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Tom, et. al.,
Here is another computer system boot issue that should be of concern to free software, especially OS's:

   http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot

Sleep tight.
Girvin Herr



Tom Davies wrote:
Hi :)
Yes, installing a new Windows alongside an existing one still does over-write the Mbr and hides all previous versions of Windows as well as any other OSes you have. It doesn't matter if the newer version is on a different physical drive or on an external drive or anything else. One trick is to physically unplug the drive with the Mbr you want to save and then install the newer Windows on it's own drive. it will overwrite the Mbr on it's drive but will leave the unplugged drive's Mbr alone. Then when you plug in the old drive then hopefully you can set the bios to boot the old drive first. Of course this means the old drive is unaware of the new install so you'll need to run something like sudo update-grub
from you old Gnu&Linux distro.

Regards form
Tom :)




________________________________
From: webmaster-Kracked_P_P <webmaster@krackedpress.com>
To: LibreO - Users Global <users@global.libreoffice.org> Sent: Tuesday, 22 January 2013, 0:39
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] is MSFT running scared ...


Maybe you should give the URL for the Linux-based boot repair disk [.iso file download].  I do not 
remember it it.

I have two different disk type/names.

"boot-repair-disk.iso" - 355 MB

"ubuntu-secure-remix-12.10-32-bit.iso" - 787 MB
"ubuntu-secure-remix-12.10-64-bit.iso" - 797.1 MB

I think I used the "boot-repair-disk" version since all you had to do was choose your OS 
version/type you are using.  I think I remember correctly that there was only 4 buttons to choose from once 
the disk/OS booted up.

My Dell laptop had 32-bit Vista even though 64-bit Vista was out and working.  Too cheap maybe to include it, since it 
cost us more for the 64-bit version back then.  I just upgraded that dual boot laptop 64-bit Win7 professional from 
32-bit Vista and 64-bit Ubuntu 12.10 from 12.04 version.  Win7/pro killed the dual booting till I ran the "repair 
disk".  I tend to use the Ubuntu boot for the testing of the newest version of Ubuntu [10.04 to 10.10 to 11.04 to 
11.10 to 12.04 to 12.10] before I upgrade it on my "production desktop".  I upgraded the Vista to Win7/pro 
[64-bit] so I can have a working 64-bit Windows OS on one of my systems without going to Win8, since I do not have any 
touch screens except on my Android 4.0 tablet.

Actually, I wonder if Win7 or Win8 would break the dual [or triple] booting a laptop if both boot 
partitions were running a Windows OS before one was upgraded from XP or Vista to Win7 or Win8?  
Would Windows break the multi-boot if there would be two+ Windows OSs on the same system but in 
different boot partitions?

Windows 2000 was for business based on Win NT, while Win Millennium was for the home user based on 
Win98.  Millennium was worse than Vista ever was and most users I dealt with switched to Win 2000 
till XP [home or professional]  came out.

Win8 look and feel is a reworking of their failed smart phone OS. They decided that they still liked it and moved it to the Win8 tablet OS.  BUT, 
someone had the bad idea of wanting all of "your" Windows based systems to look and "feel" the same.  I do not want my 
"production desktop" to have the "look and feel" of my tablet. I hated Unity's look and feel when it came out in the Spring of 
2011.  Win8 seemed to look and feel the same.  I read that a large number of Ubuntu user switched to Mint Linux because of Unity.  If MS would have 
looked at the "fallout" when Ubuntu went to Unity, maybe they would have thought twice about using a tablet looking OS desktop display for 
their desktop/laptop OSs.  I kept Ubuntu, but switched to MATE for the desktop environment.

For my opinion what business users in my area will do with new Win8 systems; not buy them if they can get new 
Win7 systems or downgrade the new Win8 systems to Win7.  Every business user I have talked to locally hates 
the look of Win8 and do not want to have to pay for the training to get their users to be able to use it.  
XP/Vista to Win7 was a little change, but XP/Vista/Win7 to Win8 was a real big change that needs a lot of 
training.  TV ads for retail computer stores use to offer free Win8 training so people could learn how to 
deal with the big changes.  Well, those TV ads are all gone, along with most of the Win8 ads [number of ads 
per day/week] are gone now.  Almost all of the MS's tablet are gone now, but there are some major computer 
companies [like HP] ads about tablet to laptop convertibles though replacing MS's "tablet with a 
keyboard" ads..




