Multi-operating System Joy Stories
 

There are people who have found peace using both Windows and Linux. They have multiple computers. They have networked them together and have discovered advantages and disadvantages in them both.

Personally, I want to maintain flexibility. Windows application software such as Word & Excel are what I'm use to and it will be awhile before I'm weened off them. A lot of programs are only compatible with Windows. I suppose a lot of spiffy games too.

If any such people are here reading this.

Could you describe your experience?

Could you describe what your network of different OS computers is like?

Could you offer some tips about doing this?


If memory serves, I do remember reading about how Mandrake 9.2 Linux and Windows can be installed on the same computer.

I'd like to know what such a system is like.

Does such a system require a seperate hard drive?
or for that matter, a partitioned hard drive?

Was it easy to install?

Could you describe your experience?

Could you describe the advantages and disadvantages?

I have had success with RedHat 8 Linux installed on my PC together with Windows - I can choose which to use at power-up. They use the same hard drive, but different partitions.
I basically followed the instructions in "Red Hat Linux for Dummies" - a useful learner's guide
I have now installed Win4Lin which allows me to run the few Windows programs I can't do without (getting fewer as time goes on - don't have an alternative to Quicken yet though).
Win4Lin is really excellent! The support is tremendous.
It's a BIG learning experience, but there's a lot of help out there.

I suppose once I find the time to get all this that I need I'll find out what works.

I have been running SuSE and Win2K on the same box for about three months now. I use Linux for most everything, except for Office applications that are going to be used on other people's computers (OpenOffice can read them, but formatting is usually an issue for me) and games. As much as I like Linux, it's damn useful to have Windows around, just because so much runs on it. And so much of the world runs on it. (although, let me tell you, if I could get a fully functional Dreamweaver (not through WINE) on Linux I could die a happy woman)

SuSE was a little more difficult than Windows to install (and I haven't mastered it by ANY stretch)... but it went on one partitioned hard drive. I do have two hard drives, and experimented by installing it, er, several times on different drives. In the end, it was just easier to do it on the one and ghost the rest.

All in all it's been a favorable experience, and I am thinking once I am out of school and I can do a mind wipe on the compaq and I don't have the fear of losing my thesis or anything on the new box, I am going to install Linux on them both. If my husband lets me. :)

shoe

debian-sid and windows-2000 here.
1 laptop.
started using linux since august, i think.

i barely use windows anymore except for some new hardwares which dont get immediate support (like my new digicam+webcam).

i find just using windows to be extremely annoying since i switched to linux. i have gotten tired of using the mouse for doing everything. i mean, do we need to type anything in windows? now, the window/desktop managers for linux i find faaaar better than windows. take a look at some screenshots for gnome/kde/xfce4 ... and im sure you''ll start drooling.

i have 5Gb for my windows on a 40Gb hard disk, and im sure very soon, it will be even less. i have used solaris (and still use it in school)... no need on my personal computer with linux. just by having the source, i am able to look at it, improve my skills, understand things i never heard of while using windows, and well ... just have a more productive time sitting on the computer. (im a CS grad student, so this wont apply to all, of course).

for things like word, and excel, they have a suite just like MS-Office called OpenOffice. of course, you might have heard of Mozilla (though most Windows users dont use it for the same reason as u mentioned you wont stop using MSOffice in a hurry - fear of change).

yes, u can dual boot, and after all this, i still think u should have a dual-boot, because there are some things which are made specifically with windows in mind (tax return forms online?) , but they are few and far between. so dont allocate 55Gb for windows, on a 60Gb Hard disk with 5Gb for linux. theres nothing to learn in windows (apart from registry editing, and how cool is cmdline tabbing in dos, huh?).


and umm, if you alreafdy have a computer running windows, you dont need anything. you only need a cd-r/w to burn a linux ISO, and ur own ur way. yes, thats right. do not buy any extra hardware just to "test" linux (you can buy the linux cd's if you want to support them). be a man, be the studpenguin you were born to be (yeah, cant wait for ROTK! dont be afraid. :)

You can dual boot Linux and Windows on the same hard drive, or seperate ones - both Windows and Linux require formatted partitions to be instaled onto - both scenarios are relatively simple - a quick search for "dual boot" ( or something similar) on this site will reveal many threads on dual/multi-booting with the details - good luck.

