Re: Windows/Linux dual booting

arachnid wrote:


On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:56:50 -0700, Malke wrote:

Victor wrote:

I would like to experiment with linux on a separate partition on my
hard drive. Is there a simple app that I can install that will allow
me to dual boot? Like VistaBootPro? I have checked out the
proceedures for installing linux and dual booting but it seems very
complicated and not for the squeamish.

All Linux distros will let you dual-boot, but why not try a live distro
instead? Get Knoppix or maybe Ubuntu has a live version. These live
distros run from cd. You download the .iso and burn it using third-party
burning software. Then boot with the .iso and give Linux a whirl. If you
hate it, just reboot without the cd! Your XP will be untouched.

Another way to go is a Virtual Machine. That lets you run Linux
simultaneously with Windows and saves having to mess with your HD
partitions. If you go to http://www.vmware.com and dig around, you'll find
VMware Server for free. Install that.

The problem is the eval licence for VMWare is pretty short, and it's pretty
expensive software. Also doesn't let you take full advantage of what Linux
can do for you (VMWare runs godawful slow on Windows, no matter what the
virtualized OS is).

For whatever it's worth, I highly recommend Ubuntu. If you don't like that
one, you might also investigate SuSE, MEPIS, and PCLinuxOS.

I advise against SuSE, Red Hat, Fedora, Slackware, and Gentoo. RPM barely
works even if you know what you're doing (and usually more trouble than
it's worth). Installing software from source is a time-consuming pain in
the broadest sense imaginable, and portage is for BSD and Gentoo weenies
who think they're gaining anything by recompiling the world (instead of
kernel and multimedia packages that would actually benefit from
optimizations available by compiling it for a specific sub-architecture),
but acknowledge that doing it all by hand is a lousy approach.

Ubuntu's nice, but relatively limited given it's Debian heritage. Debian's
about as easy to install as Ubuntu, but has a lot more packages available.
Both use dpkg and apt for package management, apt makes installing software
on Ubuntu and (especially) Debian easier than Windows (going to the store,
buying software, having to figure out what it requires on your own, and
having to fight with installing it on your own seems like stone knives and
bearskin clothes when compared to one command and not even having to get up
to install properly licensed software using apt).

There are several "flavors" of Ubuntu for people who prefer different
Window Managers (GUI's with different look-and-feel). Ubuntu uses GNOME,
Kubuntu uses KDE, and XUbuntu uses XFCE. You can turn any one of these
into any of the others just by installing the appropriate Window
Manager.

That's another nice thing about Debian when compared to Ubuntu: One 120 MB
CD and a fast internet connection (or a couple DVDs or about a dozen CDs)
gives you access to all packages available instead of cookie-cutting
various tasks into individual distributions. Ubuntu's approach seems kind
of like spinning in circles by comparison there.

More about Debian can be found at http://debian.org/ or
nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.user

.

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