Miscellaneous > The Lounge

thinking of switching OS

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panophobia:
Now, I've never done anything like this before, so bear with me and the few stupid questions I have.

For one, is it possible to keep Windows on here, and have a secondary OS I could somehow switch back and forth to?

Also, which of the free OSs out there would you recommend to a "newbie"? [new at least to an OS other than Windows.]

Calum:
Yes, it's fairly easy to keep windows, and have another OS, you must partition yr hard drive so that it looks to your computer as if it is 2 seperate drives. If you get a free Linux distribution such as Red Hat or Turbolinux, it will come with tools you can use to do this quite simply. Documentation for said can also be found at the homepages of whoever manufactured your distribution of Linux... anybody want to add?

Centurian:
Hey,

I have just recently switched over completely to Mandrake 8.1 linux. I was a dos/windows user. I found Mandrake very easy to install and use.

I would recommend that you repartition your hard disk under Windows first. Here is how I would suggest you go about it.

As an example lets say you have a 20 gig hard disk.
Boot to Dos under windows (use floppy if necessary)
Run Fdisk.
Build your windows primary partion as a 2 Gig drive.
Now make your extended partition but use only about half or less of the remaining drive. IE if you have 18 Gig left use 9 Gig or less . Lets say you use 5 Gig for your extended partition.
That leaves 13 Gig free.
Build the extended partition 5 Gig partition.
Reboot your system and format your C (2Gig) and D (5 Gig) drives.
Reinstall windows.
Now download and read the install docs from the distro's website.
Now when you install Mandrake or any other Linux OS you have lots of room to play with. The distro you get will help you get your drives setup. Under Mandrake I would suggest you go with the expert install because the recommended install kinda sucks. Also Mandrake is supposed to be able to resize your windows partition if necessary but  it did not work right for me. that is why I suggested the above partition scheme.

Now when Mandrake asks you to setup the drives follow its suggestions for the root and swap drives then use the remainder for you usr drive.

Mandrake will automatically format them after you have partitioned them then finish the install.
Near the end of the install process Mandrake will install a bootloader so you can choose between Linux and Windows at boot time.

Mandrake offers a very user friendly installation and an easy to use for windows people format.

Ok that is what I would suggest do with it what you wish.

Later
Centurian

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Centurian ]

voidmain:
Couple other thoughts. If you do not want to lose what you already have (do not want to reinstall Windows).  Find someone with a copy of partition magic.  Shrink your C: partition so that you leave around 4GB of unallocated disk space at the end of your drive.  Then install your Linux distro on that free space (it will create a Linux partition on that free space and set up the dual boot for you).

I would leave the largest partition for WIndows. Why?  Linux can use the disk space on the WIndows partition as well as the disk space on the Linux partition. Windows can not use the disk space on the Linux partition because it is brain dead.

Ozymandias:
I just heard about the ne OS Lindows!! Supposively it will be able to run windows programs without the bullshit of microsoft!!!
do a search today for Lindows and offer all the support you can cause this is the one that could kill them for good!!!        

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