Well, the grand was for the custom version that I bought. The basic computer runs around 520 clams, not including tax if I'm remembering it right. And the shipping was free. But that's for the completely basic version. I needed more, and there's no way I could survive on half a gig. Especially with dual and possibly triple boot. I probably don't need three operating systems, but I like both Ubuntu and Fedora, and it just seems more seemless to have the windows, for any software that might require it at some point.

But the hard drive even in the basic model is 250 gigs. Am I wrong in thinking I could fit a dog in that hard drive? So it is kind of funny to me. Large hard drive as far as I know, but no ram. But yes, I needed more ram. And a few extras and upgrades, and that drove the price up.

I know I need to install the windows first to get my multi boot. But I'm not sure how to uninstall the ubuntu. The same thing I think I did to remove the windows did not succeed in removing the linux. (I'm guessing, but my hunch is that I held the button down too long.)

Also, because I installed the ubuntu, the printer doesn't print. It will copy of course but it won't print. I know it's because it has to be added, which I did. But the second step, I think it was, required a choice of printer drivers, and the printer driver listed on my spec sheet didn't match either of the two choices and I didn't see a way to add a third. So I just randomly picked one and then the other, and neither proved effective.

But, it's a great opportunity to tinker and learn new things about linux.


Zsuzsi

PS-do you have any problems with your browser crashing on KDE? I did when I had Konqueror, and I thought they fixed it but when I chose that format with the red hat it still crashed a lot. But other than that I would choose it over gnome as well. I liked Konqueror, and all things being equal, would choose it again if I can still have it with fedora six. Is that what you use it with, or just the kubuntu?

Well, I hope you don't mind if I say it, but you're brilliant. I just got the wine going, and voila! I can now run my windows software.

P.S. I do ask a lot of questions-I want to know everything there is to know about linux! I don't want to impose, though.

I use firefox to browse the web. I don't have any problems with it crashing. Konqueror is nice, but I'm just used to firefox. Konqueror is a KDE based browser. Using it with gnome might be the reason your machine seems a little slower than maybe it should, as you are loading 2 sets of software librarys when you really only need one. If browsing still seems slow, there are other faster browsers, dillo is one, but they don't have quite as many features. Fedora is Gnome based, as Ubuntu is, but you can install KDE and just use that. Some testing recently posted on osnews has found that KDE uses less ram than Gnome, Gnome fans don't believe it. I've found KDE to be a little faster than Gnome, but not by much.

250gigs is a good sized hard drive, unless you are big into high def video. It's more than large enough to triple boot if you so choose.

You don't need to uninstall linux to install windows. You should just be able to pop in the windows disk and re-install over the top of it, then go back later and be more careful to install linux in a way that doesn't nuke your windows partition. I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by holding down a button. ? You can check to see if there is a working driver for your printer at www.linuxprinting.org

Good luck..

David

Edit.... Thanks for the complement. I'm not a good enough programer to be a kernel hacker or help the wine wizards do their thing, so I try to give back a little here helping people who are even more new to linux than I am. Hope every thing works out for you.... and you aren't imposing at all....

David

Of course. I should have known that about the reinstall (slap to the forehead). I must be completely sleep deprived! But I'm still unsure about how to use the thing that makes the partitions. The window thing with the things.

I use firefox right now, too. I'm not having a problem with the slowness now; it was when Vista was starting up. The long wait until everything was booted and ready to run. The red Hat would just take a few seconds and off I went. Vista was, well, a bit slower than I would have preferred.

How I got rid of it was when I changed the bios. I held the delete button down, and heard some ticking, and then I saw a prompt in the corner and held the delete button down still while I was reading and absorbing it. Then I heard some very fast ticking, followed by the words "OS missing." And sure enough-it was. So I thought I could do the same with linux but it didn't erase linux. Just the vista. But of course reinstalling over it would get rid of it.

I loved google earth, by the way. It has geocaching tools! How's that for cool.

And the peachtree seems to start up just fine on the wine. The scroll is working, too!

Oh-I did wonder about the parental controls. They are filtering me and I didn't even know the thing was on. I can't get to an online dictionary, or into my yahoo address book. Here is what it says:

S T O P
Access to the page has been denied.

URL: http://address.mail.yahoo.com/
ICRA chat PICS labeling level exceeded on the above site.

Please contact the Network Administrator if you think there has been an error.

I clicked the buttons on the controls, but can't make heads or tails of how to stop this. There's a whitelist but it doesn't work in my experience. At least it isn't obvious how.

Zsuzsi

P.S. Thank you again for all your help!

Of course. I should have known that about the reinstall (slap to the forehead). I must be completely sleep deprived! But I'm still unsure about how to use the thing that makes the partitions. The window thing with the things.

I use firefox right now, too. I'm not having a problem with the slowness now; it was when Vista was starting up. The long wait until everything was booted and ready to run. The red Hat would just take a few seconds and off I went. Vista was, well, a bit slower than I would have preferred.

How I got rid of it was when I changed the bios. I held the delete button down, and heard some ticking, and then I saw a prompt in the corner and held the delete button down still while I was reading and absorbing it. Then I heard some very fast ticking, followed by the words "OS missing." And sure enough-it was. So I thought I could do the same with linux but it didn't erase linux. Just the vista. But of course reinstalling over it would get rid of it.

I loved google earth, by the way. It has geocaching tools! How's that for cool.

And the peachtree seems to start up just fine on the wine. The scroll is working, too!

Oh-I did wonder about the parental controls. They are filtering me and I didn't even know the thing was on. I can't get to an online dictionary, or into my yahoo address book. Here is what it says:

S T O P
Access to the page has been denied.

URL: [url]http:
ICRA chat PICS labeling level exceeded on the above site.

Please contact the Network Administrator if you think there has been an error.

I clicked the buttons on the controls, but can't make heads or tails of how to stop this. There's a whitelist but it doesn't work in my experience. At least it isn't obvious how.

Zsuzsi

P.S. Thank you again for all your help!

Are the parental controls part of Ubuntu CE ? I've never heard of them on linux. Afraid I know nothing about them at all. As for pushing the button down, I'm assuming you mean the power button, which just forces a hard reboot. Which can screw up your system enough for it get confused about not finding an operating system, maybe, but 1. It usually doesn't screw up your system, and 2. If it does, it's not usually screwed up that way, at least, that hasn't happened to me yet, and I think I've screwed up my system just about every way you can one time or another.

Exactly which system are you using right now ? If you are going to reinstall windows you might want to do that first, before you spend a lot of time solving a problem that may not reappear.

Good luck...

David

Yes, the parental controls are part of the CE, and I guess it's a default or something because I didn't turn it on. I haven't found anyone who knows yet how to get the thing disabled or at least to use the whitelist. I'm sure it works fine; it just isn't obvious what needs to be done.

I've been using the Ubuntu until I have a chance to do a complete reinstall and get windows up. Actually with the wine running I haven't decided yet whether to put windows back on. I'm kind of enjoying the computer now, but I also know that one day if I encounter a problem, after everything has been tweaked and polished, I may regret the decision not to have it installed. I just don't have a strong affinity to windows, to be honest, though I know it may be useful at some point.