Allan, I would like to wholeheartedly endorse Andrew's cautionary comments and add a few of my own. As an experienced windows network support/programmer, I have been moving my computers at home to Linux fairly intensively for about a month now (along with looking for work). I have many successfully running versions of Linux and sort of doing useful things (talking to each other, serving web pages etc). But none of them is yet in "production". I have not got to the stage where I have replaced one of my production computers running windows with one running Linux (I hope to do that within a week). Now part of the exercise for me is learning how it all hangs together, which you are probably not interested in, but you will suffer some frustration as you try and work out how to do things in Linux which were second nature to you in Windows. What this exercise has taught me is how much I knew about windows (a lot more than I thought) and how with use over a long period of time you work around a lot of the short comings. So, don't expect to jump into Linux at the same level (even as a user) as you were in windows.
The most important thing I want to caution you about is your data. It appears to me that you have quite a lot of it and you do not mention backing it up. Do you have backups of your data? This is advisable whether or not you plan to load other operating systems on your computer or not and otherwise plan to re-partition your hard disk, but is particularly important if you are. If you do have backups, what format are they in (i.e. if you create them in windows, can you restore them in Linux)? Finally, Linux is not really an in situ upgrade of windows, but there are versions of Linux which allow you to load Linux without repartitioning your disk: http://dragonlinux.sf.net (DragonLinux) http://www.lindows.com/ (Lindows) http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/index.html (LoopLinux) http://www.spsselib.hiedu.cz/monkey/ (Monkey Linux) http://sunsite.auc.dk/mulinux/ (muLinux) http://www.phatlinux.com/ (Phat Linux) http://www2.linuxpakistan.net/pklinux/info.html (PKLinux) http://melkor.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk/~garabik/tomukas/ (Tomukas) http://www.xteamlinux.com.cn/english/ (Xteam Linux) I cannot comment on any of these versions since I have spare machines to test the complete replacement of windows. I have heard of Lindows which I believe is loaded on entry level Walmart clones sold in America. Others any comments... Andrew's suggestion of dual booting is also excellent if you are confident about re-partitioning your disk (most distributions allow this). Lycoric Desktop/LX is supposed to be very windows like in appearance and function. I have it, but have not yet tried it, so this is not an endorsement. What version of Windows are you currently using? If you are using NT/2000/XP Professional and have an NTFS partition, I believe Linux can read NTFS, but I am not sure it can write to it (someone with more knowledge please correct me if I am wrong). Just make sure that with either dual booting or booting from windows, the version of Linux you install can read and write to your existing file system, safely. Finally, just make sure you have a disaster recovery plan, i.e. a way of getting back to your present setup. This might mean locating all your original software disks including windows itself and making sure your data is backed up. Good luck, and if you have more specific questions, I have had many, many replies helping me with my queries. You are in the right place. Brendan > On Wed, 2002-09-25 at 18:34, allan scott wrote: > > Mandrake looks like the go but I need to know if the 8.2 boxed set will contain a wysiwyg web editor as I have some 340 Mb of book > > written. This and some 22,000 digital camera pix, se need to manage these too. > > > > The big question is, can I wipe MS, install Mandrake and keep writing??? I have a Toshiba Tecra 8000 laptop. Will Mandrake see my > > USB port and use my 40 Gb hard drive, my camera card reader, Epson A3 printer and broadband satelite connection. > Allan, > With apologies to the experts around here, I'd urge extreme caution and > I'd especially advise very strongly against trying to make the complete > switch all at once... Weaning off Microsoft is a worthy goal, no > argument there! But do it gradually; start by installing Linux in > separate partition and take it from there. This way you'll have the > familiar environment to fall back on when problems arise, and they will > - don't trust the experts, trust me! I know better, because I'm a Linux > newbie unlike many others on this list... > I think you should be OK with your USB, Epson and possibly your camera, > depending on its model. But as far as wysiwyg web editors go, yes there > are web editors for Linux, but IMHO nothing that could match Dreamweaver > in ease of use, and possibly in capability as well. As for Quanta, fine > program that it is, it is a code editor and not wysiwyg in the same > sense as Dreamweaver. > Satellite broadband might well turn out to be a problem as well... -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
