From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from int-mx1.corp.redhat.com (int-mx1.corp.redhat.com [172.16.44.254]) by listman.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0104F3EE14 for ; Sat, 12 Jan 2002 02:51:20 -0500 (EST) Received: from lacrosse.corp.redhat.com (IDENT:root@lacrosse.corp.redhat.com [172.16.44.154]) by int-mx1.corp.redhat.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g0C6DPW08775 for ; Sat, 12 Jan 2002 01:13:25 -0500 Received: (from mail@localhost) by lacrosse.corp.redhat.com (8.11.6/8.9.3) id g0C6DPD10501 for blinux-list@listman.redhat.com; Sat, 12 Jan 2002 01:13:25 -0500 Received: from int-mx2.corp.redhat.com (int-mx2.corp.redhat.com [205.180.230.6]) by lacrosse.corp.redhat.com (8.11.6/8.9.3) with ESMTP id g0C6DOE10496 for ; Sat, 12 Jan 2002 01:13:24 -0500 Received: from mx2.redhat.com (mx2.redhat.com [205.180.83.106]) by int-mx2.corp.redhat.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g0C3Wrj22521 for ; Fri, 11 Jan 2002 19:32:58 -0800 Received: from pd3mo2so.prod.shaw.ca (h24-71-223-10.cg.shawcable.net [24.71.223.10]) by mx2.redhat.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g0C3Ruw24680 for ; Fri, 11 Jan 2002 22:27:56 -0500 Received: from pd2mr4so.prod.shaw.ca (pd2mr4so-ser.prod.shaw.ca [10.0.141.107]) by l-daemon (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.0 Patch 2 (built Dec 14 2000)) with ESMTP id <0GPT00MJ0309JT@l-daemon> for blinux-list@redhat.com; Fri, 11 Jan 2002 20:28:57 -0700 (MST) Received: from pn2ml2so (pn2ml2so-qfe0.prod.shaw.ca [10.0.121.146]) by l-daemon (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.0 Patch 2 (built Dec 14 2000)) with ESMTP id <0GPT00A9I30A64@l-daemon> for blinux-list@redhat.com; Fri, 11 Jan 2002 20:28:58 -0700 (MST) Received: from schlockcvbw64b ([24.67.228.132]) by l-daemon (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.0 Patch 2 (built Dec 14 2000)) with SMTP id <0GPT00I8J3033K@l-daemon> for blinux-list@redhat.com; Fri, 11 Jan 2002 20:28:58 -0700 (MST) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 19:28:53 -0800 From: David Csercsics Subject: Had enough with windows....going insane.....need advice To: blinux-list@redhat.com Message-id: <000a01c19b19$45794e30$84e44318@schlockcvbw64b> MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-priority: Normal X-Loop: blinux-list@redhat.com Sender: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com Errors-To: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com X-BeenThere: blinux-list@redhat.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: blinux-list@redhat.com List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Linux for blind general discussion List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Ok so I've tried 5 versions of windows all of which crash quite a bit no matter how much you mess with them. And dang it I liked linux a heck of a lot when I was able to use it. I have a set of SuSE cd's here but the trouble is that suse-blinux no longer detects my braille display (had to get a new one recently because I needed a portable braille display.) so I cannot install that on this machine. I have a braille lite 40 here now. I don't really think it matters to me which linux I decide to use. Got some questions though. I've got a 45 GB hd sitting in this box with an athlon 4 chip and 768 mb of ram. How should I partition my drive for linux? What would be the easiest distro to hack a boot disk for so that I can install without sighted help as I don't trust a lot of people with my computer and most of the people I know would faint if they had to install anything other than windows so it looks like I'll be doing it myself. Also is there a way to read ms word and excel documents under linux? I get a lot of those and it seems saving things as plain text is a foreign concept to a lot of people. I assume that I would have to sacrifice ocr for a reliable operating system. By that I mean that there is ocr for windows but the os crashes too often and I am forever reinstalling but I've treid to put up with it because I haven't been able to get a dual boot to work at all. All that seems to happen when I try to dual boot si windows becomes twice as unstable. So am I correct that there is no useable ocr for linux? Any comments/suggestions/advice/whatever would be greatly appreciated at this point as I'm going to slowly go insane and I've got a huge programming project I've gotta get started on (studying computer science in college) and I need to use my computer for a lot of other things and I really can't afford to waste a lot of time and torture myself with instability. The lack of ocr is probably going to hurt but I suppose that I can figure something out. I should also point out taht I have a fast internet connecdtion and a cd burner and half a dozen different linux iso's sitting on my drive. Oh, almost forgot, I don't have a hardware synth. If you need more details about my setup you can always ask. Thanks for taking the time to read this and not pressing the delete button already. :) I will quit before I cause more trouble here and I will go back to insanity for a bit before I freeze up again.