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Dual booting Linux and Windows

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by robert.wood

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Hi,

I've chucked this in discussion as I wouldn't mind inciting a bit of discussion as to the best possibly solution for this particular problem and a discussion into question 1 (see below)

I am currently running Windows XP Pro and I am sad to admit that I have never even so much as tried a Linux distribution. After hearing numerous good reports about Linux (possibly in a ratio of approx 100:1 in comparison to windows:P) I've decided to do a dual boot system with Windows and Linux. I'm assuming this isn't *too* difficult (I'm hoping anyway) so basically I have 2 questions:

Number 1 is: What Linux distro do you reckon I should go for and why?

and question 2: How do I go about dual booting XP Pro and Linux (already have XP pro installed as I said - it's on my laptop too so I'm not sure if that makes any difference - I'm hoping getting drivers shouldn't be too hard (note the "hoping")

Thanks a lot for any help

4 replies

by charliespencer

1) Which distro? Try the Linux distribution chooser at

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc

Take the quiz and let it make a recommendation.

2) I believe most distributions will configure for dual boot automatically. However, before you go that far, many are available as bootable CDs ("Live CD"). You can boot the OS from a CD to get a feel for it without having to install it. This will also let you know if you have any driver issues.

Also consider running a distribution as a virtual machine. VMware has a free "player" that runs under Windows, and offers several pre-configured Linux virtual machines for it. VM also offers a free virtual machine server that will allow you to configure virtual machines by installing Linux (or other) operating systems. Either of the VM options will allow you to run Linux within Windows without having to reboot.

by tech10171968

If you already have XP installed then keep it right where it is. In a dual-boot enviroment Windows OS's have a tendency to not play nicely when they're relegated to anything but the 1st partition, and I've learned that the hard way. Install your distro of choice behind XP instead, and you'll save yourself some serious headaches.

by robert.wood

Well I gave it a shot; installed Ubuntu on a partition. Had a rather painful problem getting my ATI x1600 to work on it but I got there in the end. Have to admit though I didn't find it all that great. I'm giving MAC OS a try this time round - the intel version generally goes with a Core2Duo, as well as an X1600 ATI card so I might have some success with it.

by lastchip

If you want to give an alternative a go in the future, try PCLinuxOS, which is far more "Windows" like and I believe better suited for a transition to Linux.

There is a wiki I wrote (if it's any help?) http://wiki.soslug.org/wiki/how_do_i_install_pclinuxos that attempts to deal with common installation questions and there's a couple of companion pieces (that I wrote along the same lines, on the same site) that deal with understanding where to install the system and where to find common programs that allow you to work in almost exactly the same way as Windows.

I have this system installed on my laptop and it works just fine.

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