"Beve Stallmer" wrote in message
news:_Y5Dg.189$rT5.19@fed1read01...
> STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto a
> CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow me
> to use the following software and do the following things:
>
> 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
> 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
> 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
> 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
> 5)skype
>
> LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
> patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
> credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending I
> urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches", I'm spitting the dummy.
> I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with PhotoShop,
> Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work with a
> Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on the hard
> drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem is that
> the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.
>

AFAIK, writing to NTFS is iffy in Linux (though reading is supposed to
work fine). You might be better off buying a USB key and storing your data
there, or using a tool like GParted to convert your partitions from NTFS to
FAT32[*] http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php.

I haven't used Dreamweaver much, but you might want to check out
http://www.nvu.com/ which is also a web site editor, and it runs on Linux.

- Oliver

"Oliver Wong" wrote in message
newsV6Dg.2411$395.887@edtnps90...
>
> "Beve Stallmer" wrote in message
> news:_Y5Dg.189$rT5.19@fed1read01...
>> STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto a
>> CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow me
>> to use the following software and do the following things:
>>
>> 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
>> 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
>> 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
>> 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
>> 5)skype
>>
>> LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
>> patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
>> credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending I
>> urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches", I'm spitting the dummy.
>> I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with
>> PhotoShop, Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work
>> with a Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on
>> the hard drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem
>> is that the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.
>>
>
> AFAIK, writing to NTFS is iffy in Linux (though reading is supposed to
> work fine). You might be better off buying a USB key and storing your data
> there, or using a tool like GParted to convert your partitions from NTFS
> to FAT32[*] http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php.
>
> I haven't used Dreamweaver much, but you might want to check out
> http://www.nvu.com/ which is also a web site editor, and it runs on Linux.
>
> - Oliver

Forgot to include my footnote:
[*] I've never used GParted, so I can't vouch for it. However, I've used
Partion Magic, which is a closed source commercial software for partition
management, and it works very well. You just want to make sure nothing
interrupts the partitioning process. With a laptop, you should be okay, but
on a desktop, I advise using a UPS system to prevent random power failure
from making a mess of your harddisk.

- Oliver

Oliver Wong wrote:
> "Beve Stallmer" wrote in message
> news:_Y5Dg.189$rT5.19@fed1read01...
> > STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto a
> > CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow me
> > to use the following software and do the following things:
> >
> > 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
> > 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
> > 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
> > 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
> > 5)skype

Not sure about truecrypt. The rest is available with LiveCD versions
of Ubuntu, Knoppix, SUSE LiveCD, and several others.

> > LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
> > patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
> > credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending I
> > urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches",

Yep. It seems that Microsoft sent out a "MUST DO NOW" patch that
woudn't take no for an answer. It amazes me that Microsoft would leave
the back door open for that often, then force-feed a patch that is
supposed to close it, but then opens it even further instead.

> > I'm spitting the dummy.
> > I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with PhotoShop,
> > Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work with a
> > Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on the hard
> > drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem is that
> > the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.

Since the current HDD is already partitioned, you are ahead of the
game. I often use a USB2 drive. On a laptop, the external USB2 drive
is faster than the laptop drive, usually 7200 RPM vs about 3600 to 4500
RPM. You might want to consider creating an ext2 or ext3 partition.
There is software that will make that partition visible to Windows, and
you can have the security of Linux when you've booted into Linux.
Better yet, DON'T put in the ext3 partition driver, so that Windows
can't put little "goodies" into your ext3 partition.

Thumb drives also work very well. Most people only need about 1/2 gig
for their "home" partition, and that's assuming they want to download a
bunch of porno videos. OpenOffice documents don't take all that much
space, and the browser cache will adjust to what you have.

> AFAIK, writing to NTFS is iffy in Linux (though reading is supposed to work fine).

Actually, writing to NTFS is iffy in Windows too. Linux is just a lot
more reluctant to let you lose your data, especially when good reliable
formats are available. The main issue is that it is possible to
corrupt a drive if write-behind caching is enabled and the power to the
hard drive is unplugged. There isn't enough time to flush disk buffers
to all of the various locations. Linux doesn't LIKE it when you pull
the plug, but you can recover with fsck.

