For what it's worth, we do not install Windows on any of our Linux servers,
and we have never had a problem getting support from Dell, Compaq/HP, or
IBM on them. Admittedly there have been things that are a bit more
awkward, such as managing RAID controllers. But the big players seem to
know that Linux is there, and generally don't want to tell customers that
if they're not running Windows, they should go away.
This is just as well, because when I've had an issue on a production
server, it's often not a "system down for hardware problem" sort of thing,
and I'm not in a position to just take it down and boot it into Windows and
leave it there until the vender has the whole thing resolved.
That's my 2 cents at least. YMMV.
Tony
--On Thursday, January 10, 2008 05:40:44 PM -0500 Paul Flint
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Greetings List Lurkers,
I am gonna come down on Rubin (et al's) position that dual booting is the
norm for both workstations and servers. My reasoning is simple. Fact is
that you get support on hardware when you call OEM tech support running
windows and you do not when you call running linux.
Thus if you have any issue with any part of the OEM hardware, you need to
reboot into windows, and dance the dance. Once you have all issues
resolved reset the default to Linux and do your thing on either the
client or server.
Regards,
Flint
On Thu, 10 Jan 2008, Rubin Bennett wrote:
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:12:56 -0500
From: Rubin Bennett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Dual booting
On Thu, 2008-01-10 at 10:52 -0500, Andrew Tomczak wrote:
I always dual boot my desktops and laptops, if I have the option. In
contrast I would never consider dual booting a server. The problematic
side of dual booting Vista is solved, I think, but unfortunatly not
through Linux.
The way to dual boot Linux and MS Vista is to:
* Install MS Vista first (arg!)
* Use the MS Vista Disk utilities to resize the Vista partition.
* Install the Linux distro of your choice
* The best way to install a Linux distro is to not mess with the
default configuration of Grub.
Note:
* I would not attempt to install Lilo on a dual boot system.
* You can change partition options (in Linux) but you cannot change
the size of a MS Vista partion (in Linux) and have it work reliably
after.
For what it's worth, my HP laptop that came with Vista Home got the
squeeze treatment and it worked fine. It took a little tinkering, but
here's how I did it (I'm going by memory, so if I forget a step forgive
me)
I left the recovery partition alone. I used GParted to shrink the
Windows partition, and added a new Linux partition *between* the Windows
partitions).
I installed Linux on the new partition (Mandriva 2007.1).
The Mandriva installer detected my Windows partitions and added them to
the Grub config.
I booted up and all is happy. I can reboot into the Windows partition,
I can boot into the windows recovery partition, and the recovery
partition will even obey the partition restrictions on the drive! (I.e.
it won't repartition the drive when I run a restore, as long as Windows
is on the first partition). If I run a restore, I have to reinstall
grub and everything's happy again. With this setup, everything works in
both operating systems - I can even suspend/ hibernate/ reboot to my
heart's content in either OS, including suspend in Windows, reboot into
Linux, suspend Linux, and reboot my hibernated Windows partition. This
is how I generally use my dual boot.
I avoid Windows system utilities like the plague, mostly because I've
been using Linux utilities for long enough that I simply feel a lot more
comfortable in that world :)
Rubin
Hope to see you all next week!
/************************************
Based upon email reliability concerns,
please send an acknowledgement in response to this note.
Paul Flint
Barre Open Systems Institute
17 Averill Street
Barre, VT
05641
http://www.bosivt.org
http://www.flint.com/home
skype: flintinfotech
Work: (202) 537-0480
Fax: (703) 852-7089
Consilium
gratuitum .~.
valet /V\
quanti /( )\
numerantur ^^-^^