On 01/21/2013 04:55 PM, Tom Davies wrote:
Hi :)
There is always 'unexpectedly low' take-up of Windows newest OS when it first gets released.  
Historically corporate users have learned to leave it until after at least the first Service Pack 
gets released.  One time MS tried to boost sales by claiming that Service Pack 1 was included in 
the initial release.

Usually there is a requirement to upgrade quite a bit of hardware in order to run the newer version 
of Windows and that creates reluctance until people have had time to save-up or plan for rolling 
out new hardware for the new OS.

Installing Windows always installs their boot-loader (used to be "ntldr") which overwrites the MBR of the 
hard-drive and then ignores any other OSes on the machine so that you can only boot into Windows.  To reinstate your MBR 
just boot into a LIveCd or LiveUsb or some other way of booting into a Gnu&Linux and just repair or reinstall just 
the boot-loader of your distro. You don't need a special recovery or repair disk although those sorts of things are just 
one way to boot into a Gnu&Linux. You also don't need to reinstall the entire distro.  It's just a case of repairing 
your boot-loader.  One of the final steps of the repair involves 'updating' your boot-loader and if that is one on a 
unix-based platform (such as Gnu&Linux, Bsd or whatever) then it picks up the new version of Windows that your just 
installed.  Fixing the Mbr is really easy once you have done it once.

Typically Windows seem to have 1 bad version followed by 1 good one and then the next is bad.  Vista was 
apparently so bad that many people said they "upgraded" from Vista back to Xp.  Even though that 
was a backwards step many considered it an upgrade. Win7 was quite good.  Before Xp was Millenium which was 
generally considered so appalling that people are more likely to have heard of Win98.  So, people might be 
expecting Win8 to be another dead OS.

However there is also often quite strong resistance to new things.  Especially to new versions of 
Windows.  people have just about become familiar with the older one and don't like the newer ways of 
doing things and the fact that it's difficult to find things or work out how to deal with issues that 
they had just learned how to solve on the previous.  With Gnu&Linux it doesn't matter what changes 
happen to the DE you can always modify it or even just install the old one on your new OS.

Regards from
Tom :)




     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     *From:* webmaster-Kracked_P_P <webmaster@krackedpress.com>
     *To:* users@global.libreoffice.org
     *Sent:* Monday, 21 January 2013, 16:34
     *Subject:* Re: [libreoffice-users] is MSFT running scared ...

     On 01/21/2013 10:41 AM, anne-ology wrote:
     >        ... maybe not, but this makes me wonder why they were
     promoting this
     > new OS and now are plugging a how-to re. it  ;-)
     >
     >
    
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/get-free-book-windows-8-microsoft-press.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmosbest+%28Gizmo%27s+Best-ever+Freeware%29
     >
     >        As for me, I'm very thankful there's LO, and with such a
     great
     > help-list of fellow users  :-)
     >

     The articles I have read seem to tell Win7 users to forget to
     upgrade to Win8 if you do not have a touch screen.

     MS's tablet has had low sales figures, much lower than expected or
     the hype would let you believe.

     So, giving tech people a free e-book about Win8 is a way for them
     to promote that OS.

     I have heard from a few business users where they took their Win8
     upgrade and "degrade" it back to XP or Win7. So maybe MS needs to
     convince the business users to buy the Win8 upgrade or even new
     Win8 systems, instead of upgrading to, and/or buying, systems
     with, Win7.

     I just upgraded 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Win7/pro instead of the
     cheaper priced Win8 deal.  I have it on a laptop that is a dual
     boot for 64-bit Win7/pro and 64-bit Ubuntu 12.10 [with MATE
     desktop environment].  That upgrade "killed" the dual booting so I
     need to use the repair disk.  The way I have read seems to be that
     Win8 would do something with that laptop where it would not be
     able to dual even after the boot fixing disk. I use the laptop for
     my main Windows laptop and the Ubuntu boot is where I test out the
     new version[s] of the OS before I install it onto my main
     "production" desktop. I hate the Unity desktop for Ubuntu, so why
     would I buy Win8 with the same type of desktop "tile" look and feel.

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