I see that Scott has given a detailed and fairly complete response. Most of what you need will be found there.
I agree with Scott that 32-bit has many advantages. I could be wrong, but I don't think that PCLOS has a 64-bit version. Ubuntu, SimplyMEPIS and openSUSE have great 64-bit versions. Don't expect it to be as complete as 32-bit though. There are lots of things that you cannot get 64-bit software for. There are workarounds for many but not all. If you use Virtualbox, VMServer or KVM/qemu then you will need a Windows license in addition to the one in your dual boot setup. If you install Windows without a license this is copyright infringement. Wine requires no Windows license. There are other options as well. Parallels is a commercial program that is now available from Ubuntu repositories. It costs $50, but you can get a 15 day trial license. It also requires a licensed copy of Windows. There is also a version of Wine called Wine-Doors which is more robust and simpler to use. It is free. It is available as a deb file. I don't know if it runs under an rpm based distro such as PCLOS. It can be downloaded from getdeb.net which works with Ubuntu and some getdeb files will work with Debian. Also there is a commercial version of wine called Crossover Office which cost around $40 and it gives better compatibility with some windows programs. There are some advantages to Wine/Wine-Doors/Crossover over VMs such as VMWare and Virtual Box. The applications run from the usual Menu of KDE or Gnome. They look and behave like a Linux program for the most part. In VMs you need to run the VM manager program. The Windows applications run inside the virtual machine. The cursor is locked and you cannot cut and paste from Windows apps to Linux apps or drag and drop until you install VM Tools and re-boot the Windows installation. For all intents and purposes the Windows installation runs as a full version of Windows inside Linux. Sometimes installing network cards and sound cards inside Windows in the VM can be tricky depending on your expertise. I would advise the Wine route first and then work towards the VMServer/ VirtualBox method later. Running VMs can be a lot of fun. Especially if as you say you like to try lots of different distros. VMs typically take 2 - 4 GB. Many take 8 GB or more. My Windows VM is 16 GBs and it has everything that I will need. I can even rip DVDs in my Windows VM and that takes up lots of space. Ubuntu allows you to import Windows settings, but this is not a consideration if you reformat your drive and have a virgin copy of Windows. Almost all Linux distros do not require a format of the drive. You can resize your drive which shrinks the Windows drive and creates a drive for Linux from the freed space. This would mean that reformating over Windows is unnecessary. Remember to allow extra space if you plan on creating VMs inside Linux. Windows will require several GBs and will add considerably to your Linux drive. Linux distros such as PCLOS and Ubuntu have excellent tools that automate this process. Just make sure that all data is backed up just in case. PCLOS is a good choice for laptops. It is fast and sleek and has great hardware detection. There are rare cases where it and other distros will not work properly due to proprietary hardware which manufacturers are reluctant to release info to open source developers. Laptops are more prone to this than desktop computers. Try the live CD first and make sure that everything works to your liking before you opt to install. Good luck! ----- Original Message ---- From: kazman1914 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:39:38 PM Subject: [LINUX_Newbies] Newbie Questions: How can I run Windows programs in Linux?, and... Hi folks, So far my experience with Linux has been a misadventure, but I'm stubborn and I'm not giving up. I have to remind myself that in the early days of Windows I became frustrated often enough enough then, too. My first question: For those who want to eventually throw their Windows programs in the dumpster, is there some way to run Windows programs in Linux? I have a number of software programs that I really don't want to loose, and their aren't Linux versions available, yet. My second question: Is there an easy way to format a hard drive to dual boot without having nightmares? I was running XP on my desktop, and I decided to install the latest version of Ubuntu (7.1). The Ubuntu book I have is for the previous version, and the screens have completely changed. So I guessed, and the system wouldn't allow me to chose the first two choices I was going to make, which was probably fortunate for me as I was uncertain how to proceed anyway, and so I ultimately just went with the only choice that would allow me to move forward and install, and all went well. I got email and internet working; I was able to install plug ins that