Windows vs Linux vs Mac vs Dos/Terminal vs Other

[stuperfied]

You know the drill, what's your preference and why. Now I know we only just finnished one of these but I thought since I was about to ask a question relating to both windows and linux that an OS war would be inevidable.

So here's my question, I was just about to install Lunux with my existing Windows installation and have reserved a 16.1gig partition just for such an event. The problem is that I have never put two OS's on one machine before and don't quite know how to go about it. I thought I would ask everybody in here for their own personal experiences and any recommendations you may have.

So what is the best way you would suggest to go about installing a seccond OS on a machine with an existing one?

[nasrules]

I have to say Windows as I love XP, and I've never tried anything else.

[zebi]

If you'r installing mandrake linux 9.0. It's very easy. Just point linux to the linux partition during the installation, it will automatiwally detect your other OS's and set up lilo boot manager.

[Wings_of_Azrael]

Windows 2000 is my favorite by far. I would consider using a secure distro of Linux if I were running an FTP or web server. However, I'm not and probably never will find a reason to. And I haven't used a Mac in about 6 years. For flexibility, stability, and compatibility, Windows 2000 and XP are my favorites. Windows 2000 comes first because I don't need any of the extra junk thrown into XP.

[RJ5500]

I'd have to say my favorite OS is Linux. You can just do so much with it, and best of all, it's free.


As for dual-booting Linux and Windows, I've done that too. Basically you have two choices, either use a boot manager program (such as BootMagic) to give you a menu to choose which operating system to boot from when your computer starts, or let Linux's LILO (built-in) boot menu give you that choice.

I installed Linux when I already had Windows installed, and had no problems whatsoever.

[John W. Lindh]

I'm a die-hard linux user and although at first I had my problems with it I don't miss Windows at all. It's been making really great progress for the last two years and I am convinced that it will be more than just a niche OS in the future.

If you want to install Linux and Windows on the same system, you should use one of the major distributions, I would recommend SuSE (because I know it will install just fine as a secondary OS on a Windows system) but RedHat or Mandrake are just as well. Their installers should take care of the rest.

You have to make sure, however that you install Windows before installing Linux or else Windows will mess up your boot manager and you would have to configure it again which can be quite challenging for a newbie.

[stuperfied]

Is it possible to have the both of them in the same partition and if so how exactly, I have windows XP installed already and i'm thinking about putting my copy of RED Hat Linux into the 16.1gig unused section of the drive, I've never used linux or even seen it for that matter and this is my first time mixing os's so i'm a bit in the dark about the whole matter and don't know what to expect at all.

How does that boot menu work, is it for having 2 os's in the same partition or in seperate one's?, do i have to tell windows that I installed linux into the other partition to get that boot menu? Will linux do this for me?, any input is valued here.

[zebi]

Originally posted by stuperfied
Is it possible to have the both of them in the same partition and if so how exactly, I have windows XP installed already and i'm thinking about putting my copy of RED Hat Linux into the 16.1gig unused section of the drive, I've never used linux or even seen it for that matter and this is my first time mixing os's so i'm a bit in the dark about the whole matter and don't know what to expect at all.

How does that boot menu work, is it for having 2 os's in the same partition or in seperate one's?, do i have to tell windows that I installed linux into the other partition to get that boot menu? Will linux do this for me?, any input is valued here.

About having linux on the same partition as windows. I don't know if it's possible but even if it is i don't think it's a great idea.
Cause you could screw them up.

About the boot menu, i have a windows partition and a linux partition(i also have some extra fat32's but that doesn't matter), when i installed linux, it automatically detected my win98 so that when you started the computer, LILO boot manager gave you a menu to choose from wich one you wanted to boot.
Now installed winxp and it blow LILO off and it putted xp's bootmanager, now i can't even get into linux(damn you microsoft!).If there's anyone who can tell me how to fix this by the way it would be great.

[stuperfied]

One of the other replies stated that you must install XP and then Linux in that order to avoid that problem.

[stuperfied]

Originally posted by John W. Lindh
I'm a die-hard linux user and although at first I had my problems with it I don't miss Windows at all. It's been making really great progress for the last two years and I am convinced that it will be more than just a niche OS in the future.

If you want to install Linux and Windows on the same system, you should use one of the major distributions, I would recommend SuSE (because I know it will install just fine as a secondary OS on a Windows system) but RedHat or Mandrake are just as well. Their installers should take care of the rest.

You have to make sure, however that you install Windows before installing Linux or else Windows will mess up your boot manager and you would have to configure it again which can be quite challenging for a newbie. There you go, looks like John may be able to help you, just ask him.

[MoonMan]

An easy but a tad risky way to install multiple OSes is to first install your Windows OS, then install Linux and use the Disk druid to resize the Windows partition to make room for your Linux OS. This is risky because it can make Windows unbootable but I have done it before.

