RFCW: Should I switch to Linux, or does Gates have me by the short & curlies?

[Karl Anderson]

Luis Villa <louie@ximian.com> writes:

> My usual recommendation is that people install dual-boot first and try
> it out. That doesn't sound like an option if you've only got a 2G OS
> partition.

I personally hope to never have to dual-boot again (although my
laptops will probably always have to).

If you have the money, or the boxen, I'd suggest doing what I do.  Run
Windows 2000 on your display box, and run Linux on a separate machine
(that machine doesn't have to be as powerful to be more useful than
the Windows box, so you can do this when it's time to upgrade).  Use a
Windows X server as your display, or be lazy like me and use VNC.
There are good Windows $99 X servers, and I haven't tried WierdMind
yet, which seems like it would work.  Do everything meaningful that
you can on the Linux box, buy peripherals for the Windows box.  Use
Samba to share files and printers.

I started doing this so that I could pick up work at Windows shops
without floundering too bad at the start, and also because I was sick
of wasting time configuring sound cards and didn't want to do it over
again for the scanner that I wanted.  I do most of my stuff on the
linux box, and run a few apps & IE on the desktop.  At work I use
Cygwin and Emacs, and it sucks (not as bad as I thought it would, but
it does suck).  I was a Linux zealot for years, and this setup makes
me feel dirty, but it works well.

If MS's licensing plans are as evil as they seem, this might not be an
affordable option in the near future, though.

-- 
Karl Anderson      kra@monkey.org           http://www.monkey.org/~kra/