allowed me to watch videos on YouTube (I couldn't get the DVD player working); and dual booting worked fine. However, Windows was running r-e-a-l-l-y slowly, and had been for a while, and so I ran an anti-spyware program and found that I was terribly infested. So I formatted the Windows drive and re-installed XP. Yup, you guessed it: I could no longer dual boot. Fine, a friend said that Windows overwrites some boot file and that I should re-install Linux. I did this, and found that I now had two full Ubuntu installations and I could no longer boot to Windows, even though the dual boot screen offered Windows as an option! I must have overwritten a boot file. So that's where I am now. I'm going to reformat again and start from scratch, but I am no pro at formatting hard drives. I want to partition one for Windows and one for Linux (or is it three for Linux, one for the kernal, one for the swap section, and one for something else?) Oh, one more question: I want to dual boot my laptop as well, but I want to install PCLinuxOS on that computer (I'm experimenting with distros). I downloaded the only version I found and it won't work on my laptop because, even though I just bought the laptop 8 months ago, it's 32 bit (no wonder it was on sale), and the latest version of PCLinuxOS is apparently 64 bit. Any help ya'll can provide would be appreciated. Thanks, ~Sean <!-- #ygrp-mkp{ border:1px solid #d8d8d8;font-family:Arial;margin:14px 0px;padding:0px 14px;} #ygrp-mkp hr{ border:1px solid #d8d8d8;} #ygrp-mkp #hd{ color:#628c2a;font-size:85%;font-weight:bold;line-height:122%;margin:10px 0px;} #ygrp-mkp #ads{ margin-bottom:10px;} #ygrp-mkp .ad{ padding:0 0;} #ygrp-mkp .ad a{ color:#0000ff;text-decoration:none;} --> <!-- #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc{ font-family:Arial;} #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc #hd{ margin:10px 0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:78%;line-height:122%;} #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc .ad{ margin-bottom:10px;padding:0 0;} --> <!-- #ygrp-mlmsg {font-size:13px;font-family:arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;} #ygrp-mlmsg table {font-size:inherit;font:100%;} #ygrp-mlmsg select, input, textarea {font:99% arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;} #ygrp-mlmsg pre, code {font:115% monospace;} #ygrp-mlmsg * {line-height:1.22em;} #ygrp-text{ font-family:Georgia; } #ygrp-text p{ margin:0 0 1em 0;} #ygrp-tpmsgs{ font-family:Arial; clear:both;} #ygrp-vitnav{ padding-top:10px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:77%;margin:0;} #ygrp-vitnav a{ padding:0 1px;} #ygrp-actbar{ clear:both;margin:25px 0;white-space:nowrap;color:#666;text-align:right;} #ygrp-actbar .left{ float:left;white-space:nowrap;} .bld{font-weight:bold;} #ygrp-grft{ font-family:Verdana;font-size:77%;padding:15px 0;} #ygrp-ft{ font-family:verdana;font-size:77%;border-top:1px solid #666; padding:5px 0; } #ygrp-mlmsg #logo{ padding-bottom:10px;} #ygrp-vital{ background-color:#e0ecee;margin-bottom:20px;padding:2px 0 8px 8px;} #ygrp-vital #vithd{ font-size:77%;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:bold;color:#333;text-transform:uppercase;} #ygrp-vital ul{ padding:0;margin:2px 0;} #ygrp-vital ul li{ list-style-type:none;clear:both;border:1px solid #e0ecee; } #ygrp-vital ul li .ct{ font-weight:bold;color:#ff7900;float:right;width:2em;text-align:right;padding-right:.5em;} #ygrp-vital ul li .cat{ font-weight:bold;} #ygrp-vital a{ text-decoration:none;} #ygrp-vital a:hover{ text-decoration:underline;} #ygrp-sponsor #hd{ color:#999;font-size:77%;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov{ padding:6px 13px;background-color:#e0ecee;margin-bottom:20px;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov ul{ padding:0 0 0 8px;margin:0;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov li{ list-style-type:square;padding:6px 0;font-size:77%;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov li a{ text-decoration:none;font-size:130%;} #ygrp-sponsor #nc{ background-color:#eee;margin-bottom:20px;padding:0 8px;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad{ padding:8px 0;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad #hd1{ font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold;color:#628c2a;font-size:100%;line-height:122%;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad a{ text-decoration:none;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad a:hover{ text-decoration:underline;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad p{ margin:0;} o{font-size:0;} .MsoNormal{ margin:0 0 0 0;} #ygrp-text tt{ font-size:120%;} blockquote{margin:0 0 0 4px;} .replbq{margin:4;} --> ____________________________________________________ Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now at http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
