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| Thread ID: 126670 | 2012-09-11 02:44:00 | Linux Questions | Nick G (16709) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1300241 | 2012-09-11 02:44:00 | Never thought I'd say this, but I want to give linux a go on my laptop. Will be either dual or triple booting it along with win7 and win8 on a single HDD. Tried once to put linux on an older machine, but the bios didn't want me to boot from a usb. This one will have no problems doing that :cool: Have only messed with linux once before, caused a major issue. I was booting a win xp machine into a live usb, and once I was finished windows couldn't read the HDD. Got it working eventually (can't remember how), but obviously want to avoid a repeat. So, a couple of questions. Is it easy enough to do a triple boot, or will I be best of wiping my win8 partition first? Also, how do I avoid a repeat of when windows couldn't recognize the hard drive? I'm doing a lot of looking before I do this, what are some possible problems when booting windows and linux from the same hdd? Also, what is a good distro? I'm looking for a full fledged one, don't need something like damn small linux. Don't want to run with something that looks like windows, I'd prefer to jump in the deep end rather than slowly walk in ;) And finally, would I be likely to see things like my wireless mouse not working in linux due to drive issues? Cheers from a linux newbie :thanks |
Nick G (16709) | ||
| 1300242 | 2012-09-11 02:51:00 | Why Linux? To be honest, Linux on the desktop/laptop is a dud. Unless you are a developer doing work on PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc, there is no strong argument for a regular user to use Linux, it is just a pain. You would be much better just sticking to windows as most of the apps that a regular user needs are available for Windows / Mac only. Sure Linux geeks will say there are open source alternatives available, but they are exactly that, geek apps, not suitable for the common user. My advice stay away from Linux. If you are so intent on running something other than Windows, get a Mac and dual boot OSX and windows. |
tmrafi (5179) | ||
| 1300243 | 2012-09-11 03:00:00 | Haha, funny guy tmrafi... Nick G, I'd personally remove your Win8 trial. Can't say I've toyed much with Win8 & Linux dual / triple-booting, but I know that the Windows 8 bootloader does things differently half booting into Win8 before then giving you the option to reboot into Windows 7.... Give Linux Mint a try, it's clean, easy, simple, not too convoluted (In fact SurferJoe46 is about to try the same thing over here pressf1.pcworld.co.nz ) You're unlikely to run into any issues with mice / keyboard. MAYBE with relation to some eccentric WiFi card or Webcams but for the better part everything "just works". There are occasions when it doesn't, but you won't know until you give it a whirl. With the likes of Linux Mint / Ubuntu, you can boot off the CD and get a good "feel" for how it's going to operate / function when it's installed on your system, though obviously it's going to be significantly slower while operating off the disc prior to installation. Best thing you can do is remove the partition that Win8 is on entirely and have the space "Free / unpartitioned" ready for Linux to use :) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 1300244 | 2012-09-11 03:18:00 | Haha, funny guy tmrafi... I am speaking from experience Chill. Used Linux from 1994-2007 and then switched to OSX. Answer this, For a regular user what does Linux offer that Windows 7 doesn't. Dont tell me it is free, Windows is always bundled with laptops so in essence free. |
tmrafi (5179) | ||
| 1300245 | 2012-09-11 03:23:00 | And you do buy laptops, unless you steal them. And I would hope it came with something on it, For what you pay for them. And thats not free. Would be good if laptops came with no OS at all. They'll be a lot cheaper | Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 1300246 | 2012-09-11 03:27:00 | You could also try something like the Linux live USB creator (LiLi) to put mint on a flash drive persistently. While it's a bit slow if you're using usb 2.0 kit, it's still faster than a CD from what I've seen and lets you play with it more than what a non persistent (live) version does. | 8ftmetalhaed (14526) | ||
| 1300247 | 2012-09-11 03:34:00 | And you do buy laptops, unless you steal them. The OP already had a laptop with Windows 7. No question of stealing here. Yes I do use linux occasionally, BackTrack Linux for doing Network Security Audits. It sits nicely on a 8GB Pen drive with a secure encrypted filesystem and is persistent. But I stick to my original comment, Linux on a desktop/laptop is a dud for a regular user. |
tmrafi (5179) | ||
| 1300248 | 2012-09-11 03:47:00 | I would just install vmware player on the windows 7 instance, and then play from there. | psycik (12851) | ||
| 1300249 | 2012-09-11 04:07:00 | I have for a while recommended Linux Mint but after putting the latest version on my netbook (eeepc 1201n) I am less than impressed... issues include Network manager dropped WIFI every 10 minutes or so (solution uninstall network manager, install WICD) Had to install a different Bluetooth stack to get my BT mouse to work. Getting compiz working is a rigmarole. kept upsetting the BIOS Mint Menu only shows an empty frame at times and have to click on it again. Too many versions of it now so I think the devs are spread too thin to keep up with the bugs and regressions. :( I will be going back to PCLinuxOS as soon as I can get an .iso of it. |
KarameaDave (15222) | ||
| 1300250 | 2012-09-11 04:25:00 | Here I've got a machine quad-booting Windows 7, Windows 8 (think it's the RTM), Windows Server 2008 R2 (for the lulz :p) and Ubuntu. When installing Linux, the installer can create a bootloader setup that works using Grub, but if you don't mind playing around with EasyBCD a bit then you can get the Windows 7 bootloader loading Windows 8 as well as Ubuntu - just make sure you install Grub to the Linux partition if you do this though, not the MBR. | pcuser42 (130) | ||
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