 

Xandros Networks (a fancy front end for apt-get) makes downloading and installing system updates and other sofware very easy. And for those of us who aren't aren't afraid of the command line, it's easy to add new sources to Xandros Networks, open a terminal window, then apt-get to your heart's content.

 

All in all this is an awesome Linux distribution. Some say it's pricey, but it's still a lot cheaper than XP Home!