Can anyone tell me the best Boot Manager for linux, must be stable **Non Beta Version** simple easy to use but get`s the job done without issues & Open Source if possible with password protection for eack distro boot-up. Post link`s so i can see for myself.

The standard is Grub. It's stable and not beta. It comes from GNU, and I guess it can be called "open source", even though Stallmann has issues with the term. It features password protection. The meaning of "best" and "simple" varies from person to person.

I can agree to that, it`s a matter of opinion, remember i`m a newbie finding things out on my own.
Back to Grub i have heard about it but know little, can you answer this, is there any limit on the number of os with Grub ? Un-likely but if my base distro is Linux would Grub work with windows ? How used friendly is Grub when installing a second distro / How many things need to be done ?

The Grub2 Manual is at the link below and should tell you anything you want to know. If you have specific questions about something you can post back.

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html

There is really no limit, basically depends on the size of your drive(s) as to how many you can install.
Grub doesn't actually directly boot windows but chainloads it, basically pointing to the windows boot files and turning the boot process over to windows.
When you install a second, third or more Linux distro, the first thing you need to decide is which OS you want as primary, that is booting itself as well as the others. Most all Linux systems allow you to install Grub either to the MBR or to a specific partition. This (installing to MBR) of course does not apply to UEFI systems and if you are using windows 10, it probably is UEFI.

Thank`s, Yes the manual should clear thinga up,plain language so easy to understand.

I really hate Grub2. I wish it were a person so I could punch it in the nose.
But there is nothing better around. Lilo causes me even more trouble and rEFInd is so hard to install I gave up on it.

I loved XOSL but it's too outdated.

Suck it up and use Grub2, I guess.

IME a good bootloader is non-existent, and the best "boot manager" depends on how many operating systems are installed. With only one installed, possible choices are moot, because there is no managing to do. With more than one installed OS, the best is the sysadmin that wrests the most control from the various bootloaders supplied by default from the various installed operating systems. There are too many possible permutations of multiboot for a bootloader to be good regardless of any possible permutation it must "manage".

With MBR systems here, best is me, with over two decades of multiboot experience. I use only Grub Legacy with Gfxboot provided by openSUSE, which has gotten harder to keep using since its installation via the installation system ceased, and because its maintenance is virtually nil, with no support for EXT4 64bit or BTRFS.

With UEFI, much of the work formerly required of a bootloader is done by the UEFI BIOS, so life with Grub2-efi is tolerable, much more so than with the MacOS bootloader, or an AWOL rEFInd.

My advice is to use UEFI if you can, and if using UEFI, spend some time figuring out the differences between Grub2-efi implementations among those OSes you've installed, so that you can pick one you like best, then remove all others, to avoid the usurpation that arises when upgrading kernels and OS versions.

Some things that help:

• Learn how to boot from a grub> prompt, before you get one thrust in front of you unexpectedly.
• Have symlinks to every kernel and initrd, creating them yourself for OSes that don't create them automatically.
• Build your own boot menu, custom.cfg, using those symlinks, and give custom.cfg menuentries priority over auto-generated grub.cfg menuentries.
• If MBR booting, create a boot partition on a primary partition, with its boot flag set, along with generic boot code on the MBR. This is called a neutral MBR. Before installation of a second distro, learn how to manage it completely on your own, so that you can limit bootloader installation of additional distros to their root partitions only, not wresting boot control from any previously installed bootloader, and eventually not mount it to /boot/ of any distro, to keep you as sysadmin in maximum control.

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So with a boot loader and more than one os it is not the same as a single install as far as root privledges for the second os-Correct ?

Even if only one OS is installed, it still needs a boot loader.

The boot loader may be hidden--that is, it may not display on the monitor--but it's there.

The root privileges of a Linux installation don't change if there is more than one Linux installation on your computer. The boot loader does nothing to the security framework of an OS that it boots (except if you set certain kernel variables in the boot command line, but this is under your control, not the boot loader's).

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In case there's any question of the meaning of this answer, I give these examples:

1. On my Gigabyte UEFI PC after POSTing I see a grub-efi menu with these entries:
   • memtest86 7.4 EFI
   • openSUSE TW defkernel
   • openSUSE 15.1 defkernel
   • openSUSE 15.2 defkernel
   • Debian 10 Buster defkernel
   • openSUSE 15.0 defkernel
   • Tubuntu 18.04 defkernel
   • Custom from ESP partition
   • openSUSE TW curkernel w/ hostdisk (on /dev/sda7)
   • Install Debian via HTTP
   • Install Buntu via HTTP
   • Install openSUSE via HTTP
   • opensusetw
   • Advanced options for opensusetw
   That menu is presented as a consequence of:
   1. The UEFI bios loading \EFI\opensusetw\grubx64.efi on the ESP partition, which was placed there following my update to /etc/default/grub to include GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="opensusetw", in conjuction with
   2. this output from efibootmgr
      Code:

      BootCurrent: 0000
      Timeout: 1 seconds
      BootOrder: 0000,0001,0003,0004
      Boot0000* opensusetw
      Boot0001* opensuse
      Boot0003* Hard Drive
      Boot0004* CD/DVD Drive

      that gives the opensusetw NVRAM entry boot priority, which triggers
   3. openSUSE's grub2-efi to display a menu comprised by grub2-mkconfig 's auto-generated /boot/grub2/grub.cfg for the last two entries, and its first entries from
   4. /boot/grub2/custom.cfg, which I built manually with a plain text editor, and normally only have need to change when an OS is added or removed, or if I want a change in priorities, or a change in persistent linux cmdline parameters; not when a new kernel is added or removed.
   IOW, one bootloader loads any of the Linux OS selections in the bootloader menu, or loads the submenu selection listed last.
2. On most of my MBR PCs, I have installed:
   • Neutral/Legacy/Generic/DOS-OS2-Windows-FOSS compatible code in the MBR sector
   • A small primary EXT2 formatted partition with its boot flag set, and Grub Legacy and a custom /boot/grub/menu.lst installed, the latter of which normally only has need to change when an OS is added or removed, or if I want a change in priorities, or a change in persistent linux cmdline parameters; not when a new kernel is added or removed.
   Because of the boot flag and the generic MBR code, the legacy BIOS after POSTing loads the boot sector on the EXT2 primary, which loads Grub, which presents the menu of however many Linux distributions I have installed and included in menu.lst. IOW, one bootloader loads any of the Linux OS selections in the bootloader menu.
   
   On some distros I do keep another copy Grub Legacy, purely for my convenience in accessing prior or testing kernels, to which I can chainload or ConfigFile from an appropriate menu.lst selection on the EXT2 primary partition's filesystem.

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Was syslinux mentioned already?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syslinux
I, too, found grub way too bloated - it's only useful for distrohoppers imho.
I moved to syslinux about a year ago. Haven't looked back.

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