 | | From: | Eamon Skelton | | Subject: | Re: Tesco PC Offer | | Date: | Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:43:59 +0000 |
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 | On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 23:12:14 +0000, Andy wrote:
> As far as I know DELL supply all the CD's with their PC's and they have some
> good offers from time to time so maybe it would be better sticking with
> something like that.
My neighbours 2 year old Dell PC has the Windows-XP
installer files stored on a separate partition on the hard
disk. The restore CD won't work unless this partition
is available. If the drive is re-partioned or replaced
you lose the copy of XP that you paid for.
E.S.
--
Linux 2.6.7
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| | From: | Ulick Magee | | Subject: | Re: Tesco PC Offer | | Date: | Fri, 14 Jan 2005 22:22:33 +0000 |
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| Eamon Skelton wrote:
> My neighbours 2 year old Dell PC has the Windows-XP
> installer files stored on a separate partition on the hard
> disk. The restore CD won't work unless this partition
> is available. If the drive is re-partioned or replaced
> you lose the copy of XP that you paid for.
Better off without it ;)
U
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| | From: | Andy | | Subject: | Re: Tesco PC Offer | | Date: | Fri, 14 Jan 2005 22:34:17 -0000 |
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"Ulick Magee" wrote in message
news:34qvb5F4ep4d3U2@individual.net...
> Eamon Skelton wrote:
> > My neighbours 2 year old Dell PC has the Windows-XP
> > installer files stored on a separate partition on the hard
> > disk. The restore CD won't work unless this partition
> > is available. If the drive is re-partioned or replaced
> > you lose the copy of XP that you paid for.
>
>
> Better off without it ;)
>
>
> U
Many years I have toyed about totally breaking away from windoze and loading
Linux but have never been 'brave' enough to make the change fearing that I
would have problems with drivers and applications working with it.
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| | From: | Ulick Magee | | Subject: | Re: Tesco PC Offer | | Date: | Sat, 15 Jan 2005 00:05:03 +0000 |
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| Andy wrote:
>
> Many years I have toyed about totally breaking away from windoze and loading
> Linux but have never been 'brave' enough to make the change fearing that I
> would have problems with drivers and applications working with it.
No bravery required - just a bit of perserverance.
Try Knoppix (or another of the various "live CD") - the whole thing
boots off a CD and doesn't affect your Windows installation at all.
Great for trying out Linux at first.
http://www.knoppix.org/
Then when you want to install Linux, it's pretty easy these days on most
distributions, I use Suse. Boot off the first CD and it pretty much does
it itself (though you can change all the installation options if you
want, but all the defaults are set up for you, and it's all on a
graphical interface.)
By default it sets itself up as dual-boot so you can choose to boot into
Windows or Linux whenever you start the PC.
You manage the setup, packages, etc. using Yast which is again a
graphical tool.
Suse and most other distributions come with a huge range of packages -
email, browsers, Open Office, games, etc.
http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/downloads/suse_linux/index.html
Most hardware works fine, the odd time you will have to track down a
driver or something, but someone else will have done it with your distro
and your hardware before, so almost invariably there will be a how-to on
the web somewhere.
Failing that, ask for help! in here or the unix forum on boards.ie
If you don't have broadband, you can buy boxed CDs in shops or over the
net, copy them (legally!!!) or even a kindly soul might burn them for
you. Linux people like to evangelise :)
U
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| | From: | John | | Subject: | Re: Tesco PC Offer | | Date: | Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:43:08 +0000 |
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| On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:43:59 +0000, Eamon Skelton
wrote:
>My neighbours 2 year old Dell PC has the Windows-XP
>installer files stored on a separate partition on the hard
>disk. The restore CD won't work unless this partition
>is available. If the drive is re-partioned or replaced
>you lose the copy of XP that you paid for.
That's strange. Mine is just over 2 years old and I have a proper CD,
nothing required on the HD. I got XP Pro. Maybe that could be the
difference?
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