Hi Vincent!

Red Hat 8 had dual boot, it is a good bet that RH 9 does also. I didn't

like RH 8 because I couldn't get it to print and I couldn't get Wine or any

of the database stuff to work. The dead-tree manual with it (Red Hat 8

Bible) was no help. I emailed the author and he didn't have the answers

either. Not only that, RH 8 would not connect to the web from my notebook

unless I used a serial modem that was almost like carrying another

notebook! Red Hat support is no help at all unless the problem is in the

plugging in the power cord category, in my opinion.

Printers, scanners, modems, display and sound cards are all Linux flash

points. There are hardware compatibility lists that are *supposed* to tell

you what works with what. Yeah, right. If it gets much worse, setting up

Windows XP, XP Pro, NT or 2000 will actually be easier than setting up

Linux. Of course, most people never do this because these Windows flavors

come pre-installed with the box when you buy the box. There are places that

sell pre-configured Linux boxes, but you say that is not your plan.

I installed SuSE 8.2 and it also has failed to satisfy me. The dual boot

defaults to Linux, not cool for someone married to the Great Satan. The

worst thing about SuSE, though, is that it made the whole drive read only,

very not cool at all. Fdisk and re-install everything "big bill" or

otherwise. My friend installed SuSE 8.2 and had NO trouble - everything

worked great and he loves it. His wife took to it too! Go figure.

In addition, I tried Mandrake 9.1 and that, contrary to some reports, is

not ready for prime time, unless you are a software genius. Chet loves it,

but Chet is a software genius. I guess with all of these you install it and

if it works you love it, if it doesn't work, no one will be able to supply

a work around. You fdisk and start over.

Back up *everything* on removable media before you start and make sure you

have all your old OS and old program set up media handy, including all

drivers. Be ready to buy new stuff such as modems, printers, CD and hard

drives if your old stuff won't work. It most likely won't hose your hard

drive, but you might have to fdisk and reformat. You could also find that

less than optimal bios and jumper settings tolerated by windoze don't work

with some flavors of Linux.

Right now my ISP/Linux Guru is setting up Gentoo 1.4 for me on a new P IV

that cost me a leg and an arm. He is almost done and he even has the

printer printing. I had him do this after I tried to do it myself for a

month. It required broadband until last week, and I have only dial-up. The

nice thing about Gentoo is that it self updates, both the kernel and the

application packages. However, he has been at it for two weeks and he is a

Gentoo expert. This machine will not have any M$ on it.

This last week Gentoo has come out with a 2 CD self-install set for $15.

($18.50 with shipping <http://store.gentoo.org/>). You may be able to

download this if you have a fast connection. Downloaded it is free,

<http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml>. If you are patient you could

maybe even get it with dial-up. This is the first time Gentoo has offered a

self-install, the build my ISP/Linux Guru is doing for me is an all-manual

build. If you have an old box, this self-install also comes in flavors for

old boxes. How old? 486 DX with 64 meg, is that old enough? Look at the

install directions here: <http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml>

In a week or two I will try the Gentoo self-install CDs on a couple of old

boxes around here.

Regards,

Pete

At 09:31 PM 8/6/03 -0400, you wrote:

>I'm itching to get my feet wet in Linux, but the bux for a separate machine

>just ain't happening. I went to LinuxISO and read that SUSE has a feature

>that will automagically partition your drive for you, and let you boot into

>either Suse or Winblows.

>

>I went to Suse's site, and their YAST tool screen shot seems

>impressive. They are also supposed to have an Eval version that will run

>from CD, although I haven't located it yet.

>

>My questions are:

>1. Has anyone heard anything about the partioner - any bad experiences? At

>this point, I'm still married to big bill, and if anything happens to my

>Windows setup, I am beyond screwed.

>

>2. Has anyone heard, or better yet, used Suse? How does it compare to

>RedHat? I was all hot and bothered to try RH9, but it doesn't seem to have

>compariable dual boot/eval capabilities. Thanks!

>

>

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