Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7

Lee said:

But, it will never be a problem to Microsoft it doesn't meet the same standards, nor does it have the large software support given to Window by the large software companies (Adobe, Corel, etc.).

exactly!

Very interesting discussion. I've tried linux Ubuntu a couple of times and found the learning curve quite steep but then I still struggle with Windows in a lot of areas.
However I've found the last 6 months with W7 frenzy really exciting and I need to replace that buzz so I was considering giving linux another go once my retail copy of W7 is installed.
I'd also like to keep Vista x64 as I've loved that for two years and I still think it's a great OS.
So a triple boot? I understand that it's possible but does it affect performance?
Also@dinesh, can you run Mac OSX on a Windows machine? Would love to have a play with that.
Computers for me are a hobby and a source of entertainment. I don't use them in my job much.
I'm amazed you guys who work in IT maintain your enthusiasm once you get home!

Best wishes, John

Hi,

Normally I prefer to have a production Windows System (actual Vista x64 SP2 fully licensed) and a experimental version (Win7 x64 7264) in two different partitions on my primary harddrive, having multi-boot support by windows boot manager.

A while ago I shrink my partitions and tried to install OpenSUSE 11 x64 as a third choice - I like to have sometimes the feeling of the bash and X11.
But I run in trouble after trying to get full muli-boot support for all three operating systems.

I had to install Linux about 12 to 15 times: Either I cannot boot Windows after the installation (unacceptable) or GRUB was disactivated after booting Windows just once.

I started to read a lot of How-to's of the community on that issue. Learned a lot of parition schemes. I like the idea of the community - Lots of more or less finished documentation. But noone corrects documents, which are wrong.

After several trials I got a boot manager cascade: Boot GRUB from extended partition (marked active), select Windows boot manager as a second instance to boot windows and adding the GRUB boot sector as a third joice into windows to make GRUB active again, if some processes in Windows make the Boot sector active.

Very complicated

Then the RC came and I decided to sweep out Linux and start to work with seven.

But I think the ideal configuration for me will be to have all three choices at the same time without moving bootsectors around, booting from USB-keys etc.

In the Linux community the is not very much knowledge there on how to set up co-existance between Windows and Linux. OpenSUSE fails with the installation as second OS completely - That was my experience.

Does anyone of you have a handy and proven tutorial on how to configure that scenario

Thanks in advance

sincelely yours Oblomow

I'd like to expand my OS horizons so I'll probably install *buntu 9.10 upon release. :)

Highly doubt anything will replace Windows 7 for me though.

dinesh said:

Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be released by Sep 2009.
My rankings:
1: Windows 7
2: Snow Leopard
3: Ubuntu 9.10

I have .7 SL installed, i couldn't find .8 so i decided to just wait for the final on that as well.

pparks1 said:

It's hard to believe that a certified Red Hat admin wouldn't at least be understanding of some of the problems that exist for using that platform on the desktop.

Understanding the issues and tolerant of the shortcommings are two different things. The fact that I understand the issues only reinforces the fact that linsux is not and will not cut it on my laptop.

And as to the "safer" comment made above, that depends entirely on several factors, the setup, the admin, what apps youre running among others. Makeing a blanket statement like that is pure nonsence.

Linux may be good enough for some on lower end hardware. But to be honest, I dont buy "good enough" hardware for myself. I buy the best I can, and in 2 years, I will probably sell this and buy a better one. Will linsux be up to snuff then, maby...but its not right now and thats what counts to me.

Now I do have RHEL on several VM's on my system to simulate networks and clustering, but again, thats not desktop use.

I would go into linux on servers, but this is a Windows forum, and well...will leave it at that.

Use of a VM is something you can look into; it is a great way to run several OS's without having to create new portions on your system, and allows you to setup as many OS's as you want. There are several very good VMs available: VM Ware probably the best, but at a high cost, Virtual Box, is an excellent freeware application, Microsoft's Virtual PC with VXP download which is XP without the activation key.

At present I am running ubunto 9.04, OpenSuse 11.2, XP, and Windows 2000 on VM Ware's Work Station; all without any problems. :)

Thanks Lee. Sounds like some kind of VM would be the way to go if I want to play with different OSs. I'll look into it further.
Do you take a performance hit in VM?

Cheers, John:)

johnwillyums said:

Thanks Lee. Sounds like some kind of VM would be the way to go if I want to play with different OSs. I'll look into it further.
Do you take a performance hit in VM?

Cheers, John:)

Yes there is a performance hit, but depending on the specs of your "host" system, its not bad at all. My host system is a quad core q9300 w/12G DDR2 Ram so its not bad at all. Whe I have my VM's running its useally 3 at a time + the host.

When setting up the VM, you give it X ammount of processor and memory, so in that sence, that much is a "hit"