[NTLUG:Discuss] how I solved the win/lin problem....

[Fred]

I have 2 machines: one has Win95 (it could just as easily had any other Win)
and the other has Linux.

The Win box has a modem, dvd player and a cd burner, as well as the photo
quality win printer and the par port scanner that Linux won't see.

The Linux box has a printer, modem, gobs of hard drive space, the firewall, all
the server software, email, etc. It is the workhorse of the system. 

Screw dual booting. There is enough room on the desktop for two monitors and
two towers under the desk, so let them do their thing. I run Win programs when
they are more practical and Linux for everything else. If I need to edit an MS
Word file before sending it as an attachment to a kmail message, I grab the Win
box and edit it with MS Word. No translation hassles, no waiting for Star
Office or Open Office or any other compromise software that may or may not
screw up the font, layput, format, etc of the document. I use the real thing.
Then I use the Linux box to grab it and mail it.  Ditto for other apps.

The point is that I fought these problems that I read about on this list until
I realized that no one system is the "perfect" solution, that there is a
definite need to be able to use the best of both worlds in my day-to-day
operations. That is when I placed both systems side-by-side with Tbase100 cards
and Samba. It is just an awesome tool. My kid just can't understand how I can
keep both systems running 24x7 with no crashes - even the Win box - when hers
won't run a day without laying over on its side in the ditch.

My recommendation is to do the same thing if you can. The only single box
system that comes close is Vmware 3.x which is excellent, but it would not let
me use my existing printer or my existing scanner and, since I already had the
systems, I couldn't see having to lay out all that extra money when I had
everything I needed.

Fred


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