Clueless

My wife and I are sooo tired of Windows. We're not typical MS haters, we're just tired of slow, bloated computers. We use a lot of Adobe and MS software, but are willing to eventually wean ourselves off of Windows and are willing to do what it takes to get there. I'm fairly competent hardware-wise, but not so much software-wise. I do not know what a kernel is, if that tells you anything.

I have cleared 258 GB off my hard drive in anticipation of creating a partition for Linux. OZ Unity has just finished downloading as I type this. I have looked around the forums a bit. Maybe it's because Linux is such foreign territory to me -- maybe I'm looking for the wrong things == but I seem to have a hard time finding answers to questions. I gather that the different "versions" of Linux are called "distributions" or "distos". There seem to be so many, and I was unable to determine which was the best for my purposes. I finally settled on OZ Unity (it took about 11 hrs. to download,) and the realease (I guess) that I got is called "Diamond IIB KDE". I understand that KDE is the desktop environment -- I got that much.

When I Googled "install OZ Unity" I didn't get much in the way of installation tips, just places to download the files. I credit this to the general savvy of the typical Linux user. Anyway, I'm about to give it s shot. You might be seeing a lot of me in the next little while.

BTW, I should mention that I did try using Ubuntu a few years back -- I was running XP, Vista and Ubuntu on one machine. I never could get the feel of Ubuntu, and it eventually corrupted my boot sector or something. I had a heck of a time getting all that straightened out. Right now I have have Vista on a 750 GB drive and another instance of Vista running on a separate 120 GB drive where I do all my desktop recording.

We use a lot of Adobe and MS software

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Apart from the stuff that is available online e.g. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor http://www.photoshop.com/tools , you might care to look at e.g.
http://lifehacker.com/5976725/build-your-own-adobe-creative-suite-with-free-and-cheap-software

http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives?search_text=adobe

http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives?search_text=microsoft

http://www.osalt.com/search?q=adobe

http://www.osalt.com/search?q=microsoft

OK thanks. I'll come back to that when the time comes. Right now I'm trying to determine the size and type of partition I need to create. This is the kind of information that I have a hard time finding, the basic stuff.

This is one of the best guides to installing. Oz Unity is Ubuntu based. http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm

Jude Walker said:

I never could get the feel of Ubuntu, and it eventually corrupted my boot sector or something. I had a heck of a time getting all that straightened out.

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This could happen again if you're not careful...

It's highly unlikely that Ubuntu corrupted your boot sector. Ubuntu, like pretty much all distributions, installs a bootloader into the MBR. If you remove the Linux partitions from within windows before restoring the original windows MBR, it can result in an unbootable system. This is because the bootloader (usually the grub bootloader) cannot find it's configuration and associated files, which were part of the Linux file system which you had destroyed.

Installation varies from one distro to the next. Installers may be comprehensive, user friendly/intuitive, designed for dummies or experts - they may be graphical or CLI based. With any type of installer however there is the potential to destroy data. If you are reserving space on an existing hard disk, that's fine, but it does not mean that you're exempt from making backups. When installing any OS - back up your existing data or lose it. For a first time install, you will probably want to just create one partition for the OS and another for swap.

flunwyc said:

If you remove the Linux partitions from within windows before restoring the original windows MBR, it can result in an unbootable system.

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This may have been the case. It's been a while so I don't really remember the particulars. I recall that I first started having problems with the boot order or something. I may have tried removing the Ubuntu install by formatting the partition that it was on, not understanding the need to restore the original windows MBR.

As it is, I think I'm going to try to find a different disto and download it. ISO file of OZ Unity that I downloaded isn't acting right. When I mount it via PowerISO there doesn't seem to be any king of installer. It doesn't "run", I can only open it and view files.

Hello,
Thanks for trying Oz Unity!!! I hope you like it, we put a lot of effort into it. The latest release is called Diamond II-B KDE, the first release of Oz Unity with KDE. So, install instructions are pretty generic.
1. download the iso
2. either burn to a DVD or place on a USB. (unetbootin, liveUSB installer)
3. Boot the Computer off of the DVD/USB
4. Boot either LIVE or Install directly.
5. When using the installer, choose where to install
6. Install

Your issue will be the MBR..Either put grub there or allow Windows to control it still. If you choose to let Windows control it, use EasyBCD to add Oz Unity to the Windows Boot loader.

Jude Walker said:

This may have been the case. It's been a while so I don't really remember the particulars. I recall that I first started having problems with the boot order or something. I may have tried removing the Ubuntu install by formatting the partition that it was on, not understanding the need to restore the original windows MBR.

As it is, I think I'm going to try to find a different disto and download it. ISO file of OZ Unity that I downloaded isn't acting right. When I mount it via PowerISO there doesn't seem to be any king of installer. It doesn't "run", I can only open it and view files.

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The installer that you are looking for is discontinued. Not really from the Oz Unity team, but from Canonical. Wubi(the windows Ubuntu installer) is very much broken..so from what I heard Canonical is going to discontinue it. So, when we made the latest version of Oz Unity, we removed Wubi to save disk space and help our users. We didn't want people trying Wubi and running into issues. I hope you consider trying Oz still..

I apparently missed the part where Diamond II B KDE is for 64-bit only. My system is 32-bit. The good news is, I now know how to create a bootable USB stick with Linux, and I can boot my computer from it. So...... Black Opal?

Jude Walker said:

I apparently missed the part where Diamond II B KDE is for 64-bit only. My system is 32-bit. The good news is, I now know how to create a bootable USB stick with Linux, and I can boot my computer from it. So...... Black Opal?

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There is a 32bit version of Black Opal yes. I am working on Diamond II-B x32 as I type. Diamond II-B KDE x32 should be in the works also...

Here is a link for Black Opal x32
https://www.ultimateeditionoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=365&t=4553

I'm getting it from SourceForge. There don't seem to be any seeders for the torrent.