16 replies to this topic

[seakingtheonixpected]

I've heard that some people run dual systems, like say Linux on top of Windows. Just curious what the biggest benefits are. I know most people keep Windows because there are programs that aren't compatible with Linux, but what does Linux do better?

[seakingtheonixpected]

Okay, is there any risk of corruption if I install Linux and later decide to remove it? I wanted to try programming in it but I don't want to be stuck with it in the end.

[seakingtheonixpected]

Okay thanks for the advice. I have the perfect thumb drive for the job

[Affray]

I had a buddy in high school that ran Linux and Windows in tandem, it didn't work out so well.

This was back when even knowing what Linux was made you the nerdiest person in the area, and he was a tinkerer.

He ended up crashing his computer so many times and running it so hard that it melted some core parts in the tower somewhere and then we threw it off a bridge.

[seakingtheonixpected]

Well I don't think anything like that is going to happen. But I'd rather not corrupt my new computer if I can avoid it.

[seakingtheonixpected]

Well the giving point.

 

One of the others is that it's free.

 

Meanwhile Microsoft charges for Office, greedy bastards.

[Affray]

Sounds like he fucked with the bios and tried overclocking, not a linux issue. I'm not entirely sure how an operating system would cause hardware failure on a level of melting parts (I don't think it could but I'm not really sure) and linux has traditionally been much much much more stable than windows, especially in the older eras, which has always been one of its big selling points.

By no means am I blaming either OS.

I am sure it was his messing about that did it in, but I am certain that trying to use both Windows and Linux at the same time is what lead him to the burnout.

It was an old computer, even at the time, so it probably wasn't in fine form in the first place.

 

 

Well I don't think anything like that is going to happen. But I'd rather not corrupt my new computer if I can avoid it.

No matter how you muck up your computer, you can always wipe the bastard and start fresh.

[seakingtheonixpected]

Well you can't always clean up after a overclocking like Emo said.

 

But yeah, I suppose I should probably backup my files on a daily basis, that is just a lot of work >.<

[Champion of Cyrodiil]

From what I understand, the most dangerous thing with Linux "back in the day" was choosing the wrong refresh rate when running X on a CRT.  Essentially you could break your monitor by exceeding it's signal range.  However, I never physically saw this happen.

 

'Old VGA displays are infamous for burning out when you feed them a signal that doesn't exactly match these rates. While modern CRTs are mostly protected from bad signaling, you must know that you can break hardware in this fashion, and that you need to be careful.'

http://wiki.osdev.or...nals_And_Timing

 

 

Today, the only thing you need to worry about is messing up the re-partitioning of your disk or the boot sector/MBR.  Once there are separate partitions and you can successfully boot into either OS, you'll likely be fine as long as you don't go messing with the Windows partition while running linux.

 

gParted has worked for me in the past, but I wouldn't trust it with my important data.  The best thing to use would be a persistent installation of your fav. linux distro on a thumb drive, if you want to play around.  Another good option would be to simply add another drive to your rig, if possible.

 

I successfully ran Ubuntu at work for about 2 years.  The trick was to use a WindowsXP VM with virtualBox to supplement the Linux OS.  With that configuration I was able to utilize Windows VPN client with USB Card Reader, run office with exchange connectivity, and easily run any applications that only reside on the windows platform.

 

Ultimately I switched back to Windows when ATI stopped supporting the older GPU i had running under X.  Not that I blame them, its normal to end support for a product at the end of it's life.

 

Of course all  20+ servers I have are mostly CentOS/RHEL 6.x Minimal.  IMO, There is no other 'officially supported' OS that can compare when it comes to running lean.  Setup a web server yesterday... was using ~170MB of RAM at boot.  (before starting jboss of course)

 

I have also been quite interested in SuseStudio in the past.  You can create a custom OS on their website and download the ISO.  Pretty neat if you ask me.

[seakingtheonixpected]

So I attempted to install the OS on the flash drive.

 

I put the ISO containing Ubuntu on the flash drive and then ran the reformatting program.

 

I got an error a few seconds in saying the ISO was gone and then I realized that I was trying to reformat while drawing from something on the disk.

 

I'm redownloading the ISO now... derp.

[seakingtheonixpected]

Here is a picture of what happened

[Champion of Cyrodiil]

I think you have somehow written the actual ISO to the thumbdrive... not quite what needs to happen.

 

 

Go ahead and right-click the E: and reformat it using fat32 or ntfs first...

 

Then, go to 

http://www.ubuntu.co...tick-on-windows

 

There you will find a link to pendrivelinux.com , you can get the Universal installer there(http://www.pendrivel...ler-1.9.5.1.exe).  Scroll down and click the Green Download UUI link, not the DOWNLOAD NOW Ad-Sense at the top.

 

Use their utility to make a bootable thumbdrive with ubuntu iso.

 

When the utility is writing the 'casper' storage container to your thumbdrive, it will appear to 'freeze' for a long period of time.  Be patient and it should finish.

 

Afterwards, you should be able to boot from USB Storage at your BIOS boot screen.  May have to enable it in your bios.

[seakingtheonixpected]

So I did all of that and now the drive has converted itself to a "install ubuntu" drive. However, when open the wubi file (which is the only one that seems to be operatable) it gives me the option to install it on my C: drive but not on the actual thumb drive.

 

The drive is 4 gbs and the site said I'd only need 2 gigs to do it, so not sure why I can't select it.

[seakingtheonixpected]

So a little update.

 

I finally got around to installing Ubuntu 13.04. So now I have it all dualled up. I haven't had a lot of time to test everything out but it is all in working order!