sommerrainstorm

i've been thinking of adding to my pc or to a cd at least
another os.
an alternative os.
i currently use vista 32 bit home basic.

the reasons i consider a change or additional os--

vista maybe is flopping? not sure.
i heard linux has no virus or spyware!

and vista is nothing but a money hog!
always costing money.

any advice would be appreciated.

sommerrainstorm

p.s.
just so i don't seem totally computer stupid. i don't know a thing about linux. have always used windows. just really interested in learning more about linux type os!

Bartender

As you'll see from looking around on this forum, lots of people are running Vista and Linux.
There are several different ways to do this. I'll just talk about Ubuntu. You can run Ubuntu within Vista, using wubi. You can partition, then install Linux to its own part of the HDD (or a second HDD). You can use virtualization if your PC is powerful enuf.
It's very confusing at first. There's no way around that. Not because it's technically incomprehensible, but because you've never done it, you don't have a picture of it in your mind, and trying to explain the whole process is like describing an elephant in a dark room.
Can you get to some broadband? YouTube has lots of videos that might help you to get an idea.

I have an Acer 5920 laptop that's running Vista and Ubuntu 8.04. I don't even go into Vista unless I have to. Ubuntu works great. But if I hadn't practiced installing to some old PC's several times I probly never woulda figured it out.

wmorri

Bartender,

Take a look at this thread. He has asked about debian too. I have given him some advice, about dualbooting. So feel free to keep helping him, but be aware that he is working on Debian, as well.

Cheers!

Bartender

I feel badly for people who are interested in trying Linux but don't have a knowledgeable neighbor to help them.
There are just too many questions, and it's still too easy to screw things up and wipe out Windows.

The best advice I have is to get ahold of an old spare PC that you can practice on. That's what I did. Practiced over and over again until I'd made all the typical mistakes. That and take notes!

I'd want a couple of questions answered.

What are the specs of this Compaq? If it's fairly recent and has a fair amount of RAM you should be OK. ATI video is probably the biggest hangup with a modern desktop PC.

Are you on broadband? What kind? Some broadband is easy, others will throw roadblocks. For instance, with Comcast you need a router. If you're on dial-up don't bother. Linux on dial-up is just not worth it.

How many partitions does the Compaq have? Some newer PC's come with four primaries, an annoying development that has to be addressed.

I'd suggest Ubuntu over Debian just because it's more widely used, it's probly easier, and you're more likely to get help.

sjb007

One good thing about ubuntu is the wubi installer that Bartender has already mentioned. This tool allows a user to install ubuntu from within vista without fear of borking the system or bootloader. If the user then decides to remove it, it can be done simply from control panel - add/remove programs.

The only draw back to this method is that when installing via the wubi the download time for ubuntu is greatly expanded (for me, when I tested it, it was showing 15 hours!) There is a get around for this and that is to download the ubuntu ISO separately and then save it in the same folder as the wubi. Once the ISO is complete, double click on wubi and it will install from the ISO instead of trying to download it online.

More info on wubi (and download point) can be found at their website here - WUBI Installer

Another good way to try Linux without an install is to use one of the many live disc that are out there, this will allow you to boot your system into Linux without any changes to the actual operating system. There are plenty of live disk which you can try, this includes the ubuntu family, mandriva one, PCLOS, fedora and SUSE just to name a few.

Mcninjaguy

ok so I followed a couple websites and set up my ubuntu 8.04 first time round sucessfully ith vista already installed

ok so you don't need a third party app to shrink your HDD.
right click on My Computer
click on management
on the left pane click on "Disk Management"
right click on the hardive you want Ubuntu on and go to the shrink option
put in how how many megabytes you want your vista or whatever hard drive to use

now the shrink option will free up hard drive space without deleting anything. the new hard drive space can always be taken back by the extend option.

This feature is not available on XP only vista

Now that you've created extra hard drive space for your ubuntu you'll probably want to download it. you may want a 64 bit OS or if it can't handle that the 32 bit OS both are fine
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/down...wnload-button= 64 bit OS
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/down...wnload-button= 32 bit OS

now after downloading you'll want to create a Live Cd or a bootable dvd or cd whatever -- Infrarecorder
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/?page_id=5

when you create the disk in infrarecorder its under "actions"
"burn Image"
there now you have a bootable cd

restart your comp and insert the cd if it doesn't load ubuntu right away set your bios to load your dvd drive first or press F8 multiple times

in the 64 bit version it will install right away and the only thing you need to worry about is which partition to choose from and use the MANUAL setting and choose the hard drive you shrunk to make room for ubuntu

in the 32 bit version i think it will boot straight into ubuntu and you can install it by clicking on the install icon on your desktop. Again pick the manual option when you pick which partition you want to install into.

the most I'd worry about is if you don't like ubuntu and you get rid it will get rid of the grub loader so your going to have restore the windows boot loader back to normal using your repair option on your vista dvd

Bartender

The above post describes a process in which everything went smoothly. Any complications, such as four primary partitions, will quickly make things go sideways.

Mcninjaguy

I have 3 primary partitions

2 hard drives
a 320 gb for vista
a 750 gb which has my games and ubuntu on it

for the 750 or you can always use your vista partition i shrunk it using the windows disk management. All of the partitions are primaries and I've never had a problem

Bartender

Hi, Mcninjaguy -
What I was referring to is computers that come out of the box with four primary partitions. I'm not sure about this, but suspect that this it's becoming more common. My Acer 5920 laptop came with four primaries.

Here's how my little adventure went: I tried to shrink the Vista partition using GParted. I didn't know that vista came with a partitioner. After GParted was done, Vista wouldn't boot. So I restored vista with the recovery DVD's I'd made. I thought those recovery DVD's made the computer just like new, but they don't. After recovery, there was just one Vista partition. The recovery partition and the other partitions (still not sure what they did) were all gone.
I shrank Vista again. Rebooted. Vista went thru a disc check routine, then started up fine.

So my screw-up (using GParted to shrink Vista instead of the Vista partitioner) forced me to use the recovery DVD's, and that got me a HDD with only one primary partition. Now I was on familiar territory.

Used GParted LiveCD to create one extended partition, then three logical partitions inside the extended. When I got to the partitioning part of the Ubuntu LiveCD, I went manual and put "/" in one partition, swap in another, and "/home" in the last.

Mcninjaguy

Hi Bartender
yea i don't really like it when they make partitions for you on laptops.

when my girlfriend got her new asus laptop the 250 gig hardrive was split into 2 partitions(3 if you count thr factory restore partition)

I suppose after years of being used to XP, there are new features which are never really told.

I also recently had to get rid of a ubuntu installation on one of laptops my girlfriend
owns. So I had alittle problem finding a solution and didn't have a XP retail or OEM cd ready(it was around 4 am), so I was using her XP recovery cd to repair when I realized it didn't have the repair option and then I accidentally pressed enter to start the installion
----seems bad eh?----
well it gets better so i quickly shutdown the comp and starts up normally with the regular windows XP boot loader. so that was all well and I go and then I merged the partitions on XP with Partition magic 8. made sure to just say the the sapce was free and wasn't formatted to any file system. It worked out well

anyways that i how I haphazardly got rid of ubuntu on her laptop.

So yeah know my desktop is a cube my friend has it turn into a ring when he holds the middle mouse button

its the "ccsm" under synaptics manager

sommerrainstorm

i'm simply amazed at all the helpful responses i get on this forum site!!
thanks so very much.

i'll take everyone's advice and no doubt i'll be operating linux in no time!!
thanks again.

Mcninjaguy

your welcome sommerrainstorm!