Re: DOS app icons Under Vista (A Fix?)

[Paul Lagasse pglagasse@xxxxxxxx]

At 05:47 PM 11/14/2007, Patricia wrote:

Many thanks. Now if I can just
get the time to install Linux and play with it.


I don't know what sort of experience you have with Linux (and am new to
this list), so forgive me or yell at me if this repeats what you know,
but if you are just interested in seeing what it's like (vs checking out
how XyWrite works in it), I'd suggest burning a CD and running it
"live" (off the CD, without installing). I have played with a
number of Live versions, and the biggest issues I have found are problems
in recognizing yr monitor, yr wireless networking setup, and yr printer.
(I'm no Linux expert.) None is perfect, and I think you are probably
better off being wired than wireless when testing out Linux (without
knowing anything about yr computer hardware).


If you decide to install a Linux distribution, I have found that all of
them (that I've tried -- Ubuntu, Suse, and others) are, on a multiple OS
setup, as self-assured and ill-behaved as Murkoceph Windows in assuming
that you installed it to be your primary OS. At first reboot, *if Linux
installs grub* (the most common bootloader program these days), your
first and default OS selection will be the Linux distribution that you
are "trying out." If you don't care for this sort of
rearrangement of yr life, you have to be prepared to find and edit (as
superuser or root) grub's menu. And worst of all, when I automatically
upgraded Ubuntu, my tweaked grub menu was trashed, and with 10 partitions
on one drive and 3 on the other, about a third of which I boot or might
boot, that was fun to reconstruct. So now I keep a copy of the menu list
on a thumbdrive.


A couple years ago, I tried Xy4 on Ubuntu and Suse, using both Dosbox and
Dosemu, and had issues with both. Dosbox was too slow to convince me to
move from WinXP to Linux for my work, which is Xy4 and XPL dependent.
Dosemu didn't like what I was trying to do with my keyboard file, and
without it I might as well work in Word or Notepad or OpenOffice etc, or
with just one hand. But some recent posts make me think it's worth trying
out Dosemu or Dosbox again.


Paul



Paul Lagasse

PO Box 144

Kemblesville, PA 19347

pglagasse@xxxxxxxx


Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. -- The Borg

Cooperate with the inevitable. -- Dale Carnegie