I'd like to know more about using Linux. I have dual boot from a HP Laptop preloaded with Vista. I use Linux more and more now but still switch to Vista mainly for my photos and relative software.

Is there a way that I can access my Vista stuff whilst in Linux without having to reboot. - Eg - for my sins, I use Picasa as my most basic photo viewing/editing program (in Vista) - I'd like to be able to access my Vista Picasa folders in my Linux Picasa Folders.

I have to admit that I really am a nebie to Linux and find navigating quite difficult, having used Windows for years. For example, downloading software in Windows, is as simple as clicking on the download icon. - In Linux however, I'm totally lost - it downloads, then opens in a window with options to Extract and lots of other confusing options. - So help on this downloading within Linux would be really appreciated.

I've googled on linux stuff but have stayed away from downloading or installing because I just don't really know what I'm doing. Open source is so different from windows.

So basically I'd love some help in general and to find out if it's possible thru other programs to access one OS whilst in the other. I came across something called "PuTTy" which is a free Telnet/SSH Client (????) - I bookmarked it and then left it alone cos I have no idea what a Telnet/SSH client is..?? !!!!!!!!!!

I'm quite sure that I'm going to be told to "stay away from what you don't know", but I would like to learn more, as I truly believe that Linux is far superior to Windows if I can just master the art. My old habit was to simply download whatever looked good in Vista - but not with Linux.

Cheers all and hope for some good "easy-to-understand" info / help.

The other question that I forgot to ask is with respect to antivirus/spyware etc - Are there programs that I can install that will work on both OS's - such as AVG, - I just want to keep my laptop up-to-date and protected - so I think that what I'm trying to find out is if I run AVG for example, will it access the hard drive in it's entirety so therefore scanning both OS's...???? Am I way off base here ??

You should be able to access all of your files outside of Windows IF you don't keep them in a protected file folder. I'd keep all of my stuff out of the "my documents" folder.

If you get the paths and everything right, it should be fine too. I'm not experienced with Linux at all, but usually if you need a general idea of what something is, I would try for wikipedia and see what it says. Its usually pretty good to just give the extreme basics.

Yes. Ubuntu has built in support for all file systems, including NTFS. You just need to find the file manager. On my system, the Windows portion of the disk is called something like "Disk", or something. I don't have my Ubuntu system in front of me at the moment.


No, you can access everything. When Windows runs, it is responsible for protecting files, applying security policies, etc. If you are booted into Ubuntu, then Windows is not running, and can therefore not protect anything.

Installing things on Linux can be confusing. Installing things on Ubuntu is mostly easy. There is a built in package manager called Synaptic that can be used to install many programs. This link may help you.


If you don't know what it is, then you probably don't need it. Telnet is a way of transferring files between systems. SSH is a way of securely transferring files between systems on different parts of the network or other networks all together. Nautilus (the file manager in Ubuntu) already has this capability built in.


No. Window's programs do not run on Linux, and vice-versa. There are anti-virus companies that make av software for Linux and Windows both though. Clam-Av is one that has versions for both.

You could use Wine or VMWare to run Windows programs in Linux, but it's probably not a good idea to use a virus scanner program with them.

The real issue is that Linux uses ext3 and vista uses NTFS - Linux can read both but Vista can only read its own. Theoretically if there were an easy way for Windows to read the ext3, then you'd be able to scan, but it would only work if the viruses it was scanning were written for both windows and linux.

That will not work. Wine allows a Windows program (assuming that the av is even compatible with Wine in the first place) to run in a Windows-like environment, it will still not 'see' the Linux environment. And even if it could, it would be constrained to that user, which means it could not touch any files outside of that user. Try it.

Of course, you could go with the theory that the chances of your linux system being infected are next to null, then you don't need an anti-virus in the first place. (None of my linux systems do). That is not to say that it can not happen, but if it does, it will only affect that user.

Hi nat.
Welcome to the Open-Source Community.!!
There is a treasure of information available on Ubuntu out there.You only need to search for it.

For installing applications in Ubuntu, You don't even need to open your browser.Just go to Add/Remove Programs to install and remove all the common apps.For more control over the process use Synaptic Packet Manager.
You can have a look here:
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_...indows_software
to know the common replacements for windows apps in Linux.
And Remember,what .exe is for Windows, .deb is for Ubuntu.Whenever you DO need to download from net,[Add/Remove will suffice in most cases], always download .deb files for ubuntu.
As for viruses, Windows viruses won't affect Linux.So you don't need to scan your linux with windows anti-virus.You only need a good firewall in ubuntu.