[ale] Re: Trying to make the switch to Linux

[John Marasco]

Michael Hartman wrote:

> Wow,
>  
> The response has been overwhelming.  Thanks to everyone for such quick 
> turnaround.  I now know that I have a Pentium so I can do the switch 
> and that I should be able to convert my excel files and I found a 
> couple of websites for D-Link downloads.  Should be able to figure out 
> the HP stuff as well.
>  
> The documentation with SuSE 8.2 indicated that NT 4.0 has a different 
> file format so that I couldn't prtition etc. which is fine.  I've 
> backed up all my data files.  Is there anything special I need to do 
> to my harddrive prior to loading the software?? (or does the install 
> guide take me through that?)
>  
> Anything else to think about prior to overhauling my laptop??
>  
> Thanks again to everyone for their rapid responses!!!
>  
> Michael

Linux can read and write NTFS from NT 4.0 and FAT although you should 
re-partition your hard drive anyway.  "Can read" does not mean the same 
thing as "is great at" ;).  I believe the ability to read from NTFS and 
FAT is there to support a dual boot environment.  The SuSE install will 
tell you how to partition the drive and will walk you through the 
process.  You may discover that Linux supports a richer array of file 
systems which is probably more confusing (at least to most computer 
users) than helpful.  To answer your question, you don't need to do 
anything special to your harddrive and accepting  the decisions the SuSE 
install makes for you will be "good enough" unless you are specific 
about these sort of things.

This may seem like a stupid point but if you backed up your files 
through some type of software backup application you may have some 
difficulty getting them back under Linux.  It will not be impossible but 
it will be harder than you may expect.  If you backed up your files by 
copying them to another drive on the network then you will need to 
install samba (which should happen automatically) and then make an smb 
connection from Linux to your Windows drive shares.  It isn't hard, but 
it isn't transparent as in Windows and I'm sure there are lot's of 
people here that would be happy to walk you through it.  There may be a 
tool in Linux that automatically searches the network for shared drives 
(as Windows Explorer does) but I haven't found it yet.  Of course if you 
wrote your files to some sort of media (CDW, floppy) then you will have 
no troubles at all restoring them.

Make sure you back up all your email, contact lists, bookmarks and 
anything you've dragged to your desktop.  Those are items that are 
sometimes forgotten (and regretted) when re-installing the OS.

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale