Ubuntu-Pakistan How to Run Live CD on legacy Machines?

[Burhan Khalid]

Khawar:

  What you are talking about could be one of two things, either its
WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) which was implemented as a critical
security update to Windows.  This little gem sits in the background
and checks if your Windows license is legitimate. If it is not, it
will popup these reminders from time to time. Eventually, it will
prevent you from logging into the system.

  The other thing that could be causing this is that somehow Windows
has detected a major change in your hardware and its asking you to
reactivate it.

"If MS is preventing logins then I would like to see the reaction of people
to this.
Have the people come out with a cracked XP yet ?"

What reaction do you expect? Microsoft has spent a lot of money and
resources to develop their software, and they have a right to protect
it just like everyone else that develops software. I don't see why
this is such a bad thing. It is their choice to close the source of
Windows, if you don't like it - you are always welcome to an alternate
OS :)

I don't believe talking about pirating software is withing the
guidelines of Ubuntu, so I will not answer that question.

"So the bad news is that I cannot teach prepare MS Project. This got me
thinking.
MS Software like IE and others do not work perfectly on Linux or Wine so if
MS intends to register XP then they shall also restrict MS products like MS
Project and others."

They already do this. You must register and activate Office products,
and you can only activate them on two machines. If you have a
legitimate copy of a MS product that is not working correctly, you can
call their special support line for activation issues (which is almost
always a free call).

"This shall force people to use Open source softwares like Imendio (which
they never bothered to learn about) because OSS works perfectly on Linux and
not so perfectly on Windows. In most cases OSS is available only for Linux."

Well, it would force two things. Either they pay for software that
they need to do their job (which is what most people end up doing) or
they do what you said, find a free alternative.

A lot of OSS software works perfectly on Windows too. A few examples
that come to mind are Open Office, Firefox and Thunderbird.

"This new situation is cool. The more Software is available for an OS the
better it is. With the "great" move of restricting XP has caused MS to
delegate their OS in the area of Suns and Irix and other PAID OSes like
BeOS."

This is a bit of wishful thinking because unless you have been living
in some cave in the hills of muree, you would know that Windows has
been around since the 80s and they have always had a closed soruce
model.  I don't see how you can compare Windows to "Suns" by which I
assume you mean Solarix, which by the way, is available for free now;
Irix and BeOS -- other than being payware, these operating systems do
not compete for the same market and are not designed for the same
purpose.

"The OS is now a commodity item and the world does not feel like paying for
it."

Which world are you talking about? The world of pirates?

I am as big a fan as Linux, but this kind of unnecessary bashing is
not adding to the image of Linux or its users.  People already
consider us "fanatics" and "MS haters", which is not the truth. Almost
everyone that I have met is using Linux not because they "hate"
Microsoft or that they cannot afford Windows, but because its a choice
that they have made for other reasons -- some like the alternate
desktop; other enjoy Linux because it provides them access to tons of
software that they cannot use on Windows; some (like myself) use Linux
as a development OS because it has great support for development
software and their related services.

Lets pull this back on track ... to the original thread topic which
was LiveCD on legacy machines.

As others have mentioned, the main problem with livecds is the RAM
issue. Most require a lot of RAM because by nature; a LiveCD runs from
RAM.  The less RAM you have, the longer it will take for the system to
load.

128 RAM is minimum for a good smooth experience. 256 is even better. A
486 really should be delegated to specialized distributions, like LFS
or Gentoo.

Regards,
Burhan Khalid