I have to install vista because I lost a bet

[night_fox]

I lost a bet which means I have to use windows vista for a whole week. :frown::cry:. Damn. Its going to be hell not being the boss of my own machine. I've also got used to my computer doing anything I want it to instantly with ubuntu, not to mention multiple desktops, the cube, the gnome network applet, the all powerful alarm clock etc.

I'm certainly not looking forward to it.

What am I going to do to alleviate the pain and misery?

[perlluver]

I lost a bet which means I have to use windows vista for a whole week. :frown::cry:. Damn. Its going to be hell not being the boss of my own machine. I've also got used to my computer doing anything I want it to instantly with ubuntu, not to mention multiple desktops, the cube, the gnome network applet, the all powerful alarm clock etc.

I'm certainly not looking forward to it.

What am I going to do to alleviate the pain and misery?

Use Firefox, Open Office, and all the other free software you can find. And be sure to come back in a week.

[lukjad007]

Also, try and find some Linux/Gnome like themes that work with Vista. That way it will look like Ubuntu, even if it isn't.

[albinootje]

What am I going to do to alleviate the pain and misery?

Use some old disk and some old machine, oh.. no wait, that's not possible.
Are you allowed to run Ubuntu in VirtualBox inside MS-Vista ?

If I had to do this [... shiver] then I would go for cygwin and the old KDE cygwin and play around with all possible GNU software for MS-Windows that I could find.
.. Next time make sure to not make any bets with Steve B. again, and make sure your chairs are solid and heavy...

:)

[night_fox]

Thanks for that, I plan on using loads of free software, especially firefox which is an absolute MUST. I have some sort of an excuse which means I can use cygwin (ssh into a uni computer to use matlab). I dont need the gnome theme as much. I had to use vista before I really knew about linux and I think it looks quite cool even though it's gimmicky and patronising.

I'll be damned if i'm not going to hack the hell out of it to make it give me more privelidges. Also a good opportunity to play some games that didn't work under wine.

The bet was whether or not my friend could play red alert 1 on windows vista. I know for a fact that I couldn't get it to work on my laptop using vista, but it works perfectly for me under wine. The other side was that if he failed, he had to use ubuntu for a week. He detests ubuntu for some reason and loves the fact that he thinks windows looks so professional and downloaded Silverlight just because it has a slick name.

I don't trust m$ an inch so before I install it I'm dding and taring my entire hard disk to an external one. I dont have much external HD disk space. Is there a way to (sort of) combine these steps?

[albinootje]

I don't trust m$ an inch

Me neither!

so before I install it I'm dding and taring my entire hard disk to an external one. I dont have much external HD disk space. Is there a way to (sort of) combine these steps?

With CloneZilla you can make compressed (clone) disk images of your hard disk. http://clonezilla.sf.net
I love CloneZilla for whole disk cloning, but make sure you get yourself familiar with CloneZilla, it has a bit of a learning-curve imho.

There's of course other cloning software, but this is the one I use and like.

[Bachstelze]

This is getting ridiculous, and definitely violates the no bashing rule.

Thread closed.