On Thu, 2006-04-20 at 15:15 +0800, Ronald Wiplinger wrote:

I have an AMD 64 processor and many programs are not working with the x.64 editions, like scanners, correct printers, cameras, ...

I want therefore move also my desktop over to Linux (SuSE 10), since all my servers are running SuSE anyway.

I list below programs I am using right now on Windows and hope you can help me to complete the list with Linux programs:

Photoscanner (basically it is a camera, which can make pictures and put them together into one pdf files, whereby it even turns the page and merge the pages into. You scan in 1,3,5,7, ... and flip the book, scan 8,6,4,2 and finish it to one pdf file) ?

xsane can now do multipage scans and save to one pdf file. I use the feature all the time to save copies of my multipage bills.

Maybe I can use also Wine for the missing parts? There is another program (not free) to overcome this.

I have three partition and now only used one for Windows. I can install on the second partition Linux and try, ... but if successful, I would like to shrink the old Windows partition ...

Any thoughts? Experience?

-- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998

On 4/20/06, Ronald Wiplinger wrote:

I have an AMD 64 processor and many programs are not working with the x.64 editions, like scanners, correct printers, cameras, ... Check if your Scanner is supported - under SANE project. Google SANE. If not - then it should be upgraded in the next upgrade cycle - for now use dual-boot.

I want therefore move also my desktop over to Linux (SuSE 10), since all my servers are running SuSE anyway.

I list below programs I am using right now on Windows and hope you can help me to complete the list with Linux programs:

Babylon (mouse over English, Chinese words & click to get the German translation) StarDict (not on SUSE DVD, but can be downloaded) MSN GAIM? Yahoo Messenger GAIM? Skype Skype (has sound problems on SUSE - might need a patch)

Voip soft phones (I use now: Xlite, Eyebeam, snom360, firefly thirdparty) ? Skype is one.

Thunderbird & Firefox (can I move over my emails? bookmarks, thawte signature?) same ... Canon Scanner same with xsane Scanning Kooka ... Audacity same ... mirc kirc VNC VNC FreeNX is faster - and therefore recommended. ( + supports many users) Graphic program, ... with Walcom tablet gimp? Photoscanner (basically it is a camera, which can make pictures and put them together into one pdf files, whereby it even turns the page and merge the pages into. You scan in 1,3,5,7, ... and flip the book, scan 8,6,4,2 and finish it to one pdf file) ? hmmm... Dunno - but OpenOffice can create PDFs - so you scan, then copy pix into OO then make PDF.

Maybe I can use also Wine for the missing parts? There is another program (not free) to overcome this.

The non-free programs are: CrossOver Office - for business software -or- Cedega - for Games Both Wine, Cedega, and CrossOver Office are bad - cannot run all software.

I have three partition and now only used one for Windows. I can install on the second partition Linux and try, ... but if successful, I would like to shrink the old Windows partition ...

Any thoughts? Experience?

Moving to Linux can be a major undertaking - or an easy move -depends on hardware & software you have. For me, in late 2003 - when I have tried my first Linux - RedHat's Fedora Core1 - it was a nightmare - every single concept of an OS was broken. Even my CD-ROM which always was auto-inserted/ejected/mounted in Windows needed manual commands, which I didn't knew. Add a whole new world of software - A Nightmare. One solution that kept me alive was TheOpenCD project www.theopencd.org - that gave me Open-Source Software (OSS) on Windows. One thing that is good in SUSE Linux - much easier to use than other Professional Linuxes (RedHat) at the same time it has all the Pro features that lacking on newbie Linuxes (Linspire). Is there is no single place for documentation - I would recommend you to start a file in Windows Notepad/Linux KEdit and write down useful links. For example MP3 & other codecs don't come preinstalled on SUSE - so you have to install them by hand. One site to begin with codec setup is: http://www.spinink.net/