Windows Xp - Self Help

[PinkSpider]

I am considering doing a dual boot on my system but switching OSs seems to be a rather big headache

I tried to do that once. Partition magic decided to die 50% of the way through

 

[c0ncept]

partition magic = best thing since DOS!

I still can't believe they scrapped DOS in XP...

 

[Ernest]

Thats why, im stopping usin nething microsoft, i use opera, now use linux and im gonna eradicate as much of the stuff as possible, i found when i was connected to the net my firewall was bringing messages sayin micrososoft this and that were sendin outgoin and incoming stuff, there were a variety of programs that were doing this and i removed them, especially seeing as a few versions of various microsoft things i have are pirated.

Edit: it may have been nothing but seeing as some of the programs were not legally obtained i decided to do away with the stuff, neone shed light on this matter?

 

[EvilDragon]

I havent found any program yet that I use that doesnt have a linux alternative.

Hmm... okay, I WANTED to switch to Linux, if possible, but had A LOT of problems...
Any ideas?

1. I use a laptop with an external monitor. (Laptop has an nVifdia Geforce 435Ti in it). I only managed to run Linux either with the internal laptop screen... I didn't find a driver which was able to switch between those two...

2. I use StarMoney 4.0 (banking software). Is there any banking software which supports the Sparkasse in Germany?

3. As I do some graphics work, I have an LCD monitor with built in pen tablet. I never found a driver for this thing. Also, I use Painter 8 for natural painting. Any natural painting software for Linux?

4. As I work commercially with my PC, I need to run discreet* combustion and 3d max 5 on it. Hmmm... support for my 3D HP Spacemouse?

5. Realtime video editing with TV preview should also be possible.

6. Is there a nice music database software like iTunes available?

Thanks for your help

Oh, BTW: I don't believe in this self-help thing. If there WOULD BE such features in it, hackers and virus coders WOULD'VE already found out about and destroy systems.
And since the pentium generation it is impossible to destroy hardware using software (well, except overclocking graphic cards or flashing bioses... but overclocking graphic cards usually causes them to freeze before serious damage happens and flashing bioses... well... it doesn't cause THAT much damage...).

BTW2: Linux runs on my fileserver

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

@akuma: You seem to be the resident Linux guru, I would attempt to switch to linux on a more permenant basis, however I was informed that Linux does not yet support USB modems. The strange thing is that the latest version of Knoppix most definatlery supports my NTL:Home200 USB modem but all the other flavours I've tried (currently only Suse pro 8.2) do not. Do you know if support is or will soon be available? Or maybe there are workarounds?

[edit] To stay on topic, I heard about this a while back and said to myself"nah, it'll never happen". I'm still not convinced it'll happen LEGALLY but hey since when did M$ really give a shit (unless it's a law protecting their sorry arses)

You have been misinformed, linux works with USB modems just fine. Thats the most common misconception about linux "oh my hardware doesnt work", well maybe if you tried to install a version from 5 years ago that would be the case, but today its compatiblity with hardware is amazing, since 4+ years ago, I havent _ever_ had an issue with it not supporting my hardware (and I have gone through many PCs, including a nice laptop), and it worked perfect in all of them. (albiet some didnt autodetect my hardware, I had to modprobe, and in some cases install an updated kernel), but M$ doesnt autodetect your hardware properly all the time either.

Different distributions use different precompiled kernel setups. Most people do not have a USB modem, so in the majority of cases, it would be a waste to automaticaly compile USB modem modules or drivers into the kernel (slower loading times etc...) Knoppix was created not to be fast, but usefull, so its a given that they would compile support for _everything_ rather than leave something like that out. If the distribution you install doesnt support USB modems out of the box, its a simple proccess to find & load the proper module (driver).

For instance, when I went to install gentoo, it wouldnt find my network card automatically. I simply typed: modprobe via-rhine and viola! my network card worked. (modprobe is the command to load a module (driver), and via-rhine was the name of my network cards module)

I am far from a linux guru, I am sure there are many more linux users here that know much more than me. I am just the one that is most active in the forums.

Microsoft really DOES give a shit, this is the whole reason they are creating this Self Help thing. Its their baby! Why would they go through all that trouble, and legal battles to get it passed everywhere, if they didnt intend to use it?

And they are already using it in XP, to a minimal extent. (probably waiting for more places to pass it before they go all out)


Its not something you cannot "beleive" in. Its FACT. It exists, its in windows XP, microsoft is heading it, and have actually used it to a minimal extent so far. There is no room for opinion here.

You want to see self-help in its most minimal form? Try installing one version XP on two different machines, activate them both and log on line with both of them. You will see self-help in its simplest of forms. Microsoft is holding back the full power of self-help till its laws are passed in more areas.


