Missing Windows?

corblimey

I've installed Ubuntu on my work machine, and found it so easy to adjust that I'm considering moving this second machine to a Linux only box (no dual boot). I've compiled a list of the apps I use daily and am pretty sure I can find Linux alternatives that work just as good if not better.

I'll miss being able to play games on this machine, not new games, the PC is far too old for that, but my old collection of Call of Duty 2, Civ 4, AoK, etc. I know WINE can deal with some of them, and others will work on my other other PC, a Vista-running pain in my a**e, but it's just so easy to run them in XP. I'll not be able to replace my Palm synching tools and Acronis back-up just will not work, but I think I can live without them.

So is there anything you guys miss from your XP days? Sarcasm aside ("ooh I miss having to restart my machine 8 times a day due to viruses, yuk! yuk! yuk!!!1!").

ethernet

OSalt might help on finding alternative apps.

I'm no gamer but WINE will run a lot of games just fine, as will Cedega (commercial fork of WINE). If the game doesn't run in WINE but doesn't have overly-dramatic graphics requirements, you might get away with running the game in XP in a virtual machine (VirtualBox, VMWare Server or others). This might get around the Palm syncing if you can't find a native Linux alternative.

On the Acronis front, when you say backup, I'm guessing you're referring to True Image? There's an ISO you can download from Acronis' site when you register. It runs live so you can image your drives no problem or restore images you previously made (Linux friendly and all :pac:).

corblimey

Thanks for the tips

ethernet wrote: »

On the Acronis front, when you say backup, I'm guessing you're referring to True Image? There's an ISO you can download from Acronis' site when you register. It runs live so you can image your drives no problem or restore images you previously made (Linux friendly and all :pac:).

Yeah, True Image is the boyo. I assume what you're talking about is the ability to sort of 'back up now', whereas I've spent the last 3 years trusting in Acronis' scheduled backing up once a week. There are some alternatives in Ubuntu (I'm using flyback right now for minimal backing up) but nothing seems to be as trustworthy and easy to use as Acronis, in my mind, anyway.

ethernet

corblimey wrote: »

Thanks for the tips



Yeah, True Image is the boyo. I assume what you're talking about is the ability to sort of 'back up now', whereas I've spent the last 3 years trusting in Acronis' scheduled backing up once a week. There are some alternatives in Ubuntu (I'm using flyback right now for minimal backing up) but nothing seems to be as trustworthy and easy to use as Acronis, in my mind, anyway.

You're welcome :pac:. rsync is a brilliant program for backups on Unix-like systems. You can have it run every week by adding it to cron (or anacron if your machine might be switched off). I know you can use dd for creating bit-for-bit images but haven't had much need to use it.

charlesD

So is there anything you guys miss from your XP days?

Not really. I don't use it at home, but still deal with windows, due to work, on a regular basis, which really only furthers my commitment to Linux.

I don't really play too many games anymore, but when Far Cry 2 comes out I am going to have to go ahead and install xp/vista