linux?

[stan4993]

I jus built a new pc and im running xp pro on it but i lost the cd key to the disk so icant activate it. so i think i will try linux instead. is Mandrake Linux 9.1 difficult to install and will i lose the programs i have now on my pc like aim and warcraft 3. can i still use ms office?

have you ever used linux before?

if you say no i wouldnt use it.

how about this

maybe instead of formatting you can use this

openoffice

its free



installation instructions

[Mate88]

From what im seeing Linux is definetely not for you mate.
No, none of your games will work (except for hard work with Wine,nvm)
No, Office will either not work, but you have the option called openoffice.org
Well, hope this helps

Regards

[Redwolf]

There is nothing preventing you from trying linux. However, I feel you may be disappointed, since getting Windows programs to run under Linux either costs money or is EXTREMELY - PRETY DANG hard. Sorry, but that's jsut how it is for now.

If you still want to try, then I'll answer your questions. No, it's quite easy to install (even in expert mode, which I reccomend doing so you can select ReiserFS as your / filesystem. All you really need to know is how linux's file system is set up. Instead of having the top level be the drives themselves (as in Windows, like C: D: E, the top level for Linux is / , or root. Everything is under root. Now how linux sets up the other drives besides the / drive is by mounting them as directories. Like /drive2 would be a different drive than /usr or such. Usually you do not have easch directory as it's own drive (of course) unless you happened to be running sonme sort of supercomputer. It souds hard, but don't worry, it's quite easy.

You CAN still use MSOffice and Warcraft III, but its difficult at best to get them to work. Your best bet is a program called WineX (or Wine if you want to drop Warcraft III). It emulates Windows with DirectX 8, so you can play some nice games (no DX9 yet, since WINE uses OpenGL and OpenGL ver 1.5 (the version with shader support) is still being tested). Ask if you wish to attempt to use the program.

For SOffice, you can get a replacement that works very similarly (and even reads/writes Office files) is a program Called OpenOffice, that comes with Mandrake.

AIM has a native version for Linux at www.aim.com . Just click Get Aim>Linux. A clone of AIM called GAIM (that is more powerful since It can do MSN and Yahoo as well) comes with Mandrake, so you'll be okay there anyway.

If you decide to switch, good luck! You can also install Windows later and dual-boot the two, so that you have the optiopn of selecting which one to run at startup.

[novadragoon]

If your VCR is blinking 12:00... Linux is not for you

if you are interested in playing with linux i suggest Knoppix

it runs from your cd and no need to reload anything

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

[CMonster]

Find Out About Linux

[SiliconJon]

I would highly recommend trying Linux. But if you're real hooked on WarCraft, you may want to try a dual boot until you get it to run under Linux. The easiest way for you, since you likely have your entire hard drive partitioned & used by windows, would be get another hard drive and install Linux on there. You could also get Partition Magic, but since it costs as much as a hard drive these days, it may not be feasible.

You can indeed run several versions of Linux from a CDROM, but without some sort of rewritable storage, you are not going to be able to add to it. So getting Warcraft running on it would be a no go. Once you get used to Linux and get it to jump through the hoops (which I might add are getting fewer and fewer these days), you can ditch that XP.

In fact, given your scenario, you're going to need to do a few things. If you get another hard drive to put Linux on, make it the master. Reason being is once that XP install locks you out after not registering, you're going to have to reinstall it. To save a headache, you'll want to take out your Linux hard drive, format your Windows hard drive (keep everything on that drive backed up), and reinstall it. Once you get that reinstalled, you can just put the Linux drive back in as master and you're good to go. There are other ways, of course, but you'll need to learn how to modify your boot records & boot manager. Those ways would in fact be easier...just gotta do some readin' & practicing. But if you're going to switch to Linux, you'll be doing a good deal of that anyway.

Important thing is don't be scared! It is by no means harder than Windows or DOS. Just quite a bit different in many ways. And that's why we love it.

[c44151]

you didn't get a sticker with your cd key
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/h...z.aspx?lang=ww

[Siliconjunkie]

If you want to try it you could use something like Knoppix (sorry, no link handy). Basically, you boot and run from the CD. Will let you see it and get an idea what it is without giving up your machine.