[ben45750]

I bought a new Laptop and using my old one to run Linux. I installed Ubuntu and have been running it and I think I like it? I spent days getting XP to run correctly (stupid drivers) but I installed Linux and it's up and running right after the install.

I know there are several different applications of Linux but which is the best? I am dual booting Vista, XP Pro and Ubuntu but would it all come together better If ran Virtual PC in Vista with XP and Ubuntu through VPC?

I know there are some pretty knowledgeable people on here so any input would be great.

[Rev.Vassago]

Linux is the "Special Olympics" of operating systems.

[ben45750]

I agree with you Rev, Linux blows compared to Windows or Mac. Just bored and playing with something new.

[Rev.Vassago]

How dare you agree with me! That isn't allowed!issedoff:

[Syncrosonix]

i've never bothered with linux. never had the desire to.

[Malaki86]

I installed Red Hat on a system years ago. About 2hrs later and still not able to connect to my network I installed XP again. Never looked back.

[vavega]

i tried xandros a couple years ago when it was $10 to download and burn an ISO, to run a DC project. looks like they made some "improvements". other than that i never did anything with it.

[trux]

If you want to run Ubuntu and XP as virtual machines I believe you'll have to use VMWare instead of VPC. If memory serves me, VPC will only run various Wiindows OS's.

On my Gateway laptop I've got XP as the host OS with another XP as a client just to run my Delorme program. I'm using Ubuntu for surfing the web which eliminates any problems with viruses or drive-by malware installs.

VMWare offers a VMWare Player and VMWare server free of charge and the Server will get you going for the XP which you'll need to install. One advantage to VMWare is you can download pre-installed linux "appliances" off the web and just unzip them and fire them up, no installation needed. The free VMWare player will run these appliances. Another advantage to this type of setup is that creating a backup copy of the client OS's is just a copy and paste operation. You don't need any special software. I just store a copy of my XP/Delorme OS in another folder and when something goes wrong it takes about 5 minutes to copy and paste a new copy and I'm back in business.

A Google search for "vmware images" will get you several sites that offer the pre-installed linux "appliances" free.

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/

http://vmplanet.net/

Have fun!