Ubuntu or XP Pro?

Making a transition from Windows to Ubuntu is more an issue of what application packages you are using than the OS itself.

My advice to anyone using windows is to make a transition to multi-platform (free is generally better) application software first. Get used to the software you will be using under linux while you are still under windows.

For example switch from using IE to Firefox, outlook to thunderbird, ms office to open office and so on, and use them under windows. Once you are accustomed to them under windows, the transition to ubuntu is pretty transparent.

The first time I used Ubuntu there was a lot more research and tracking things down. Things like 'why won't youtube work' missing codecs for music and video files and so on. This time, I install ubuntu, point the music player at my collection of music files, when it doesnt have a decoder for a file, it asks if you want to install it, when you press yes, it does the rest.

Installing Ubuntu is far easier and smoother now than installing XP. In fact, it's easier to switch from XP to Ubuntu, than from XP on one machine to XP on another.

One could argue that what I'm saying is subjective, so I will quantify a bit. I helped someone buy a computer system for her new business. It took me 2 days to get her system set up and running smoothly, with application software, virus checking, firewall etc. Right after that I set up almost the identical collection of applications with Ubuntu 9.1 on similar hardware.
That took me 1.5 hours. A 10 to 1 ratio in man hours.

Next time someone asks me for help, I will only help if they are open to trying Ubuntu so that i can save a day and a half of of my own time and have happier end user right away. Then an ecstatic end user when she discovers she needs an extra piece of software and finds that synaptic will install it for her at the push of a button, and for free.

I've had Ubuntu installed for over a year now. Although I like it much more than XP, I still needed XP for software\hardware that isn't compatible with Ubuntu. My option was to either dual boot or get a separate machine. I decided to get a separate machine. I have my Ubuntu on my souped up machine and I got a cheaper refurbished machine for my XP (about $230). This was doable as I had a non-oem XP disk. Otherwise, if I didn't I'd had to use the cheaper one as my Ubuntu machine. I also bought a Belkin switch so that I can switch PC's if I have them on at the same time.

I use Ubuntu for 95% of my task including connecting to work from home. The one hardware that I couldn't use Ubuntu for was a Canon Scanner. Most software I can use Wine under Ubuntu such as Adobe photoshop and Quicken 2008. Games I haven't had too much luck with so I needed windows for that.

I'm currently running Ubuntu 9.10 but i've been hearing good word on 10.4. I had originally started on 9.04 and upgrading was a breeze to 9.10.

I have been running Fedora for some time. I used to be an XP Pro bigot. I got fed up with crashes, blue screens, and finally MS asking me to register my computer and bend over to let them know everything I was doing with my computer. Enough!

I downloaded Fedora 8 a couple years ago. I'm now on Fedora12. I can't say enough about it. I haven't had any crashes, no viruses, no problems whatsoever ... well, except for when I did something stupid when I was playing around with a configuration file. With OpenOffice.org3, I can do anything I need.

As for dual boot, I ask: Why? Everyone has there favourite windoz based system they can't find an open source for (mine are Punch! Home Design, Corell Draw, and a few others).

So, instead of running WindozXP and Fedora on the same box, I installed wine (~>yum install wine) in the Fedora environment, which shows up under 'Applications' after installation. Then, open the wine foldout menu, and open Wine File, which looks/acts exactly like Windows Explorer. Then put your windowz application CD in the drive, find it in the wine directory folder (under /media/...), double click on the setup or install file on the windows-based installation CD, and it will install on the c:-drive (even though linux doesn't know what a c:-drive is) under whatever windows directory you want (usually Program Files, which wine creates for you during wine setup).

Once installed, go back to the Fedora Applications foldout menu, and like magic, there will be your newly installed windows application under the Wine/Programs menu item, ready for you to coddle, cuddle or otherwise make you feel at home (away from home). I even installed Windows Office Professional under Wine for those cases I get some files from friends/associates who haven't caught on yet that Linux/Fedora is a faster, finer, friendlier operating system (BY FAR!) This allows me to view their files, modify them or do anything else I could ordinarily do in WindozXP.

A Fedora Fanatic

Another way to have the best of both worlds is to run Windows as a Virtual Machine in Virtual Box or VMWare Player, both absolutely free and superb. It uses less resources than running two operating systems side by side. I started off running Linux distros as VM"s in a Windows 7 host, and before too long realised that I had it completely the wrong way around and now I run Windows xp and 7 as VM guests in my Linux machine. Once you come over, you rarely go back! Pretty much everything works fine in a VM- network connections, peripherals like printers and scanners, CD and DVD's and anything else you want to use. If you do run into any strife: the community support, knowledge base documentation and plain, useful help available covers pretty much every known situation and then some.

I think a good way to get a feel of a distro is in a Virtual Machine.

If you like it, either install it or do a dual boot.

You can have Windows under a Virtual Machine in Linux if you need it.

Here's you're answer, if you ask me. Install a Linux distro, and then download and install the PUEL version of VirtualBox here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

Next, copy an iso image of your WinXP to your hard drive (You'll thank me for doing it this way later), and set that iso as your CDROM device.

Boot the guest (Your VirtualBox virtual machine that is going to be WindowsXP) and the install will occur normally, although quite a bit more quickly than if you were installing from the real CDROM drive.

Once you get to the first iteration of your mACROsFOT O/S, save a snapshot of that iteration and move on. Saving snapshots of appropriately named images of your OS is both important and convenient, for rollbacks, forking the installations, and disaster recovery.

Naming conventions like "clean install - pre SP3", etc., will help to remind you when you want to run your OS in that version or fork the evolutionary tree with other software, etc...

When you're done running your Windows Guest for the day, don't shut down the machine, but just stop it, and then when you want to run it again later it will boot instantly, with all of the running apps you had running and everything!

Hope that helps!

Kindest regards,

Bradley

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I don't think the latest version of Ubuntu 10.04 will run very effectively on a computer circa 2002, the latest Ubuntu release is targeted at competing with the most current operating system releases. Perhaps a previous release would be a better choice

You might be able to turn some of the Graphical features off and then 10.04 would run fine, posting the CPU / memory/front side bus/ back side bus / motherboard chip-set / video card specifications might garnish responses from people running similar platforms .

my bigger question is .... what made you revert to XP Pro sp3 last time ? Ubuntu may not be headed in a direction that will ever allow you to switch, for example I run 1 Microsoft OS simply because I need to run several programs that are only available on that platform, and there aren't any plans for Open source equivalents.

Others will have to address whether your computer will handle Ubuntu 10.04, but if you enjoy using linux you can also try PuppyLinux or Damn Small Linux, both of which should work. I use ubuntu as my regular system now after having used XP for years. Ubuntu is great, though not without its own issues. Puppy is lightning quick and just fine for surfing the internet, creating word processing documents, and running spreadsheets. Best wishes.

Depends on the CPU

Try Debian stable, should run fine on it. Gnome can run on those 512 (Im doing that right now), but you could go for a lighter Desktop like xfce or lxde