Those of you with multiple Linux distros across multiple partitions ...
 

I've seen that a few people seem to dual boot Fedora, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, etc., each on their own partition.

What is the purpose?

You're not building a network, for in this situation, only one instance can run at a time.

I doubt it would be that each distro is used for a different purpose (web, office, video editing, graphic design, etc.). That seems like a waste of space and would just be more to keep up with.

Do you do it to keep up with each distro's technology/quirks? Are you just testing different distros?

This is me. I've currently got Windows XP, Fedora 9, Debian Lenny and Ubuntu 8.10 in quad boot configuration. Fedora is my fav... I've got it loaded with the RT kernel and applications from the CCRMA repo. I keep Windows on the system so I can use iTunes with my iPod, and Ubuntu is the only distro I've tried yet on which I've found its possible to install Cinelerra from a repo. Debian Lenny is there simply because I could install it, I might remove it soon. I'm using LVM and each OS is in its own logical volume. The boot and swap partitions are shared among the OSs.

Ken

Yep, it's good for testing and really because some distro's cannnot do what other's do, or do it differently.

Ubuntu-SE-8.04 is my working Lab, while Slack12.2 teaches me terminal stuff etc.
Also, if one crashes,etc then I have redundancy.

Purely for the sake of contrast and variety. Deep down all distros are the same, but it's the surface layer that makes the difference: package management, configuration, degrees of pointy-clickyness, and other thingies. Slackware and Debian/Ubuntu feel different - that's the best way I can put it.

I can definitely understand dual booting Windows and Linux because they are totally different OSs. But to dual boot multiple Linux OSs for the reasons of usability, not testing, seems like overkill to me. For instance, I can't see myself saying "I'm done browsing the web on Fedora, now to switch over to Ubuntu for some good ol' fashion video editing." Having multiple production environments?

@linus72 - Can you clarify what you mean when you say one Linux OS can't do what others do, or do them differently? I do understand what you mean by redundancy. But that's why I keep backups and installation CDs around. So far I haven't met a distro that couldn't do what another could do as long as you have access to source or packages you need.

Just my way of doing things. And that's the deal, eh? That I have my way of doing things, while you folks have your way.

I have Suse and puppy.

The reason I use Suse is the ease of installing software from their repos. and the amount of software availible.

I use Puppy for its size and speed. I know I could strip Suse down but without a lot of work I would not hear the puppy bark on startup. I guess I use puppy just to hear the dog bark.

I triple boot 3 lnx distros - no M$ on this box.

mainly coz I like to use the other types of lnx :cool:

I do use just one of them for most of my needs, though.

OK-to clarify Slowcoder; what I should've said was, Certain distro's do things differently, for instance-In Ubuntu-8.04 I can simply double-click a script and it'll invoke it.
In Slackware KDE, double-clicking doesn't invoke the script, even if executable.

Or for instance; by default you run as absolute root in Slackware; whereas in Debian by default you don't, unless you set it up that way.

One notable difference where Ubuntu really shines is that you can install 5-6 whatever distro's, and install Ubuntu last and it will 99% of the time "automagically" install grub correctly so that all your partitions are bootable and show up on the menu.
Most other distro's, you gotta do some configuring/editing of files yourself.

I mostly have multiple distro's so I can check out each one, modificate it and learn about it.
Now, I also mash'em together so they play off usb/cd together,etc.

My latest breakthru; "Portable_Slackware-12.2" version 2, will be released hopefully today.
Fully portable "symbiant" OS.
The version in the Slackware forum post ( http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...at....-725252/ )

Is a testing version with KDE; don't waste your time downloading it unless you wanna check it out.
It really works but is too big for 4GB USB and KDE has issues.
Newest one now has XFCE4, no errors and has a 3.5GB vhd so it fits on a 4GB usb.
It is kinda stripped down, at 2.2GB used of the 3.5GB vhd.

It is basically OS and partition type independent; as it runs on Windows or Linux, and runs on any partition type (FAT32/EXT2, etc).

It runs just like an installed-to-hd OS, saves, etc
Anyway, that's why I have multiple distro's, including XP.

I had multiple distros install when I first started to use linux. All I knew about linux at the time was that linux was based on unix and it was free and suppose to run on older hardware. Tried just about every distro under the sun that would run on a pentium II compaq where the ram varied from 64mb up to 190mb depending on the month. So I guess I can say comparing distros and distro hopping was the biggest reason had I four or five distros, sometimes more, installed at one time. I now have Slackware 12.2, a frugal install of Puppy,and in the process of installing Gentoo. Puppy because its quick and slack because I like slack, and Gentoo as a learning experience.

I have 2 distros installed on my desktop, and two one my laptop. Right now, though, I'm pretty sure only one is bootable (don't give a damn on the laptop anymore, and it's a pain on the desktop)

Laptop:
- Fedora 10
- Puppy
- Reason: F10 for general stuff, Puppy was intended for quick startup & use while at school. It had problems with there being 10 access points with the same name, so it didn't get much use, especially since after getting it to connect to one, it would have been just as fast to boot the full distro

Desktop:
- Windows Vista
- Ubuntu 9.04
- Ubuntu Studio 8.04
- Reason: Vista for gaming, and some MS programming I have to do. U9.04 for general use, and US8.04 for testing. I wanted to see how well it would work for a Linux newbie, and was disappointed at the lack of point & click.

However, if Ubuntu Studio has improved, I can see why somebody would run that alongside another Linux distro: It's designed for media editing, and has been reconfigured for this purpose. It would be a good thing to use it specifically for editing.


Oh, and for those wondering why it's a pain on my desktop to get Grub working, it's because Grub sees my SATA drive as hd0 and my IDE as hd1, but both distros like to see their drive as hd0. Also, I think my BIOS had no idea which one to boot from, I still don't know which it does, I just installed the same bootloader on both and forced it to work.

I just like to have a play with different distros and see what they do, how they work and what they look like, as well as evaluating for various purposes.

I have the same here (sata and ide). I learned that when I boot from the cd and do an install, most times grub is going to see the ide drive as hd0 where my sata is the boot device and bios assigns it hd0 when it starts up.

Long story short, whatever you have set as the boot device is hd0. Unless it is CD, or if you have a distro running on the ide drive and it will claim to be on hd0, but the bios knows better :D.

When I first started using Linux, I did a lot of distro-hopping and had many installations.
Then I settled for VectorLinux and thats all I ran until about October last year, at which point I dual-booted Vector and Slackware and now I use Slackware exclusively.

But I have to agree with SlowCoder about multibooting half a dozen distros: its a waste of hard drive real estate.

Hi,

I've never been a distro-bunny either. I've worked with Slackware since the beginning of time. I like the feel of GNU/Linux Slackware. Sure I've used others to just test drive but never found anything that surpasses Slackware from my standpoint. It's comfortable!

Ok, so for the most-part it is as I suspected. That the primary reason for dual booting multiple Linux installs is for testing and research, not for everyday production use ... except for linus72 ... weirdo :)