Hi,

I want to install Linux on my windows XP machine.
HOw I install it?
What is latest usr friendly Linux version?
How I install Linux on same machine?

Thanks

Hello & Welcome to LQ,

You can easily install both operating systems on same machine.

There are a lot of tutorials & easy step by step how-to you will find on Internet.

You can read different documentations
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-...indows-or-mac/

http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/Teaching/Re...ral/linux.html


You can search many more.

Regards

Shahnawaz Uqaili

Here is a great site with tutorials for dual booting Ubuntu and Windows: http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/
Those tutorials use Windows7. However, they are still applicable for XP. In fact, dual booting linux with XP is potentially less complicated than dual booting with Windows7.
Here is a great site for getting started with Ubuntu: http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/
Write back if you need more help. I have been booting XP with several linux distros for about 6 years now.

And welcome to the LQ forums!

There are a number of choices here, not just dual booting. If you are completely now to Linux, and I get the sense that you are, there is a number of ways to experiment with Linux with escalating impact on your system

You can run Linux from a boot-cd or USB key.
This will not affect your existing system at all, running purely from the boot media. It will be slower than it would be when installed so you should bear this in mind when judging how good it is. USB is faster than CD.

You can install Ubuntu within Windows using Wubi or Virtualbox.
Wubi or VirtualBox, and I find VirtualBox to be easier (just my opinion), will allow you to run Linux as is it were an application inside Windows. This is a nice method of experimenting with Linux as it runs like a physical installation but does not change the way your Windows works and can be easily deleted. You will however require enough memory and diskspace to run both OS's.

You can dual boot.
This allows you to choose between Linux or Windows at boot time and you get the full native installed experience of whichever one you chose to boot. It does however make changes to your Windows Partition and Master Boot Record on your hard disk. It is a more involved task to change it back if you decide you don't like it.

If you are really new to Linux and have a machine with a reasonable amount of RAM and Disk space I'd recommend VirtualBox and installing different Distro's, only going for the Dual Boot when you're fairly sure which one you want to concentrate on.

Cheers