> You might be better off buying a USB key and storing your data
> there, or using a tool like GParted to convert your partitions from NTFS to
> FAT32[*] http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php.

Converting to FAT32 is a really bad idea. FAT32 has absolutely no
security or user level protection, which means that pretty much
anything can get to anything on your hard drive.

> I haven't used Dreamweaver much, but you might want to check out
> http://www.nvu.com/ which is also a web site editor, and it runs on Linux.

You might want to consider running Windows as a VM. This will give you
the security of Linux, including at the file system level, and you can
run your favorite Windows applications on the VM. Linux gives up
memory more quickly so if you give Windows about 1/3 of your memory,
you will end up with a faster Windows system than native Windows.

I use VMWare, but Xen also runs both together very very fast. There
are some Intel chips and AMD chips that will let you run an unmodified
Windows XP system under Xen with Linux as the 'controller' host.
Fortunately, you are already licened for Windows so piracy is not an
issue.

> - Oliver

After takin' a swig o' grog, Beve Stallmer belched out this bit o' wisdom:

> LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
> patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
> credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending
> I urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches", I'm spitting the
> dummy. I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with
> PhotoShop, Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work
> with a Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on
> the hard drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem
> is that the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.

Can you free up enough space on some of those partitions and devote them
to Linux? That's what I do on my laptop.

--
It is easier to fix Unix than to live with NT.

Oliver Wong wrote:

>
> "Beve Stallmer" wrote in message
> news:_Y5Dg.189$rT5.19@fed1read01...
>> STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto a
>> CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow me
>> to use the following software and do the following things:
>>
>> 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
>> 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
>> 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
>> 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
>> 5)skype
>>
>> LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
>> patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
>> credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending I
>> urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches", I'm spitting the dummy.
>> I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with
>> PhotoShop, Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work
>> with a Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on
>> the hard drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem
>> is that the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.
>>
>
> AFAIK, writing to NTFS is iffy in Linux (though reading is supposed to
> work fine).

Not true any more. You can use the drivers called "captive" that hooks
onto the expee's own proprietory drivers and then it works.
Its a case of micoshaft making life difficult by making even simple
things like file and directory access interoperability
unworkable and undocumented similar to their networking for which
they got fined 300+ million dollars.

Thanks for all the responses. The NTFS issue will be solved like this:

- convert all partitions to FAT32 so Linux+XP can read/write
- remake all Truecrypt volumes as LE 4Gb (FAT32 file size limit under XP)
- install Ubuntu (or some distro) on last partition
- FAT32 is not a security risk if all your files are on Truecrypt volumes

"Rex Ballard" wrote in message
news:1155340729.280146.57500@i3g2000cwc.googlegrou ps.com...
>
> Most people only need about 1/2 gig
> for their "home" partition, and that's assuming they want to download a
> bunch of porno videos.

Some of the porn I download takes up just over 1 GB for 1 hour of
footage.

- Oliver

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:41:33 -0700, Beve Stallmer wrote:

> STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto
> a CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow
> me to use the following software and do the following things:
>
> 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
> 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
> 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
> 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
> 5)skype
>
>
> LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
> patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
> credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending
> I urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches", I'm spitting the
> dummy. I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with
> PhotoShop, Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work
> with a Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on
> the hard drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem
> is that the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.


Why don't you just dual boot or better yet switch to Linux entirely?. If
you need a few Windows apps you can run Windows on top of Linux using a
virtual machine. I use Parallels Workstation to run Win2K on top of Linux.
I also have Win4Lin Pro but Parallels works better. There is also a free
version of VMWare. I haven't tried VMware yet but it should work very well.

"Beve Stallmer" wrote in message
news:_Y5Dg.189$rT5.19@fed1read01...
> STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto
> a CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow
> me to use the following software and do the following things:
>
> 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
> 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
> 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
> 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
> 5)skype
>
>
> LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
> patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
> credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending
> I urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches", I'm spitting the
> dummy. I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with
> PhotoShop, Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work
> with a Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on
> the hard drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem
> is that the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.
>
>

One fairly good list of Live CD's is at
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php - while this isn't all versions
available, it's got a pretty good selection.

Hope this helps.

