uSeR oPiNiOn PolL

I am not running Red Hat. I run Mandrake 9.0. I was going to load Redhat 8.0 but Mandrake had better support for "desktop" programs. Mandrake doesn't technically support the programs as they are in their "contrib" download sections. Redhat has them also. The other reason I run Mandrake is the user support and the ease of the install/upgrade process.

I would first download /purchase the os, Install it and get familiar with it. There is a great music ripper included also called Grip. Then get on their web site and start learning. Its really not that hard. The thing I like and its also probably the most intimidating to new users is... everything in linux is configurable. You can customise everything on your desktop; Even something as simple as whether you want a blinking colon in the clock.

Then start adding software. I started with DRIP. It was a good program. It would turn out a 2 pass divx5 avi in about 2.5 hours including the rip. Not bad. Then on a whim I tried dvd::rip. It is wonderful. I have since uninstalled drip. With dvd::rip I can pick and choose each chapter or the entire disc of the movie,audio,etc. etc.. the list goes on and on. The program is all in one tabbed interface. It is very easy to use. I have 76 rips and not one has failed. It uses transcode as the encoder and it does a great job. There is even a cluster mode. That means you can install just transcode on another pc and use them both for encoding. Pretty cool!!! Here are some links.
http://www.mandrake-linux.com
http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/
http://www.theorie.physik.uni-goettingen.de/~ostreich/transcode/


Check them out! and remember EVERYTHING is free including the operating system.

 

By the way your raid controller is supported under Mandrake.

 

Very cool info. It's really interesting to know that you're able to rip & encode DVD's to DivX on Linux. Thanks for the tip about Mandrake supporting the Highpoint RAID controller. I will definately take a look at Mandrake. From your personal experience, is it possible to run a dual-boot system with Mandrake and XP (each installed to its own partition) without one OS corrupting the other? This is for those of us who are interested in learning/getting familiar with Linux while at the same time getting our day-to-day work done in an environment we are more familiar with until we are up-to-speed using Linux.

I recently read an article that said that much of Microsoft's software, including OS's, is bloatware and is partly aimed at necessitating constant hardware upgrades in an effort to rub the back of Intel, who favors Microsoft with their latest high-end chips. The same article went on to say that current versions of Linux, while able to benefit from the greater capabilities of newer and faster systems, still run well on old 486 systems.

The backwards-compatibility of Linux with older hardware coupled with it's low investment price is reason enough to draw attention and make anyone consider migrating from a Windows-based OS to one that won't dictate that they shell out $200 every-other year on a new OS. Or, drop $1,000 on a new machine just to be able to run that OS.

I'll step off my soap-box now..hehe. Thanks for the input.

 

Sorry I must have missed this thread earlier.

Anyway XP is NOT the problem that most people think it is. 800meg (and I've see 650meg pc run XP fine)Athlon or P3 with 256 of 100mhz mem will run XP at acceptable speeds and stability. THE REAL PROBLEM with XP is the INSTALL requirements, get this wrong and your fresh install will be buggy (presuming you get it to install in the first place). Trust me I've put XP on about 20 pcs so far without a hitch. But to get to the point were I could install XP Pro without a hitch took 5 MONTHS of my afterwork life. Read that again 5 MONTHS as some errors do not show up immediately!

For advice on INSTALLING XP read my posts here http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/26329

Once installed and you have put in the graphics, sounds (if fitted), extra CD or DVD drives etc with there shiny new drivers (always use signed drivers over unsigned drivers AND avoid where pos the default XP drivers) you then need to check the services XP is running! 50% of the services that you will find running are POINTLESS on a stand alone PC. Microsft take the stand point of turning ON (most) all the background services and letting the ADMINISTRATOR sort out which ones to turn off. Remember (and I'm talking exclusively about XP PRO here)this edition was targetted at CORPORATE Users (not home users) where it all makes sense.

Now as an ADMINISTRATOR in a Corperate enviroment you will know your stuff. But a home user who becomes the administrator by default will not have a clue BUT because it looks SIMILAR to any previous (Windows 98 etc) version the public at large think it IS the same and they DO KNOW all about it, then ridicule it when things go wrong!! Just think how many people slag off XP!! Are you with me so far?

Next we have to look at the history of XP and as you quite rightly point out it is only a point release over W2K. This should now start the bells ringing in your head i.e. when do you think the source code was written? Answer: at the same time as W2K (late 90's) which explains what I've been trying to get through to everyone about not using NEW AGP Cards etc when installing.. XP WILL NOT HAVE A CLUE AND WILL TRY AND GIVE YOUR SUPER FANTASTIC CARD A DEFAULT (BASE LEVEL) DRIVER. But your card will not run properly with default drivers will it? So what happens on install is XP gets internal timing errors (checksum faults) and either corrupts the install completely OR corrupts (the install) VERY slightly but the error will not be seen and you will not know its there except for sluggish perfomance that gets more UNSTABLE over time (as I said earlier it took me 5 months and umpteen installs to figure it all out)!

