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Colin, there are a number of Linux fans (zealots?) here in The Lounge who will probably jump in here and tell you I’m crazy for this opinion. AND yes, there are a number of Linux distros (as they’re called) that are free for the taking, as opposed to paying for another copy of Windows. BUT, to my mind the driving force here is whether you have the TIME or the inclination to go through the “learning curve” of dealing with Linux. My experience with the OS has been brief so far, but I think it WILL take a somewhat considerable period of learning for you to do what you want to do with your new machine.

The song I continue to sing is that you are well served to stick with what you “know” and are comfortable with, in spite of its warts and the money involved. It is also quite possible that you won’t need Vista or maybe even Windows XP to equip this computer for what you want to do. Perhaps, in the interest of “funding” you could get by with a lesser cost copy of Windows 98 SE which is available for far less money than WinXP. I don’t know and obviously you’re going to have to weigh all the information that this thread yields. Good luck and do keep us posted…

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I have a small home network with each of us having PC’s running WIN XP. I’ve just built a new one with masses of storage which I plan to put on the network to do three main things

Automated back-up destination (I run batch progs every night to back up each of the 4 other PC’s on the network. This new PC will be the destination)

Store for all the music files I’ve encoded. (The PC has a good audio card and is connected to my hi-fi, so I plan to play most of my music through this PC. I have a KVM switch so I will be able to access this PC from my main PC screen, keyboard etc. So it is a very convenient way to drive my music collection)

Store for all non-regular use files (some photos downloaded progs etc).

Other than that, this pc will do little other work. I plan to create 5 or 6 partitions across two hard disks.

Being a cheap Scotsman, I was wondering whether there is an obvious Linux (or other) solution that I could use instead of paying Mr Gates another

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I agree with Al, but as for you using this machine to drive your music, I think 98 is far behind the times. Just something to think about.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Would ME be any better?

Colin

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I disagree with the others (in a very friendly way, of course).
I’m a relative newcomer to Linux (since about Oct 06) and I like it so much I don’t even have a Windows partition any more.
I’m not quite the music enthusiast that you appear to be, Colin, but I’ve been able to do all sorts of things with openSUSE, the most user-friendly distro I’ve found. And, of course, I haven’t tried them all by any means. If you’re comfortable with more than just switching on and know a little about batch scripting or VBA you’ll have very little trouble. You don’t need to use scripts but because it’s easy and convenient, you’ll find yourself using a console terminal more and more.
With the space you’re talking about I would definitely give it a try, perhaps alongside W98.

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Would ME be any better? NO

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I’d like to suggest you use a copy of Windows, and leave the drive formatted as FAT32. Setup the machine as desired, and run with it.

In the future, once you have your machine running, download Geexbox. It’s a linux based jukebox. It’s runable from CD, and will not touch your OS installation. All it requires, is a PC bootable from the CD-ROM drive.

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Thanks for everybody’s feedback.

My feeling is that the majority view (of those who expressed one) backs up my own totally un-educated guess that Linux is still too much hassle to bother with.

I already spend too much time on my PC, and the thought of learning another apparently complex OS does not appeal. The PC world has a long way to go. When I buy a DVD player, a hi-fi unit or a washing machine I get a system that does what it says it does when I push a button on the remote. Until PC’s and software vendors concentrate on that, I fear that they will not convert the PC into a universally accepted home device.

I’ll stick with MS. However, I like the idea of windows 2000 and I’ll have a look at that and see if I can but a legit copy on ebay. (Is that possible?????).

Thanks anyway

Colin

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If you can’t find Win2000 on eBay, I’ve got at least five shrink-wrapped copies lying about that never saw use. What I’m saying is… you can find it, if you look around. If you have an IT guy at the office that you’re friendly with, that might be a place to start (I recently wound up with an extra copy of 2000 that way).

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There seems to be a few versions of 2000 on e-Bay. I bid on one last night but was outbid. There seem to be plenty of dodgy ones, so I’m not quite so sure how to identify what’s good and what’s not. Some are obvious, some are not.

