some simple questions with hopefully simple answers

[Atmosphere]

Ok i've been wanting to use linux for well over errr..... about 10 yrs and with recent innovations with making the GUI's so damn simple and install a breeze i can't say no any longer.

I've decided to install Ubuntu or Mandriva Power pack (any suggestions as to which one would be appreciated). I'll be installing onto my laptop which is a celeron 2.4 with 7xxmb ram. I don't use it for anything other then surfing the net and checking my emails. therefore won't be too intrusive of a change.

 

Now the question is at present my email program is outlook 2003 and i was wondering if there was a way to transfer/use the *.pst file from outlook2003 to be usable in linux ? as they're emails for my business so i don't want to loose them. Also the laptop is run wirelessly with a oldish 3com PCIMCIA (whatever the acronym is) wireless card would that pose a problem with linux ? i'm abit lost when it comes to the drivers and file system of it all (what i hope to learn in the process). Also would there be a problem with the touch pad on the laptop ? it's got a scroll ability ? (driver side run i assume)

 

All help appreciated.

 

Kudos for having a great forum

 

apologies all round if this has been asked before and i was too lazy to search (thoroughly)

[hybrid]

Now the question is at present my email program is outlook 2003 and i was wondering if there was a way to transfer/use the *.pst file from outlook2003 to be usable in linux ? as they're emails for my business so i don't want to loose them.

 

With regards to the Thunderbird question, I successfully managed to move my Outlook 2003 emails to Thunderbird and then transfer the Thunderbird profile over to Linux. It should be quite easy, provided your email server isn't an Exchange server (that could complicate things, and I can't cover it here as I can't get access to an Exchange server).

 

If your email server is a POP or IMAP one, though, you can do these steps:

 

1. Install Mozilla Thunderbird in Windows first (Outlook still installed) and import in your emails with the wizard.

 

2. Copy the whole profile folder to a removable device so you can pop it back in Linux later. The profile folder will be C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Application Data\Thunderbird\xxxxx.default (where your user name is your username, obviously, and xxxx is a randomly generated string of numbers and letters). You may need to reenter your login info for the email server, but your old emails should still be there.

 

3. In Linux, launch Thunderbird (might need to install it first with the software management tool) so it creates a profile, but cancel out of the wizard and quit the program.

 

4. Go to/home/yourusername/.thunderbird (View > Show Hidden Files needed to see the hidden folder). Inside here will be an xxxxx.default folder with a different random string.

 

5. Copy the contents of the backed-up xxxx.default folder inside the Linux one, choosing to overwrite all files.

 

6. Relaunch Thunderbird on Linux and your emails should be there.

 

This process did work for me, but it was quite a while back. Also, back up your emails first, as things can go wrong. Always have another copy so you can revert back if you need to.

 

As I say, it was a while ago so I can't remember the exact steps for this process. Thought I'd post this just in case it might help, though.

[Atmosphere]

well if thunderbird uses the same profile data files across the board then i don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

thanx i will give it a go

 

just installed mandriva 2006, runs worse then XP did

[Atmosphere]

just installed fedora and no problems detecting everything but my 3com wireless PCMCIA card, i installed mandriva previously but it didn't detect my video nor my sound.

 

Fedora detects that the 3com card is there but when i try and activate the connection there is a error. the card is detected but it is not active.

any ideas?

 

Also i copied my backup files to a portable USB HDD but when plugged into fedora it says un-able to mount because it's NTFS file system. When i briefly used mandriva it mounted the harddisk no problems. What do i need to do there ?

 

thanx

[hybrid]

You should be able to mount the NTFS (read-only, mind) if you run this from a terminal:

 

Code:

su -
<< enter root password when prompted >>
yum install kmod-ntfs

[Atmosphere]

have now rested on using Xubuntu. and have 0 problems

A little too simple an installation but thats what you get for wanting your laptop to run as fast as possible.

Now to learn how to install without using the synaptic manager cause i have a download limit per month and only downloading from my ISP's FTP server is unmetered and since they have alot of linux software and releases it's best i download from there and install manually instead of using repositories