Hay i here you can have Windows and Linux, is this pretty simple to do. Also how do you boot the one you want to use?
Yes you can have bth. I run a dual boot with Win XP and Mandriva Linux. there are a couple of different ways to do this. You could use partition magic in windoze to create a linux partition on your drive , and when you start to install linux the partition manager supplied should see it. If you are dual booting windoze MUST be the primary operating system, linux will install a boot loader to allow you to select which system you want to use. I have limited experience with Linux, but i have installed various versions to find one i like (Mandriva suports the NTFS file system where others do not). Before you go ahead with an install, read the documentation on how to do it, back up anything that is vitally important to CD/DVD, just in case things go tits up. If you do not have partition magic, the linux you choose should be able to create a linux partition for you, however you will need to know a bit about how Linux sees the file system (e.g. hda would be your primary hard drive, with a numbering system e.g. hda1 for the partitions) just to make sure you know what is happening. It may sound a bit complicated and if it does i apologise, but it does work. Mandriva i have found so far to be the easiest to install for the Linux noob, however it is very much an individual choice.
Hm, i'm only 17 so i think i will wait till im more confident until i start messing about with linux. Thanks for your reply though
I only started with Linux a couple of mnths ago and i am not a computer buff by any means. I didn;t mean to scare you off, it is just that it is important the first time you try to install that you have any improtant info backed up (much the same if you did a re-install of windoze). There are loads of sites on the web (including this one) where you can find out all you need befoe you make the jump. Try a Live CD first to see if you want to go any further, it installs into the memory from a cd and when you reboot you go back to win as if it hadn't been there in the first place.
Hi, I'm also 17 and have been trying and using linux for about 1/2 a year now. It's a shock at first if your really used to Windows but once you start to get the hang of it its not that hard. Many now have nice either full GUI or GUI console installers that make the installation go smooth. If you would like to try it out get yourself a live CD. you can boot from the cd and it won't touch anything on your computer, it uses your RAM as a temp hard disk and decompressed files off the cd as needed. Some niced LiveCDs are DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org), Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org) or Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/). When your done playing around all you have to do is turn off your computer its like normal again.
