I'll mess with mine later. I have installed the one that has all the goodies already. Too lazy to configure it for now. I'll just use the pre installed stuff. I am multitasking here!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to install adobe flash to get youtube working, then the ubuntu-restricted-extras to get all the codecs so I can see mpeg files, etc. That package seemed to hang, there was a text "<Ok>" which I couldn't click, took me a while to press tab which highlighted the "<Ok>" then return continued the installation. It's the little things that make the transition seem difficult. Setting up connections to my server and my desktop was easy. I still prefer my desktop because I have much higher screen resolution.

Has anyone gotten SRWare Iron to work on Ubuntu? It seemed to install though I don't get a window when I try to run it, not sure where to look for any error logs.

Well, I added a few more things to make it more to my liking. I installed tlp to improve battery life, gnome and cinnamon desktop environments. Now it is pretty much unusable because I am getting input device errors and hangs regardless of using unity, gnome or cinnamon. This appears to be a known issue in 13.10 and no fix yet even though it's been out since Oct 2013. I'll try uninstalling what I added if I can get it to stay up long enough without hanging.

I have been running Opensuse linux for about 3 years now, love it! now that said it does not run windows based programs and it don't have drivers for some of the newer printers. I have used ubuntu in the past, but the last couple of updates they fucked it up. limits ya to 4 desk tops and does not go to the web browser from the E-mail program. Thunderbird E-mail rocks. used it to go back to 2009 to collect Cindi old E-mails for a court case. saved the day... I have mine set up for 8 desk tops, yep I am a multitasking fool..lol

I only have windows to use to play the microsoft flight sim and to update my garmin with.

my system is dual boot, I can boot up in windows 7 or opensuse linux. I am running 4 hard drives.

try open suse, you will love it.

as for ubuntu. I thought my 94 year old mother how to use it on her computer.

Well, I gave up on ubuntu

Good news though!!! I was able to install and setup LinuxMint without any major issues. Most things work out of the box. Set it up on my wifes old laptop and it went so well that today I set it up on my laptop to dual boot LinuxMint or windows 8. Even got all my exchange mail accounts setup with Evolution so I'm good to go.

And the death of Ubuntu has stricken............ DA PHUCKER!!!!!!!
Grub Rescue message.......................
Clean installation from CD alters XP MBR and when you loose the drive with the Grub you are screwed.
Note to self. NO DUAL OS .....
DAMN DAMN DAMN..............
Ok I need a beer..............

Curious...

No dual OS on the same HDD... or on the same machine?

I have a friend that runs Windows 7 in Parallels on a Mac... seems to work for him.

Just curious.

I have 4 hard drives on this machine and running XP as the main.
Installed Ubuntu on one hard drive.
It had altered the XP Main Boot Record in XP for me.
So When I dumped the Ubuntu the boot record would not go to XP automatically because Ubuntu did put itself first in line recognition.....
Kind of arrogant huh?

PS: note to self "if you get Grub Rescue" error message boot from cd go into repair mode type FIXMBR and say yes to alter the record. DONE!

THX Gabor...

That was the answer I was looking for... that the Linux OS would jump drives and corrupt other OS.

Either it was intentional... or really sloppy development of the OS... or perhaps the Linux is doing some phishing? I wonder smetimes how much 'Collecting data and selling it to hosts'... is behind a lot of the so called 'free' stuff online.

Regardless... good to know both will not behave on the same box.

Sure thing John. It places itself ahead of all others so when you boot up it will give you the option to boot into others but it does take over the handing of the boot sequence. I don't like that part at all for the given reason. Once you get rid of it the system hangs!
Not cool

The install of any of them will usually put themselves as default for boot. Most people never think to go into grub settings to change that before blowing away their install. You found a good fix.

On my laptop I am running windows 8 and linux mint 16 as dual boot on single disk, works fine. Since I installed Mint, that is what I use on my laptop all the time now. I will soon also install Mint 16 dual boot on my desktop with windows 8.

I like LinuxMint, hated ubuntu. I am also going to set up LinuxMint for my 90 year old aunt to get her off of xp.

Question for you Linux guys...

This LinuxMint... can it do all the following:
Advanced Email client (similar to full Outlook)
Secure browser
Work with Word files including .docx
Work with XL files including .xlx
Sync direct wire with an Android phone (NO google online link)
And can one get anit-malware software for it...
And is there a way to be reasonably secure from 'data gathering' from TPTB?

I am more a user than a software type... however I 'can' figure it out if I have to...
If this is something that is ready for prime-time... might be interested. The machine is a quad core 3G processor, with 8G of ram on a 1333 front bus... yeah, an old Intel gamer's socket 775 MB.

THX!

Basically yes to all, see comments inline below.



Go for it!!!!

LinuxMint is the most popular distribution because out of the box it just works and is relatively easy transition from xp.
Use the "Cinamon" desktop and your transition will be easy.
You can easily set up for dual boot even if you have only one disk. You can also access any files on the windows partitions when you set up dual boot.

THX Gordon!

I have a spare (new) HDD I was gonna load Win7/64/Pro on... and build it up casually while still using XP/Pro I am now typing on.

