Closing Windows

[vakkotaur]

I made the switch from Windows to Linux a few years ago. At first I ran two computers side by side and switched between Windows and Linux. As I got more comfortable with Linux I used the Windows machine less and less. When the Linux machine had hardware trouble (a worn out CPU fan) I used the Windows machine and found I hadn't used it in over a year. It's been about another year and I don't recall using it, or really wanting to.

Last night I blew away the Windows install. Right now percheron has no operating system, just a partitioned and formatted disk. Tonight I plan to replace the CD burner with a DVD burner and replace the 8 GB HDD with a 40 GB HDD. And then I get to decide just what I want to put on it. I expect percheron will be my scratch system that I try a few things out on.

Windows isn't completely gone from my machines as there is another older and even less frequently used Windows computer in the basement, and there is a DOS/WfW partition on one of my computers in the machine room. There is also an older, broken laptop (it runs, but doesn't close) with 95 on it which is out of service and effectively in storage. I expect the computer in the basement will get a different operating system sometime, and the one in the machine room, well, that partition is small and out of the way which means my last Windows installation that might see any activity, and there's very little, will likely be WfW 3.11, of all things.

Comments

[hakeber.livejournal.com]

I foresee myself heading in this same direction over the next several years. Like you, I will most likely run side-by-side machines at first, until I get the hang of it.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I found a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switch to be useful so I didn't have to have two of everything. Having both computers on the network was quite useful to transfer data, too. As I mention in my reply to mycroftb I found that switching to cross platform programs helped me make the transition easier. I'd change one, get used to it, then change another and so on. Install and setup have gotten much easier in the last few years, though it's not perfect. While I haven't yet tried them, I suspect the distributions I mentioned to Mycroft would be the easiest for a transition these days.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The games are probably the big one. I tried a few times and had varying amounts of success. I suspect that my transition would have been much rougher if jmaynard hadn't been nearby to help out. That I never was much interested in gaming helped me some, and I did start using cross-platform programs as much as I could. I used x-chat instead of mIRC, Opera rather than IE, AbiWord rather than Word, and so I had fewer things that were unfamiliar when I changed operating systems.

You might want to keep an eye on Distrowatch (http://distrowatch.com/) and see if anything looks to be of interest. Linux XP (http://www.linux-xp.com/) tries to be as Windowsy as it can, with WINE set up and not just a copy of the look and Freespire (http://www.freespire.org/) has licensed codecs that tend not to be found in a Linux distribution. I have yet to try either of these, but that's what percheron will be used for - trying things to see how they are.