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OFF-TOPIC computer advice

To: "'Councill, David'" <dcouncill@msubillings.edu>
Subject: OFF-TOPIC computer advice
From: "allan" <Allan.Thompson@ntlworld.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:37:05 -0500
<I have used and work with quite few operating systems and am still mainly a
Windows person. Despite <what I see as shortcomings with Linux or Macs, I
try to keep an open mind and try to understand them <all and use them to
their fullest.

Likewise.... But I am growingly annoyed that MS change things:-
1. obviously to earn income from sales of operating systems and Office
software
2. to correct mistakes and weaknesses in their software
3. to sell more hardware
4. To change systems - not necessarily improve them so that we have to buy
to keep up (like the Office 2007 saving documents in a new MS format by
default)

I guess that it why we have an MG!

<Based on this thread, I have downloaded Ubuntu but have not installed it
yet. It indicated a need <for 192 mb ram but another lister said it should
have at least 500 mb ram. How much does yours have? <The last time I tried
using Linux (after dealing with that nightmare called Redhat), a friend
<suggested Mandrake. This was a few years ago. I installed it on a former
win2000 machine and found <its interface to be extremely sluggish.

Ubuntu does seem to take a while to boot from the hard drive - but maybe
that is me wanting it to load.... But otherwise no complaints over the speed
on the old machine that I have it on.

<After clicking on icons (Netscape I think) and a pause of 1-2 minutes, they
would all pop up. To <make matters worse, my linksys network card was not on
their list so I was expected to compile my <own tulip driver.

It seem that most network cards are automatically recognised now - or can
easily be added.

<So I put windows back on. Despite the argument of windows being a resource
hog, Mandrake seemed to <take it to a higher level. Thus I am concerned
about whether an XP mchine has enough resources to <run Ubuntu (it is right
now at 192 mb, P3 processor as I recall). I don't want to prejudge Ubuntu if
<its not running under proper resources. Then I can test it from there.

The machine that I have Ubuntu on still has Windows 98 on a partition. This
is an option when installing Ubuntu. So at boot time I can choose Linux or
Windows 98.
It is a Pentium III (500 mHz) with 320 mB RAM. I would think that much less
than this would cause the system to run quite slow.. But as it is... Seems
to work so far!

Allan




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