12 replies to this topic

[wreck]

I am curious of people's opinions on Lindows (now called Linspire.) I know it's Linux based and is supposed to be a replacement for WinXP. Will most software programs run with it? The interface is very similar to Windows. Can you have both on your machine? Thanks!!

[wreck]

Just a bump up to see if anyone knows much about this!

[Tuxedo Jack]

Don't know much about Lindows. From what I've seen and heard, it's a Linux distro with WINE precompiled for it.

In my humble opinion (biased, I use this distro a lot for data recovery), you're better off with Knoppix. It has a bunch of stuff on the Live CD and WINE's one of them. Try it, you'll like it.

[Eeh]

Its ok. Yes you can run windows programs on it, because of the WINE integration, which allows you to run Windows based games etc.

You can run Windows along side it, and it is quite easy to install, as they are aiming for the end user and IT market.

The problem being that a recent update that MS released stops Linux from loading if you where dual booting, but if you place the correct information back into the Boot.ini file it will work again sweetly.

Rich

[wreck]

Thanks for the information! I was beginning to think I was the only one who had heard of it (LOL). I am on Win98 and run 2 hard drives ( a small one with the OS on it and a slave with 30GB.) I was thinking of running it on the slave. I have 380mb of RAM but I have an old and slow processor (300Mhz). It's past time for a new computer, but funds are tight right now. Is it prudent to try it, or am I wasting my time? Thanks for any input!

[Tuxedo Jack]

It's nice to try it, but just to be safe, boot off a Knoppix CD and see if you really want to run Linux. It's great, but I had an issue reading a 6GB directory on an NTFS filesystem - it screwed it so it can only read in Linux, not Windows.

As is, you may want to consider Windows 2000 - it's cheap, and it runs well on a machine like that. Just go to Fry's, buy a power cable, then ask for an OEM license of Win2K Pro. Since you bought hardware, they're obliged to sell it to you.

[wreck]

Thanks for the advice on OEM Win2kpro. Funny thing is, the OEM Win2k cost more than OEM XP! ($169 : $99). I think I will shop around on-line for a better deal!

(EDIT) I jusy re-read mitchshrader's excellent "pinned'' advice on purchasing computers -- he also notes the win2k:Xp price differential!

Edited by wreck, 15 June 2004 - 03:58 PM.

[wawadave]

hello
i have duel booted with linux and m.e and linux and xp-m.e
and several veriations of linux on one pc.
its harder to do than a duel boot of windows. if theres truble. but its done by many.
now many people are useing virtual drives to do this.
jmho

[Zero]

Linspire is the biggest piece of crap known to man.

It takes the worst of each operating systems (windows and linux) and compiles them into a single distro. Aint Linux open source? Yeah, it is, so why wont Linspire hand out the source? You can't run half of the windows apps you want to on it, its just horrible.

Get Slackware or SuSE.

[wreck]

Okay, Linspire is definitely out! One last question: If you run a dual boot machine (an OS on each hard drive) -- how do you make one OS default or how do you switch between the two?

[wawadave]

hello
with using different hard drive to duel boot you can set one hard drive in bios to

auto detect the drive you want to boot and not the other. primitive but it works. google for details.
if your using w2k-xp they come with a built in boot manager and installing any other windoze version is autodetechted to boot manager and you get a choice on boot which o/s you which to use.
but with using 98-m.e and anther windoze besides w2k-xp you need to use a 3rd party bootmanager program.
but with duel booting 98-m.e and linux you can use lilo or grub the linux boot managers to do this. back up all info you don,t want to lose before any Major o/s or duel booting changes.
you should do a linux google on how to duel boot windows and linux. you will get enough info to keep you busy.
and i could type it out for days and miss some point. look for what been written already!

[wreck]

Thanks, wawadave. I have pretty much given up messing with Linux. What I am proposing to do is to add Win2kpro to my second (larger ) hard drive. I have Win98 on my original (smaller) hard drive now. If I read you right, if I install Win2kpro, It will automatically give me the option of which OS to use.

[wawadave]

yes it will .but sorry to hear your giveing up on linux.