Mandrake Linux & Win XP

Hey, I've seen a lot of screenshots and stuff, and Mandrake Linux looks pretty cool. I'm thinking about running it as a double boot with Win XP. Anyone know any problems with this? Also, what's the difference between KDE & GNOME? I thought it was just the interface, but there seems to be a software compatibility issue also. I know Linux will set itself up to double boot, but is there a way I can load XP by default, and only Mandrake if I choose it? Should I install Mandrake on a different hard drive than XP. What file types does linux support. Any more info is appreciated on this whole Linux thing. It's got me interested.

For desktop use it's mostly a tinker-around OS..unless you are serious about running a server or if you just like to mess around, don't bother with it.

As for dual boot it should work fine.

If you using it for bussiness then go with Linux. I would got with Linux if you are going to install important files on the machine. If it's just for mucking around on then use windows.

that is the exact configuration that i have, be sure that you are partitioned with fat32, although this isn't mandatory it does make thinks alot easier, if you aren't, make a fat32 partition with partition magic big enough to accomadate madnrake and then tell mandrake to take from the windows partition, I don't reccomend defining ex2 partitions in Partition magic cause it just causes headaches :). There are really no other problems with the installation, Lilo will be your boot loader, initially it will autoconfigure you to load mandrake after 4 seconds but that can be changed to load windows (once you finish installing there will be a control panel icon on the desktop in which you can change this). It seems there are a compatability issues between kDE and gnome, KDE has a built in development environment into it (C++) and it will make you a shell of a KDE program, i noticed there are KDE specific header files in there so i guess they are non-compatable, also the applets included with gnome won't run in KDE (i guess due to compatability issues)

I believe you can run KDE apps in Gnome and vice versa as long as you have the other installed for KDE- or Gnome-specific libraries and such.

hmm i havn't tried, i use KDE and nothing that gnome has KDE doesn't have

Does GNOME or KDE have the most, or best software? StarOffice or KOffice? Any cool programs I should get? I know there's not that much Linux software out there. I also noticed while looking at screenshots that you can somehow run Win apps out of mandrake. What software do I need to do this? Thanks.

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Originally posted by hipopony66
Does GNOME or KDE have the most, or best software? StarOffice or KOffice? Any cool programs I should get? I know there's not that much Linux software out there. I also noticed while looking at screenshots that you can somehow run Win apps out of mandrake. What software do I need to do this? Thanks.

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Yeah, its emulator software called Wine.

Like everything else in Lunix, its a pain to installl...:p

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Originally posted by hipopony66
Does GNOME or KDE have the most, or best software? StarOffice or KOffice? Any cool programs I should get? I know there's not that much Linux software out there. I also noticed while looking at screenshots that you can somehow run Win apps out of mandrake. What software do I need to do this? Thanks.

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BY Default KDE has more system administration tools and applications( like koffice etc)... than Genome. I would recommend KDE over Genome.

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Originally posted by jpbtennisman


Yeah, its emulator software called Wine.

Like everything else in Lunix, its a pain to installl...:p

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WHAT!?! wine is very very easy to install, just go to package manager, select wine, and select install. thats it

WINE Is Not an Emulator.

lol,

yeah when i ran mandrake i had a few problems with WINE not really with the install but with the sodding dependencies, but when i moved to SuSE WINE comes fully installed with the modules that it need, i would only really use WINE for little apps such as solitaire or paint, anything to intensive and the poor thing dies

question on dual boot(im waiting for my copy of mandrake 8.2 to come in..woot!)

do I have to put it onto a partition on the master hd or can it be on a slave hd?

Ive always run linux on a seperate comp, but im getting rid of my second computer and need to dual bott it with win 2000.

Cander, my main home computer has Win2K / RH Linux dual boot with 2K on the first HD using NTFS and Linux on the second HD using ext2.

See:
http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00011.asp

that article looks to be just what i need..danke...

I just downloaded Mandrake 8.2 last night =). I plan on instaling it later =).

Z.

Something cool: VMware can treat an ISO as if it were an actual drive, so you don't even have to burn the ISO if you want to try it out in VMware :cool:

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Originally posted by Cander
question on dual boot(im waiting for my copy of mandrake 8.2 to come in..woot!)

do I have to put it onto a partition on the master hd or can it be on a slave hd?

Ive always run linux on a seperate comp, but im getting rid of my second computer and need to dual bott it with win 2000.

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linux is nice in the fact that it can go on a logical partition OR a primary partition, so you can put as many copies of linux on one machine as you want.

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Originally posted by filburt1
Something cool: VMware can treat an ISO as if it were an actual drive, so you don't even have to burn the ISO if you want to try it out in VMware :cool:

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Cool, i know there are programs that can extract the files in an ISO but i didn't know that they could be burned :cool: :cool: :cool:

The only problem with VMWare is that it slows stuff down, which makes UI stuff clunky. It also wouldnt let me install Mandrake 8.2 earlier (the installer just died, and went to a blank screen =). So I cleaned out a drive, and installed it there =).

Z.