Ok guys, you will all have to bear with me, I read through this, and took note of the questions, and I will try to provide answers to each of them, but I neglected to write down who asked which :-D. (Yes, I realize it wouldnt be all that difficult to re-open the full history of it, but I will be doing enough typing already)
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First comes the question regarding VPN:
Before anyone could assist with a vpn issue, they would need to know what type of vpn you are using, which protocol it is. Most companies prefer to use Cisco's. Cisco vpn under linux can be a headache depending on how it is configured on the host server. If you can provide more details about that, I will gladly assist you with getting rid of windows and enjoying the freedom and flexibility of linux.
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Next comes the question concerning Xine and an EQ. Technically, no Xine itself does not have a built in EQ. (I did see someone that also didnt know the abbreviation. EQ refers to Equalizer, for audio property adjustment). For audio, as was recommended, use xmms or amarok. For visual data, I would definately recommend kaffiene.
Amarok is quite comparable to the itunes program from windows. It does support streaming media, (but then again, so does kaffeine, xmms, vlc and numerous other players, lets not go haywire).
Kaffeine is in a sense comparable to WMP, so if you are comfortable with WMP you should not have too much difficulty learning kaffeine. The thing most people struggle with is the codecs, which have to be obtained from the mplayer site and installed, plus they often do not know about libdvdcss2 for dvd playback.
If you have any questions about those, we can address them later.
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Next comes the Ham question. Ham is "good" email. Spam is "Bad" email. Where they came up with the original name for spam email I do not know, but the relation is comparing the product "spam" to real "ham". there is no comparison
. Any time you mark a message as spam, depending upon which client you are using, and what type of spam engine it uses it may mark any message that is similar to it (wether by sender or content) as ham as well. Something to be careful about at times.
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Now this is by far my favorite :-D Spyware, Adware, and Viruses under linux....
Right now, there is no threat of these under linux itself. Now in wine, thats a bit different, as you are running a virtual windows so to speak.
Most viruses/spw/adw require access to vital portions of your system, your c:\, c:\windows, c:\windows\system, and c:\windows\system32 in order to infect major system .dll's
The reason that so many viruses have large scale success among home users? Ironically, windows still has not evolved past the "I must be administrator" stage. Many games and other resources (VIRUSES ESPECIALLY) need that administrative access to do the most damage to your system. The solution is to stay away from your administrator accts unless you absolutely need the permissions and access that comes with it.
Oh yeah, the reason that they dont work under linux? #1, filesystem doesnt match. #2 user permissions.
We can post more questions later on for those that are curious, but for now, lets move on to the next.
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EXT3 / 4
Well, Ext4 is not that old yet, so not quite hardened, hell ext2 is still technically the standard. The biggest improvement in Ext3 is that it includes journaling. Depending on the size of your hard drive, you might consider using LVM/ext3. It also depends on which distro you are running.
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Swap:
The question concerning swap would require a fair bit more detail to explain that what I have done with anything else here. With 4GB of physical ram, you will most likely never touch your swap. Do you absolutely HAVE to have it? No. If you do have it, how much should you use? In your case? I would do no more than 1024MB (1GB). I know that this is contrary to most advice, but youre also running a helluva lot more ram than the normal scenario when those "suggested procedures" are used.
Ok, thats my input for now. Anything more to have fun with
Im liking canucks... (Im an outsider to the US for now, I migrated to the last frontier (Alaska), so the lower 48 doesnt like me much atm, had to find somewhere to fit in :-D )