On 11 Aug 2006 16:58:49 -0700, "Rex Ballard"
wrote:

>
>Oliver Wong wrote:
>> "Beve Stallmer" wrote in message
>> news:_Y5Dg.189$rT5.19@fed1read01...
>> > STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: is there a version of Linux that I can burn onto a
>> > CD or DVD and use to boot my laptop (Sony Vaio), which will then allow me
>> > to use the following software and do the following things:
>> >
>> > 1)openoffice (can I store my own custom dictionaries on the HDD?)
>> > 2)firefox (must be able to use my own bookmarks & modify them)
>> > 3)thunderbird (must be able to access my stored email)
>> > 4)truecrypt (to load encrypted volumes on the HDD)
>> > 5)skype
>
>Not sure about truecrypt. The rest is available with LiveCD versions
>of Ubuntu, Knoppix, SUSE LiveCD, and several others.
>
>> > LONG VERSION OF STORY: I'm just sick of updating XP with "critical"
>> > patches, some of which seem to **** up my system, & all of which have no
>> > credible explanation, and now that the US spy agencies are recommending I
>> > urgently download mysterious Microsoft "patches",
>
>Yep. It seems that Microsoft sent out a "MUST DO NOW" patch that
>woudn't take no for an answer. It amazes me that Microsoft would leave
>the back door open for that often, then force-feed a patch that is
>supposed to close it, but then opens it even further instead.
>
>> > I'm spitting the dummy.
>> > I've had enough. I want to leave XP on the machine for use with PhotoShop,
>> > Dreamweaver etc, but I'd like to boot up for everyday work with a
>> > Knoppix-like Linux variant that lets me keep some static data on the hard
>> > drive (OOo docs, FF bookmarks, TB emails). The only big problem is that
>> > the current HDD is partitioned into multiple NTSF drives.
>
>Since the current HDD is already partitioned, you are ahead of the
>game. I often use a USB2 drive. On a laptop, the external USB2 drive
>is faster than the laptop drive, usually 7200 RPM vs about 3600 to 4500
>RPM. You might want to consider creating an ext2 or ext3 partition.
>There is software that will make that partition visible to Windows, and
>you can have the security of Linux when you've booted into Linux.
>Better yet, DON'T put in the ext3 partition driver, so that Windows
>can't put little "goodies" into your ext3 partition.
>
>Thumb drives also work very well. Most people only need about 1/2 gig
>for their "home" partition, and that's assuming they want to download a
>bunch of porno videos. OpenOffice documents don't take all that much
>space, and the browser cache will adjust to what you have.
>
>> AFAIK, writing to NTFS is iffy in Linux (though reading is supposed to work fine).
>
>Actually, writing to NTFS is iffy in Windows too. Linux is just a lot
>more reluctant to let you lose your data, especially when good reliable
>formats are available. The main issue is that it is possible to
>corrupt a drive if write-behind caching is enabled and the power to the
>hard drive is unplugged. There isn't enough time to flush disk buffers
>to all of the various locations. Linux doesn't LIKE it when you pull
>the plug, but you can recover with fsck.
>
>> You might be better off buying a USB key and storing your data
>> there, or using a tool like GParted to convert your partitions from NTFS to
>> FAT32[*] http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php.
>
>Converting to FAT32 is a really bad idea. FAT32 has absolutely no
>security or user level protection, which means that pretty much
>anything can get to anything on your hard drive.
>

Sorry to butt into your conversation but can you elaborate on your
FAT32 statement? Can you tell me exactly how FAT32 is less secure
than the other formats and why?

I use FAT32 on every computer I build for myself or anyone else.
It is a conscious choice not to get locked into any proprietary
format and to use one that is accessable to any OS I might want
to install.

If anything can get to anything on the HDD, it is not the fault of
the filesystem but the installed software ON the filesystem.
If there are ways and means of securing files and/or directories
on your HDD it is not built into the filesystem but into the
software that's installed ON the filesystem.

