windows xp licenses?

[FATTYLLAMA]

ive been gone for a while guys because ive been screwing with this stupid linux machine i built and its driving me nuts

i noticed with one of the other computers i bought about 4 years ago, whenever i installed windows xp with the disc provided by the system manufacturer, there was no activation or anything, just something asking me for my product key very briefly after every reformat and clean installation. now, if i plan to nuke linux off the hard drive of the new computer and install windows xp from the manufacturer disc, would anything stop me from doing this, and would updates be completely impossible?

[law.of.averages]

Fatty you can try it... but I expect the disc will check hardware and determine it's not the same. Either way you'll know early on if it failed.

(of course early on = some time after you format, but before you have a working os)

[Nytefyre]

linux phails....

AGAIN

[Yrrek]

That says to me he chose the wrong distro and couldn't/didn't find the help that is available online.

[FATTYLLAMA]

That says to me he chose the wrong distro and couldn't/didn't find the help that is available online.

yeah, i agree, but the thing is that linux, at least mandriva 2007, is not what i expected. I had heard about great game emulation from both wine and cedega and decent hardware support. to my dismay, cedega is a subscription service and wine doesnt run things very well, if at all, there are no such things as non-proprietary drivers, completely negating my g5 mouse, and "special" keyboards with hotkeys dont work as well. I have yet to get UT2k4 to run, but it took me 3 hours to figure out how to correctly install nvidia drivers in mandriva, and im still confused on how to install anything with the .tar.gz extention or install anything other than nvidia drivers

if the 3d desktop does not work tomorrow when i try it again, i am moving on to ubuntu, and if that doesnt work, i am going to try to install windows.

[Yrrek]

I recommend OpenSUSE. Ubuntu is super good too, but I just didn't like the interface. When I get the time I will PM you a bunch of helpful linux related links. I just got back from VA and have a few papers to write for tomorrow. Keep at it and I will see what I can do with those links!

[pewterdragn]

Let me know what specific help you need. I have a multitude of Fedora machines and I have experience with most distros (prefer RPM based). When you have people to ask questions it's not hard to get started at all.

[law.of.averages]

When you have people to ask questions it's not hard to get started at all.

That depends on the who you ask

While I have no doubt Dragon, that your linux expertise is formiddable, the same questions asked of the homless man who sleeps under our local interstate overpass, would only bring more confusion.

[pewterdragn]

While I have no doubt Dragon, that your linux expertise is formiddable, the same questions asked of the homless man who sleeps under our local interstate overpass, would only bring more confusion.

Unless they are roaming hippies from Berkley who designed System V

[FATTYLLAMA]

Let me know what specific help you need. I have a multitude of Fedora machines and I have experience with most distros (prefer RPM based). When you have people to ask questions it's not hard to get started at all.

well i am using mandriva 2007 x64 and i cant get the 3d desktop to get working, plus, i am having problems getting around with installing packages.

I have installed the NVIDIA drivers, made sure that uname -r and ll /usr/src/linux display the same kernel. When i installed the driver, it told me that i have problems with a xorg.conf, but it installs anyway. To ensure my drivers are working, i use glxinfo | grep rendering and it says "Direct Rendering: Yes" and it displays my videocard NVIDIA 7300 GS.

When i enable XGL and use the compiz configurating tool thingy, it asks me to end the session and start again. So i do that, and then i reenter the 3D desktop enabling window and it says my computer does not support 3D desktop. I type glxinfo | grep rendering and it says "Direct Rendering: No" and does not display a videocard.

i actually tried ubuntu today, and couldnt get the disc to live boot, could be a defective disk, but if i dont get something up and running, i will soon have a physically defective computer.

[pewterdragn]

I've had the best experiences with XGL and AIGLX with Fedora Core. AIGLX is now even supported out of the box with Fedora Core 6. Ubuntu can be a little tricky with the NVidia drivers. If you use FC you can install them from RPM and not have to configure anything by hand. If you're having issues with compatibility and just learning the last thing you should be doing is building from source. Although some people will tell you its the best way to learn it really is trial by fire and turns alot of people away from using Linux on the desktop. You should be able to get anything you need by working with packages from whatever distribution you end up settling on.

If you want to stick with Mandriva send/post your xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log so we can take a look. Otherwise, download and install FC6 and I can get you up and running in no time flat.

Oh yeah and by the way... 64-bit is going to be twice as hard to get working then 32-bit. Support is there but there aren't near the volume of resources to help.

Also, you need to decide if you want to use XGL or AIGLX. XGL has a little more eye candy at the moment but AIGLX is supposed to be more stable across applications. I have used and like both. AIGLX may be a little easier to keep running because there are less drastic changes to your X server to get it running then compared to XGL.