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Okay - so WinXP is doomed by Monday?

I still got a good ol' machine here running quite well as a backup ... I wonder if I can put Linux on it (in case the XP goes *poof* at some point in the future).

Then again: I don't know anything about installing / running / maintaining Linux to begin with.


Does anybody know a good "Linux for Dummies" reference?

'cause investing hundreds of cash only for it to run a newer version of of that "puked rainbow" (aka Win8) is not going with my pockets... nor with my sanity

So, yeah - any good online manual for Linux Newbies out there? Then please give me a pointer.


And here is me wishing back the good old days of DOS.

C:\>_

Ubuntu

Just then look up some guides on the command line for whatever task you need, you probably won't need it that much.

Thanks for the pointer.

As much as I could grasp, my major problem would be getting those Linux drivers for the hardware.

On the bright side of things - I read it could be possible to install Linux onto an existing WinXP system. However I need to investigate into this further. Yet it would be nice to hence be able to test things out without the need to get rid of the WinXP.
Cause as of now said WinXP is running quite smoothly - so I do not want to touch it, but then again it's Windows.

Thanks anyways.

It can be done, it's what you call dual booting, but it will require a possible reinstall as it will partition your hard drive. Though if you had an empty hard drive you could just install Linux on that.

I run Ubuntu on my old Laptop, using 12.04 LTS.

I don't know if Linux really needs drivers per se, there is a thing that automatically took care of all thatfor me when for example I needed to get a printer to work with a linux machine.

In fact you can install entire programs with just entering a line since a lot of Linux's stuff can be downloaded from their software center directly.

Yeah, they do need hardware drivers, main problem is often the GFX card, especially if you are going to try to use it for gaming. Graphics card drivers can be hit and miss at times.



Theoretically (and for the love of common sense back up before you try) you can move the partitions around and resize them without a reformat or clearing stuff (assuming the space is still available on the HD) using GParted - I did this to dual boot Win 7 and XP. Otherwise expect a reinstall. Or the other HDD option should work. I used to have an online tutorial I used... I'll see if I can find it.

I just remember that as far as drivers there was some command in the terminal or something like that that would take care of all the drivers for me. I don't think you would really need to manually hunt them down is what I'm saying, since I didn't have to, hell my CD came with most of the drivers anyway, so IDK. As far as the ones I didn't have it seemed to know where to get them, or at least took care of it for me in some other way. I really don't know I just let a more advanced user tell me what to do xD

Sorry for being late - RL as per usual is to blame.

I managed to get a PC from an acquaintance I met, who made the decision to go for Win8.1 - he wanted to throw away his WinXP machine. Well, before he could do that, I got it. A Packard Bell something or other.

I managed to back up the drivers (for XP) from the boot partition before completely clearing it all. Thanks to a german ubuntu forum I also managed to set up a working (yay!) dual boot system ... however it is WinXP that works stable and not Linux.

Reason: the (I guess) "No name" Nvidia GeForce 6200 LE - I only tried one of the suggested Linux drivers for it but it nuked the system

... and so I got to learn the Linux equivalent for Ctrl-Alt-Del, which is apparently even weirder than the Ctrl-Alt-Del

I've not given up, Linux just seems to have something that makes me itchy to dig into this further and I was quite impressed by the time you needed to Install Linux

WinXP installed from baseline WinXP than updated to latest SP3 with all the shenanigans: 1 full day of work
Linux Ubuntu version 12.04 LTS: some hour or two ... Installation already including LibreOffice

I only hope to figure out that nasty graphic card issue at some time.
Maybe I need to try another graphic card in the end.
Maybe I shouldn't have tried Linux on a Packard Bell machine to begin with ...

... then again I can not understand how you could throw away an otherwise totally working piece of technology.
3GHz and 2x512GB-Ram on Dualchannel ... If I find more of those 512GB RAM (DDR3200 / 400FSB) I could have 2GB ... that machine is still suitable for Office work in any case... I hate capitalism. Planned Obsolescence - just stupid. /endrant

Thanks for all the answers!

Gotta love Alt + Sys Rq + REISUB.

Ctrl + Alt + Backspace anyone?