Hi all,
I'd like to share this (short) story...

First of all, I'm an old user. very old, I first used linux 4 years ago. I'm also a novice/intermediate user :).

I tried linux out of boredom, and used it just for fun. I couldn't help throwing my (over than 10 years) of experience with M$ products, starting from DOS 6 on a 386 machine uptil Windows XP.

To say the truth, I was kinda satisifed with win$. I always knew that linux was far more stable, but hey I had clean hardware and as a desktop user a crash every 10 hours of heavy activity (yes it's true!) wasn't really annoying.....

Anyway, to keep the long story short - XP was becoming really sluggish... it is more stable than 95/98, but really slow due to the installed software. It was slow that I even couldn't wait to the shutdown sequence... I used to turn it off directly !

Apparently, this caused a registry error. While trying to boot, I'm greeted by a blue screen saying "registry corrupted". what shall I do ?? no fixes... well, reinstall !!

Here's where I got it... the NASTIEST shock in my life !!!

It gave me a message stating that, if I reinstall then I'll lose all user settings, docs etc..

filled with fear, I did backup my documents then proceded wth installation.

Finally, after installation - what was the result ?? a brand new system.

WHAT the ?!?@##$#!!! ? no winamp ?!!?? no winzip /?! no "Easy CD creator" ? ICQ / MSN .... etc....

as if I formatted my h.d.d !!! everything was lost !!

Now I had to spend hours re-configuring everything and reinstalling software I already had..

p.s. to M$: usually products get better, but in your case I don't know.
Messing up people's work isn't something to be taken lightly.


This is where I decided - damn windows !!! Linux is the way !

I installed gentoo and now I'm using linux..

to all who's still hesitated: Just Do it !! you won't regret it !


p.s I still have XP for my parents and when I *really* need it (which is now very rare).

Originally posted by ShErbO
Hi all,
I'd like to share this (short) story...

First of all, I'm an old user. very old, I first used linux 4 years ago. I'm also a novice/intermediate user :).

I tried linux out of boredom, and used it just for fun. I couldn't help throwing my (over than 10 years) of experience with M$ products, starting from DOS 6 on a 386 machine uptil Windows XP.

To say the truth, I was kinda satisifed with win$. I always knew that linux was far more stable, but hey I had clean hardware and as a desktop user a crash every 10 hours of heavy activity (yes it's true!) wasn't really annoying.....

Anyway, to keep the long story short - XP was becoming really sluggish... it is more stable than 95/98, but really slow due to the installed software. It was slow that I even couldn't wait to the shutdown sequence... I used to turn it off directly !

Apparently, this caused a registry error. While trying to boot, I'm greeted by a blue screen saying "registry corrupted". what shall I do ?? no fixes... well, reinstall !!

Here's where I got it... the NASTIEST shock in my life !!!

It gave me a message stating that, if I reinstall then I'll lose all user settings, docs etc..

filled with fear, I did backup my documents then proceded wth installation.

Finally, after installation - what was the result ?? a brand new system.

WHAT the ?!?@##$#!!! ? no winamp ?!!?? no winzip /?! no "Easy CD creator" ? ICQ / MSN .... etc....

as if I formatted my h.d.d !!! everything was lost !!

Now I had to spend hours re-configuring everything and reinstalling software I already had..

p.s. to M$: usually products get better, but in your case I don't know.
Messing up people's work isn't something to be taken lightly.


This is where I decided - damn windows !!! Linux is the way !

I installed gentoo and now I'm using linux..

to all who's still hesitated: Just Do it !! you won't regret it !


p.s I still have XP for my parents and when I *really* need it (which is now very rare).
Congrats and welcome to gentoo!!
moved to 2.6.x yet?
[07:36:37][~] -> cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.1-love2 (root@OneOfOne) (gcc version 3.3.2 20031218 (Gentoo Linux 3.3.2-r5, propolice-3.3-7)) #1 Sat Jan 10 18:39:47 EET 2004
[07:51:22][~] ->
:cool:
peace

Salamo 3alaikom,

Welcome to the Linux world. I wonder when would you go back to Windows. My advise is to make ur parents accounts on Linux and let them use it and see its powers.

