Questions about moving to Ubuntu

[Steve Turnbull]

On Saturday 12 November 2005 16:34, Rik van Achterberg wrote:
> Hi Anthony,
>
> Anthony Christiansen schreef:
> > I'd like to move from Windoze XP to Ubuntu and I have some questions:
> >
> > 1) My laptop has two hard drives, each 40GB.  The second one isn't
> > being used at all right now.  Can I load Ubuntu on that drive and use
> > both operating systems until I get used to Ubuntu and eventually drop
> > Windoze?
>
> Yes, that is possible. You will have to install the booloader in the MBR
> (Master Boot Record) of your primary disk.
>
> > 2) I have some devices that came with windows-specific software,
> > namely a Nikon digital camera, a Creative Labs Zen Extra MP3 player
> > and, finally, a Dell Axim handheld.  How will I operate these devices
> > with Ubuntu?  What about printers?
>
> Your Nikon digital camera and Creative MP3-player have a very big chance
> of working in Ubuntu, but I'm not sure about the handheld. Maybe someone
> else can inform you about that.
>
> > 3) Does Ubuntu come packaged with a music player and recorder?
>
> If you've installed Ubuntu, go to this page:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDocumentation
> It explains how to enable universe and multiverse, so you can install
> encoders and players/recorders.
> (amaroK is a very good mp3 player ;))
>
> > 4) Finally, there are a couple of windows-based apps that I used
> > infrequently and probably could learn to do without, but is there any
> > way to run these under Ubuntu.  I'm specifically think of a Systran
> > Translation program that I use a lot (I'm an American living in Europe
> > and frequently need to translate documents in languages I don't know
> > all that well.)
If you have licences for windows apps which you would still like to use, and 
would be willing to shellout a further $180, try VMWare. It essentially runs 
Windows from within Kubuntu/Ubuntu. This is what I do. Then you can install 
everything into a fresh install of say Win XP and install everything in the 
usual way.

If you have plenty of RAM available, you could assign say 512MB to VMWare when 
its runnign and you will hardly notice a performance degrade.

WARNING - I can't get VMWare to install on 5.10 (Breezy) but it works fine on 
5.04...

Steve
>
> Some applications can be emulated with Wine. Other well
> known-applications can be emulated with CrossOver Office (like MS
> Office, Photoshop). I don't know about your program's, you'll have to
> try or use Google.
>
> > Anyone who'd be up to answering these questions can write back either
> > on the list or to me privately.
> >
> > Thanks!  Anthony
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > MSN Search, for accurate results! http://search.msn.nl
>
> Regards,
>
> Rik

-- 
Steve Turnbull

Digital Content Developer
YHGfL Foundation