This is a first for me…a rant against Linux and for Windoze. I just got a new laptop after my ol’ Gateway broke. I thought I was going to start using Linux Mint 7 Gloria on it, but I think I’m sticking with Vista for a while. Oh noes!! DDD: A traitor has arisen! I’ll tell you why.
I found the Gloria installer confusing. It was OK in its GUI, but when I came to the ‘partition disk’ part, it sudenly got confusing because it said ‘use systems side by side’ or ‘manual partition’, and I had no idea what either one meant, nor did they have a Help dialogue. I was afraid of messing up my brand-new $750 Dell laptop so I’m back to Vista. I’m also thinking about getting Windoze 7 when it comes out, since it’s supposed to use less memory and whatever.
In my 4 years of delving into Linux and other OS’s, what I have found is that it’s not the program as it is what it does. Vista seems to be the answer for now and so I’m going to stick with it and use the rebate to get Windoze 7. Also with Windoze you get stability because it’s not updating like every 10 minutes like Linux, though on the flipside you have to endure endless Windoze Updates updates all the time (but only if you’re connected to the Internets).
This post isn’t meant to inflame anyone over OS’s. I’m free to my own opinion and I don’t think it matters anymore if you use Windows or Linux or Mac. It’s whatever works for you and gets the job done. Afterall they all have the same basic programs anyway for the same tasks: Windows = Microsoft Explorer, Linux = Nautilus, Max = whatever file explorer a Mac has.
In your four years of having used Linux, how often have you installed? “Use systems side by side” would mean the installer is offering to keep your Windows install, and have Linux on a partition after that, so you get the two “side by side” (or, more correctly, one after the other on separate partitions) and you can boot up in either Windows or Linux any time you want. I don’t think you should be considering the “manual partition” option.
That really is a “flipside”… haven’t you contradicted yourself in the same sentence?
Phone up Dell and ask them whether installing a different OS would void your warantee. Over here (New Zealand) I understand it does (which surprised me big time), so if your computer comes with Windows, keep it that way (or get a separate hard drive to install any other OS to, so you can swap drives when requesting warantee support). This is kind of strange because Dell sells laptops with a variety of OS, and I understand it’s due to them not wanting to get into having to complete bad installs of users for free.
But yes, OS bashing topics are about as lame as telling people to google their own help requests. Especially on a forum dedicated to Blender, which goes very well on multiple OS versions anyway.
I found the ‘install side by side’ confusing because although I’ve installed Linux on my other laptop like 3 times (before it broke), those previous versions had different wording, and when I pressed the button before I backtracked, it didn’t tell me at all what it was doing to the HDD. The lack of information caused me to back out.
Also, as far as contradicting myself…no OS is perfect. Linux isn’t perfect, nor is Windoze perfect. I don’t especially like Windows but I find it’s the better system when I need to use it. And no, I don’t want to bash anyone’s OS, that’s why I’m trying to stay as neutral as possible. I find the more Linuxes I install the more blase I get about the OS issue.