Going UNIX

So I am getting a new PC... Got a version of XP somewhere which I will slap on for the usual reasons but am curious about Linux and the benefits thereof.

So how do I set up a dual booting system, seeing as I will be stating with a clean hard drive.

And where do I get a version of Linux from?

Ubuntu here.

As for the rest I'll sit and wait, need to learn myself!

LinuxISO It's suffering a hardware fault at the moment, but generally, ALL versions of linux/unix/bsd are linked to from there.

Dual booting, look into grub Many different distributions come with their own bootloaders though, and they can be customized (they're all 2 stage loaders).

For the benefit of the forum, I'll keep an eye on this thread & pass on what knowledge I have where applicable. Better to have the conversation in public & everyone benefit, rather than in private and everyone continue paying Mr G. No, Not Ali. (IMHO )

If there's any specific questions folks have, if I don't know, I know a few kernel developers that probably will

Originally Posted by Baph

LinuxISO It's suffering a hardware fault at the moment, but generally, ALL versions of linux/unix/bsd are linked to from there.

Dual booting, look into grub Many different distributions come with their own bootloaders though, and they can be customized (they're all 2 stage loaders).

For the benefit of the forum, I'll keep an eye on this thread & pass on what knowledge I have where applicable. Better to have the conversation in public & everyone benefit, rather than in private and everyone continue paying Mr G. No, Not Ali. (IMHO )

If there's any specific questions folks have, if I don't know, I know a few kernel developers that probably will

Baph (or Grinch!), would it be possible for you to compile a shortlist of what steps are needed? I.e., what to install first, etc. I'm asking this because I know my way around Windows / Mac computers pretty well, but I'm a complete noob with dual-booting to linux and I'm guessing if it's looking weird to me, there might be others for whom it will be even worse!

Originally Posted by Filipe M.

Baph (or Grinch!), would it be possible for you to compile a shortlist of what steps are needed? I.e., what to install first, etc. I'm asking this because I know my way around Windows / Mac computers pretty well, but I'm a complete noob with dual-booting to linux and I'm guessing if it's looking weird to me, there might be others for whom it will be even worse!

Hows this? Unbuntu & XP specific, but it's a start. Start with an XP laptop, and add Unbuntu to it. Nifty huh?

If anyone needs to know details for other distributions, list here & I'll happily oblige.

Originally Posted by Baph

Hows this? Unbuntu & XP specific, but it's a start. Start with an XP laptop, and add Unbuntu to it. Nifty huh?

If anyone needs to know details for other distributions, list here & I'll happily oblige.

Good link, thanks!

It is so easy... I've installed a lot of version and Ubuntu was the most user friendly. Though some of the features would annoy most system admins as it a bit tied down. But it will stop you screwing things up.
SuSe was nice too... though I had some trouble getting a few bits of hardware working, but then I wasn't running the lastest version.
Mandriva not to bad, no worse the SuSe, just didn't like the feel.

Its just install XP, which takes forever....
Install Ubuntu and follow instructions.... little bit later your all done.

Also you can run from the live CD which will show you the feel of the OS, and run from your memory and if your happy just install from there. I even managed to surf the web while it installed the software... all with on 512 MB of RAM! Impressed I was... can't do that with windows, and the machine even runs quieter now.

Personally, I prefer FreeBSD to everything else. Mainly for the ports system. No hunting for things you want to install, and it's not a pain to install things (my advice is avoid gentoo if you're new to the world).

But then, I've used FreeBSD as a server too, with no monitor plugged in & just SSH connection across to it.

I've also had wonderful experiences where I NEEDED to get a remote system working, with X (graphical interface instead of just command line), so had to configure X to broadcast across the net via VNC etc. Never pretty when you get to that level of stuff, but for most things, you're laughing.

In the past, I've used SuSE (early version, took me 3weeks to install it properly with - at the time - XFree86, no documentation, no experience of Linux, lots of determination). Mandrake, Gentoo, Fedora Core 3, 4 & 5, Red Hat, Debian, Unbuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, PicoBSD... you name it, I've probably had it installed at some time.

Now I'm paid to maintain Windows 2003 Server and IIS (which should be named POS). How ironic huh?

And if you need help then go to the Ubuntu forum, lots of helpful people. You'll find me flitting about with my other identity of lgmdaniel.

Thanks for the help guys. A lot of it went over my head as the most technical I get is querying databases with SQL/SAS.

Would it make it easier to do this by partitioning the drive before/while loading XP to prevent issues from Windows expanding?