OT - the fun and games of "upgrading" (computerwise)

[Hoosierpopi]

sorry for your troubles, but Windows (Vista) is no better! IHM & STD's

[Mark & Juanita]

I do use CrossoverOffice (a WINE wrapper). For some things it works well: TreePad, Quicktime, Lotus 123 (yes, I still have a few 123 spreadsheets, and TaxAct. For other things not so well. Thus far I have found that it won't load TurboCAD (I went with VariCAD under Linux), H&R Block TaxCut (too bad, that was what I started using when TurboTax implemented their spyware activation scheme), or MindManager.

I used TaxAct in Crossover Office this year for taxes, it worked, but I was a bit more skeptical of the results than with TaxCut. Don't remember all of the details, but there were a couple state forms that I knew I had to complete, but TaxAct missed. I was able to force TaxAct to fill them out, but that is not optimal.

Haven't tried the Msoft Office products under Crossover, I'm using OpenOffice at home.

You can find what they do and don't support at

[Doug Winterburn]

I've been using vmware-server (under linux) for almost a year and you can run most versions of windoze if you already have a license and linux and solaris 10. No rebooting to run any win app you might need, just boot up your virtual machine and have at it - in fact as many virtual machines as you might need. Real memory is the key, and I've put 4GB on several wintel machines for under $100 each. Virtual machine aren't emulators and run at your hardware rates if not memory bound. If your app ran on a non virtual machine, it will run on a virtual machine.

[Mark & Juanita]

I looked into that; downside is that I would have to buy a Windows license. My machine has Windows 2000 with no OS disk -- it's an end-of-life machine that our company sells to employees when refreshing desktops. The license is a legal license, but there is no recovery if the machine has problems and also no disk that I can use to install into a virtual machine. The price was right though and with OpenSuse Linux, a three year old machine runs faster than most new machines with an Msoft OS.

[Han]

Mark & Juanita wrote in news:-pydnZFAnq7O7bfVnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Thanks Doug and M&J! I might go the virtual machine route, although that would mean reinstalling everything. Does a virtual installation of windows do its updates too? I assume it does, as long as the hard drive is big enough.

[dayvo]

Put Linux on it. Ubuntu is a great release for Linux newbs. Your computer will run a lot faster and you'll probably be impressed with how it looks/works. Windows XP isn't a new OS by any means. Ubuntu gets a new release every 6 months and it generally has major updates. I started out with a dual boot setup, just in case I needed Windows for something. As more time went by I dropped Windows entirely. Ubuntu also has automatic updates and a point and click library of thousands of apps - all for free. None of it's pirated.

[J. Clarke]

The virtual machine is like a separate computer within the computer. On a machine with enough RAM you can have whole virtual networks going with virtual servers and virtual workstations running a bunch of different operating systems, all on the same machine.

You have to install Windows on the virtual machine just like you would on a physical machine, with each virtual machine needing its own installation, and with XP and later its own product activation. You install updates in the virtual machine just like you would on a physical machine, again with each virtual machine having to be updated separately. Note--read the license _carefully_ before you call Microsoft if you've having a problem with activation in the virtual machine--some versions are licensed for virtual machines, others are not, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to which are and aren't--if you're trying to activate a version that's not licensed for a virtual machine and you tell them that that's what you're doing they probably won't give you a code.

If you have a valid product key for Windows 2000, by the way, then you should be able to obtain media without a key inexpensively--call the hardware manufacturer and see--price should be 20 bucks or so. If that route fails, you can generally find images of the distribution media on bittorrent--burn one to a CD and install with your key and you're set.

[jo4hn]

[snip]

Acrobat (reader only) Mozilla Word Solitaire

:-)

[charlieb]

Man did this thread head off into Linux fast.

Skipped right over Mac vs WinDoze almost at the offset.

Amazing.

[Upscale]

Not that surprising. The Mac people are the elitists and the Linux people would like to be so they tend to speak up as more time goes on. :)

[B A R R Y]

Even on my new windows machine I went with:

- Sun Open Office

- Firefox

- Thunderbird

- My OLD version of Quicken

etc...

I need a good reason to pay up for new stuff, and I wasn't about to drop the cash for MS Office.

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[Han]

B A R R Y wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I understand, but I need the peace of mind to be able to work at home with software that is compatible with work and OO was not when I tried it.

[Mark & Juanita]

Don't know when you last tried it Han, but it wouldn't be much of an expenditure of your time to try it again. Thus far, we have not run into any documents that aren't readable or that have any problems.

[B A R R Y]

I myself had tried OO YEARS ago, and passed.

Upon trying OO again ~ 6 months ago, I'm a happy guy!

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[Han]

dayvo wrote in news:7c562acc-a2e8-4469-8799- [e-mail]:

Thanks all!

I'll get back to this when I retire .

[evodawg]

You might have a look at GNUcash, its a suggestion. I'm not an accountant, but I use it in my business and it works great for me.

[evodawg]

Haven't used WinBlows since win98 and been happy ditchin it ever since.

[Han]

B A R R Y wrote in news: [e-mail]:

THANKS! I should have known this when I bought this new laptop. But then, I recycled the Office 2003 from the old dead laptop, so no real expense this time . But now I know if I go and try Linux in some flavor.

[Han]

evodawg wrote in news:Na5Xj.3880$LL.1073@trnddc04:

Good idea! When I retire ...

[evodawg]

Try GNUcash I think it's called. Dual booting in my opinion is the only way to keep windows. Emulators really aren't the answer. But I haven't used a WinBlows product since win98. Not to mention no ADware, no Spyware, no trojans, no nada. I just installed virus detection on my new machine not because I had to. For the last 5 years I have had no virus detection, and no virus. Norton Virus Detection? whats that?