Windows Vista SUCKS

[TerranRich]

That's a good idea Ghost. I'll have to try that.

[Ghost]

Glad to be of service. Let me know how it worked out.

[deadsuperhero]

Let me step in and introduce Wubi. You download the client, and you can install Ubuntu Linux as a folder inside Windows. It then adds a boot option in Windows boot registry for it, and you can dual boot without ever having to partition.

[R4L]

...really?!

I want this! But I need to know one thing. Is it going to take up a lot of space?

[TerranRich]

I'd do that, but I use certain programs for web and graphic design. Are there are any compatible programs that are comparable?

[deadsuperhero]

...really?!

I want this! But I need to know one thing. Is it going to take up a lot of space?

You decide how much space it uses. You can make it from small (a gig or less) to large (30 gigs or more).
You can also navigate through the windows filesystem in Ubuntu and vice versa.

And, TerranRich:

Photoshop = GIMP, Pixel
Dreamweaver = Nvu (http://www.nvu.com/index.php)
MS Frontpage = Bluefish
Itunes = Songbird
Firefox = Firefox
Paint = Koulourpaint
Flash MX = Synfig, Ktoon, Flash4Linux
AGS games = AGS Linux (have to use command line to run, still no GUI frontend)
Norton AV = Nothing Whatsoever
Windows Movie Maker = Kino
Audacity = Audacity
Good music recording/Sound editing tools = anything in the Ubuntu Studio repos
Dos Games =DosBox
LucasArts Games = ScummVM
Sierra Games = FreeSCI

And for anything else that you need in Windows, you can try and run in WINE. There's a dozen frontends, so experiment with that.

[ALPHATT]

Ghost why do you need partition managers just simply use fdisk.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Bluefish, firefox, songbird... whoever comes up with these names.

[Ishmael]

Photoshop = GIMP, Pixel

I hear GIMP is impossible to use...

Ghost why do you need partition managers just simply use fdisk.

And destroy everything with it. I once touched fdisk, and lost all partitions of said hard drive beyond any sort of data recovery.

A program called Partition Magic or something can do it, even without formating anything, IIRC.

[Gilbert]

Well, Gimp may be difficult to use but I don't have much problem with it atm, as long as it's free (I won't even dare to pay to use PS).
Pixel is promising, but the problem is it's basically like a one-man's work and is developed VERY slowly. In fact, I am one of the few people who actually paid for Pixel (when it's first announced nearly 10 years ago, I remembered some time after I paid for it the Pixel homepage announced that so far only 6 people had registered...), so I always have a legitimate copy of it in my system but I never used it due to its lack of features (as lots of stuff aren't implemented yet) and instability.

[Ghost]

Ghost why do you need partition managers just simply use fdisk.

And destroy everything with it. I once touched fdisk, and lost all partitions of said hard drive beyond any sort of data recovery.

That's why. Fdisk is okay if you're ready to kiss your data goodbye; if I were to make partitions on a drive I'm still going to use, it's a manager for me.

Bluefish, firefox, songbird... whoever comes up with these names.

Didn't you know? That's what the Oompaloompas are doing now that Wonka closed his factory 

[deadsuperhero]

I hear GIMP is impossible to use...

It's a bit hard at first. Actually, there are some modified versions that have a more PS-like interface, which is good.

[TerranRich]

Now I really don't know what to do. I'm leaning toward setting up a partition (a small one at first) and moving files I want to keep there, gradually increasing the size of the partition as I get more free space on the original C: drive. I have a 90GB HD with about 12GB free, and about 30GB of the data on there I'd like to keep. So I was thinking, I'd make a new partition, maybe about 10GB, and once that's filled up, I"d have 10GB more space freed up on the original C: driver, so I'd move 10GB more to the new partition.

Is that even possible? Are there any free programs out there I could use? Everything I've come across so far costs money.

Oh, and I never paid for any of the programs I have.

[tube]

Is that even possible? Are there any free programs out there I could use? Everything I've come across so far costs money.

Oh, and I never paid for any of the programs I have.

You could download a gparted live cd (or live usb from the same site). I've successfully resized and moved several partitions of different types (ntfs, fat32, ext2/3 etc) without problems on my clients' machines with this free software. I have no idea how Vista reacts to it's main partition's size changing, but XP swallows this just fine if you make sure it's still the first partition on the disk. I give no guarantees, but in my experience the commercial Partition Magic has been much more unreliable.

Just expect the process to take ages. Regardless of the software you pick for the task.

EDIT: A typo! The shame, the shame!!!