Salam.

Gentoo!!!! I suppose there is not accounting for people's taste :-)

anyway, did this winXP release happen to be an OEM thingie??
AFAIK the CDs you get when you buy brand hardware are not realy Windows installation cds but rather a rescue CD that wipes the system and installs a preconfigured image.
this means that it'll even wipe out your Linux installation.

and the best part is you cannot ask for a proper installation CD, so while in theory you are allowed to use this licencse on another PC as long as you wipe it from the old one, in reality this might not be posible due to hardware differences.

so people end up paying for the software twice just to get a decent installer.

then again maybe you had a proper copy of windows and it just decided to be playful with you (M$ software has a history of acting cute since they merged the M$ Bob interface with the Office API).

I'm glad I spared myself the whole XP thing, I only spent -2 years with 98.

and realy do your parents a favor and give them user accounts, as long as they have someone to admin the box GNU/Linux won't be that hard.

cheers,
Alaa

I agree with you all, I should start a migration plan for my parents. I won't rush however, until I configure my system & install all the alternative software.
I don't want them to get a false impression that linux is just a 'geek' OS that can't get the job done.

p.s Thanks alot OneOfOne for the 3GB of sources & your guidance during installation :)

let them start with linux
---------
it's not that difficult beleve me
once I go to buy something leaving my linux in run level 2 with a bare consol
when I get back I say my little 15-years-old sistter playing same-gnome in icewm, I saked how ,she told me that she typed startx !!!! she is not a windows expert ,last month she learn how to open a new folder in windows using right click new folder !!!
----

Originally posted by ShErbO
I agree with you all, I should start a migration plan for my parents. I won't rush however, until I configure my system & install all the alternative software.
I don't want them to get a false impression that linux is just a 'geek' OS that can't get the job done.

p.s Thanks alot OneOfOne for the 3GB of sources & your guidance during installation :)
you're very welcome :)

and ErrorMsg gentoo isn't exactly a road trip like rpm-based distros, unless you're really into linux gentoo could give you the wrong impression.

peace

Originally posted by ErrorMsg
let them start with linux
---------
it's not that difficult beleve me
once I go to buy something leaving my linux in run level 2 with a bare consol
when I get back I say my little 15-years-old sistter playing same-gnome in icewm, I saked how ,she told me that she typed startx !!!! she is not a windows expert ,last month she learn how to open a new folder in windows using right click new folder !!!
----

heh my li'il sister knows startx since she was 8.
now she's getting her own GNU/Linux box on her birthday (10 years).

TuXracer and Frozenbubble are very good childpropaganda tools (they work for adults too).

cheers,
Alaa

Congratulations...!
I am happy for you!

Max

Salamo 3alaikom,

Go Linux Go and Sink Windows Sink.

Salam.

Congratulations!!

You make a step I really want to do from a long time ago... but all that H/W which is not compatible with linux force me away

so anyone achieved the other goal of only using free software??

or at least not depending on anything but freesoftware (ie the only non free software you use is casual to you, and you could stop using it if you had to).

I still rely on a couple of nonfree packages, one is an addiction and the other is a driver ;-(

I also play the occasional non free game but I'm not much of a gamer anyway.

cheers,
Alaa

Salamo 3alaikom

Windows games can go on Linux with wine. I didn't play a single DOS game on Linux successfully though. It might be my fault.

Salam.

Originally posted by habdin

I didn't play a single DOS game on Linux successfully though. It might be my fault.

dosbox

Salamo 3alaikom,

Games like TS and Commandos don't want to get played through wine on my machine. Are they playable through dosbox?

