[ILUG] Laptops

[Bryan O'Donoghue]

Kevin Philp wrote:
> We have to buy a laptop for one of our new guys and he will need to plug it 
> into our network when he is in the office. It will be our first laptop user 
> based in the office so its new territory for me. Two options:
> 
> 1. Let him keep his laptop with WinXP on it and set up Samba to support him.
> 
> 2. Force him to comply to our Linux only network and dual boot his laptop so 
> he can use Linux when he is here.
> 
> I prefer option 2 but he is complaining that "WinXP doesn't like you messing 
> with hard drive partition tables"... 

Certainly.... Microsoft has no wish for you to /mess/ with the partition
table to install Linux... however from a technical POV, /even/ a Redmond
OS should be able to tolerate addition of partitions.

Just like Linux though, I doubt it would take too well to being pushed
'upwards', ie if Windows thinks it's installed on hda1 and you go a
repartition such that Windows now lives on hda2... that might cause a
problem.... certainly if it were a Linux machine... you'd have to change
/etc/fstab....

Presumably Windows has a much more obfuscated, broken and brainless set
of stuff that needs changing if up bump 'up' it's current root partition
, though potentially not of course. Just like a GNU/Linux machine if you
add hda2 and install an OS there... it should have /no/ effect
whatsoever, to whatever is installed on hda1.


-- 
"Fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled around their shores, burning
with the fires of Orc." -- Roy Batty, Blade Runner.