[TerranRich]

Oh, no doubt. It's going to be a long, laborious process, I know, but well worth it if I can get rid of the Vista monkey off my back.

[covox]

Doing a fresh install on a laptop can be very daunting. OEM laptops have a whole lot of "special" hardware, which is why they prefer to bundle a so-called "recovery CD/partition" rather than a vanilla Windows CD that can be used on any machine.
The reason why they do this is the vanilla Windows installer doesn't have all the obscure laptop drivers. So formatting/reinstalling with a vanilla disc will sometimes leave you with a whole bunch of useless mystery devices (such as the lovable "PCI Communications Device" and "PCI Multimedia Device"). It is possible to (track down on the manufacturers web site/dig about in the recovery CAB files) for drivers, but you may go nuts trying.

Linux is quite good; all the device drivers ever made are bundled with it, and so your bits of hardware either work brilliantly or they don't.

If you're after free format and partition tools, look no further than the Ubuntu Install CD. It comes with GParted and (more importantly) can automount your drives/portable media.
(The GParted LiveCD is both scary and ugly. Only recommended if you're a surly old UNIX hack wishing for the days of NeXTstations and CDE.)

As for "alternative apps" to the Adobe suite; this is a very contentious issue. Most professionals, understandably, find the free alternatives a bit rubbish (especially if they've already paid Adobe a million pounds). This leaves four options:

- Install XP
result: system looks ugly, slowly locks up with clutter
- Make two partitions (one XP and one Linux) and dual-boot
result: Linux partition almost never gets used
- Run XP in a virtual machine
result: while faster than a pregnant XP with 3 years of install bloat, Photoshop et. al. are still slow
- Run XP applications seamlessly through Wine
result: a bit hard, cutting-edge software will probably crash a lot

Have a good think about your options before you start partitioning. And please, if you're learning most of this whilst you go along, do yourself a favour and BACKUP EVERYTHING FIRST.

[tube]

(The GParted LiveCD is both scary and ugly. Only recommended if you're a surly old UNIX hack wishing for the days of NeXTstations and CDE.)

Haha, thanks. Too bad I've never touched a NeXTstation. Xfce has been my DE of choice for years though, and it does did aim to be CDE-like. I might even be surly, but at least I'm still fairly young... ish.

But seriously, if all you're going to do is partition your hard disk, the much smaller GParted CD image is the better choice. It's the same software, and although the Live CD uses fluxbox now (or some other *box, can't be bothered to check) and other less user friendly thingamabobs in the background, the automatically started GParted isn't any harder to use.

I get that you might just be trying to trick him into checking out Ubuntu. Sorry for ruining your plan if that's the case. Nothing wrong about spreading the word... In your defence I must admit that the Ubuntu installation CD does come with more toys to play with while waiting for GParted to finish resizing that partition.

[TerranRich]

I'm leaning more toward the option of:

1. Creating a new partition (let's call it X:)
2. Moving all documents and other important files to X: that will fit
3. Increasing size of X: as more space in C: becomes available, and move more stuff to X:
4. Once the moving process is done, boot with the XP CD, and format the C: partition
5. Install XP onto that partition.
6. Move everything from X: partition to C:
7. Format X: partition and get rid of it, leaving only the original, full C: drive.

Am I missing anything? I want to get started soon. And I've already compiled a list of every single driver installed in my system currently, just in case I forget anything after installing XP.

[covox]

tube: They've moved to Fluxbox? Nice As a yoof who grew up with that particular WM I applaud their decision to ditch the frankly hideous GNUstep. Or maybe they never used it and I'm really thinking of some other blasted recovery CD with GParted on it. Geez there really are thousands of the bloody things. Anyway.

I do like to extol Ubuntu, and one of the neat things about the Install CD is that automounting partitions (through the magic of HAL) actually works well. It's better than Knoppix now. Possibly even to the extent that you don't have to fiddle around with typing "mount" commands in a terminal just to get RW access, but that avenue is still available if there's a problem.  Just my recommendation

TerranRich: As much as I like to have faith in good old partition resizing, it can go catastrophically wrong, leaving you with nothing salvageable. To use an analogy, imagine you've got a big old "expired" anti-tank mine from WWII. Resizing a partition with data on it is like doing a vodka shot then kicking the mine.

Believe me, it's not worth the grief, just take it on the chin and purchase another hard-drive. They're insanely cheap at under AU¢40/GB for a 250gigger.

[MrColossal]

I was going to recommend an external harddrive, dump your stuff, reformat, install xp, dump stuff back on and use external as a backup. I didn't because it didn't seem like you wanted to spend any money but it's what I'd do.