Colin

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Ubuntu Linux may be better for you. I’ve not had direct experience with it, but I hear it’s less off a hassle because they include less stuff. Such as 1 -GUI, one office suite, one media player, etc. Not the 4 or 5 different programs that the other distributions put out there.

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Nice find, Chris! Have you ever tried running this out of a virtual machine? I’m thinking that would be handy if you needed to drop back to the Windows interface and create a playlist, etc. I confess I didn’t read too much of the documentation (it’s against the man-code to read manuals).

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I’ve never tried it in a virtual machine – but have used it previously as a LiveCD on an old Pentium 200MHz computer. Very easy to use! Just drop the audio (and some video) files on to the hard drive, and voila!

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I can’t resist piping up on this one.

I still maintain that Linux ain’t for everyone. In fact, it’s for a small subset of users who are technically proficient and don’t mind writing their own scripts, etc. Ease of use may have improved, but the bottom line: Linux is a hobbyist’s operating system. If you have the time and desire to learn how to work with it, you may well become one of the converts who tout its values and stability, but whom have also forgotten that it’s just not for most people. I don’t know what your background or level of technical expertise is, unless you’re fairly proficient with the nuts and bolts it’s going to frustrate you. Most *nix support is in the form of documentation that is written for someone with an IT degree.

Don’t use ME. Ever. Again. 98 may work, but again is very outdated and not the most stable OS around. For what you’re trying to do, I would seriously consider finding a copy of Windows 2000, setting it up with minimal extras, and letting it go. It would be stable, run on older hardware, and would not force you to learn a completely different environment. I’d be willing to bet that you can find a cheap, unused copy of Windows 2000 on eBay or some other location.

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Now that all these Windoze users scared the ba-jesus outta you, (hehe j/k) download Redhat 9 or Fedora. Its an easy install, it detects 99% of hardware and does not take alot of CLI configuring. If you have an extra computer lying around, I’d play around with linux. It’s not as bad as you may think. This also depends on the distro.

I’d say play with redhat and if you don’t like it, reformat.

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Mikey, you’re so funny. I have a Suse box in my basement that I use for experimentation and as a (somewhat) file server… I love it, and I still wouldn’t wish it on anyone with less than two or three years of IT experience!

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FYI – this longe is running on redhat.

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I might have a go at Redhat. I have a spare HDD I can drop in and test. If I don’t like it I can just re-format that.

Ta

Colin

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Well, if you’re willing to try things out… I’m going to suggest ubuntu. It’s what I’m running at home on my thinkpad. Pop in the LiveCD, click on the install icon, and 30 minutes later, you’re up and running.

I do not think you can go wrong with trying it out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.

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OK I’ve tried.

First my thoughts on Redhat.

Thanks to everyone for the inmut . But I’ve now officially given up. I would like to give you some background. I consider myself an experienced Windows & PC user. I have probably built over 30 systems with many types of Windows versions. I write my own (fairly simple) applications in Access and to a lesser extent Excel. I use Photoshop & Premiere Elements. In other words I’m not a beginner, and I’m totally self taught.

HOWEVER.

First destination – RedHat web page. No mention here of RedHat 9. Instead lots of icons

Learn about Red Hat Solutions

Learn about Red Hat Services

Then I spotted a section headed Get started . Ah this must be for me! But the first heading says “Just Purchased? ” followed by

Manage Subscriptions Contact Sales
Find a reseller Red Hat Training
Compatible Software Certified Hardware
Videos Whitepapers
Success Stories

No, I haven’t just purchased. I want to find out where I begin. Having already purchased suggests to me that I need to be a bit beyond the beginning stage. I can’t even find where I want to be to make a purchase. I’m not interested in Solutions. I’m not interested in services. I’m a Wiindows user. They need to talk to me in words I can understand, and then perhaps wean me on to a new way of thinking. But if I can’t even start, what’s the point?

Gave up here.

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So now of to the Ubuntu site. This looks far more user friendly. It’s actually headed “Linux for Human Beings” . Goodness, there’s even an area headed Desktop, and it

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OK I’m struggling now, but this one seemed more user friendly, so I don’t give up. Support area. Great a Forum headed

Absolute Beginner Talk

lets have a look at the stickys.

Announcement: PMming and/or IMming mods ( 1 2 3)

Looking For Beryl?

