Advantages with having 2 OS's?

[ETSA]

I will be building a new computer soon, primarily for gaming but what are the advantages for dual booting, other than the exposure to different OS's. I want to become more familiar but I don't want my system performance to suffer.

What Linux/Unix based system would you reccommend?

 

[meldra]

I note that you're intending the system to be mainly for gaming. Be aware that gaming outside the Windows realm can be a bit disappointing. Some games do work with wine and cedega and so forth, but many do not.

If you've never used Linux or Unix before, and still want to have a go, I would definately have to say to try Ubuntu to start. It is a very newbie-friendly Linux, and the community is great.

 

[PC eye]

If you are a "New Bee" at dual OSing you may want to have a second hard drive onhand to first try installing another OS(older Windows, Linux, FreeDos, ReactOS, etc.) onto first. Once that operating is installed and running slave it to the primary drive you are currently running. That protects the MBR(master boot record) there from any changes.

Currently Zenwalk a smaller Linux distro is sharing a second drive here with the latest beta version of Vista. GPart(Gnome Partition Editor) is an easy tool for creating and deletion of partitions for separate OSes. The installer on newer Linux distros often will have a tool for formatting a new partition assigned for Linux by GPart.

 

[meldra]

GPart(Gnome Partition Editor) is an easy tool for creating and deletion of partitions for separate OSes. The installer on newer Linux distros often will have a tool for formatting a new partition assigned for Linux by GPart.

It's actually GParted. Gpart is similar and can see partitions, but afaik, it is not an editor

 

[Saurian]

PC eye's advice is good, but you will need to learn someday with bootloaders. Examples of these are lilo and grub. These will pop up after the bios and give you all the options to load whatever OS's you have on your computer. Kind of a pain at first, and I've had to wipe my hard drive and reinstall XP to erase my failure in setting it up once before.

As for distrobutions to try, any of the more mainstream ones will be pretty good. If it is a big name, its got a great community really. Mandrake, SuSe, Fedora Core (Redhat), Ubuntu/Kubuntu (Only difference is U is Gnome based, K is KDE based. These are the Graphical User Interface of the operating systems. Most others let you choose inside of it). Another good one for newbies is PCLinuxOS. PSLOS has great hardware support, it is the only Linux I've tried that has healthy wifi support built in. It is a bit dumbed down, though.

Another option for you to experiment with Linux is to download what is called LiveCD's. These you put into your optical drive and start your system. You tell your system to boot from your optical drive and it loads the linux os into your ram, turning your ram into a virtual drive. This method does not show the speed of Linux (which it IS faster then XP) because is is using all your ram to house the OS and not to run things, and its constantly swapping from your optical drive which manages to be slower then even the hard disk. Anyways, when you're done doing what you need you just log out/turn off the computer and it pops out the CD for you and you can turn it back on into XP. GREAT! I believe PCLinuxOS has a liveCD, Knoppix is a GREAT livecd os. Mandrake has a livedvd that I think I may have downloadoed. There are also several others too. My next experiment is I want to figure out how to install a linux distro onto a USB key with all my programs on it so I can carry my computer (literally) wherever I go.

Either way, there are lots of forums on the internet for Linux. Linuxquestions.org is one good one that comes to mind. Otherwise, there are several of us here that can help as well!

 

[PC eye]

Triple-booting with GRUB, LILO, and Windows XP

Thursday April 13, 2006 (09:01 AM GMT)
By: Samartha Vashishtha

Wondering how to create a triple-booting system that involves Windows and two Linux distributions -- one that uses the GRUB bootloader and the other using LILO? Here's a hands-on procedure that lets you do just that, without tweaking cryptic configuration files and messing with geeky commands.
document.write(''); dfp_tile++;
When you power on a PC with multiple operating systems installed, software called a bootloader asks you what operating system to boot. A boot loader can be installed on the master boot record (MBR) of your hard disk, or you may install it on the root partition that a Linux distro uses. For x86 hardware, you have the choice of two popular bootloaders in the Linux world -- the Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) and the Linux Loader (LILO). http://enterprise.linux.com/enterprise/06/03/31/2222259.shtml?tid=129

 

[Iluvpenguins]

1 of the Operating systems can hold your secret porn archive...no kidding.But maybe if you plan to game and then sometimes host something...im sure dual OS can work.

 

[PC eye]

Gee? I'm trying to get the third OS running on this system. XP will continue to be the host while the latest beta of Vista gets a short run while ZA hopefully will see Grub load it. Those replace 98 and Fedora previously seen on a secondary hard drive. 98 on a second drive allowed the use of older programs that won't run on XP. Plus there are plenty of Linux utlities to try out and be in a position to recommend or advise against.