A triple boot with WinXP, WinXP Professional x64 and Ubuntu?

[Steve A.]

With prices on off-lease Dell Optiplex 755's being so reasonable these days I will be using one for my new workstation so that I can kiss Windows 7 goodbye. I was planning to do a dual boot setup with WinXP SP3 and WinXP Professional x64 SP2 but I might as well throw Ubuntu into the mix as well!

For the dual boot setup I need to install WinXP first and then install WinXP Professional x64 in a second partition. At that point I would like to install Linux/Ubuntu on a 3rd partition. Is that feasible? I think that rules for a WinXP/Ubuntu dual boot might be appropriate to some extent.

So why the two versions of XP? Professional x64 kicks butt as it supports the multicore processors but there are compatibility problems with some programs and devices, hence the need for 32 bit XP as well. (Some programs insist that the XP Service Pack 3 be installed but x64 has only two service packs. )

The Ubuntu partition should be great for browsing and email!

Steve Ahola

P.S. How much disk space will I need for the Ubuntu partition? I have a fast 500GB drive that I will be using for the boot partitions and a 2TB drive for data.

[soundguruman]

The disadvantage being that win 7 has the good video, that XP does not have.

And available security will cease to support XP...

Multiple OS on the same drive, generally causes system conflicts...
although some people have worked around the bugs.
It's not for the "average" user.

Although, I do admire creativity...

If you are using CAD: You "do want" windows 7.
If you watch Hi Def Video, you do want win 7.
That's the major advantage. Win 7 has much clearer video compared to XP. You can really see a difference.

That's a good point which I have said many times:

Load your OS and applications on a small, fast drive.
I have been using 70GB Velociraptor for OS only. Way better and faster, 10,000 RPM.

Don't use a big drive for the OS.
Big drive like 2 TB, runs very slow. It will slow the system down considerably, when used for OS and files combined...

Just use 2 TB drive to store files only.

[silverfox]

Took a listen to your tracks at the bottom of your post. Yeah, good stuff. Not many people I've listened to really know how to play and the Blues? Fagettaboutit.

I lived in CT and MA until I was 20 and spent some really great times listening to East Coast Blues. That's my influence. James Montegomery- One of the best mid sized bands back there in the 70's. And he's still going strong.

Nice recordings Steve.

Fox.

[tedmich]

Samsung SSD are the bomb for boot disks IMHE
Gotta swallow Win 8.1 if you want modern software....sadly

[Steve A.]

Nice recordings Steve.

Thanks for the kind words. I had to stop playing regular guitar in March 2010 because problems with the ulnar nerve in my left arm had made my ring and little finger too numb to fret and bend notes. FWIW the same thing happened to my right arm in December 2006 and I wasn't able to hold a pick for about 6 months. That never did heal and I thanked God every day that it was my right picking hand and not my left fretting hand.

When my left hand got too numb to play regular guitar I switched to lap steel — something I had screwed around with since the 70's — not knowing if and when I would ever be able to play regular guitar again.

But there is a happy ending to that story. About a year ago my left ulnar nerve had healed enough for me to start playing regular guitar again. Woohoo! The story gets better. After playing with fingerpicks on lap steel many hours a day for 3+ years I was able to play regular guitar with just my fingers and thumb- sans pick. Jeff Beck usually plays with just his fingers these days and so did many of the blues guitarists in the 50's and 60's.

And after going to the gym for my pulmonary rehab class for 3 years my biceps and triceps are much stronger now which gives me more power and control over bending notes than before. I've also been using TheraPutty*** to strengthen the muscles in my hand and arm. So bottom line is that I am playing guitar much better than before my left hand went numb.

Everybody talks about turning lemons into lemonade but it is not my doing- I just go with the flow and in many cases I am pleasantly surprised that things have turned out for the better.

Steve

*** Here is a link to TheraPutty. Although most people use it to strengthen just the muscles in their hands and wrist I've been also using it strengthen my arm muscles with a special exercise. While laying on my back in bed I will raise my arm towards the ceiling and squeeze the putty as I slowly rotate my arm back and forth. I think that doing that really strengthens the muscles that I use for bending notes.

— AND — [Peace, Brother!]

Therapy Putty | AliMed Color-Coded Therapy Putty

They sell hand exercisers in the music stores but I think that the putty works much better as you aren't limited to squeezing your fingers up and down but in all directions.



Planet Waves VariGrip Hand Exerciser | Sweetwater.com

[Steve A.]

IMHE Gotta swallow Win 8.1 if you want modern software....sadly

So who wants modern software? Some of the programs I use every day are 10+ years old...

Just looking at my toolbar here are the Windows programs I use regularly:
Adobe Audition 3.0
Microsoft Word 2003
Adobe Acrobat Pro 7.0
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0
Nitro Pro 9 (another PDF creator)
TurboCAD 10 (CAD program for drawing up schematics)
Nero 8 (disc burner)
Sonar 7 (digital audio recorder/editor)
Guitar Rig 5 (lots of fun for guitarists!)

And here are some of the smaller programs and utilities I use:
FileSearchEX
RichCopy 4.0
SnagIt 5 (screen capture utility from- 2001) ***
ACD 3.1 (graphics viewer- from 2001)
Burrrn (CD burner for FLAC and MP3 files- from 2005)
Amazing Slow Downer 3.1.5 (slows music tracks- from 2007)
Mp3tag 2.49 (adds and edits tags for MP3 and FLAC files)
Playlist Creator 3.6.2 (creates playlists- from 2010)
ClickRepair 3.9.1 (cleans up vinyl rips 2005-2012)
Exact Audio Copy v1.0b3 (a very exact CD ripper from 2011)
Blackberry Desktop (for my 2007 Blackberry phone)

Steve

*** what is really cool about this version is that someone screwed up and the program keeps working after the 45 trial has expired. On my current computer it is 943 days- it had gotten up to 1400 days on my old XP computer until the mobo wore out (the CPU cooler mounts broke and when I was trying to repair them w epoxy I managed to mangle some of the components on the board and it never did work after that.)