IMPORTANT: Thinking of upgrading to Edgy?

Filing Bug Reports Using Launchpad.

READ THIS FIRST prior to posting – IMPORTANT links

***Beginner Talk Rules***

Not a lot of help here. As an Absolute beginner (The Forum Title for god’s sake) Beryl doesn’t seem right for me, and as for upgrading to Edgy. For heaven’s sake, I’ve got nothing to upgrade. I’m an Absolute Beginner. Remember?

But one Sticky is headed READ THIS FIRST prior to posting – IMPORTANT links. Now this says to me it is about posting rules so I didn’t see it as the obvious solution, but surprise surprise, it looks like what I’m after. Again it looks very helpful

One heading here saying
HOWTO INSTALL UBUNTU
If you are new to Ubuntu then I recommend the Graphical Installation using the 6.06.1 live cd. (you probably need the 386 one)
…………………….
How to obtain the Install CD
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GettingUbuntu
……………………………
Go to the Official Download Page
Choose the location that is closest to you.
Most users should download Intel x86 desktop CD

So I go the Official Download page now knowing that I want the 6.06.1 Live CD/ Intel x86 desktop CD. Bit of confusion there but I should be able to resolve this.

Not surprisingly, it takes me back to the same long list I saw before. But now I know what files I am looking for don’t I? Ah maybe not. A search for “x86” fails to bring up any matches. Another search for “live” and once again I get the message “Text not found”.

At this point I decide that my life is better spent watching paint dry.

I am prepared to learn. I am prepared to experiment. I am prepared to spend the time to learn. I am prepared to make mistakes. I am prepared to learn a new way of working.

BUT

The Linux community has to help itself to attract new users (if it wants to). I am not a computer programmer. I am a marketing guy who likes his PC as a hobby. Point me in the direction of the one file I need, and I’ll download it, install it and take a month or so to overcome the basics. but if I can’t even find where to start…….

Sorry to rant on a bit folks. I really am disappointed.

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ok, I understand your frustration. linux is not for the faint of heart, but if you love computers, linux is fun.

Redhat download –
http://public.www.planetmirror.com/pub/red…n/iso/i386/?fl=%5B/url%5D

shrike-i386-disc1.iso
shrike-i386-disc2.iso
shrike-i386-disc3.iso

UBUNTU

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetUbuntu/d…direct=download%5B/url%5D

Go thru the North America – US – pick a download spot (Colorado) and it will d/l.

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Look for the link for the ubuntu-6.06.1-desktop-i386.iso download, following thru with Mike’s ubuntu directions. That is the LiveCD for the vast majority of PCs.

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if you don’t mind waiting a couple of weeks (less than 2 for me), Ubuntu will send you free CDs of their software – up to 5 so you can give them out to your friends! that may make your installation a bit smoother, assuming you don’t need it installed right now. you can find that here

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(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable – see Help 19)

If you decide to get back on the Linux horse again you might want to post some questions at the links below, I’ve found if you do your part they’re extremely generous with their knowledge. I found posts by Grogan to be especially helpful. Greg

http://www.bitbenderforums.com/forums/forumdisplay/?f=165%5B/url%5D

Bruno’s Linux tips are very helpful
http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showforum=14%5B/url%5D

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Hi Big Al

Thanks for your input.

I must admit, I feared that what you say might be right.

BUT, I hadn’t thought about using an older Windows version. I have got legit licences (not OEM) for both 98 & ME, and I never considered them. But you’re right, for all I’m going to do, they would be fine I suspect.

There is obviously a security issue, but I believe I can control that. I have a hardware router with firewall, and all my PC’s run virus, firewall and adware software all the time. SO i’m sure that ME would be adequate.

Thanks

Colin

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Given the choices of Win98SE or WinME I think I’d choose Win98SE. You can do a LOT of reading about the problems and nuances of WinME. BUT, just for a well rounded discussion, please wait to see what others have to say here. For a backup storage computer, also to be used for “file repository” I would think that Win98SE would be a fine choice and, as you said, running a decent AV, spyware protection and (free) software firewall (like Zone Alarm?) will give you the security and protection you need.

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