Zardon

interesting article from Robin at newsforge about his experiences.. check it out

http://linux.com/article.pl?sid=02/05/27/0334227

UberLord

Windows has been doing similar stuff since year dot - mainly overwriting the boot sector wether you want it to or not. However, XP Pro does NOT overwrite partitions by default (I have no experience with Home edition) - however it is possible for OEM's to change the way the installation starts by forcing partitions to be set up for the entire disk in a certain way. Fujitsu did this with a new laptop I configured for work - and that came with either Win2K or NT4 (choice of OS on first boot).

Its easy to blame Microsoft (heck I'm a certified M$ basher) and Roblimo is a frequent SlashDot reporter/poster and no stranger to having a good bash mixed in with major paranoia and FUD. In this case, its the OEM to blame was they shipped the customised "Restore" CD. They could very well do the same thing to Linux - but no he convieniently sidesteps this and goes for the bigger fish - Microshaft

And its silly reports like this that undermine the credance that the opensource community has - there ball is rolling and they're taking shots at Micro$oft anyway they can. Frankly its making me sick. Hopefully I'll never stoop to their level and keep the debate on technical and ethical merits.

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baz8080

There are a lot of ppl who go in and install Linix on a whim and dont fully understand the concept og bootsectors/partitions etc (i was one of them - that's how I learned), but if anyone made themselves aware of the reality of running 2 os's we would be in a better place.

glussier

Seems to me, like this "Robin Miller" doesn't know much about dual boot. He could have gotten Ranish Partition Resizer or PartResizer and resize is winxp partition and then install linux on the free space. I, also, don't know how he can say that Linux is easier to install than windows. This guy is a jerk.

On one of my systems, I am triple booting win2k, winxp and Linux Mandrake 8.1. I'm even using the winxp bootmanager to boot all these O/S, so goes to show how much this guy knows.

baz8080

Don't know if i'd go as far as calling him a jerk, but he is certainly a tad mis-informed.

Easier to install than windows? - not likely. Linux Newbies really dont need to be presented with a few thousand packages, and their ensuing dependincies woes.
It's something that puts ppl off - _not_ a good thing.

Don't get me wrong, I am a comitted GNU/Linux user, but I appreciate that each OS has their own place in the market. Hopefully the LSB (Linux Standard Base) will bring a sense of unity to the different Distro's.

Jeff

Well I am currently quinbooting...DOS6.22, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Linux Mandrake 8.1, although I totally screwed my Windows 98, and have never bothered to get it working again, since i never use it, LOL.

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baz8080

I have dual CPU's so that limits me somewhat to certain OS's

This is OT but I have to say about a time when a guy rang me up (I was in tech support). He had a gig of RAM, dual CPU's, and was running _98_.....hmmmm
More money than sense i think...

Ryo-Ohki

So Windows ME is for computer geeks? Funniest thing I've heard today.

That's why you want XOSL. Configure once on a dedicated partition, restore boot sector whenever needed. As for the disappearing partitions, there's only one parameter to change into the unattended installation file to prevent this whole reset beahviour. LOL, anti-competitive behaviour... This Robin Miller has his head stuck in his *** (self-censorship). Soon he'll accuse Microsoft of deleting files in his back when he can't tell what rm -rf / * does mean.

I hope he's not related to the Robin Miller of "Riven" though, he'd be forever disappointed.

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The_Neon_Cowboy

linux is great and all but it's not for me untill it gets more like windows in the terms of ease and support.. I stick with my copy of xp

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Vampyromaniac

Are you saying you have a partition with only DOS on it?

WyreTheWolf

Had a install of XP Pro, dropped in Linux Mandrake 9.1 ... and everything works just fine

merry

I'd say I'm less than a noob, except for Linux where I'm nil, still could manage to setup triple boot 98/xp/linux on two rigs...

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The_Neon_Cowboy

"I am a simpleminded Linux user, not good with Windows, which is obviously designed for computer geeks, not for end users like me"

What has this dude been smokeing?

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