Serious GEEK question

[lummy 4]

I just got my brand spanking new DELL GX260 2.4 ghz , 80 gig HD,5123 megs RAM , NEC DVD RW 18" FPD (WHICH is SWEET).


Can anyone think of any reason why I need to stick with Win2k? It looks like I can easily do Winblows in VMware. I've figured out the multi head stuff using Xinerama so, I can have mutliple monitors going and I;m thinking of employing some kinda terminal services (VNC? what's everyone else use?) to get rid of the ole KVM switch.

The things I worry about are :

A) I want to be able to burn DVD's with my new toy.. I have quite a few TICK episodes just itching to be on removable media ( I know , they told me so)
B) As part of my job, I do a lot of administration on our Active Directory. If I go to a virtual machine, is there gonna be issues connecting to AD?
c) Sound, Let's face it, MP3's thru Sounblaster 16 emulation just plain ole sucks! I haven't looked at www.opensound.com for paid drivers yet tho..

Help a geek out here, willya?

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[indyz 1]

Find out _everything_ about your system. Do searches on a Google. I know a few people who have gotten surprised when they had a motherboard or video card that didn't work very well with Linux (read: nForce).

As for remote access, if you are connecting to something other than a Windows computer, VNC is just about the only option. It works very well, especially considering that you are paying $0 for it. If you are connecting to a Windows computer that supports remote desktop, you can use rdesktop. It works better than VNC, IMHO.

A) Burning DVDs under Linux is possible. Data discs are just as easy as burning CD-Rs. I have no idea how hard burning movies onto DVD would be.
B) The AD tools should work with VMWare. The best way to find out is to download the trial version and see what happens.
C) You didn't mention what sound card you have. My SB Live! doesn't use 16 bit emulation and sounds great.

[Cajones 0]

I don't think I can answer all of your questions, but AD will only see the machine connecting to it. If you are using terminal services or another thin client to connect to a computer in the office, and then using that computer, in turn, to connect to AD - AD will only see the computer in the office connecting to it. Some firewalls (the better ones) would see the masquerade if you try to connect through them from the office computer, though.

There're some good open source sound drivers out there - just look a little harder. I've seen a box that does 5.1, but I'd suspect they may not be freebies.

Not sure why you'd be opposed to a legal version of Win2K. It's quite solid in stability terms, highly compatible with all but the oldest games, does sound and DVD burning in a rather easy GUI, and you can connect directly to AD, without the extra terminal hop.

Have you put it to work folding? You should have that nice new box working to save lives, when it's not contributing to geekiness.

The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

[Cornholio 0]

I'm very very disapointed in you Lummy...

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I just got my brand spanking new DELL GX260 bLAH BLAH BLAH

How could you buy a machine from them when you could have built it yourself ?? But alas - it sounds like you just need to dual boot the sucker if you are that interested in running Linux yet keep your Windows admin/CD burning stuff working.

Butthead: Whoa! Burritos for breakfast!
Beavis: Yeah! Yeah! Cool!
bellyflier on the dz.com hybrid record jump

[lummy 4]

LOL... well, this is a WORK computer, so I just tell them where to spend the money. Besides, why should I BUILD the SYSTEM when I could OUTSOURCE???



if worse comes to worse, I'll just VNC into one of my 3 other computers to do admin work.

why Linux? Cause I can... I support a dept of librarians who are creating a Digital Library.. Lots of web development and therefore a few Nix boxes floating around

Besides, why follow the herd?

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[lummy 4]

Thanx Cajones,
I'm really not opposed to Win2k, just that I already have 2 other boxes running it. ME thinks it's time to use a Linux box as my desktop if at all possible. I guess I'm just being a geek :) Hey, I'm the only kid on my block (floor) running multhead boxes.


Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about in terms of AD. VM ware can be setup in bridged mode, so it SHOULD see the virtual machine as a real machine.

Do I wanna do it, or don't I?

hmmmm....

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[aos 0]

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A) I want to be able to burn DVD's with my new toy.. I have quite a few TICK episodes just itching to be on removable media ( I know , they told me so)

No problem at all. Actually, one of my Linux machines is building a DVD movie iso at this very moment, and I stopped by here to kill time while it finishes.
There are very good simple dvd authoring toys for Linux, but if you want to do fancy things like build your own menus, you're probably better off in Windows. Personally, I don't bother. For making simple dvds and for backing up professionally-made dvds, there's no reason Linux can't do it.

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c) Sound, Let's face it, MP3's thru Sounblaster 16 emulation just plain ole sucks! I haven't looked at www.opensound.com for paid drivers yet tho..

What sound card do you have? Chances are fairly good there's ALSA support for it, whatever it is. See www.alsa-project.org.
-andrew
no Windows boxes anywhere :)