[vox-tech] Anyone have experience with Windows XP & Linux on a Laptop?

[Larry Ozeran]

Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions. :)

To clarify, I have _not_ bought the laptop yet. I was looking for questions
to ask before a purchase. You have supplied me with many, thank you.

I had not considered disk swapping. I had planned to store all dictations
on the windows partition, which could then be read by the Linux software
(and do batch updates since reboots would be required to switch OS'). I
suppose if I used a Zip or USB storage device to transfer data, swapping
hard disks (and rebooting) could also work. (Anyone have good results with
the USB keychain storage devices under both Linux and Windows?)

As extensive as linux-on-laptops is, I could not find EXACT model identifer
matches to the models I found available for purchase. (DELL Inspiron 4100
listed, but 4150 being sold; eight Sony Vaio PCG-R505 models on the web
site, but none that I found available for sale.) I guess it's still caveat
emptor and hope that the salesperson I ask questions about systems knows
what they are talking about (winmodems, IRQ conflicts, graphics cards,
PCMCIA).

Did anyone have problems with warranty issues after converting to a dual
boot laptop? Any problems with reinstalling Windows after repartitioning
the drive (i.e. only had a CDROM image and not a true install)?
(I presume that both of these issues would go away if I choose the "swap
hard disks" recommendation.)

-- Larry

At 11:33 PM 12/10/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Is it easy to remove and replace the harddrive in your laptop? I have some
>experience with a Dell Inspiron 5000e with Win2K and Mandrake 8.2 Linux. I
>just swap harddrives to change OSes. Maybe that may be the way you want to
>go (unless you like the challenge of dual booting).
>
>
>On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Geoffrey Herteg wrote:
>
>> Larry,
>>
>> Yep, my corporate lappy-top was dual-booted XP and Debian Woody prior to
>> the lame BIOS password turning it into a brick (with no recovery option,
>> per IBM's goal to make it 'theft-proof').
>>
>> Just install XP first, then Linux.  Make sure to tell LILO or Grub about
>> the NTFS (you *did* use NTFS, right?) partition and it should boot fine
>> (at least, it does on my T20 and did on the 570E).
>>
>> Hope this helps a little.  I'm sure we can suggest HOWTOs if needs be.
>>
>> - Geoff, lost in the Pacific Northwest without his map...
>>
>> begin  Larry Ozeran quotation:
>> > Hi all --
>> >
>> > I want to create a demonstration system for speech recognition
(dictation)
>> > and open source medical office software. I need Dragon Dictate, which
>> > requires Windows 2000 or XP, more than 256 MB RAM, and at least 800 Mhz
>> > CPU. (ViaVoice for Linux is simply inadequate.) What I have read recently
>> > suggests Linux and XP can coexist peacefully. However, I seem to recall
>> > hearing that there can be problems dual booting with Windows XP, e.g. XP
>> > must be installed first. Does anyone know of any gotchas to be aware of
>> > when deciding which laptop to buy?
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>> >
>> > -- Larry
>> >
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>>
>>
>
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