Linux Laptop

[BusyBee]

Tracy take a look at WINE for Linux.
Wine
Is
Not
Emulator,
it is an extension that adds the windows lib function to Linux.

That sounds interesting, I will have a look.

Hi.
I've used Wine in the past and a virtual machine with limited success. In fact using a VM I had issues with USB and sound and got frustrated.
Dual booting is the easy way TBH.

Thanks for that. It is very useful getting real live experiences rather than recommendations from unknown reviewers who may be unfamiliar with hands on experience of the particular setup. We all know that what works on one system may be iffy on one that is only marginally different.

I want to avoid dual boot, if possible. I think Windows is getting to the extent in which it wants total control over all hardware. The Windows laptop I am using at the moment may (or may not) go on for a long time and it ,is pretty high spec (I7 with 12GB ram, 1GB HD etc). I could dual boot it but, if I can, dual machines may well be better. On the desktop machine which I have networked to, I found that file copying between and external hard disk and the onboard hard disk was extremely quick. It put my Windows 10 laptop into the shade. I do wonder about all these little apps Windows now intalls automatically. They can be removed (even those which are greyed out - see online tips) but are generally re-installed at the next update.

Looking round the companies I have come across other options such as buying the laptop with only a basic DOS (no Windows at all). Beyond the mainstream I have also come across companies here and abroad who use a generic laptop (Taiwanese I think from the one I have found) for their Linux systems. Some mainstream computers do appear to be 'Linux ready' (see HP for instance). This does not appear to be widely publicised.

One option I am thinking about is to use the desktop as a server, both for files and running compute intensive programs, just accessing via a much lesser spec laptop (hence cheaper). This seems practical. Linux being derived from Unix and having a multi-user / networking background. Is that reasonably practical? It is something I could maybe try out with what I have (maybe with small expense) with a view to upgrade if found practical, whereas a 'up market' laptop would obviously be more expensive from the outset. I think that both routes would, in finality (if there is such a thing lol), be fairly similar in expense although the server option would be more complex (useful learning though).

Your sytem crash needing a re-install of Windows was similar to what originally prompted me to install Linux on my desktop computer Jeffrey. I had previously tested Puppy Linux on a stick with it so had a little experience, but it was Windows Vista. I had had few issues with Vista but my recovery disks were not to hand, and, as Microsoft no longer support it, I decided to install Linux Mint instead.

Tracy