>> I haven't used Dreamweaver much, but you might want to check out
>> http://www.nvu.com/ which is also a web site editor, and it runs on Linux.
>
>You might want to consider running Windows as a VM. This will give you
>the security of Linux, including at the file system level, and you can
>run your favorite Windows applications on the VM. Linux gives up
>memory more quickly so if you give Windows about 1/3 of your memory,
>you will end up with a faster Windows system than native Windows.
>
>I use VMWare, but Xen also runs both together very very fast. There
>are some Intel chips and AMD chips that will let you run an unmodified
>Windows XP system under Xen with Linux as the 'controller' host.
>Fortunately, you are already licened for Windows so piracy is not an
>issue.
>
>> - Oliver


I use a VM but I use it the other way around.
I host vmware on a WinXP box and run PCBSD as a guest.
There are no security issues with the WinXP install
and the VM uses a bridged internet connection that is
totally transparent to WinXP.

Either way, the end result is that one OS is secure by
default and the other is only as secure as the operator
wants to make it, which in my case is totally closed.

"Jim" wrote in message
news:YmjEg.7$w3.1@newsfe4-win.ntli.net...
> Once upon a midnight dreary, while Aunty Diluvian pondered weak and weary
> over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...:
>
>> On 11 Aug 2006 16:58:49 -0700, "Rex Ballard"
>> wrote:
>>
>>>Converting to FAT32 is a really bad idea. FAT32 has absolutely no
>>>security or user level protection, which means that pretty much
>>>anything can get to anything on your hard drive.
>>>
>>
>> Sorry to butt into your conversation but can you elaborate on your
>> FAT32 statement? Can you tell me exactly how FAT32 is less secure
>> than the other formats and why?
>>
>
> 1. it's a proprietery, hence closed, file system.

"Proprietary" doesn't entail "closed", assuming that by "closed" you
mean the inverse of "open [source]". FAT32 is pretty well documented and
Linux support for FAT32 is pretty much flawless. In this specific case,
Microsoft patented FAT32, and as one of the requirements for patenting an
idea, you have to fully explain the idea.

If you're interested, FAT32 is explained in detail at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat32 and the pages that that article links to.

> 2. it's patented by Microsoft. Developed by Gates & Ballmer themselves
> (derived from the original FAT file system from 1977 written for the S-100
> 8086 Disk BASIC, actually). Says a lot for /security/.

IMHO, this doesn't really say anything for nor against security of the
FAT32 file system.

>
>> I use FAT32 on every computer I build for myself or anyone else.
>> It is a conscious choice not to get locked into any proprietary
>> format
>
> So you use one that's patented by Microsoft??
> 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky...
> ext2 is a: open b: free and c: crossplatform. Oh yeah, and a damn sight
> more
> secure than FAT (ext2 has POSIX file permissions, while FAT32 doesn't).
> That, to me, is the absolute bottom line in portable filesystems.

I'm guessing Aunty mispoke and meant to say "not get locked into a
non-portable format" as you've noted. AFAIK, FAT32 is a lot more
"crossplatform" than EXT2. It's easy to get Linux or MacOSX to read FAT32
partitions, but it's difficult to get Windows to read EXT2 partitions. This
is one reason why FAT32 is used on USB keys and floppy drives.

>
>> and to use one that is accessable to any OS I might want
>> to install.
>>
>
> E2IFS, anyone?

When I google for "E2IFS", I get 7 results, all of which seem to related
to physics (e.g. http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.54.1793) Perhaps
you should elaborate on this argument a bit.

>
>> If anything can get to anything on the HDD, it is not the fault of
>> the filesystem but the installed software ON the filesystem.
>> If there are ways and means of securing files and/or directories
>> on your HDD it is not built into the filesystem but into the
>
> POSIX file permissions, anyone?
> Oh, I forgot! FAT32 doesn't have this! Forget I said anything...

Unless EXT2 is encrypted (and AFAIK, it's not by default), EXT2 doesn't
provide any additional security in the sense that Aunty is speaking. An OS
is free, for example, to completely ignore any permission flags set on the
file system, assuming it can decode the data that's actually stored on the
harddrive.

>
>> software that's installed ON the filesystem.

- Oliver

"General Schvantzkoph" wrote in message
newsan.2006.08.14.23.22.05.328552@yahoo.com...
>
> There is also a free
> version of VMWare. I haven't tried VMware yet but it should work very
> well.

The free "VMWare player" lets you run virtual machines, but it doesn't
let you create them. Thus you need the full version to actually create a
blank machine to install Windows XP onto.

- Oliver