Linux/Vista

[logancircle]

Is there a version of Linux that will run on my Vista laptop? I use a new Compaq Presario CQ60 with Vista Home Premium, but was terribly wrong inthinking I could put XP on it, leaving me with a bunch of great Linux programs that won't work until I find a...[see first sentence]

Anyone? PLEASE!

[ThePaloverdeBeetle]

I'm not sure why it is you feel that you can't install XP on your laptop which came with Vista.
Do you have an XP installer disc that is not an OEM image for a specific computer?
I guess if you didn't that would be a dealbreaker.

Unless you are prepared to enter the world of linux sound recording apps and device
drivers for sound hardware etc. I wouldn't necessarily switch to linux. There would be a steep
learning curve there. It's not like you could easliy install Windows applications on Linux.

If you're into the challenge Ubuntu makes a nice base to start from as far as distros go.
Lots of software availavble and it's fairly easy to install stuff via the synaptic package
manager.

Myself personally, I prefer sticking with my Windows centric apps, plugins etc. I have
a n XP partition for audio only, no web surfing, wireless etc, no virus protection to
drag system performance down. I also have an Ubuntu partition for regular stuff,
wireless,, web surfing, email etc.

If you don't have a true XP installer disc and don't want to acquire one, or if it's too
much trouble to install device drivers post install, then I'd stick with Vista rather than
make the attempt at switching to the world of Linux. I use and support the idea of
gnu/Linux but if Windows is a challenge than Linux, even Ubuntu will be more so.

[mvollrath]

http://www.linlap.com/wiki/hp-compaq+presario+cq60

[logancircle]

Well, we read all we could online about the XP jump, as well as talking to some Windows peeps and most people said there would be no problem. Unfortunately we had to spend hours upon hours getting all the appropriate (according to many sites) XP drivers online for nearly every piece of hardware on this machine, and we tried a bunch of ways to do it, but concluded that these low-budget pretty-fast machines might be made to work with Vista. For example, once we had XP loaded and running, the mouse jumped across the screen like mad, it took forever to open anything, and it was so slow we thought we better not mess with it before it blew up. Hmmm

Also, I have no problem with Linux or learning curves, Rosegarden, etc, but the drivers aren't out there. I had to get a restore DVD from Compaq just to get Vista back on there because, although we'd created a restore partition, that disappeared when we tried to put XP on another partition. Many headaches.

[ThePaloverdeBeetle]

I understand.

As an IT guy, I do this sort of thing (find install drivers for xp) every day and can practically
do it blindfolded but it takes awhile to know what to know.

The good part of it is, if you take the trouble to do it once for your machine, you'll have a
better idea how to do it again and you can save the drivers somewhere so you can re-install
them any time you need to. (You might end up needing to do this for Vista at some point as well).

Yeah Linux is going to have limited driver support for new and non consumer hardware.

I believe there are some drivers out there for certain manufacturers hardware but you'd
have to tailor your hardware purchases to fit available drivers.

Usually with XP the drivers you end up needed to find are video adapter drivers, wireless
drivers,and sometimes network interface drivers.

Sounds like you needed one of those trackpad drivers to to make your laptop trackpad
work better (or you could use an external USB mouse).

Generally speaking you can get all the necessary drivers from the computer manufacturers website. If it's an HP, go to HP's website, goto support and download drivers for the specific
model computer you've got. A one stop shop, not that difficult. (I've no specific experience with HP but I assume it,s similar to other manufacturers in this regard.

It's my opinion that Vista will be more of a resource hog than XP for an audio workstation.
Why should I give up CPU power and memory to the operating system when I can use it
for audio?
Nevertheless, a certain amount of patience is needed to make it through the endeavor of
re=installing an operating system. In my view, it's a good idea to cultivate it.

Peace and good luck!

[logancircle]

Thanks for the responses! I am not so much concerned with CPU--I just want a machine that I can record on. Based on the amount of time it took to find drivers, and their lack of compatibility, and the conflicting opinions of computer experts online, I think I might just try to trade down to an older machine with XP. That is, if someone wants a brick with Vista.

[mrufino1]

I just spent another night trying to install 64studio to my dell laptop and still it will not recognize my firewire audio stuff. My firepod worked fine on my desktop 64studio install, so I am not sure of the issue. I REALLY want my linux audio to work so that I can get away form windows, but it looks like I will be using windows for audio for a little longer and keeping an eye on the progress of linux audio.
That said, you should be able to put xp on that laptop I think. I was able to change my wife's acer laptop form vista to xp and it was fine. Linux was a challenge to get on there but she uses ubuntu every day and uses xp for some speech therapist related software that is not linux compatible, even through wine. I just replaced ubuntu 8.10 with linux mint 6 on my IBM laptop tonight too; they are basically the same OS but mint refined it a bit and since my 8.10 upgrade I have had little issues. Anyway, good luck with your quest, hope you can record something!