I'm interested in running a dual booting system, currently i'm using Windows XP Pro on a Dell laptop. The only massively important program i run for PC is a MMORPG called EverQuest (if you're familiar with it). I'm curious as to what distros you'd suggest for someone starting out who doesn't want it to be too kiddy but not too difficult to launch and understand. I would also like to be able to switch between a GUI and CLI with ease to learn both. I'm 17 yrs old and in charge of a Macintosh Server running at my technical school, linux facinates me, and i would love to learn. email me at psychoman_05@yahoo.com

If you're ready to embrace doing things instead of letting your OS do them for you, try slackware, it's not nearly as hard as people make out, it just requires enough self confidence to be able to repeat what READMEs tell you

thanks, i'll consider it, i have a slackware install, but i'm not sure i'm confident about dealing with problems of dual-booting a M$ and Linux system will cause.

This can be very easy.
1.Make some free space(resize windows)
2.Don't install a bootloader but make a bootdisk(doesn't work with 2.6).

well, see, i have a slackware 10 install available to me, but i never got the boot disks to work for it, i was thinking red hat instead...what do you suggest?

Problems? what problems?

Just do an "expert" install of lilo from liloconfig and chose to install to MBR.

Can't get the bootdisks to work? it should boot to CD1.

well, i have to say i feel dumb cause i've never resized windows before, .....where do i begin.. i know this is the newbie forum but i feel like i'm a TOTAL newb

RedHat/Fedora is fine as long as you have enough ram and space for it.

As for slack, I'm not sure if this is still true in 10.0, but the installer should give you an option to make the bootdisk.

Get something like Partition Magic.

What WM/DE are you using?

I'm guessing KDE or GNOME?

EDIT: ok I should have guessed you weren't THAT much of a newb.

Sorry!

Edit2: Seems like I've taken most this thread out of context as I missed Jens first post.

Raven,
You could start with a bootable Linux, such as Knoppix. What's great about this is that you can play with Linux, learn commands on it, and also it will tell you what a typical Linux distro will automatically detect on your machine (ie, you'll know before permanently installing something new what will work and what just won't).
A Linux for Dummies type book usually has great step-by-step instructions for the whole dual-boot thing, assuming the Windows is XP.

Distros:
Handholders include the Redhat family, Redhat, Mandrake, Suse. They install themselves quite well.
In the middle are the older distros, Debian and Slackware... I still need to know more UNIX to be comfortable with them, tho Knoppix is a bootable version of Debain (and Debian distros are very nice)
Gentoo is compiled from source code Ahhhhhhh! But if you really know what you're doing, you can have a completely obedient OS that does whatever you want it to and wastes no space or time with bloatware you won't use.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Knoppix is downloadable/burnable for free online, just look for it.
?knopper.de? Klaus Knopper's site.

The same is true of slackware, and you save all those hours of pointless compiling.

I'd have to recommend slackware - it's not as hard to use / install as you might think. If you're really worried about it, though, I started out several years ago on Mandrake and I remember it as being pretty beginner-friendly, although not as well-rounded as slackware. Knoppix is an even better choice for beginners wishing to learn as it requires no installing and it boots from a cdrom.

From what I've heard, partition magic is a relatively expensive piece of software. You may actually save some money by buying a second hard drive and using that instead of a second partition on your windows drive. You'd also save yourself some of the hassle involved with how windows treats linux partitions. I remember dual booting for a while before I got rid of windows, and every time I ran defrag windows would destroy my linux partition without mercy. When the drive started getting full, windows even started putting files partially onto the linux partition.

Anyway, if you google around online you'll find plenty of how-to guides on switching from windows to linux as well as intructions for dual-booting. A linux-for-dummies type book couldn't hurt, either. =)

For your first step I would suggest Knoppix. Even if you do not download it you can buy it very cheap. As others have said it boots from CD so you don't have to commit to anything, you get to see how your hardware will work with Linux, and Knoppix comes with a partitioning program (qtpart) so you don't have to buy expensive software if you want to partition your harddrive. If/When you decide to install a distro I would suggest buying a Linux dumbies book. I think Linux For Non-Geeks is a good intro into Linux and it comes with Fedora Core 1.

I think I'd suggess starting with Knoppix as a "trial run"
afterward, I think I'd reccomend Slack - I actually find it easier than most RPM-based distros (Redhat, Fedora, Mandrake, SuSE, etc) - not to mention it makes them all look like they were made by Fisher Price