Ubuntu and WinXP

[squareyes]

Eric Dunbar wrote:

>>
>
>Don't try to re-install it if you value your friendship! 
>

Hi Eric,
have no intention of trying to re-install Ubuntu, don't really think
it's for him anyway, but have to admit it's a nice feeling to be able
to save all his data with an operating system that "works".
Am a newbie myself, and would have liked a Linux user in the town,
(very small 620 people), as the nearest Linux user I know is 50 k
away, and with the price of diesel, that's too far.
 Good to bounce off someone else, so I suppose my trying to get him to use
Linux was a tad selfish :-)

>
>A "fair trial" won't convince your friend of anything. If you're not
>around to troubleshoot his every problem, he'll eventually give up and
>simply buy a new computer. You wouldn't believe (probably you would
>;-) how many people buy a NEW computer when all they had to do was
>re-install their OS to clear up the bugs (and, please don't tell me
>that Linux doesn't require that b/c I've had to re-install Linux (YDL
>& Ubuntu) enough times to show me that breakage in Linux is sometimes
>more quickly fixed with a format and reinstall than with
>troubleshooting that can take days)!!!
>  
>
I think my friend is a candidate for some major repairs to his computer,
it's lost data in the past, and has some big crashes, Win XP has been 
re-installed
a number of times, but he doesn't think there is anything wrong.
Personally my machine (4 years old) hasn't been shutdown for nearly 5 
months now,
and I haven't had any problems that weren't easily fixed,
( next shutdown will be when a copy of 5.40 arrives) as I said I am a 
newbie, have found
with the excellent help from this list that anything that has cropped up
has been easily overcome, command line is new to me, but have a far more 
stable
system than I ever did with Win 98 SE.
Thanks again for all the help.
Take Care
Winton