"Easy" way to remove MFC-dependence AND port to Linux?!

[Uatu]

Yes, it does (I haven't used the windows-like system part very much). The thing is, certain things like compiling (I tried to compile a basic "Hello World" program) and apl-get (or whatever that command is, I forget) seem not to work... I think some things are missing/restricted...

[manikus]

Much of the appeal to me is that I can do anything I want with it [Linux], it's a nice bonus that the GUI looks familiar,

[Uatu]

Yeah, complete control of, like, everything (as long as you remember the command to do it )

[manikus]

There are very comprehensive, yet accessible guides to Red Hat and Ubuntu by Mark Sorbel(l). they offer how-tos and references. I don't how the library system works in Japan, but our library ordered a copy of the Ubuntu book when I requested it. Apparently, the Red Hat book(s) gets a lot of use and they weren't aware that the Ubuntu book was out. Normally, three people have to request a book before it get on the list, which puts it at the very bottom, and the more people who request it, the higher up the list it goes. (Yes, each and every Harry Potter book passed the first debuted at number one on the list.)

But, if you are as lazy as I am about most things, a Google search for "Ubuntu commands" will provide you with a wealth of informational sites.

[Uatu]

Hmm - I'm not only as lazy as you, I'm lazier! (Slow and steady wins the race, I always say (starting from today))...

[manikus]

I spent a while with Helix today. Very, very cool.

I've always been interested in forensics, and computers, so why not computer forensics? I'm downloading it as I type. I got to see some of what it can do when it's acting as the OS as well as what it can do when used on an already running OS.

Learning is fun, and learning secret things is even more fun.

While Helix is cool, I and my instructor don't think it's the best choice to be using as a regular OS for a home user. His recomendations were if you want to ease away from the Microsoft apron strings, try Ubuntu, but if you want to use the best linux that you can get without compiling a version yourself, to try Red Hat/fedora/CentOS.

[Uatu]

Actually, what I would like to do is to set up a USB stick to boot up Helix (as per the CD version), but, you know, be on a USB stick.

Because of the above limitations, it seems to be quite difficult, though (namely, I cannot install syslinux to my Helix-Ubuntu installation)... (Forensic Linux sounds "safe" to me, as I don't want to destroy my Windows stuff inadvertently (still a Linoob, as I mentioned already )).

[manikus]

You can't run Helix from a stick. There are a lot of distros that can be run from "pen" drives. (I don't know why they use that term.) Well, I guess I shouldn't say 'can't', you could rework that part of the code in the precompile and compile it yourself.

As for not effecting your hard drive, don't assume that you can't. The first thing I was shown today is that you can and it took the person showing me about 10 seconds in the GUI to change the settings.
As far as I know, there's only one way to really mess up your machine and that's wiping your linux OS while in it. It's hard to do in Ubuntu b/c you have to be an admin to do it and there is no way to log in as an admin in Ubuntu (without seriously hacking it, that is). All of the real damage you can do to Windows, is all of the same damage you can do to Windows from Windows - deleting, overwriting, etc.

If you've isntalled Ubuntu on your hard drive, you can just unmount the Windows drive...then Ubuntu wouldn't see it.

Anyways, there are literally hundreds of distributions of linux. Check out a site called distro watch to learn about the various flavors. You may find one or several that are exactly what you're looking for.

[Uatu]

You can't log in as root in Ubuntu? You can't just use a su command to become root?

(As for Helix not running on USB - aw, fooey...)

[manikus]

You can sudo in Ubuntu, but you have to change security settings in a text file hidden away somewhere before you can su (at least on 7.10 and 8.04).