Die hard Windows user........

Geeze I love Linux and Unix users..........they speak a completely different language than us lowly Windows users. Don't understand much of it but it sure sounds good.

BTW.........that's a compliment to all you guys. I really appreciate all the help and advice. I'm going to get Ubuntu but I just cannot steel myself to a 24 hr plus download and don't want to mess with bittorrant..............all that checking the hash and stuff after the download to make sure everything is in order (what happens if it's screwed in some way? Re download? Hehe.......not this kid. ). I checked on getting the installation CD from the web site for Ubuntu downloads. The 100% free is a great deal........but waiting up to 10 weeks!! I might loose interest in that time. I think I'm going to go with purchasing the CD's from Amazon.com (I've dealt with them before and I trust them a great deal).......but they are temporarily out of stock. My luck...........LOL. I'll be checking frequently to see when they get their stock replenished.

One good thing about Amazon being out of stock.........Ubuntu seems to have quite a following.

Thanks again everyone for your help. Especially Baloo.......who I've had cross words with in the past. Thank you buddy......you ain't so bad after all.

What about Fat32? I formatted a 25gig partition to Fat32 which i have been using as a transfer station for Windows to Ubuntu and all my browser saved files from Ubuntu. I was told Fat32 was fine and it seems to be working so far.

Fat32 is fine and probably safer at this stage.

NTFS-3G provides a safe and fast handling of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows Vista file systems, for NON MS operating systems. (NTFS)

Many distributions (even BSD's) have it supplied by default nowadays.

So, you still can use the windows partition in Linux, and with dualbooting, you can use the partition in both windows and linux.
(e.g. data partition)
Simple and effective way, to remain your data, and have it avaibable from both OS'es, during your linux testdrive.

Don't give up! Check over here for much smaller CD images of a similar distro! Most users should be able to get away installing from one of these considerably smaller CDs.

http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

FAT32 is the windowsism for vfat.

Moin Peggy,



Dual boot is a bad idea! You take the burden to install some Linux, and wont use it, because your system is running Windows 100% of the time. The better alternatives would be to use an old PC, to old to run an actual windows, put it next to your windows system, connect both with ethernet, and use it as a linux server at home. This will provide best of both worlds same time, so you can use the Windows GUI you know and use the linux system where its strong, as a server. You can also use virtualbox to run a virtual Linux system under windows.

A virtual Linux wont run SL, a real iron would need 1GB RAM and either an old ATI9250 or a modern nVidia card. ATI cards might be fine for DirectX, but stay away from modern ATI cards, as their OpenGL drivers never had been good, and became worse since the AMD acquired ATI. I read most of the documentation on the Ubuntu web site but I'm still a little confused........especially about the dual boot utility.



The Linux includes most drivers. The only driver you might want to install would be the non free nVidia driver.



You already own a Linux system. Not as good as my ASUS WL500GP, if it comes to RAM and SAN space. IIRC the WRT310N also has no USB, so you can not use it as hifi replacement.



Your Linksys is your Linux firewall. There are no "personal firewalls" for Linux, but you can use IPTables in same way as on Linksys, if you want to restrict inhouse traffic. You also don't need an anti virus tool. The Unix way to secure oneself against rootkits und trojans is called incremental backup. You should be alarmed, if something changed in etc or */*bin without remembering that you've upgraded those packages.

ciao,Kephra

I have to agree with Baloo on this one. 64-bit is more trouble than it's worth. To be fair, I had a perfectly stable 64-bit install running for about a year before I decided to switch to 32-bit; but 64-bit driver support and application updates tends to lag the 32-bit version significantly. Flash worked pretty well; but it was the general disinterest in keeping 64-bit versions of things as up-to-date as their 32-bit counterparts that finally turned me off to 64-bit, at least for now.

Plus, streaming media in SL does not work in 64-bit environments. At best, your TV's in SL just simply won't work for you. At worst, touching a TV will rudely dump you to desktop.

As for download speeds: Try different servers. I've found several that allowed me to download the Ubuntu ISO at well over 600kbps. Several California servers are quite fast. As long as you're not trying to download it within the first week of a new version release, you should be fine (the next Ubuntu version, 9.04 "Jaunty Jackelope", is due out in April). It took me less time to download Ubuntu 8.10 than it did to burn the ISO to disk.

Well... one thing to remember is that two places nearby in RL might not be well-connected on the net. I'm downloading the ISO file for 32-bit Ubuntu 8.10 from a repository at Purdue, and it took 15 minutes total to grab the file. Also, look for a Linux User Group in your area. I bet someone there has a stack of install CDs and would be happy to give you one, and even to help you do the install.

At least one person I know switched to Linux and found that the SL client ran better for him on Linux than on Windows on the very same hardware. Keep at it, or ganbatte as they say; I think you'll like the results.

Alright now...............I downloaded the ISO file for Ubuntu 8.10 burned it to DVD and booted with it. It works. But when I went to install the only option I got was to partition my existing HD. That would be fine I guess but I just put an old 160 gig HD in this machine this afternoon expressly for Ubuntu. I don't think it's looking at that HD but lookkng at my primary 500 gig HD with Windows Vista.............I don't want that.

How do I get Ubuntu to install on the second HD?

I'm using Ubuntu right now from the DVD.

Brat you are screwed

If you are not sure, the only sure thing you can do is physically detach windows drive. It will be enough to unplug it. Or you can disable it in BIOS.

That is not what normal Linux users are doing, but based on your competence level
I'm afraid you may accidentally somehow damage your windows partition

I don't know how Ubuntu installer is working, myself using Gentoo.

So, either go to Ubuntu forums or wait till somebody here answers you ))

My competence level with Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro) is probably quite low. My competence level with Windows based computers is quite high............thank you. I got the help I needed from a friend here on the forums. Ubuntu is now installed all by itself on my second HD and my Windows is still quite intact comfortably on my primary drive.

I did not disable the drive or remove it............I got simple help from a competent Linux user. I did not know the drive naming convention that Linux (and Mac) use for drive identification...........once I found that out it was a simple process.

It's all installed, updated and I'm in the process of configuring it to my liking. Thanks for the sarcasism

And to everyone else, thank you for all the help and advice.

Good for you, such sarcastic notes might also adversely be helpfull to new users
to put them into the proper mood

Anyway, don't be offended. Congrats.

Not offended in any way. But, I'd like to point out that such responses from many Linux users is pretty much why I've always had a slight aversion to the OS...........I simply don't like smart ass comments from know it alls who's sole purpose for answering questions about Linux is to show everyone just how "smart' they are (especially questions from Windows users). Thankfully, the vast majority of responses to my thread have been polite and quite helpful.............too bad one had to spoil that for me. I should have known at least one would chime in sooner or later.

My overall impression of this forum and it's posters is good (actually quite good)..........except for the inevitable one or two.

Thanks again to everyone........especially Baloo! He's the one who was patient enough to deal with my questions via IM's in SL last night.

Congrats on getting Ubuntu up and running! Once you learn some of the common ins-and-outs of the operating system and get it configured to your liking, I believe you'll find it to actually be a fun OS to work with!

Don't be afraid to look me up if you have any problems or questions. I'm not exactly any kind of Linux expert, but I can try to help.

Virus? What's a computer virus?
I'm too lazy to learn it...
Guru