Other CRITICAL areas are your memory speed (the age of the source code explains why it installs better at a 100FSB over 133) and the periphials that you have plugged into your mobo. People forget that ANYTHING that is plugged into the mobo is LIVE as soon as the power is turned on even if it is not in use!! So all these devises are trying to get an IRQ from an OS that is not yet installed, just asking for conflicts and another corrupted install. The problem is XP is TO clever for its own good, you know that XP assigns IRQ's automatically AND allows shared IRQ's don't you? So you can see now why its dead easy to screw up an XP install and aslo explains why some older and slower machines run XP just fine although to read some posts you all seem to think you need 3gig cpus.

Next once installed be careful of the apps you put on it ESPECIALLY ANTI VIRUS AND FIREWALLS!!! DO NOT use ZONEALARM unless its the LATEST version you'll be Blue screened randomly! A better alternative is Agnitum Outpost (and its free). Use Norton 03 pro for anti virus and check your version of NERO if using this app for your burning get latest version only do not use any NERO before 5.5 as it will again blue screen you regardless of waht the box says.

One more thing, if your version of XP Pro is a bootleg DO NOT use the microsoft update sight for ANY updates as they will corrupt your install. MS knows which key codes are bootlegs (they all come from about 100 original CDs) checked whilst scanning your pc and will give you serious problems!! Be warned

And to be honest the first thing I do is turn of this service and disable alexa. But thats another story.

If this doesn't help then nothing ever will!!
MONZ

 

Addendum to above.

OEMs (graphic cards, sound cards,hard drives,mobo manufacturers,etc,) do not warn you as it is NOT in their interest to do so!!

PC manufacturers do NOT install XP in the same way that we have to and 'net and magazine reviewers, when testing new mobos or cards, use a hard disk with XP PRE-INSTALLED to save the headaches of a frsh install. Which is why you hardly ever get any info on XP installs on commercial web sites! It is simply NOT in microsofts or any other OEMs interest to give the game away. They ALL want you to BELIEVE that your system is crap and needs UPGRADING, and people who don't know (about installing XP) fall for this hook line and sinker EVERY time. You know who you are (95.43% of the world) its what keeps the pc world going. Its called CASH, YOUR CASH!!!

MONZ

 

Monzaman.....Your last 2 posts gave me alot of insight as to a few errors I was making in the past. Although I would like to point out that I consider myself to be in that 5% bracket that doesnt dump alot of money in upgrading thinking that it will fix everything. I am one of those people that taught myself how a computer works by simply taking one apart (not knowing how to put it back together or install anything) and learning as I went.
Im going to look like a real amatuer in comparison to a few of the things you mentioned, such as the AGP video cards when trying to install XP....it makes perfect sense why XP doesnt recognize these right off the bat!!
I dont know if this is a good or bad thing , but, I have a Sony Vaio and it came with XP pre-installed with a set of 3 recovery disc's.
I have done a few re-installs with these discs where all you have to do is throw the first one into a drive and reboot, then it prompts you as you go, wether you are re-installing the entire OS or just repairing apps.
To date, like you said, it took me alot of time to learn the proper way to tweak eveything the way it should be....luckily under your advice I feel I am running what you considered to be ok programs, via Norton 03 and only the firewalls that are already installed in the advanced settings under my network cards.
One thing that really confuses me that you slightly touched on was the un-needed background services that run in the task manager procceses screen.
Now because there is no actual info on what the service/process may be, i never bother to disable any of them. So I guess what Im asking is, how do you know what you can or cannot disable?

The klown~~

 

An interesting point monzaman. However the kernel in XP is not the same as 2k. The kernel in XP is "updated" as well as the HAL. This in itself is enough to cause the home user difficulties with installs. There are a bunch of services that need to be turned off in the home environment. Memory management has had some difficulties that were taken care of in SP1. As a side note, the kernel replacement in Win2k SP3 is the XP kernel. So if you run 2k SP3 you are running essentially the same kernel as XP. One problem with XP is its inability to run certain apps. I do not use Norton products. They are not written very well. Ever uninstall a norton product then look at the registry???? It will look like its still installed. For Virus protection I would recommend Etrust, Panda, or RAV. Remember, virus's like Klez were/are written to specifically target McCafee and Norton's engine. They disable the virus scanner then ran their malicious code.

