[sf-lug] hi

[Tom Haddon]

On Thu, 2008-03-20 at 20:24 -0700, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> hi 
> 
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 8:02 PM, Bill Kendrick <nbs at sonic.net> wrote:
>         On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 07:41:22PM -0700, david perez wrote:
>         >    I would like to test out Linux as my winDohs system
>         always crashes. Does
>         >    anyone have a spare computer to part with so I could
>         experiment?
>         
>         
>         If you have spare disk space, you can always install Linux on
>         a
>         separate partition.  Most modern Linux distribution installers
>         include
>         a way for resizing the Windows section of your drive, to make
>         space for
>         Linux.
> 
> 
> I personally would be cautious about messing with the hard drive on a
> production proprietary machine.  I am a relatively simple end user who
> is climbing the learning curve, and I have learned a lot, and I can do
> about 25 script commands or so, but I still would not partition a hard
> drive with any kind of proprietary operating system on it.  For me,
> there are just too many issues with re-installing a proprietary
> operating system.  Now I have not used any proprietary operating
> system since 2001, except for about a total of maybe 1 hour here and
> there in little bits, but I just recall having to call tech support
> constantly for stupid things.  

Things have improved quite a lot on this front since 2001 :)

Having said that, I wouldn't recommend going through a full Linux
install of any kind to someone who is entirely unfamiliar with what
Linux is (but then I wouldn't recommend trying to install Windows from
scratch to anyone either). Live CDs and Virtual Machines can be a good
introduction, but there's no substitute for having someone to help you
through the process, initially at least.

Tom

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