May try Linux - many questions.

[Berethorn]

I am going to have another computer, and I don't to fork out $100 for another Windows XP, so I'm considering Linux. The computer will be used mostly for email, web browsing, and Simply Accounting. I won't be the one using it most of the time, it will be used by less computer literate people. I have never used any type of Linux before. So I have a few questions:


This computer will be connected to a Linksys broadband router network, including my Win XP computer, and printer. Will this work easily, are networks easy to set up, and can I quickly get the broadband internet working?

Is there any way to use Windows programs, like Simply Accounting, even Outlook Express, on Linux? This is important. And as an afterthought, can I play my games (NHL 2004 as an example) on Linux?

I have a hard drive I will be using, which already has XP installed on it - will I have to backup the files and format?

Are there any other things I should know, that I may not be considering?

Finally, which version should I get? All I need is something to replace Windows and be user friendly. I don't need to learn with this one, I can do that on my own. Can I get a version of Linux that looks like Windows, or are they all the same? I already have Lindows 4.5 full .iso by the way - I downloaded it for free one day, when they had a special on their website.


Thanks for any help! :)

[Dswissmiss]

Hi Berethorn,

In order to get your printing and networking to work with windows you need a program called samba, I'm not quite sure how hard it is going to be to set up, but it depends on the distribution.
You can't run windows programs on linux unless you use a windows emulator such as crossover office or wine, but few programs work with those, and very few games are natively supported in linux. With respect to other programs, linux has in my opinion a lot of programs that are the same or even better in quality than windows programs, openoffice.org for office productivity, ximian or firebird for e mail, and firefox for webbrowsing. I don't know about accounting software, but I'm sure theres one too.
If you decide to install linux, your distro will most likely make any necessary changes to your hard drive in order to both run windows and linux together, you'll just have to reboot the computer and select your os when you want to switch between them.
I suggest you take a look at knoppix first, it's a bootable livecd, and you can try it out and see if you like the programs before you switch and decide to install linux on your hdd.
The distros always suggested for beginners are SuSe, Red Hat and Mandrake, and I've heard good things about Xandros lately, but definately get knoppix first to see if you can find all the programs you need.
Just remember that it will take some time before you get used to it.

[Xayd]

Yes you will need to format your drive. Reading NTFS (NT/2000/XP) partitions Linux can do fine, writing to them is still very experimental so it's not a suitable filesystem to use for a full install.

Some games you can, but the only game that consistently works under Linux without any problems "out of the box" is Unreal Tournament. All versions of it run on Linux afaik, a Linux installer is included on the retail CD. http://www.lokigames.com for some other games that have been ported.

Mandrake, Fedora, and SuSE are good distros aimed at desktop use.

There are far better mail clients than Outlook Express, you'll find plenty of alternatives ;).

Yes internet access through a router is easy to set up.

Yes Samba for file/print sharing is also easy to set up.

[kilgoretrout]

I think getting your accounting program to work under linux will probably be the stopper. In order to run windows programs under linux, you need to use a windows emulator. Most linux distros come with a package called "wine" which is an open source implementation of the windows API. Unfortunately, wine is pretty much alpha software and I doubt you will be able to get Simply Accounting running with wine.
There are alternatives, but they are not free and in the end you would probably wind up spending about as much as you would for winxp.

[fudtone]

I am all about the Linux (not that I am at all proficient with it) however I think for this desired application you are going to want to stay with some form of Windows.

Maybe you can find an old 98 cd laying around?

[Berethorn]

I do have an old Win 98 CD, but I was hoping to not have to use it. We have the Simply Accounting already, and would like to continue using it. Maybe Linux isn't for us, yet. But I won't rule it out, either.