Nvidias driver should work and support both displays, it may take a bit to setup. Mine does. There is tv recording software, and HP is a huge supporter of linux so your mouse should work fine. I ran accross an article the otherday about "linux's answer to iTunes" so that may be a place to start for iTunes like software.

As for your art software, Painter works in WINE last I checked, 3dsm has issues because of the hardware they install, you situation is a bit unquie, if you _NEED_ those painting apps, you may not find the answer on linux that easily, you would have to make comprimises, and maybe just maybe run them in VMWare (which is a 100% compatible x86 emulator, just doesnt have hardware video accleration) or Win4Lin which is much faster than VMWare.

 

[PinkSpider]

I used RedHat 9 and my fujitsu usb modem wasent supported. I managed to get hold of some third party drivers but wtf should I have done then?
http://dsl-linux.tripod.com/index/

 

[raven]

Tried Linux a few times, got my hardware to work, no problems there, plenty of software could do just about everything minus gaming (but could try winex for that) but what drives me crazy about Linux is having to compile software yourself. Not because you need to compile it but because of dependencies:
You download something that requires something else to compile but that something else also requires certain things to be installed on your system etc... The most frustrating part about this is not having a certain lib 1.5.2 but having 1.5.1 instead. I understand why it works that way but there is something nice about executables.
Other minor issues are things like finally getting your videoplayer working so it can play DVD's but the very next day it is completely f****d up again (to the point where it won't even start up anymore). After a lot of thinking you finally figure out that the reason this happened is because you changed your screen resolution :rolleyes:.
I don't think Linux will ever replace Windows if people still need to enable their soundcard by editing a file with about 100 settings in it (even if the Linux drivers make my soundcard sound better ).
Funny thing is: I like Linux, I like the idea, I love Gnome (yes I'm a sucker) and I hate what M$ stands for but I'm still using Windows and that probably won't change very soon.

 

[raven]

Double post...

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

Tried Linux a few times, got my hardware to work, no problems there, plenty of software could do just about everything minus gaming (but could try winex for that) but what drives me crazy about Linux is having to compile software yourself. Not because you need to compile it but because of dependencies:
You download something that requires something else to compile but that something else also requires certain things to be installed on your system etc... The most frustrating part about this is not having a certain lib 1.5.2 but having 1.5.1 instead. I understand why it works that way but there is something nice about executables.

Hmm I dont have ANY dependancy problems, I type: emerge <appname>
And it downloads everything that program needs to run, all of its dependancies, everything, I never have to worry about dependancies.

One time, the depenancies were so deep (like 30 levels deep), and it downloaded and installed all of the required dependancies, all automatically, with no need for my to do anything except sit and watch.

Although for the most part, linux is dependancy hell sometimes. Emerge changes that, it automatically detects, downloads, compiles, and installs, all dependancies requires for the app/game you choose, its great.

I don't think Linux will ever replace Windows if people still need to enable their soundcard by editing a file with about 100 settings in it (even if the Linux drivers make my soundcard sound better ).

My sound card works fine out of the box, so do millions of other peoples, if yours doesnt, simply load the proper module, no need for editing 100's of lines, your blowing it way out of proportion. That might have possibly been a workarround some years ago for a specific model that just didnt want to work, but sound is great now, especially with ALSA replacing OSS.

Remember there a millions of people working on linux constantly, if something doesnt work today, it might tomarrow.

I used RedHat 9 and my fujitsu usb modem wasent supported. I managed to get hold of some third party drivers but wtf should I have done then?
http://dsl-linux.tripod.com/index/

That page you linked to, has STEP BY STEP instructions....follow them.

 

[PinkSpider]

Untar the files - go to the save location directory and type

make

when that has finished, type

make install

follow the instructions and edit the files suggested

/etc/ppp/peers/adsl - to add username

go to /usr/local/bin

run

./eci-doctor

This should check the modem can be found and sync up, it will then prompt for a password if none has been supplied and then connect.

I have set the VP/VC to 0/38 as standard for BT lines in the UK.

Normally all that you should then need to do is run

/usr/local/bin/startmodem

Im no noob but I dunno what the fuck that means. I remember looking extensively through Red Hats help files; no help

Windows: put the cd in, follow the steps ><

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

Untar the files - go to the save location directory and type

make

when that has finished, type

make install

follow the instructions and edit the files suggested

/etc/ppp/peers/adsl - to add username

go to /usr/local/bin

run

./eci-doctor

This should check the modem can be found and sync up, it will then prompt for a password if none has been supplied and then connect.

I have set the VP/VC to 0/38 as standard for BT lines in the UK.