PopWeasel, to answer your question; It is a very simple process to dual boot. Just install Windows in a partition. Then start the linux install and most distributions will let install in the free space or let you format/setup a partition for the linux os. Install Lilo in the MBR to choose which os you want to boot and thats about it. I have done this many times so if you need help send me an email. By the way when you get linux up and running you will most likely use windows less and less. I still have a windows partition but I haven't booted into it in months. I would recommend Mandrake as it has the best hardware detection engine and is easiest to work with. When you get it installed email me and I will send you a ton of links with small tutorials for various programs. Then enjoy some music with XMMS, a movie on Xine or Mplayer, set up Mozilla to kill popups and use Tabbed browsing, use Open Office just like Office 2k(even save in windows format for compatibility),. Then start setting up some servers if you like, I run my own web server, mail server, file server and so on. And Its all from 3 FREE cd's that you download and burn. Its amazing. I am still discovering tools and programs from the default install that are amazing.

 

Hey ICP_RIP. Send me screen shot of your tasmanager then I can tell you exactly which services to shut down. I have a few that come to mind. I will assume you are running XP Pro.

Messenger service. this is not msn messenger, its a network tool used by net admins to send network wide messages. by the way that will help kill many popups as web programers use it to use redirects and popups.

Indexing service- It is a backround service that keeps a jurnaal of you most used files so that you can pull them faster. Good concept... poor execution however

Anything like winamp, aim , msn. kill those off. You only want them running when your using them.
you will have to go into those apps and tell them not to start when windows starts or they will.

If you have ever used GAIN(the bain of the internet) you will have to uninstall it then delete leftover folders or it will reinstall itself. One word about uninstalling gain however, is that it usually takes the app with it(divx player comes to mind). There are registry hacks to get around that though.

I can tell you more if you get that screen shot to me.

By the way I have a win2k web server i just pulled up and it is runing a total of 23 processes. Thats pretty good. The more processes you have running the less free ram/cpu you have.

 

ICP

Glad I'm not alone, I learned the hard way too, building my own systems from scratch and not having any idea what I was ACTUALLY doing other than putting a mobo in a case and everything else into the mobo. But it is THE ONLY true way to learn.

It still amazes me that more people know how to rip a DVD (or whatever) than how XP works, talk about running before you can walk, then they all whinge that XP is crap but never do anything to put things right. Afterall THEY messed up in the first place thinking they can just stick XP Pro into any old config!! Or should that read NEW config?

Anyway I'm glad that I'm not wasting my efforts (by talking to no brainers who CANNOT get their heads around an XP install, all obsessed with speed for some reason) and that someone appreciates the info that I have divulged. If used correctly, you will find XP is a joy (ish) to use.

There is no way I can type all the info you require but I'm sure this sight will help I only wish I'd stumbled across it 18 months ago!!
http://www.cmitsch.at/prepare-xp.html

Let me know how you get on.

PS I think ALEXA can be disbled by using Ad-aware, V6 should be out now, essential app.

PDR

I wasnt aware that Norton 03 was still vunerable I thought it had been fixed over those crappy previous versions? Is it still vunerable as I actually like 03?

I agree, XP does not run all software but unfortunately you cant have everything and NEVER believe what the box (software) says.

I note you mention SP1, but it is not an option for all users unless we get into a key code changing discussion! I've started a new thread called XP PRO TIPS and TRICKS so I might post this at a later date!

Doesn't OpenOffice require Java installed on your machine. I find this brand of coffee can give me serious headaches whilst browsing

Cheers MONZ

PS Agnitum Outpost is definetly worth looking at if your after a configurable firewall with built in add removal.

 

True Norton 03 has fixed the vulnerability, actually it was part of the original fix. They still have not made they're uninstaller clean though. Also, they are like M$ Exchange... a big target.

As for Open Office some features will not work without java but I haven't found them yet. I have been using it since june and haven't found any features that don't work right. So I guess if you have java installed and are stable then ok but I don't install java.

Unless you are running a hacked version of XP then key codes are not an issue. If you are running a hacked version..... why not just run linux. It free LEGALLY. If you are not going to pay for MS then why use it.

 

PDR60....

I am currently at my work computer which is running Win2k, So I am going to send a screenshot of this computer, and if you dont mind I will also take a snapshot once I am home as well. Here is my problem, how do I send or post a snapshot on this thread?
I am running XP home edition unfourtunatly, but hope that you could still offer some advice on this topic.
I think its amazing what a few experienced minds can come up with to help one another, so that being said I thank you all very much for keeping this thread going.
***PS*** to any admin viewing this thread, what do you do to become a non-newbie?

The Klown~~