[Psion]

Hi all,
I am thinking of installing Mandarake Linux 9.2 on my laptop (A Time Traveller XP1400 - AMD 1.4GHz with S3 Twister AGP, Crystal 3d sound and DVD/CD-RW drive)

Can anyone tell me if:
1. It's gonna work or is it going to be a nightmare finding drivers?

2. Will my main software apps work - Adobe Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver MX, MS Office 2000.

The set-up is going to be used mainly for off-line web testing of PHP and MySQL databases.

My main server is running Win2000pro - is this going to be a prob?

[danleff]

These are the type of questions that prompt one to reply! The first question is, do you have any prior experience with Linux?

My two cents;

Your hardware looks OK, but you would want to check the Mandrake web site to check the hardware compatibility of your components. A little voice in the back of my head seems to remember some issues with this brand of laptop with Linux in general. However, the newer versions of the distros are getting much better at hardware detection. Laptops have always been a little more of a headache. Someone else correct me if I am wrong,

Drivers;

People think of Windows drivers. Linux uses the linux kernel to provide drivers, If the Mandrake site shows that your hardware is certified, then this step is ok. Otherwise, unless you have experience compiling a kernel, this may be a hassle. Your sound, DVD and processor should not be a problem. Check and make sure about the video card.

Wine, the package that emulates (yes, I lknow linux geeks), at least in the binary fom that comes packaged with most distros should run the apps that you mentioned, with some effort. Codeweavers Office does a much better job "out of the box" so this is an added expense.

Communicating with Win 200 should be OK, but, if the system is based on a NTFS filesystem, I believe that even the newer versions of Linux still are only effective at read-only of NTFS files. So, file transfers may be an issue.

I have no experience with PHP and such, therfore, I will not comment.

Of course, the one way to fnd out is to give it a try!

I suggest searching google, specifically related to your system and Mandrake and see what experience others have had with your laptop. Often, you can find someone who has worked out any bugs and who are happy to share their experience with others.

[Psion]

I have no experiance of installing Linux as of yet, I have used a Unix system once and have some experiance of DOS as well as installing all the diff Windows OS's (including setting up networks).

I have heard a few people mention that my laptop is designed around XP only and I did try installing 2000pro but had problems finding drivers. So am stuck with XP home, why I really want to put Linux on it cos XP pi$$es me off (too restrictive in its setup).

I guess, its like you say - Partition off and try...

I am using a NTFS system and do not really want to put back to FAT32 if I can help it.

Thanks for you comments, do you think I should try Red Hat instead?

[Dapper Dan]

Psion, if you just want to see if Linux itself will work on your laptop without regards to distro, A real uncomplicated way to do that is to download one of the cd based distros, set your bios to boot first from cd, and fire it up. Most modern cd based distros are pretty good about detecting hardware and finding the correct modules, and running from cd will not endanger what is presently installed to your HD.
Knoppix, which is Debian based, is the most popular. I particularly like Morphix 4.1 (based on Knoppix), which found and configured all but one piece of hardware on my wife's Toshiba Satellite laptop. After seeing everything would work, (other than the winmodem which we don't use anyway..), I installed it to hard drive, and it continues to run perfectly.

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

[danleff]

Good thought Dapper Dan! If you like Knoppix, you can always install it on the hard drive as well. This should give you an idea how it all works.

I do think that wine will not run your win apps. without a hassle. Again, Codeweavers Crossover Office runs all the apps that you noted out of the box. I use it all the time. I think that it is worth the extra cash.

You could also make a fat 32 partition on the system to use as a transfer partition for Windows and Linux, without bothering your NTFS filesystem. This way, you can store your important files on the partiton and have them available for both Linux and XP.

You may want to look at Frank's Corner, to give you an idea of what Wine is and related issues. It can be found at this location;

http://frankscorner.org/

[Psion]

Thanks both, I shall try what you have suggested, It's been a while since I use to play with my ZX Spectrum - messing about with programs to make them more 'mine'. I think I might enjoy Linux - if it all works...

[Dapper Dan]

danleff, I also give high marks to Crossover office. It's well worth the price when running certain Windows applications. It runs Quicken really well, but we had trouble getting it to run Quickbooks Pro 2000. Since we already had an old copy of Windows 98 that was no longer installed, I had a look at Win4lin. It's pretty neat in that you can install Windows to run right from your Linux desktop, and it runs Quickbooks, and just about every other Windows program I've tried, very well. The best part is, it seldom if ever crashes! We've been using it over a year now to run Quickbooks and I think it has given us only two, "..you have performed an illegal operation(s)."
Psion, If you have an old copy of Windows lying around, you may want to consider Win4lin as an option to run those programs.

[Psion]

Which would you recamend:

Win98se
Win2000pro
WinXP

;(

[Dapper Dan]

I don't really know Windows very well, but as I understand it, Win4lin will run Windows that is 98 based. It won't run the "new" Windows versions that XP is a part of.

[Psion]

This is good though - I was thinking of installing 98 on something, so I could play my old games, most of them don't like Win2000.

I have also just ordered Knoppix from MaxTrux.co.uk - only a couple of quid - files are too big for my poor dial-up... ;(

It will be here in a few days, can't wait to try out...

[Psion]

I've just downloaded Wine for Mandrake 9.2 from

http://rpmseek.com/rpm-dl/wine-20030813-1mdk.i586.html?hl=com&cx=0:-:0:917159:0:0:0

I'll try out once Mandrake is up and running....

[Dapper Dan]

psion, I use Win4lin/Windows98SE to install games, (Half-Life, Starcraft, Trespasser, etc.) and then run them using Winex from Linux. Too bad you couldn't download the free version of Knoppix. Oh well, anticipation can be exiting though!

[Psion]

Where's the best place to get Win4Lin from..?

[Dapper Dan]

Click on the link above where I first mention it. I think it cost around $90.00 now. For us, it has been well worth it. No more dual booting! I would still have a look at Crossover office though. You can download a trial version to see if it will install and run your particular apps.

[Psion]

Cheers Dapper Dan, you've been a great help...

[Dapper Dan]

Good Luck!

[Psion]

OK - here's a bit of an update, now I didn't have to long to play because it was getting late (you know...). I have tried out Knoppix 3.2 (EN) from the bottable CD, the desktop appeared soon after. The only parts not working correctly where the sound chipset (Apollo I think) and no network connection yet.

I might wait to see Mandrake 9.2 in opperation before I decide which to install.

Can anyone give me advice on how to set up my small office network, cos I keep running into too many Win2000 brickwalls... 8)

If yes, I'll supply my basic hardware / software sit and the kind of system I'm trying to achieve.... ;(