[Dweebgal]

i.e how reliable are windows emulators, becuase there are just some programs i can't live without plus i want to play my games, and i don't want to run a dual boot, becuase, i just don't wanna goddamit.

i'm thinking of getting mandrake.

any program reccomendations/experiences?

 

[wallijonn]

download mandrake 9.0 as soon as you can. since 9.1 is going to go into production, 9.0 will go on sale shortly thereafter.

 

[Dweebgal]

is it easy enough to do?

i hear winex is a good windows emulator as well

 

[wallijonn]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...dows+emulators

 

[blessingx]

Why not try Knoppix and boot off a CD to give Linux a trial? You'll want an installation if you go "all the way", but this is a harmless test. I've used Knoppix when running around on several machines. OSX has given me my "Windows"/Unix combo, but before I used XP and Knoppix (and RH or Mandrake on other machines). Good luck. I kept trying Linux since RH3, but there's always something (usually graphic software related) that pulled me back (when on Wintel). And I can't comment on recent Windows emulators, but in the past they left a lot to be desired. Corel almost got Draw to run using WINE. Almost, before abandoning it.

 

[hempcamp]

Linux is a blast, give it a try. Until OS X, I had been using it as my main OS since the first major distribution (Slackware in 1994?95? I don't remember!)

My favorite flavour of the week is Mandrake, although in past years I have been partial to Red Hat and Debian.

Oh, and be patient with it. It's definitely a learning experience.

--Chris

 

[Squalish]

*puts on flameproof suit*

Don't "move to linux." It isn't possible for a tech-oriented poweruser/gamer to do it without giving up a lot of stuff.

Dual Boot. nuff said.

 

[Dweebgal]

i think dual boot could be the way to go, but i think i'll try playing around with it, once my exams are over

 

[KJ869]

Wine is decent forlitlebit older game,s but dualboot is handy.
I woulndt recomend mandrake, okey its easy to use but he will get mad to it pretty soon when he trys to install naytihng not includid whit it. Debian is good and so is slackware, litlebit harder to get running but worth it, and theres of course http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

 

[wallijonn]

why bother with dual booting? one wrong thing on one OS can screw up the other OS.

hds are cheap enough where you can put a master on the secondary channel and use the BIOS to select the booting hd.

before even trying Linux, see if there are drivers for everything in your computer. you may find that the sound or graphics do not work. (along with some USB devices). you may find that that nice digital camera or scanner or modem has no linux drivers. what are you going to do then?

do a google search for linux forum". it should give you a better idea of what you are getting into.

some of mine:

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...threadid=59636 ***


http://www.experts-exchange.com/Oper...Systems/Linux/
http://www.linuxnewbie.org ***
http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=7
http://www.computing.net/
http://www.boycottmicrosoft.net/jamd/
http://www.kde.org/
http://www.linux.org/dist/ftp.html
http://www.xandros.com/
http://www.xfree86.org/support.html
http://www.debian.org/
http://slashdot.org/search.pl?topic=106

 

[Lando]

I'll second the recommendation for Knoppix. It's amazing. You put the cd in, reboot, it loads the kernel, detects and configures your hardware, and starts X windows, all in about two minutes on a fast machine. If you like it, you can save your configuration to a floppy, usb pen drive, or even the hard drive. It gets even more interesting if you have around a gigabyte of ram, in which case you can modify Knoppix to copy the contents of the cd to ram and run entirely from ram. That's one helluva fast workstation!

 

[wallijonn]

and here i was thinking that Knoppix was just a demo.

i ran it but didin't really look at any of the apps.

 

[Zanth]

I would recommend trying Knoppix first just to get familiar with the environment.

But honestly the best way is feet first. I recommend Mandrake for a first time user although, I just went straight for Debian which is the most pure distro and a very userfriendly one once you get past the install.

As for emulators. What are you looking for?

If you REALLY need those windows programs, WINE will do the trick for many with MUCH work or you can try http://www.codeweavers.com/home/

Code Weavers make a wonderful layer which permits the use of MS Office, Photoshop and some other biggies without any problems at all.


Linux is the only way to keep your computer your own.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dweebgal considering moving to linux....worth it?

The big question: why? I mean that honestly -- before you can figure out if it's "worth it," you should ask why you're considering switching. What do you hope to gain by switching platforms? What do you generally use your computer for? What do you need to be able to do?

 

[Zanth]

If you are willing to invest in code weaver, then truly...what you will be missing from the Linux platform is gaming.

You will have THE office suite as well as some that I consider on par or better.

You will have the capability to run THE image editing software as well as GIMP which I feel is on par or better.

You will have a stable OS (something MS can't seem to provide)
and best of all....you will have a computer which YOU contro.

No hidden trojans, backdoors, autoupdating etc.

No DRM, no integrated this and that.

No Bill, or Steve or Jeff.

Instead you get a whole lotta you, some Linus and a whack of geeks scattered across the globe.

Are you web crazy?

Linux can do ANYTHING windows can. Especially with code weaver.

Bottle neck? Learning, and gaming. That's it that's all.


If you use specializied programs akin to anything from BORG or SPSS etc...then you may want a dual booting system.

The point of linux? You do what you want with your computer. No one tells you what you can or can't do with your own frickin' box.