I currently consider to moving the forum to it's own website and merging both NT and Linux Compatible forums to a single one.

What do you think? Good or bad idea?

heh. I always wondered why you had two especially since some parts of the forum were already sharing some parts. (Slack Space, Buy/Sell, Moderator forum).

Sounds good to me.

It's also a PITA to have to surf 2 different forums.....

I like that idea too, I currently work for a POS(Point of Sales) company and support both XP Pro workstations along with a Linux based distro server.

It would help me out too for tips and tricks that I need to get for either OS

I think it would certainly spark interest in Linux from Windows people who've never considered it, plus they'd be in a familiar environment to ask questions if they took the plunge.

You might get the occasional "Windows is teh ghey" or "Lunix suxors" from the fanboys (think the Halo vs Half-Life2 thread) but overall it could be a good experiment.

Things have become a little stagnant here and I guess will do until Vista beta gets a good following. Bring it!

It sounds like a good idea Philipp and I agree with Felix that it might help windows people become interested in linux.
On a different subject associated with the merger. Do you think you will make a sticky for people on how to post before they make a post in the forums?

Understatement of the century!

Originally posted by dosfreak:


I wouldn't call myself a big poster but I read through every thread on the "Latest Threads" daily and try to help when I can, with the limited knowledge I have (which was all nearly gained by reading threads here.) What I'm saying is that when I read through the threads there are about 8-10 names I see giving replies and many many times that asking questions. I think a merger would be a good idea to maybe incorporate a few more knowledgable readers to both sides of the site. This group of "computer nerds" (Myself and others) is the nicest and most easy going of any forum I am a member of and I always post my questions here first to avoid getting 5 flames and 1 real helpful answer the way I do on sites like Toms Hardware or a couple others.

Turned into a long way to say I think a merger would be helpful for many people and I look forward to learning more from a larger group of individuals smarter than I.

I have thought about this a bit and see pros and cons. However, the issue here is what the folks here on the forum who read and post questions would like and feel would be helpful.

It may make it a little more difficult for me to sort through the posts (Linux vs. Windows), but this may just be my perception, or my limited expertise/ability to do so effectively.

I also agree that some sticky posts would be helpful to quide folks to the right place in general. I like the idea of a sticky on how to post questions (general guidelines), which could save time and result in more accurate and complete answers being posted by those who would like to share possible solutions.

A fair number of new members who post questions don't know how to search for answers to questions that have been asked and answered frequently. Perhaps a sticky or introductory statement could help in this regard, as well.

I still like the idea of having some space dedicated to posting articles of small how-to articles on such frequently asked questions. I have placed several on my own website to refer to when needed.

On the Linux side, there are a very few folks who attempt to answer questions. Having the forum combined should also increase the pool of folks who would like to post suggested solutions and share their knowledge with others.

So, to make this a less winded response, Why not? Merge the two forums and give it a go! Because <signature>

My vote for merging.

And:
Originally posted by danleff:

I vote for a merger too. You could even obviously have more categories but all on the same starting website. This would be the perfect situation for someone like me who was interested in running a Linux box but drifted away when I felt it was a little more than I was willing to exert. Plus like the other people have said, for those who have heard of Linux but had no idea how to get started, it would be readily available anytime they came to this one site.

Now if I could just get the motivation to get my watercooled HTPC and Gaming rigs assembled I might actually check the forum a little more often than the once a week that I do from work.

Sortof off topic, but I'm sure no one will put up a fight.

Roughly how difficult is it to run a Linux machine. I have enough leftover parts from upgrades and new builds that I can toss together a box that would surf the internet to death and make a decent file server or something if need be. I have a little knowledge of C++ if that helps and will be taking Intermediate Computer Science this fall. Is there any good guides that you guys use/ have used? I'm sure google will show me some but any recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

And again: thumbs up on the merger.

Using Linux is no more difficult than using Windows. (Assuming your using a comparable distro....).

For instance:

Using Ubuntu or Suse 10 are really no more harder to use than Windows. It's just that you are used to Windows and how to do things there and are not used to Linux.

With that said alot of things in Linux make more sense than Windows and some things are even easier to use.

For instance just yesterday a user had a hard drive with bad sectors. I tried everything with my BartPE disc and all of it's HD fixing/imaging tools. Nothing was able to recover the files....heck windows wouldn't even let me view the partition!

Not even Acronis or Ghost could do anything since as soon as it hit those bad sectors either Ghost would crash or Acronis would hang for hours.

Heck, I even tried SpinRite 6! I left it running for days! (Yeah, I know all about proper data recovery but according to the user the data wasn't that important and I wanted to test out Spinrite).

Finally I booted up the latest Ubuntu Live CD. Mounted the NTFS parition. Simply opened up a window viewing all of the files on the filesystem. Opened up another Window to a fileshare on my Windows server. Copied over the files and I'm done!

Now why couldn't I do that using Windows with all of the tons of utilities I've accumulated over the years? Truth is those utilities still have to rely on the underlying OS......and that was the problem right there.


As for Learning Linux Books. I can't really help ya there. Just segment off a block of time and dig right in there with some Ubuntu/Slackware/Suse/Fedora CD/DVD's.

Thanks Guys. The forum merge is coming most likely later this weekend.

Great! Look forward to it, as do many others

Thanks for the heads up Philipp.

Thanks.

Ditto from me too

Done

Let me know if there are any problems. Your old logins should work with the new forum software and the (old) front page.

Thanks again Philip, it's working fine for me after my login of course

Working fine!

Good job.

Haha, apparently I'm an addict and DosFreak has carpel tunnel.

Structure looks good but I'm wondering where I can change the colours? Also, Philip, are you able to tell us what new features you've implemented in this release?

I like the bookmark icon too. Has anyone posted notification to slashdot or such that these forums have merged, seems to be a little more activity.

Ta,
F

Submitted to digg.com: NT Compatible and Linux Compatible forums merged.

This is actually a 3rd party product called UBB.threads, which is basically the successor of the original Ultimate Bulletin Board, the forum software that this forum originally started off. Some of the new features over the old forum are: attachment support, avatar support, multiple posting tracking options (My Watch List), AJAX based posting preview and a calendar.

I made this switch because it is easier for the testing of the upcoming new CMS version to have the user database separated from the CMS. I am planning to run a hybrid install of both Storyteller 1.8 and 2.0 during the testing phase on the main sites.

The colors? I worked a few hours on that theme . What should I change? I could also install a few additional themes.

I like the new look Philipp. I was wondering if there was a way to tone down the harshness of the blue.

I have a question is there any difference between a reply and a quick reply?

I also like the little PM icon, sure makes it alot easier to notice if you have a waiting message, a very nice touch.

By the way Happy Belated Birthday Philipp:)

Phillip, could the signature be expanded to allow for greater than 100 characters? I link to webpages like the below "How to ask questions the smart way", in my sig but cannot on this site.

The below sig takes up 96 characters.