My interesting story with linux and windows.

[jacob0709]

i WAS a windows maniac. i mean, if you grew up in a world surrounded by the army of mr gates, it's pretty difficult to make a jump to another OS.

until a couple of months ago when i decided to give linux a try. at least i could always use dual booting, that's what i thought.

then suddenly, my windows crashed. i had to reinstall it but i found that the cd was badly scratched-thanks to my cat.

so i made a big jump to linux. after trying and searching the right distros, i found fedora 2. which just got me hooked up so fast. even when i try mandrake, the so called "user friendly linux distro" i still found fedora the best.

then a couple of weeks ago my sister bought a new windows cd. so i decided to install windows again. why?? because i miss running programs with ease and not much of a hassle like linux.

well, probably i still do miss that simplicity that windows offers eventhough i hate buying those softwares again.

but when i tried to install windows, something weird happened. after the partitioning and setup folder copying, my comp just wouldn't boot. it keeps saying "error loading OS" which just pissed me off.

i was sitting in front of my comp for 3 days and almost 3 nights. my head was spinning and my eyes are just sore. that was when i decided that i'll just stick to linux forever. but then, after i reinstalled linux, i just couldn't keep my eyes off the windows cd. so i tried it again.

this time, i forgot to format the primary HD which i already have linux on and tried to install windows on my secondary HD. of course it wouldn't work. i kept getting a message that it needed a partition in the primary HD.

i was so tired that i unconsciusly deleted the swaap partition for windows installation and it WORKED!!!

geez, i mean i'd tried clean installation and everything i could think of but this little accident just sorted all up. after 3 days and 3 nights without sleeping now i'm ready again.

i just need to install firewall, antivirus, office, etc etc etc.

i just realized what a pain in the ass windows is. i mean with linux it's all there, everything is sorted out when you install it. the office firewall and etc.

should i go back to linux completely or should i just stick with dual OS.

well the first thing is to get some sleep.

ZZZzzZZzzZZzzZZzzZZzZz..................

[ewdi]

well if u can live without windows apps, do a dual boot, i still use windows sometimes for application such as 3dsmax, beside that i go back to my penguin :)

[superbnerd]

well since youre a newbie, i'd suggest keeping the dual boot until you are comefertable with the learning curve linux has. then, if you aren't dependent on windows-only apps you should make a clean break from mr gate's prison camp.

[ilja]

I would make a dual-boot, but that it is more comfortable to boot into linux (default linux and not windows in the bootmanager)

[jacob0709]

i think you guys missunderstand me. i still use linux, as a matter of fact, i use linux as a main OS now.

loving it.

why i use windows?? cause my webcam is crappy chinese made one which will only work on windows and my girlfriend who is miles away from me is asking for a video conf.

hohohoho.

(edited: We don't do crime in here, behave or be gone. - foolish)

[kosmosik]

I think the best way is to have two or more machines. on one you have Windows on other Linux and integrate them over LAN (VNC/X/nomachineNX/Samba etc.) you get like all-in-one, best from Linux world and best from Windows... I have nothing against Windows really. I use both when it is best tool to use Windows I use it, when it is Linux I use Linux... today for Linux you can get a chepao box and get it going, it costs like nothing exept your time...

[ewdi]

yap, put one nice KVM and u r set :)

[crackers]

i even use windows only on vmware (cracked).:D:D:D
You are not going to get karma-points for using cracked software, but boasting about it is even worse. That is illegal and contributes to the perception that Linux users are nothing but a bunch of free-loading pirates. If you have any shred of decency, either pay for VMWare or remove it. Expediency is not a valid "reason" - that's an excuse. :mad:

[xsos]

yeah i agree with you crackers

[mohelgamal]

with todays big hard drives dual boot is usually the best way I didn't try vm ware but i konw it need a strong computer
my self i keep Winme as a standered system as i am not a computer pro i only need internet I try winxp and linux just as a hoppy and to find a partition which i can keep my files with out fear of being touched by the other ignorant users in the house

[ezeze5000]

I installed a removable hard drive bay in my PC, and put different OS's on each one.

Fedora
Winblows
Debian
Red Hat
K12
White Box
Etc......