Hello studpenguin,
You may want to check out Codeweaver's.
I tried the Codeweaver's plugin some time ago with Mandrake and it was really nice.
I have not tried Codeweaver's office, but I see it get good marks.
Installing both Linux and Windows for the first time is going to be easier if you either, get a 2nd hard drive (easiest, no repartitioning of your other disk, but possibly lots of unused space), or a commercial partitioning program (installs to Windows, easy to follow GUI interface, latest versions support most current filesystems, able to "resize" partitions (with small possibility of losing everything)).
It makes a difference if you are talking FAT32 or NTFS as far as ease of resizing and etc.
Linux works with FAT32 rather well. It is just getting up to speed with more than reading from NTFS.

clarity on the phrase "dual boot" or "multi boot"
 

One of the things I ABSOLUTELY HATE about Windows XP is that there are

numerous glitches that cause the "blue screen of death" (meaning I have to restart the computer) from too many windows open at once or getting a little to trigger happy with mouse clicks on my browser OR GOD ONLY KNOWS what. i.e. "fatal exception error or some crap"

and the fact that installing new programs all too often requires I restart the computer again and again and again waiting forever. I've heard Linux doesn't have this insane problem as bad as windows


Clarity of the phrases "dual boot" & "multi boot"

Is this to say when the computer is started all operating systems (the linuxes and the Windows will load and run simultaneously)? Meaning if you switch into one the others still run in the background?

OR

Is this to say you are given a choice around or after when BIOS loads which operating system will load into RAM, while the other OS stays on it's partition of the Hard drive or seperate hard drive only to [BE] loaded once the other is shut down or the computer is restarted?

OR

Is this to say. You can switch in and out of the operating systems without restarting the computer but clearing one from the RAM while one is in the RAM?

OR

Is "DUAL BOOT" where someone kicks someone's ass with both feet striking both buttcheeks?

Often you can access files on the other OS, but usually cannot run the exicutiables.

So what would a Mandrake 9.2 & Windows XP do to each sharing the same computer?

Make love to each other?

Usually you install a bootmanager, typically GRUB/LILO which comes with most linux distros, but NT os loader as well as a dozen other 3rd party softwares can also do it. Then you configure it properly so that when your PC boots, you get a nice menu letting you select which operating system to load.
Just search for threads on dual boot you'll find heaps of information.

You see, at first the Tux Penguin from Mandrake would try being nice to the Win XP mascot because it understands that it is slow and hampered by a multitude of problems that its owner just refuses to accept and acknowledge. While Tux is being nice the XP mascot, in return, is thowing a fit and going on and on about how Tux is always running, never needing to be rebooted and the only BSOD (blue screen of death) that it knows about is the one listed as a screensaver. So while the XP mascot is on this inexplicable outrage, Tux notices the XP mascots owner approaching and watches as the XP mascot gets fed a new dosage he likes to call a "windows update". Upon seeing this Tux realizes why the XP mascot was throwing the tantrum earlier and tries to console it like one would do in the real world with a Special Olympics participant that didn't understand why they were there in the first place.

rberry88


**this is not meant to offend anyone, anywhere and in anyway what-so-ever, but for comedic reasons only.:D

The easiest way to try Linux is to get knoppix from

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

and burn it to disk. Then just boot up your computer with the disk in the drive. It'll boot straight into knoppix linux without altering your windoze configuration. There is also a new Suse Live-Eval 9

http://www.suse.com/us/private/downl...nux/index.html

which does the same thing. It looks good but I think it's a bit slower than knoppix and suddenly in the middle of a game just chucks you out. Also it needs a bit of your harddisk for swap and storage.

If you want to go ahead and have two operating systems in your computer then Mandrake is in my opinion the best and easiest for a beginner. I tried installing various linux operating systems together with linux, but Mandrake was the first to install correctly finding all my hardware.

LOL that's funny

MORE DUAL BOOT INFORMATION REQUESTED
 

To anyone who'd care to comment:

I now have my modern screaming machine 2.5 ghz +

with 80 GIG HD (RAID SATA), 512MB PC3200 RAM,

Have installed Windows XP on it ---- (I know, I'm such a traitor),
but only partitioned it to about 50 gigs NTFS for now , --- the other 25 is for the Mandrake OS (still To Be Arranged).

Just out of curiosity, is there any way to re-allocate the partitions as needed? May the better OS get the most territory.

I have to admit there's some peripherals such as my PDA, some games, scanner, and calculator that seem to be designed for Windows XP, and my situation is such that I really don't have time to learn all those savvy Linux tweaking abilities that I will learn some day eventually.

Could someone please continue to very specifically direct or describe procedures and information about where and what type of boot managing programs to get? What do people need to install them?

Win XP won't be there much longer, I'll go back to WIN 2000 soon --- Unless someone can circumvent product activation without having to pay for another liscense, or to somehow explain to the A-holes in Redmond, WA that indeed IT IS only on 1 machine, for 1 user and the old machine where it was already activated won't be used as such anymore?

I don't suppose Linux vendors are like this. Do any of the Linux Vendors, redhat, and particularly Mandrake require product activation? What are the End User Liscensing Agreements or EULA'S with any of this "shareware" ?