Hello,
excuse me if this is not the right place to be asking a broad question like this - boot me, move it, whatever, i wont be offended LOL

I am a web developer and just recently bought a new laptop - hp pavilion with ati integrated graphics, 4gig ram, and amd 64 bit. It also came pre installed with vista *shudder*
I began installing my adobe master collection and continued work as normal. The computer worked great until about two weeks ( LOL ) , it started running slower then my 5 year old dell xp. Now, i have been up and down trying to make it run faster and smoother, but apparently vista simply blows chunks and no one likes them ( i found this out after doing some research.... i know, i live under a rock - i am a code monkey, what can i say )

Anyways, i do web development on linux machines, and its always been a background term for me. I do get involved with the shell of the machines i work with, and a couple people i know have had there computers installed with 'ice-pick' ??? all i know is that linux is a possible alternative to my dilemma. My problem is, i know very little about it and how it can solve my problem.

I have tried rolling back to xp, but it simply will not install. I even bought a xp pro disc with license and the damn thing will not install ( even with hp support or MS support on the phone ). I have been told by hp that it is impossible to run xp on my system. I don't believe it.

I assume i will need a virtual machine of sorts to run my adobe software - as long as it freaking runs without crashing every five minutes, i will do anything.

Please, if someone can simply give me a couple pointers and direct me in the right position, i would be forever grateful.

Thank you

Certainly you can install something like opensuse 11.1 64-bit, then use VMware player to run Windows XP as a virtual machine, which is exactly what I do.

There are a few 64 bit Linux distros out there.Im currently using Slamd64 which is based on Slackware 12.2 and I noticed that Virtual Box is in their software repository.As always if you have the time,try out a few distros and see what you like.Cheers.

Sounds like ubuntu Hardy would be your best bet.

I have installed that on several laptops and desktops with little-to-no effort. It just works (Which I am pretty sure is the goal of the ubuntu project). Plus, the forums / community over there is great for helping.

Virtualbox (see: http://www.virtualbox.org) runs better than VMware under gnome, unless you like not being able to use CTRL, etc. (Which happens ALL THE TIME with vmware ).

Give this a whirl and see how it fits

------------------------------------
Michael Piekarski
Network Engineer
mpiekarski@hostmysite.com
www.hostmysite.com

Thanks Michal for the pointer, exactly what i needed. out of all the builds theres no review or 'what i use' kind of points.
Anyways, i am grabbing ubuntu Hardy for amd64 as well as vm for amd64. I am excited, and ill let you know if i got any questions or issues.

Thank you all for your pointers
much appreciated.

You can download LiveCds for most "flavors" of linux and just try them by booting off your CD/DVDrom with no change to your computer. This is a good way to know if it works with your system.

That said, my main OS is Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy).

Argh, ubuntu sort of ran. When installing, it said 'partman' had an error 10? and when i would try it again, it would just run. also, the cpu was at max even when nothing was running. I assume it was running on top of windows, but i have no clue.
Also, i coulden't seem to get my wireless on. Following the help, it said to go to the device manager, or something. But its instructions pointed me to a menu item that wasn't there. I searched for it for a long time and coulden't find anything of the sorts.
very sad. I was really hoping it would simply work. I am 26, i should know better LOL

the truth is, vista is making me insane, and now i am starting to wonder if it is my computer, or the hard drive. My laptop is a HP Pavilion dv7 Bronze. I wrote other info at the start of the thread. Is there any reason why it simply would not fully install?

Also, totally unrelated, but all of a sudden vista is not reconizing iso files... i cant burn them to the disc.

I am totally going insane over here. I swear it, if i see bill gates walking down the road, i am going to throw a dozen eggs at him and cover him in toilet paper and tie him to a tree to dry and let the birds pec at him.....
I was going to say something a lot worse, but i would hate to be placed under arrest for threatning him

anyways, i will try LiveCDs, thank you widget.

ill keep you posted.

I would suggest you try the newer version Ubuntu "Jaunty". That is built on a newer kernel and will support newer hardware better than Hardy. And if its your daily use laptop you can easily use Jaunty and upgrade when the newer version is available.

I think that there are some programs out there for burning ISOs under Vista that might be better than whatever is the default. I don't remember.

I thank the Vista devs everyday for Vista. If not for them I would still be using an MS product.

The newest versions are more likely to support your cards as linuxlover.chaitanya was saying. I know nothing at all about wireless but I can tell you that wired support of DSL is just great (from 8.04 on anyway).

One of the reasons I like 8.04 is that until a couple months ago all I had ever had was dial up, Hardy is pretty good at that too.

Try ImgBurn to burn .isos to CDs or DVDs. It's free, and I've found it reliable.
http://www.imgburn.com/

So i installed Ubuntu Jaunty and virtualbox with xp 64 bit. Everything is great, and fast.
Xp is missing drivers. It connects to the internet and runs programs with ease - very cool.
The video drivers are generic, i have intergrated ati , and the display cant seem to stretch out to the edges of my 17" monitor. i am assuming cause the wrong drivers ( a generic vga ) are installed.
The sound does not play
Downloaded flash for ubuntu - there is not a flash player for 64 bit system?

in xp, i did download flash player, and flash objects do play - but some never start ( like pandora will run, but once a song is loaded, it never plays - youtube players play ). this cant be - i do flash development.
If that can be fixed, then the question is of drivers. HP does NOT offer drivers for this computer for any other os then vista.
I am trying to find generic drivers.... no luck.

I am scared.
Do i really have to live with vista??? please , please say it ain't so Doc!

I think you are on the right track.

Can't help with the XP problems. Haven't a clue.

For help setting up Jaunty I would suggest that you check:

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Jaunty

And something that everyone should read:

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

As far as XP drivers/graphics are concerned: make sure you have the OS Guest tools (or whatever VBox calls them) installed. If you're having graphics problems under Jaunty you might need to research your ati chipset on the website.

As far as sound is concerned: if you have sound under Jaunty then you can get it under XP in VBox (or vmware). You might have to fiddle with the settings of the VM to make sure it's set up to find your sound device properly. It wasn't clear to me whether sound worked in either OS for you.

Don't know about the flash issues, I've had no problems with it under XP in vmware (or under Slackware, but of course I'm using 32 bit.)

No it is not so. Ubuntu will work just fine for you.

Flash in windows xp I cannot advise. I have no idea. In ubuntu read this - http://www.linuxine.com/2009/04/inst...04-amd-64.html

Video drivers, do you mean ubuntu won't use the whole screen, or xp in virtualbox? You need the virtualbox guest additions installed in xp. If you go up to the menubar in virtualbox under devices while you have xp running the last item there is to install the guest additions. If the ubuntu video is the problem then you will have to consult some people here who use ATI cards as I have not dealt with them. Shouldn't be too hard.

There are proprietary drivers for ATI available through Synaptic. Install them if they are not. If they are install then problem might be that you are not using them as you said generic vga drivers are being used. For sound just confirm which chipset you are using and you should get some help.
As for flash, it is available only for 32bit and you have to be content with it but it should still work without much issues.