The removable caddies make it a breeze.

Great when you have kids.

[amazoneveryday]

well since youre a newbie, i'd suggest keeping the dual boot until you are comefertable with the learning curve linux has. then, if you aren't dependent on windows-only apps you should make a clean break from mr gate's prison camp.

I made the clean break on May 18, 2004.
I looked back only once, just to make sure my wireless card was truly broke.

HP Pavilion a305w 2.2Celeron/256/40 "Walmart Box" Fedora Core 2
Ugly Generic Box 1.1Duron/256/80 "Lame Box" Fedora Core 2
dual USB iBook 500Mhz G3/256/25 "Duke" YDL

[neton]

Before doing every thing to anything we must understand that thing. Your cat didn’t but the mouse did.

I have thousands of win server 3.51 >> 2003 and they work with no more then 1 stop / year. Linux also.

[rkl]

I've always thought that the only significant weak point left in the Fedora Core (and Red Hat prior to that) anaconda installer was the disk partitioning. This is an area where it's easy to leave the end-user somewhat groping in the dark and I feel that every time I enter the manual part of Disk Druid.

For a start, 99% of PCs have one hard disk and a large chunk of those will have XP dominating the entire hard disk. Hence, the first step for Disk Druid should be to detect any Windows installation and offer options such as:

1. Wipe off windows completely (you can do this with a lot of tinkering inside Disk Druid) and put Linux *exactly* on top of where Windows was.

or

2. Re-partition the disk so that Windows and Linux co-exist (allow the user to choose a percentage or size-based split between the two). You usually have to had run a defrag on Windows before you do this.

I would like Disk Druid to exactly identify which OS version is on each partition (yes, that's Windows, Linux, Solaris etc. etc.) and put these in as labelled menu items in GRUB automatically.

Probably due to legal issues, FC doesn't ship with any NTFS support at all, so unless you either have Windows on FAT32 (unlikely nowadays) or scrabble around for an NTFS kernel module, you won't be able to see your Windows filestore anyway once you boot into FC2! This is a real downer for users who want to keep their Windows install for a while whilst they migrate over.

I think some of the other distros such as SuSE and Mandrake seem to be further ahead of the curve w.r.t. disk partitioning and accommodating Windows as a dual boot.

[Ned]

Probably due to legal issues, FC doesn't ship with any NTFS support at all

I understand your point,

... but yes it does - it's just disabled by default within the kernel, same as firewire and half a dozen other features :)

But i'm sure you knew that - just misleading for newbies :)

Ned

[Shadow Skill]

Yes its alittle annoying to have to recompile the Kernel for ntfs support (if you happen to be using a testing stage version of fedora there are no rpm's.) which also means that you will be installing otherwise pointless new kernels if you use yum and up2date will whine at you for using a custom kernel. Which brings me to a nagging question how do you uninstall Kernel's and remove them from the bootloader all at once? I only need 2 kernels (my custom one and whatever new one the developers put out.)and want to clean up my boot menu.

[Dog-One]

You probably tried this already, but I think rpm -e kernel-2.6.8-1.521 will get it. Not sure if it cleans up grub.conf, but it will get the modules libraries, the initrd and the kernel itself. For the boot menu, it's almost for sure going to be gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf or emacs -nw /boot/grub/grub.conf depending upon where you went to school on Linux. :)

[Ned]

To expand on Dog-One's answer, which of course is correct, using rpm to remove a kernel installed with rpm does indeed remove the entry in grub.

If it's a self compiled kernel, beside manually removing it from grub, simply delete the appropriate version kernel files from the following directories:

/boot
/usr/src/kernelversion
/lib/modules/kernelversion

Hope that helps,

Ned

[hi_alice]

ezeze5000, how do u put the fedora in the removable hard disk? i'm a computer dummy, but trying to do that. could u please gimme some 'step-by-step for dummies' instructions? i'm using toshiba satellite M40 model laptop. thank you very much for your help, :)

[hotdog]

Ned, having a self compiled kernel doesn't mean you didn't install it via rpm. Building a kernel rpm from source is actually just as straightforward as the traditional kernel compilation route, and it definitely makes things easier for install/removal.