Hey, i am new to linux and i am planning on dualbooting Linux I am not afraid of the space because i have 250 gigs,But i would like to know if there is any advantages to linux...Also should i create a knew Partition for linux and could i get rid of linux if i don't want to dualboot anymore without Formating the HDD... Also what would be a good distro for linux..... Thanks
Honestly, I'd say it depends on what you use your computer for. There's always the argument that you get NO spyware and as far as I know unlikely to get a virus (although there are exploits I believe). I dual boot simply because I play a lot of games and not all are available under linux, or run very badly, so I have to keep XP. Other than that Linux is pretty cool. Always a piece of software to use for a specific job, thousands of FREE programs to mess with and a massive community who, depending on the forum, are willing to help. Most distros come with a partitioning tool on install to section off a piece of your drive, although I used partition magic first and cut a piece off, then when I realised I liked it I used a spare HDD just for Linux. If you don't want it anymore you can just format the partition and restore the windows bootloader, which is quite simple to do, without losing any windows data. Very personal to each person. I have tried quite a few in the past, about 3 or 4 versions of Mandrake (now Mandriva I belive), a few versions of Suse, College Linux, Linspire and a few others, but finally settled on Kubuntu (KDE version of Ubuntu), which is turning to be very popular. It is very beginner orientated from what I can tell, but that suits me fine and you can also do advanced stuff if you fancy it. The install system for software on it is a piece of cake and again, a hell of alot of software to choose from and a growing community. This might help to make a decision, it's a little questionare about your knowledge then makes a few suggestions on a suitable distro. http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?select_lang=true Hope this babbling helped, I'm only a newbie myself when it comes to Linux, so other opinions from seasoned users might contradict. See Ya. [bold]Edited for dodgy spellings [/bold]
Ok, thaks for your reply....So is it hard to dual-boot 2 OS's...and when i am done with linux could i delete the partition and not have to format my HDD Thanks
It's a doddle to dual-boot. Windows is already installed I guess? If not, install that first. 2nd step, decide on a distro and either download it and boot off it, then follow the install (which will include a partitioning section) or partition your drive first and then install. Linux will install a bootloader for you, so when you reboot you can choose Windows or Linux. If you ever want to get rid, just format your Linux partition and restore the XP bootloader from the XP cd, which is really easy to do. Linux may have an uninstall, but I've alwasys done it the format way in the past and you get to keep XP intact. NOTE:might be worth backing up important data....just incase something goes pear-shaped ;-)