Normally all that you should then need to do is run

/usr/local/bin/startmodem

Im no noob but I dunno what the fuck that means. I remember looking extensively through Red Hats help files; no help

Windows: put the cd in, follow the steps ><

It means exactally what it says

Untar the files
(Untar (unzip, unrar, just a different type))

go to the save location directory
(open a terminal (command prompt) navigate to the directory you extracted the files in, using cd to change directories)

and type
make
(simply type make and hit enter)

when that has finished, type
make install
(simply type make install and hit enter)

follow the instructions and edit the files suggested
(I assume after the make install, there will be a bit of extra instructions to follow)
/etc/ppp/peers/adsl - to add username
(edit this file (or use a nice gui app) to setup your adsl with your settings)

go to /usr/local/bin
(navigate here while still in the console)
run
./eci-doctor
(type that and hit enter)

 

[PinkSpider]

Thanks. I will try this after I finish college. What distro of Linux do you recommend. I went with Red Hat and it was ok but I feel like something different,

 

[raven]

My sound card works fine out of the box, so do millions of other peoples, if yours doesnt, simply load the proper module, no need for editing 100's of lines, your blowing it way out of proportion. That might have possibly been a workarround some years ago for a specific model that just didnt want to work, but sound is great now, especially with ALSA replacing OSS.

I did not say: edit 100's of lines, I said: edit a file with 100 settings. That's a huge difference (the difference between the truth and blowing things out of proportion to be exact ).
Point is: compared to Windows Linux is quite complicated. I wouldn't know where to start explaining friends and family they need to mount drives first

 

[yaustar]

This is probably one of the reasons why I am trying it on my laptop first.. I have no clue on where to even start

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

Thanks. I will try this after I finish college. What distro of Linux do you recommend. I went with Red Hat and it was ok but I feel like something different,

It depends, I recommend Gentoo (with emerge you have none of that dependancy hell, and its faster, more customizable) but it takes a more experianced user to install.

FedoraCore (redhats sister), is pretty good for begininers, and the new version will have the new kernel, so thats good. I have heard some good things about Mandrake for beginners.

Some of these distros & kernels may already have support for your modem, so you wont even have to go through those steps. Try downloading KNOPPIX. Its a CD based linux, you dont even have to install it! Just boot from the CD and viola your in linux! (you need a good amount of RAM for this and its not super fast but its a good start to get a general idea about hardware compatiblity).

. I wouldn't know where to start explaining friends and family they need to mount drives first

Just put the drive info in /etc/fstab file and set it to auto mount when linux boots up. No explaining nessisary, they dont even have to know.

I have mine set to where it automatically mounts itself when I double click on the icon. Saves bootup time if I am not going to use that partition or drive.

 

[declaration]

I installed Linux for the first time a couple of months ago. It wasnt that hard to get everything sorted out. Sure, I did need some guidance, but there are plenty of places on the internet to get help.

I now have a nicely working dual boot system.

I was a bit worried about mashing my Windows installation up at the time, so i decided to just buy a really shitty old hard drive and install it on that, mount my current hard drives and be away.

Anybody who has always wanted to try Linux really should, because its not as daunting as some people make out. Just read up on the distro's, choose one you like the sound of and give it a go........

 

[PinkSpider]

I think I will try Gentoo first.

When I was installing red hat my disk 3 actually exploded in the drive which was fucking scary!

 

[Twinbee]

I used to have a Redhat 9 setup. Fedora Core 1 never wanted to work at the time.

All it needs to be perfect for me is a better WineX.

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

I think I will try Gentoo first.

When I was installing red hat my disk 3 actually exploded in the drive which was fucking scary!

Gentoo is very difficult to setup, and you NEED to print out the 74 page manual and follow it STEP BY STEP. You actually have to do everything manually. The other distros have nice setup GUI's where you click next, next, next, etc... like any normal OS installer. Gentoo installation is for the more experianced user. (and patient), Gentoo install with xfree and kde took me about 15 hours (no kidding), anyone who has installed gentoo can tell you the truth of that! lol.

 

[PinkSpider]

I think I will try Gentoo first.

When I was installing red hat my disk 3 actually exploded in the drive which was fucking scary!

Gentoo is very difficult to setup, and you NEED to print out the 74 page manual and follow it STEP BY STEP. You actually have to do everything manually. The other distros have nice setup GUI's where you click next, next, next, etc... like any normal OS installer. Gentoo installation is for the more experianced user. (and patient), Gentoo install took me about 15 hours (no kidding), anyone who has installed gentoo can tell you the truth of that! lol.

Might go for an easier one then

Mandrake sounds nice?