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Thread ID: 12893	2001-11-14 07:51:00	Running Linux & Me on one PC	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
24486	2001-11-14 07:51:00	In May I purchased a ?Mega deal? computer from The P C Company. It has an Athlon 1.3Ghz processor, 256Mb Ram, 30 Gb hard drive and runs Windows Me. I sought advice from PC Company about partitioning the hard drive and was advised against this. However the documentation that came with the PC, and articles in PC World, had enough information and encouragement so I did the partitioning any way. C: is Windows while D: was going to be Linux, E: Basic programming and F: Webb down loading etc. D: E: and F: are still essentially empty. Windows Me is very unstable; and it was before I did the partitioning. On average it crashes about once every 3 to 4 hours of use. I learnt to use a computer with an XT running DOS and GW Basic. I later graduated to a 386 that I altered the autoexec file so that it booted in DOS with access to all my old programs and allowed me to access Windows 3.1 as a separate software package. My work PC (a PIII 350) runs Windows NT. It is much more stable than my home machine, but all set up and fault finding is by our IS staff. I was hoping to set up so that I had the option of either Windows or Linux when I booted up. I do not know if this is practical. Your advice would be appreciated. I would prefer to retain Windows for compatibility with most of my associates (especially for Excel and Word) but I want to take control of how the PC works. I believe that I have several options. 1. I see at Microsoft?s web site that there are about 2.5 hours of down loadable upgrades for Me that might fix some of the bugs. I doubt however that my PC would remain stable for that length of web access time. 2. I could upgrade to XP ($309) and get the stability (I hope) of NT 3. I could convert to Linux. Where did Geoff Palmer get his $75 three CD and printed manual version of Mandrake? I have found several sites selling Mandrake but none asking that price or apparently that package. Again, any advice would be appreciated. I trust that my questions are in line with what you expect at ?Press F1 on Line? and look forward to any responses. Bill Richardson. bilric@xtra.co.nz	Guest (0)
24487	2001-11-14 08:23:00	The ME updates are mainly security updates, rather than stability updates. Dual booting linux and windows is easy. I've got 98 and mandrake 8.0. Windows won't be able to read your linux partitions, but linux will be able to read windows partitions. Since you've already partitioned, all you would have to do, is run DOS FDISK and delete the partition you want to use for linux (it uses a different format), you want one that is atleast 1.5GB to install most stuff. When your installing Mandrake, it will give you an option for it to use the free space on your drive (where your partition was). I've seen the boxed versions of mandrake at Dick Smith.	Guest (0)
24488	2001-11-14 09:00:00	Go to www.xsolutions.co.nz/linux and you will get you CDs for approx $20.00 As far as the manual goes there is nothing in it that isn't on the CDs. Once you have Manrake installed all the help mans will be there (make sure you select them when you install.) If you want information before you install Linux, one of the cds runs under windows and gives help manuals and installation instructions. Type linux into your address bar and you will get a couple of thousand sites to visit for information.	Guest (0)
24489	2001-11-14 09:00:00	Go to www.xsolutions.co.nz/linux and you will get you CDs for approx $20.00 As far as the manual goes there is nothing in it that isn't on the CDs. Once you have Manrdake installed all the help mans will be there (make sure you select them when you install.) If you want information before you install Linux, one of the cds runs under windows and gives help manuals and installation instructions. Type linux into your address bar and you will get a couple of thousand sites to visit for information.	Guest (0)
24490	2001-11-14 09:10:00	Sorry, I meant to add a bit more to my last reply. If you install Star Office 5.2 on Linux you will still be able to open those files in Word and excel and vice versa. Although 5.2 is a bit slow mainly due to the fact that the whole program loads instead of just the application you want, Star office 6.0 is only about a month away and promises to be a major improvement. And it's free!!! As far as practicality of having more than one OS, I have ME(crashless so far) Mandrake 8.1, Red Hat 7.2 & XP in that order 2 other partitions for my data and booting has never been a problem. www.powerquest.com has some good articles on multi-booting. Sorry about the previous double posting.	Guest (0)
24491	2001-11-14 09:59:00	It may actually be a heat issue since summer is coming up and most shops will ship computers with puny heatsink-fan combinations, have a look in your bios after the computer has been on a while for temperatures (will probably be under a sub menu if its in there)	Guest (0)
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