Salam.

if you want to play old dos games you have two options.

dosbox and dosemu

dosbox is very CPU intensive, it works best for very old realmode games.

dosemu is fast on protected mode and slow on realmode (I have no idea how this is possible).

dosbox is a complete dos emulator, dosemu is actualy a thin layer of hardware emulation that you need to install a version of DOS on top, the dosemu site has a preconfigured freedos image, for greater compatibility you might want to use a dos 6.22 image if you have the disks around.

cheers,
Alaa

Salamo 3alaikom,

Thanks for the information ya alaa. I really meant games like TS and Commandos. I found them to be working on Linux on winehq.com web site. I find this not true on my machine. What makes me wonder more is the ability of Others to run Windows Games (Counter-Strike) on Linux. Is it a wrong wine configuration on my side? I really don't know. I guess if the problem persists and I failed in searching I will post a thread about it soon ISA.

Salam.

are TS and commandos windows or dos games??

the wineX people claim that counterstrike does not work on their product!!

but maybe these people installed in windows first, some games will work on wine but will not install on wine, and then there are some that will only work if you use the windows dlls.

have you tried grabbing winex from CVS??

cheers,
Alaa

Salamo 3alaikom,

Actually I tried running both games (after installing them on Linux) on both wine and wineX. Both procedures failed. I simply have removed Windows totally off my PC. I don't care to have back on the PC for the sake of playing games. I really wanted to proove that Linux is capable of playing those Windows games. I know that Commandos and TS are Windows games. They don't have a conventional Window with border if we talk more technical do they, you can't make the app to be windowed either (pressing ALT+Enter like in Dos games). That is why I am confused and don't know if to consider Commandos and TS Windows games or DOS games.

Salam.

Originally posted by alaa
are TS and commandos windows or dos games??

the wineX people claim that counterstrike does not work on their product!!

but maybe these people installed in windows first, some games will work on wine but will not install on wine, and then there are some that will only work if you use the windows dlls.

have you tried grabbing winex from CVS??

cheers,
Alaa
i don't know about winex, but CS installed fine on wine :p

peace

yeah it turns out, wineX can no longer use all code contributed to wine since wine is now LGPL, so maybe there are things that work on wine and not on winex.

cheers,
Alaa

It was slow that I even couldn't wait to the shutdown sequence... I used to turn it off directly !

Do you really think that linux takes shorter time to shut down ?
and you should not offend a product as it is the user's fault , that leads to earasing data :P~
Linux cause my data to be gone away many times ... did I say "damn linux ...." ... no , cuz I know it is my fault .

:D:D:D:D

Not the MS fan myself
and this ofcourse isnt a solution but its a disaster recovery plan

you could have backed up your registry or an image of your HD , but i know thats all BULL

Linux,BSDs work very much well

you need to look at the face of a manager
when u tell him

sir without paying anything you have a Mail/Web/Firewall/network administrating,... server
cos i've seen it :)

good day

Originally posted by jitter
Not the MS fan myself
and this ofcourse isnt a solution but its a disaster recovery plan

you could have backed up your registry or an image of your HD , but i know thats all BULL

Linux,BSDs work very much well

you need to look at the face of a manager
when u tell him

sir without paying anything you have a Mail/Web/Firewall/network administrating,... server
cos i've seen it :)

good day

To the managers, it's sure just a matter of reducing the overall cost.

But to you, it's much more (at least I think it is) You get to enjoy your freedom with all the free software around to tinker with, something you don't get on commercial systems.

cheers,
Maher

hmm guys I didn't lose my data, sure I did a backup !!!


The problem was with the settings, the installed software etc.....

Imagine having to set-up everything from the beginning. Installing office - ICQ - MSN - WinAmp - CD Clone , Kre8or etc....

With Linux & previous versions of windows you don't have to do all that !! wer're talking about a simple "reinstall" not a format !!!

I think it's like alaa said, the OEM version