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Dear all,

I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD. Acer (and
other manufacturers) don't deliver installation disks, unless bought.
So, if you want/need these, you have payed twice for the same MicroSoft
stuff. What a sad situation.

The issue is that starting the new PC will force to install Vista. After
browsing for some hours, it brought me me to the next options:

1) Install Vista, and from there load Cygwin to have the desired Linux
tools, and OpenOffice. This is just a matter of installing. Should be
straightforward.

2) Do a partitioning of the HD. I understand partitioning tools comes
with Vista. Then install Fedora, or Ubuntu on the second partion. What
are the experiences with this approach ? Thus have Vista dormant
available, and just use Linux.

3) Following (2), install VMWare, and have the possibility to launch
Vista from the first partion, if desired. Or do an image copy to the
Linux HD, and consider Vista on the first section as the golden image.
What are the experiences here ? What are the do-s and particularly the
don't-s.

Thanks in advance
Ton

On 2007-09-03, Ton 't Lam <ton.tlam@casema.nospam.nl> wrote:
> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
> worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
> this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD.

Zap the image, reinstall, ask for refunds.

> The issue is that starting the new PC will force to install Vista.

Why? You just boot from the DVD/CD and blast the partition.

Davide

--
Today is a good day. Not because anything wonderful is happening,
so much, but because my definition of a 'bad day' has been revised.
-- Chris Klein

Davide Bianchi wrote:
> On 2007-09-03, Ton 't Lam <ton.tlam@casema.nospam.nl> wrote:
>> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
>> worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
>> this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD.
>
> Zap the image, reinstall, ask for refunds.

Remove the disk, install new one. Install Linux.

If space keep old disk and set up your boot loader to run off it in case
you ever want to boot windoze.

>
>> The issue is that starting the new PC will force to install Vista.
>
> Why? You just boot from the DVD/CD and blast the partition.
>

My thoughts exactly ;-)
> Davide
>

Ton 't Lam wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
> worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
> this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD. Acer (and
> other manufacturers) don't deliver installation disks, unless bought.
> So, if you want/need these, you have payed twice for the same MicroSoft
> stuff. What a sad situation.

Less sad as advertised by the salesman. You can make a backup of the
installation image. The HD is divided in three partitions: A hidden one
with the installation image, a C: and D: drive. Backups are made on D:.

<snip>
>
> Thanks in advance
> Ton
>

Davide Bianchi wrote:
> On 2007-09-03, Ton 't Lam <ton.tlam@casema.nospam.nl> wrote:
>> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
>> worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
>> this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD.
>
> Zap the image, reinstall, ask for refunds.
>
>> The issue is that starting the new PC will force to install Vista.
>
> Why? You just boot from the DVD/CD and blast the partition.
>
> Davide
>

This is of course the best idea. Although almost everything runs fine on
Linux, sometimes there are situations you need to start Windows, such a
educational S/W that is tied to Windows. Wine won't save the day all the
time.

Refund is about impossible in the Netherlands. This has been discussed
locally in length. It ends up you have to do a *lot* of efforts (e.g.
prove you didn't install/use Windows), and get a minimal refund. It
won't cover the costs. For this reason Linux addicts "accept" this
situation.

This so called chain-sell is actually forbidden in the Netherlands, but
apparently manufacturers have found ways to bypass this.

Strange this whole situation isn't dealt with by some European committee
for once and all.

Ton

Ton 't Lam wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
> worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
> this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD. Acer (and
> other manufacturers) don't deliver installation disks, unless bought.
> So, if you want/need these, you have payed twice for the same MicroSoft
> stuff. What a sad situation.

If you only want to use Linux, there's no reason to buy a computer with
Vista pre-installed. There are loads of online resources on where and
how you can
buy a pc without Windows or with Linux pre-installed (example: Emperor
Linux).

You are going to go through a lot of hell, starting from the fact that
the manifacturer
will not support you if you change the partition table or install
anything else from the
OEM image.

Once you buy a pc with Vista you just perpetuate this situation
forever.

Ottavio
http://www.pledgebank.com/boycottvista

Ottavio Caruso writes:
> You are going to go through a lot of hell, starting from the fact that
> the manifacturer will not support you if you change the partition table
> or install anything else from the OEM image.

Do they actually say that in the written warranty?
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:10:20 +0200, Ton 't Lam wrote:

> 2) Do a partitioning of the HD. I understand partitioning tools comes
> with Vista. Then install Fedora, or Ubuntu on the second partion. What
> are the experiences with this approach ? Thus have Vista dormant
> available, and just use Linux.

I did this with a new hp pavillion dv2000.

I used gparted on a dvd disk. you boot to this dvd disk and it provides a
nice gui for doing partitioning.

in particular you can resize the Windows partition and make space for your
Linux partitions. the program used for this is ntfsresize.

there is always risk. if you can back up the Windows stuff first, that
would be ideal. there are tools for this including just booting from a
linux disk and using 'dd'.

a further warning. somewhere along the line the Windows partition got
affected with some kind of error, and running chkdsk from within Windows
doesn't work and the ntfsresize now refuses to touch it. Windows works
fine, however, and I am sure this puzzle can be solved.

the machine had two partitions, one for Windows and one for its 'recovery'
data. that partition was about 8gb but about 7gb is reported as used. I
suppose that could be somehow copied over to a double-layer dvd? or anyway
to a couple of dvds.

Felmon

Ton 't Lam wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter. She
> worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers to use
> this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD. Acer (and
> other manufacturers) don't deliver installation disks, unless bought.
> So, if you want/need these, you have payed twice for the same MicroSoft
> stuff. What a sad situation.
>
> The issue is that starting the new PC will force to install Vista. After
> browsing for some hours, it brought me me to the next options:
>
> 1) Install Vista, and from there load Cygwin to have the desired Linux
> tools, and OpenOffice. This is just a matter of installing. Should be
> straightforward.
>
> 2) Do a partitioning of the HD. I understand partitioning tools comes
> with Vista. Then install Fedora, or Ubuntu on the second partion. What
> are the experiences with this approach ? Thus have Vista dormant
> available, and just use Linux.
>
> 3) Following (2), install VMWare, and have the possibility to launch
> Vista from the first partion, if desired. Or do an image copy to the
> Linux HD, and consider Vista on the first section as the golden image.
> What are the experiences here ? What are the do-s and particularly the
> don't-s.

Unless you have a use for it, and I can't think what that might be, just
install linux and choose the option that says it will reformat the HD and all
data will be lost.

--
The only knowledge Christians and Jews have of the bible comes from the
companion 'What is really means' book.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3853
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
Lawful to bomb Israelis http://www.giwersworld.org/israel/bombings.phtml a11

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> Davide Bianchi wrote:
>> On 2007-09-03, Ton 't Lam <ton.tlam@casema.nospam.nl> wrote:
>>> I'm bringing up a new Acer Aspire 5630 (2 Gb mem) for my daughter.
>>> She worked effortlessly with Linux the last 6 years, and she prefers
>>> to use this OS. However the Acer comes with a Vista image on the HD.
>>
>> Zap the image, reinstall, ask for refunds.
>
> Remove the disk, install new one. Install Linux.
>

I like this idea plus spend the extra money for a 7200 rpm disk
it's well worth it. You don't need a large disk since you'll be running
Linux.

/dan