because most people that will buy them either
A: Already has gotten rid of windows and has no need for it
B: Has a windows disk

i would like to imagine those poeple who buy that kind of dell pc are the one who find it isnt neccessary trying to install linux successfully on "ramdom" combination of pc components anymore ...

in fact i believe pc makers can go further than what dell is doing ... that would be great and no more wasting time unneccessarily ...


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I would like to start my computer and watch Windows and Linux fight a duel to see which one loads first!

Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously, though, I think anyone that chooses their OS and application assortment wisely would have no reason to dual-boot. I already forget that I have Windows on my home computer. The only time I boot into it is to update the antivirus software. Hmm... Now that I think about it, why do I bother doing that?

>> "I already forget that I have Windows on my home computer. "

hmm ... you are damn slow ... wake-up , now is year 2007 already ...


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No need to get nasty, alred. I didn't say "I've been dual booting for ten years and just yesterday decided to dump Windows." You've only been on these forums four months longer than me so what's with the "wake-up". You say this is 2007. My laptop has never multi-booted and hasn't had the name Microsoft on it anywhere, internal or external, since 2001. I even peeled off the "Designed for WindowsXP" sticker.

ok , seemed to me that you are way lot courageous than me ... if i was in your shoes i would have hesitat for a long time to peel off that windows stickers on pc/laptop ... probably i wont be doing it , feels like wasting my money ... ^_^


//but you are being very encouraging ...


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Only time I boot windows is to drop videos on my iPod, only thing I haven't managed to do in Linux. I'd been using amaroK to update my mp3s ever since I got a new computer that can manage running such a "feature rich" program, but then I got a 5G and the videos just don't seem to be as easy to transfer. So, Windows, which had never been booted on the laptop and didn't even exist anymore on the desktop was booted up and activated. I knew there must be a reson I just shrunk the partition rather than removing it altogether.

I have Starcraft, Warcraft III, Diablo II, Neverwinter Nights, Ultima Online, EVE Online, Anarchy Online and more running with WINE to take care of my games, aside from that everything seems to have better alternatives (at least for me) in Linux.

I'd love to never boot Windows again, and it will be the case as soon as I can manage to add mp4s to my iPod in Linux, so if anyone knows how to do it....

I get struck again and again when I try to copy files on Win, and if one file can't go, the process is broken and I have to go figure out by 'bare hand' where that file was (the popup must be closed for Win to go on!) and what to do next...
grrrr...
: takes traquilizer ... pressure drops, heart rithm norlalizes :
it's not a bug, it's a feture! they say :-/
So I'm sick and tired of those vast features and benefits.
I'll stick with me poor GNU/Linux and his 'cumbersome' ways with his 'unintuitive' filemanagers.

Windows is anyway for those that easy forget how excellent they are and how excellent choices they make, thus need to be reminded often. For those who wish to only enjoy the enormous benefits, but gladly (and easy) forget the slaps they get every now and then 'for asking too much' form a othervise excellent OS.

You can use FarManager on Windows for same purpose. It is superiour to mc (IMHO), but, unfortunately, it isn't ported to linux (although it works using wineconsole --backend=user).

P.S. I'm unsubscribing because Linux is better and this "vs" question is solved for me.

>> "I'd love to never boot Windows again, and it will be the case as soon as I can manage to add mp4s to my iPod in Linux, so if anyone knows how to do it...."

can try googling with "ipod with linux" ... seems to me that there are already people doing ipod with linux ...

but i'm not sure whether its specifically answers your needs(those mp4 things you mentioned) ...


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Great support for the mp3s, got that part working fine. So far all I've found for doing videos is a patch for gtkpod I can't seem to get to work.

Xfce gives me basic transparency on this old desktop.

98SE can't, XP can't.

Thanks, Xfce.

And, mounting things in Linux (Except floppies -- Damn you, you floppy... disks!!) is way easier; especially since I can mount it wherever I like, and I can even mount my /home off of a flash drive, or boot entirely from USB.

>> "Great support for the mp3s, got that part working fine. So far all I've found for doing videos is a patch for gtkpod I can't seem to get to work."

i dont have ipod(therefore i donno what you are trying to do with your mp4s) ... but i believe it should be able to work if you try harder a bit or find some other way since you mentioned gtkpod(which i presumed its an "external" app) ...


//btw ... do we need to "kill" our ipod firstly if we go by this way before we put linux in it ... ?? ^_^ (just curious)


to Jorophose :: why the difference in the ease of mounting between floppies and the rest ... seems to me that they are all basically the samething even in comparision with "internal" disks/partitions ...



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That's right. Windows always does the mounting part for us, transparently and instantly, so we never see it, but it still happens. That's why you always have to wait for the hourglass icon before the A: drive contents will display, and that's why you always risk data loss if you remove a floppy disk while the light is on. The way it handles USB disks with the system tray icon is a wee bit more like manual mounting/unmounting. Windows does allow managing and rearranging internal disks but the process is well-hidden and cryptic to non-technical people.

Even Fluxbox, one of the most minimal wm's with a 2MB memory footprint, can do basic transparency. Take that, Windows Vista!

For some reason, Xfce doesn't "sync" anymore with Linux on my desktop... I don't know how else to explain it. The little "mount", "eject" and "unmount" options don't work with anything except for CDs/DVDs. Floppies and my Walkman I need to manually mount/unmount/eject...

Fluxbox takes 2MiB of RAM?!?!?!?! Damn, Gina! That's tiny! I thought it'd take more than that. (At least 8MiB -- not much, but quadruple of 2MiB...)