I will try the knoppix at least, to get a better idea. :)

[Xayd]

I'm not sure on accounting software, but...

http://www.gnucash.org/en/screenshots.phtml
http://www.linuxcanada.com/quasar.html (free for single user, pay for multiple users)
http://qhacc.sourceforge.net/
http://www.sql-ledger.org/

[Vigo]

If you're thinking about trying linux the "dual-boot" is the gateway experience. Take whatever computer with whatever OS and free up about 5 gigs of space to make a separate partition. install windows on that newly created partition and whenever you feel like it just boot to linux and explore. It'll feel like all you did was install a piece of software on your windows machine. :)

[Berethorn]

I tried out Knoppix, and was really impressed! It is more user friendly than I thought. :)

The main problem now is still Simply Accounting. It seems I will need to get it working somehow or other. I hear WINE probably can't handle it... Is there a way to run it through Linux, using the old Win 98 CD? I seem to recall reading about a program that needed a licensed version of Windows to run Windows programs on Linux. :)

[kilgoretrout]

That program is called win4lin from netraverse:

http://www.netraverse.com/

And it undoubtedly will work but it's not free($79). I've used win4lin and it runs windows programs at native speeds but it won't work on anything needing direct hardware access, i.e. most games, anything requiring DirectX. I doubt that's an issue with your accounting hardware, however.

[LocoCoyote]

Let me recommend SuSE linux 9.0 or 9.1 with their "wine rack" This is a very intuitve linux system and the wine rack (crossoveroffice/wine modified for SuSE) lets you run many (not all) windows programs.
May I also suggest that you consider evolution as your email client. If you use OL express, you will feel right at home.

[Berethorn]

Thanks for the suggestions! :)

I have tried WINE and Crossover, but haven't had any luck thus far.

$79 is alot of money to pay for this, but if I do use win4lin, can I use my network printer with Simply Accounting? :)

[kilgoretrout]

I misquoted the price; it's now $89 for the 5.0 download edition. I think you can download a trial version for free:

http://www.netraverse.com/support/downloads/?PHPSESSID=6c43d0eebcce5a6c34737aff478fb50c

I think it runs for a month or two for free.

Re network printers, you shold be able to get it to work. Win4lin has two networking options, winsock(the default) and vnet. I believe you have to use the vnet option for network printing and network neighborhood to work properly.

Also, which linux distro are you running?

[Blue_Gundam2002]

Since win4lin cost 89 and the computer is going to be used by the "less computer literate people" then why not buy a copy of xp home for 85$, http://www.directron.com/windowxp.html
It will save you alot of trouble of trying to learn and teach the other people how to use it. And if you still want to try linux you can always dual boot it with windows.

[Berethorn]

Well, I was hoping to not pay anything at all - that was the whole point of linux. I'll give win4lin a try if there is a trial version, but I don't think I'll end up using it for that price. :(

I will probably run Mandrake, since heard many people recommend it. Right now I'm using knoppix. :)

[LocoCoyote]

I say don't give up yet on the "free". Do some extensive research first. As for the Windows problem....I still recommend SuSE 9 or 9.1 with WineRack ( a SuSE optimized version of Crossover Office). You can get this packaged from SUSE for about 30 $ cheaper than if you bought Crossover alone.

[enhanced08]

sorry to butt in, but where did you get knoppix? i would like to try it, but where do i get it?
thanks

[Blue_Gundam2002]

you can download an iso image from www.linuxiso.org

[enhanced08]

whats an iso image?

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

When you use a buring program, like Nero, you can save what you are burning, this creates an iso file of the cd. So if you download the iso you can use Nero etc to open the ISO and burn the files to disc.

[enhanced08]

o ok, so its kinda like a 'picture' of the files on the cd or like a zip file

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

Like if you ghost a harddrive it makes an image of the hard drive an iso is a 'ghost' of a cd, so yes.

[enhanced08]

ah, i see. thank you! and sorry for taking over this thread.

now back to Berethorn's discussion

[LocoCoyote]

Nero? Again?

[Blue_Gundam2002]

Originally posted by LocoCoyote
Nero? Again?
Nero is a cd burning program that comes with most cd-rw drives. If you don't have it I think the demo version will let you burn ISO images but I'm not sure.

[LocoCoyote]

Thanks, but I know what Nero is...it is OK. My comment comes from the Windows burning software under the alt OS forum. This goes back to a question I posted awhile back. Windows software bundled with linux how-to books. It seems to me that it is a tad bit strange that while we discuss alternates to the Windows world, we fall back to Windows software. What is worse, we understand what is being talked about. It seems to me that this is a tellinf example of how MS has pervaded our computing lives