I guess I could just put LinuxMint on that drive and build it up to do the tasks I need.
Does one download LinusMint, pay and download it, or buy a box of it at the local Frys or MicroCenter (have both available close by).

My Email goes through Network (non) Solutions... they have my Domain. Soon, it will be up for renewal, we have discussed that already.

I really am sick and tired of the endless stuff that shows up on my phone from Google... seems to me if I did the phone synch by hardwire to the box... I could eliminate the Google link online. I tried turning off alerts... yet over half the stuff still gets through.
I am not really interested when the latest album from a teen idol I never heard of, will be available at xx:xx time... pre order now or miss out... (grrr).

First, I want to clear up an earlier comment about Gabor's error predicament. That was not a corruption of his windows partition by linux in any way shape or form. Most linux installations will install the grub bootloader by default (if you want to research it there are other options), whether a single installation or side by side with any other os. The bootloader is not part of the os, it is invoked by the bios and is used to tell the computer where the os is located for booting. Deleting an os partition without telling the bootloader it is no longer there will cause the booting to hang, but it is not a corruption of the os. Fix the bootloader and it boots normally just as before.

Now for your questions:
If you already have win 7 I would upgrade xp to that regardless. If you don't already have win 7 then in spite of anything negative you have heard about win 8, it is significantly better than win 7, including speed. Yes, win 8 is noticeably faster than win 7. The biggest difference is no start button. This is only an issue for people that dislike any changes. Everything available on the start menu is still available in win 8, it just looks different.

If you want to install linux on the new disk that gives a clear separation although that is not necessary. I am running both win 8 and linuxmint on a single disk on my laptop. The linux installation took care of creating separate partitions for linux from the free space on the c: drive (it gives you control over how much of your c: drive it uses). If you already have more than one drive installed it will give you options where to install linux. Linux does not use much disk space and runs very noticeably faster than windows.

When you install linux side by side with windows (dual boot) when you boot to linux you can still access files on your windows disk (your my documents folder, etc).

LinuxMint is FREE software. You can download an image file (.iso) from http://linuxmint.com/ (download the "Cinnamon 64-bit" version). You can burn the .iso file directly to a dvd if you have a dvd burner. I installed the iso onto a 2GB usb stick drive (using http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/), set my system bios to boot from usb drive and installed from there.

Your email can be setup in linux the same as in windows (connect directly to ns). As far as syncing your email to multiple devices there is a much easier method than using an additional program or service. The problem is that most setups delete the mail from the server as soon as it is downloaded. With this setup, the second and successive devices to check do not have any mail to download because the first device deleted it. The way I used to handle that was to have my primary computer delete the mail after 7 days, this way it stays on the server more than long enough to be downloaded by all your devices. Set all but one device to not delete the email from the server. Usually 7 days worth of email will not cause any storage volume issues.

As far as spam goes there are a number of filtering options available, some free, some not.

Hope this is helpfull!!!

I just looked and my linuxmint os only uses about 5GB of the hdd.

THX for the input about LinuxMint... always interested in computer stuff.

Still on the fence... Win 7 or Linux???

One is familiar and costs more and more and more to use.
The other is new, yet almost free (some of the things to make it work may cost).

This is worse than hydraulic vs cable brakes... or pushrod vs cable rudder... LOL

I am running Open Suse and windoze 7 in a system with 4 hard drives, only time I use windoze is for my flight sim.

Open Suse rocks, I run 8 deck tops at the same time, yeah I am a multitasker from hell..lol

I run 1 desk top for thunderbird, another for firefox, 1 for kopete, and another for kaddress. the other desk tops I use if I want to upload youtube videos, I will open a whole new firefox,so as to not close the upload by mistake... yep I have done it in the past...lol

I love the firefox add on's of download helper and the weathercast. yep I keep and eye on the Florida weather for Arcadia, the area we want to get moved to if Cindi's house here ever sells.

what can I say... Linux Open Suse, it just works. I stopped playing with Ubuntu,when the did away with the option of more then 4 desk tops and the new version would not go to the firefox desk top from an E-mail link. important when looking at real estate alerts in E-mails.

also Thunderbird and Kmail,I was able to retrieve Cindi's old E-mails all the way back to 2009 for a court case she needed the info for.

I keep a daily journal also and business spread sheets, so nice to have free office software.

why Microsoft is even still in business is any ones guess. but more and more people are learning about and switching to Linux.

The ONLY reason to keep windows is IF you must use a particular software package that there is not a linux compatible version for AND that particular software will not run in Wine (a package that allows you to run some windows software in linux).

I've been on windows so long that I'm not familiar how to use the multiple desktops or workspaces in linux! LinuxMint out of the box has 2 workspaces although it allows you to add many more. I currently have it set to 4. I added 16 to see if it would let me, then removed back down to 4. Very easy to switch between workspaces. I will be experimenting with using multiple workspaces, I currently only use 1 workspace with many programs open just like in windows. I can see some advantages to separate things into separate workspaces!

I am currently researching options to replace my windows AD and exchange servers with linux and get off of microsoft completely. My wife still needs windows because her MLS service will only work on internet explorer. There are options that are very close to being an acceptable alternative to exchange