I am trying ever so hard to break the control that Microsoft has on my life. I do not mind using MS products once in a while, but I do not want to rely on them completely.
I had a punch list of things I needed to do before I moved to Linux for good:
* Read/Write NTFS ability
* Synch my Palm T|E / install software
* Configure WINE to run AceMoney
* Test USB thumb drive
* Test card reader
I have modified that list some:
* Ability to share data between HD's
* Ability to synch my Palm T|E and install Palm software
* Configure WINE to run AceMoney
* Find a good HTML editor
* Test USB drive
* Test card reader
* Import all of my data (bookmarks, e-mail addresses, e-mails, etc)
* Configure Analog for Linux to analyze my web logs
1) Ability to share data between the HD in different OS's - This has been a bit of trouble. I found a great program (Captive-NTFS) that will allow you to read and write to NTFS partitions (what my Windows HD's are formatted in) and I have been working with it for a few days. I realized last night that my Linux kernel is not at the version needed by Captive-NTFS. Since I am new to Linux, I do not want to compile the kernel needed (I want to wait for the official release for my distro, Ubuntu). Also writing to NTFS is a scary thing according to all the experts. Linux will read/write FAT32 partitions, but that is going to require a bit of work on my part. I will need to move the data from the partition I want to read/write, delete that partition, boot into Linux and format it to FAT32 (since the partition is bigger than 32 gigs, the max that Win XP can format), log back in to windows and assign it the proper drive letter, and then move all my data back. I am not sure I am up for all that. My Win XP machine is set up to have "My Documents" on the partition in question instead of the C drive. I did this to make sure the data and the OS were on two completely different HD's in case of disaster.
Option two is to simply wait for the Ubuntu developers to get to the newest kernel version out so I can start using Captive-NTFS. That may be a while and I would still be writing to NTFS, which is "scary"
Option three is to install a program that will allow Windows to read Linux partitions and then do part of option one. This is a pretty good idea because Linux partitions are almost completely immune to disk fragmentation. It is still a lot of work, but I think it would be worth it in the long run.
Option four requires me to get another HD to specifically use for my data. I would still install the software that allows Windows to read and write Linux partitions, so I could see the data from both sides. I would still need to log on to the machine to run updates. My wife is not comfortable with that.
2) Ability to synch my Palm T|E and install Palm software -- I still am not sure what software I want to synch with. Evolution is supposed to be pretty darn good, but I have not played with it yet. I tried to get the synch/conduits set up but it failed. I researched and found the source of my error but ran out of time so I could not complete my test. I need to be careful...I do not want to lose my PDA data!
3) Configure WINE to run AceMoney -- I have done this on my slow litter server and it worked very well. I am 99% sure it will work on my new setup.
4) Find a good HTML editor -- I only need a WYSIWYG editor once in a while. Most of the time I use the text based editor "HTML-Kit". It has been around a few years. It is an older product, but it does a great job. I may investigate using it under WINE as well. I will look around and see what text based Linux editors are available before I go that route.
5) Test USB drive -- My USB drive has worked on 3 of the 4 Linux boxes (2 laptops and 1 desktop) I tried. The only failure was on the little server I run. I am 90% sure it will work on the new install.
6) Test card reader -- It worked flawlessly. I popped in my Smart Media Card and it asked me if I wanted to import the photos on it. I told it "no" and it opened up the Nautilus to the correct folder. Sweet.
7) Import all of my data (bookmarks, e-mail addresses, e-mails, etc) -- I started with bookmarks and that was no problem. Getting my mail will be a bit more of a chore, but I think I can get it resolved easily. I have an IMAP mail account with 10 gig of storage. I think if I clean out the storage some, I can move the folders to the IMAP account and then they will be available "real time" no matter where I am. Not a bad idea, if my mail is less than 10 gig :-)
8) Configure Analog for Linux to analyze my web logs -- I have only used this on Windows. I have a good config file that I am happy with, so it should not be too much of a problem to do this in Linux. It is a command line tool. All I will need to do is make some minor changes to the script, I believe.
I think that covers it. I have Thunderbird for news and e-mail, Firefox with plugins for browsing, Open Office for documents, all the media players needed to play audio and video, and most of the utils I had to install on Windows (ftp client, ssh client, desktop widgets, GAIM, and compression tools) are already installed on the Linux distro I am using.
The data sharing item is the keystone or hinge pin that is the make or break on this project. I am sure I will get it all figured out eventually.
I will keep you posted.
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