Replace Windows 7 starter with Linux?

frankjc

I have an Asus netbook that I purchased for my son which has the Windows 7 Starter 32 bit operating system. I am wondering if I can replace Windows 7 with Linux. When I bought it at Best Buy, we asked if it would run certain games that he wants to run, and they said it would. This and other things about it make me feel like Windows 7 starter is garbage. It looks like Micro$oft wants about $200 to upgrade. I wonder if Linux would be better, and if it would do more than Windows 7.

Goineasy9

I would shrink the Windows partition down and install Linux as a dual boot. My last two laptops came with Vista installed. Instead of wiping them like in did in the past, I shrunk the Windows partition and installed Linux on the free space. You never know when you might need that Windows partition, sometimes you need it so you don't void your warranty.
As far as running games, some use Wine to run Windows games. I've never been a gamer so I can't tell you what that experience is like. There is a thread here in the forums where folks talk about their experiences playing games in Linux. If you haven't spotted it yet, here's the link: http://www.linux.com/community/forums?func=view&catid=21&id=345
I find that there's nothing I really need Windows for, but, for those serious gamers, they always keep a copy of Windows running.

frankjc

thank you forr
your response. honestly, i am not sure what that means. i can really see myself screwing this up, lol
would it be possible to use wine with windows 7 to play his games?

Goineasy9

You can check to see if his games are listed as compatible with wine here:
http://appdb.winehq.org/
You mean run wine with Linux to play games right? Windows 7 should let the games run, unless that starter version is so stripped down that it doesn't give you the ability. I haven't looked into the features of the Starter version yet. So I can't answer that with any certainty.

altNull

I would actually dual boot. Make your Linux partition only about 8 GB in size. Then all you do is install the game in Windows, mount the Windows hard drive in Linux, then use Wine to launch the exe. I've done this with greater success than trying to install the game with Wine. You will have to setup individual configs for each exe by going through Wine Configure program, adding the exe, then playing with the settings till it works. I love learning how to make stuff work in wine - its fun.

I also recommend Ubuntu because of Envy NG - a video driver auto-install "program" (really its a series of really kewl Scripts tied into a gui). This is helpful if you have an ATI or Nvidia card. If you have a built in Intel Graphics Card, then your fine - Ubuntu supports them automatically. Also, Ubuntu has some of the best sound support. If you do have sound problems, then you just install the other (Alsa vs OSS vs card makers driver).

gomer

I will make the same recomendation I do to most newbies. I would install Ubuntu using the WUBI installer to first test things out. It's more flexible than live cd because you an install applications and play with them to test things out, but you don't have to remove Windows, or even to play with re-partioning your hard drive. It essentially installs Ubuntu into a folder under Windows, and then updates the windows boot loader to prompt you with an option to boot into Ubuntu instead.

Ubuntu is user-friendly enough for starters, and I think the pacakge repositories are pretty well flush with applications to try out. If you wanted to try some commercialy produced windows game,s then go ahead and install wine to try those out. Also, be aware that there are other emulators sugh as cross over and cedega that may cost you some $$ but may perform better than wine.

If you then decide that Linux is going to work for you, and you've had it with Windows, then you can format the drive and start with a fresh install, or re-partition the diska nd dual boot.

that's just my $0.02.