Ides Of March
Despite the benefits of using Linux as your desktop, Windows remains and will continue to be the most widely used system for the next few years. Some popular software will run in the Linux WINE compatibility layer. My favourite money program, Ace Money, runs fine and even let's me have a desktop shortcut. Other necessary software, TurboTax for example, will not. There are two solutions, each having some merits.
Solution One. Set up a dual boot machine. I tried this on my Vista laptop using the Wubi installer to install Ubuntu 7.04. This worked well except my Linux system had no sound. This was corrected by installing the ALSA sound drivers. I have read that folks downgrading their systems from Vista to XP also lose their sound. Fortunately, Microsoft offers a free patch for this. Although a dual boot machine is a good solution I am not sure that Wubi is the way to do it, When I attempted to upgrade 7.04 to 7.10, I trashed the system. I will be doing this again in a few weeks when the 8.04 edition of Ubuntu is released.
Solution Two. Use a virtual machine. If your "host" operating system is Vista you will suffer a performance problem only because Vista is so slow. Nevertheless, using Qemu you can boot and run various Linux distros to take a look at them without booting "live" CD's. On the other hand, if your "host" system is Linux the performance of the "guest" system should be pretty good.
I used the free VMWare Server to test the concept. Installing VMWare was a no-brainer. I had some problem installing XP from a CD. This was not a fault with VMWare but with my messed up hardware that includes a broken drive. I discovered that you really don't need an installation CD to install XP, VMWare can use an iso image. And so, in about an hour, I had XP working in a window on Ubuntu.
Live CD's are an excellent way to evaluate Linux distros. Most have a "persistent" feature so that you can actually use the CD as your OS and save data and software to your hard disk. Good for evaluation but eventually you will install and the live CD can do this too!
Solution One. Set up a dual boot machine. I tried this on my Vista laptop using the Wubi installer to install Ubuntu 7.04. This worked well except my Linux system had no sound. This was corrected by installing the ALSA sound drivers. I have read that folks downgrading their systems from Vista to XP also lose their sound. Fortunately, Microsoft offers a free patch for this. Although a dual boot machine is a good solution I am not sure that Wubi is the way to do it, When I attempted to upgrade 7.04 to 7.10, I trashed the system. I will be doing this again in a few weeks when the 8.04 edition of Ubuntu is released.
Solution Two. Use a virtual machine. If your "host" operating system is Vista you will suffer a performance problem only because Vista is so slow. Nevertheless, using Qemu you can boot and run various Linux distros to take a look at them without booting "live" CD's. On the other hand, if your "host" system is Linux the performance of the "guest" system should be pretty good.
I used the free VMWare Server to test the concept. Installing VMWare was a no-brainer. I had some problem installing XP from a CD. This was not a fault with VMWare but with my messed up hardware that includes a broken drive. I discovered that you really don't need an installation CD to install XP, VMWare can use an iso image. And so, in about an hour, I had XP working in a window on Ubuntu.
Live CD's are an excellent way to evaluate Linux distros. Most have a "persistent" feature so that you can actually use the CD as your OS and save data and software to your hard disk. Good for evaluation but eventually you will install and the live CD can do this too!
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