I'm no expert on this and am only posting this for you to research a bit better. You should get more info and let someone who knows a bit more about what they are doing on this subject. Oh and don't forget to backup all of your data as a precautionary measure.

[j0shy81]

I run Red Hat alongside WinXP. If you already have space set aside for linux, then the installation will be relatively simple. Red Hat, SuSE, and Mandrake all have great installers that make setting up a dual boot system a breeze. When you set up linux, you will need to set up 2 partitions: a boot partition (designated as /) and a swap partition. As a rule of thumb, your swap partition should be at least as big as the amount of RAM you have. Some people suggest 2 times the amount of RAM, but if you have 512 MB than I think this is overkill. When setting up your partitions, make sure to use a journaling filesystem (such as ext3 or reiserfs); they are more robust and protect against data loss if the system is ever shut down improperly or hangs. Your 16.1 Gigs is more than enough, the typical distro will take about 2 for a "desktop" install. Also, here are some notes on the distros:

SuSE - I used to use SuSE 8.0 before going to Red Hat. SuSE is good for beginners. It uses KDE as its default desktop, which I think is the best. System configuration is good, although it always had trouble with my USB mouse. Software is OK, but could be better. The downside is that you can't download SuSE ISO images; you have to do a network install.

Mandrake - Mandrake 8.2 was my first distro. It was pretty good but I had problems with it. It is a good distro for new users, although some of its configuration tools (the Mandrake Menu!!) can be frustrating for "power users" because they make it harder to configure things by hand when you want to.

Red Hat - I am happy with Red Hat. The default Bluecurve GNOME desktop is not that great, but it is easy to just make KDE the desktop and change the theme to your liking. The Red Hat update software is the best I have seen. Red Hat uses APT for package management so installing software is easy. Red Hat hardware configuration is also the best; it even autodetected my monitor model! Red Hat is very solid.

Hope this helps. GO LINUX!!

-Josh

[collideous]

I rank the four OSes I use as follows:

[list=1]
Windows XP
Mac OS 9.1
Windows 2000
Windows ME
[/list=1]

I never tried Linux but can imagine that it would land somewhere in the first ranks (1 or 2). OS X is also appealing, and I could see myself "switch".

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

Originally posted by MoonMan
An easy but a tad risky way to install multiple OSes is to first install your Windows OS, then install Linux and use the Disk druid to resize the Windows partition to make room for your Linux OS. This is risky because it can make Windows unbootable but I have done it before.


I dont like the sound of this, maybe it would work for most people but it sounds like a recipe for disaster too. When i install a multi boot i prefer to start from scratch, using fdisk to create new partitions and installing each OS on a new partition.

recently ive been multibooting with win98 for some old games, XP as my main OS, and playin around with first mandrake and now redhat on a third partition.I dont bother using a bootloader and just boot linux from a floppy, i suspect bootloaders might cause problems with your master boot record - maybe im wrong.

Im certainly far from a linux guru, indeed i may be as raw a newbie as you will find, but i have a definate preference for rehat out of the two linux OSes i have tried. Redhat seems faster than mandrake, has a nice clean interface, seems to have better hardware support and doesnt install as default so much useless software (does anyone actually need 10 text editors) and seems to have more of a familiar "windows" feel - although this may just be my bad.

Although ive been mightily impressed with the speed, dependability, and huge selection of free software available for linux i still think that windoze XP is still the natural choice for the vast majority of PC users. It has no hardware problems, masses of software, and for ease of use - despite what many in the linux community would have us believe, windows is still no1.

[Ken17625]

I could of swore I posted in this thread.

Where is my post?

[John W. Lindh]

I dont bother using a bootloader and just boot linux from a floppy, i suspect bootloaders might cause problems with your master boot record - maybe im wrong.
Bootloaders usually work fine...

Im certainly far from a linux guru, indeed i may be as raw a newbie as you will find, but i have a definate preference for rehat out of the two linux OSes i have tried. Redhat seems faster than mandrake
No, Redhat is not faster than Mandrake, - Redhat may boot less services by default but the kernel they use should be more or less the same. All linux distros use about the same software packages. A RedHat rpm for example usually works on a Mandrake system as well as on SuSE or on RedHat. - The difference is the standard configuration but after using linux for a longer time most users configure it to use their favourite Windowmanager, editors, mp3 players with their favourite themes. That's the best thing about linux: if you don't like something, it's possible to modify it.

[stuperfied]

I have Red Hat ver 6.2 also I have BeOS Personal Edition and OS/2 Warp 4. I'm about ready to begin installing after the responses i've recieved in this thread and I think I will create multiple partitions out of the 16.1 and put all of them on over a period of time but before I do would anyone like to post a screen shot of their Linux Desktop?

I've heard about some new secure Linux going around and even seen it on the N.S.A's web site, what's that all about and if it's recommended where can I download the lattest version?

[John W. Lindh]

RedHat 6.2 is ancient. You should get a newer version. (8.0 is the newest).