Thanks to all for the replies !
I have experimented with Mandrake and Redhat on previous machines and am quite comfortable with setting up a dual boot as I have done it in the passed. I've done a bit of reading on Ubuntu and will give it a go and am curious about Wine.

For your information, my specs are:

Graphics card: ASUS260GTX-896 MB
CPU: Intel i5-750
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD3P


Looking forward to the experience !

I definitely agree with that.

It's very safe, less stress, and you don't have to leave Windows to be able to play with Linux (which means you will probably be able to play around with it much more).

interesting, I never thought about it that way, saves having to reboot.

So, having windows already installed, would I install VM first, and then install Linux through that ? I'm presuming Linux needs to be installed first, before installing VirtualMachine ?

Yes, you have to install VMware (or similar) 1st, then install linux through that.

Personally, I dont like virtualisation. I'd much rather use a 2nd HDD and do a real install onto that (no that I have a problem with dual-booting, its just easier to do things from hardware IMO)

Hi,

@OP Look at Virtual section of Slackware®-Links for some useful links. Not that difficult to setup a VM on your M$ Windows. That way you can safely experiment with a Gnu/Linux of choice.

You might want to look at Linux - Virtualization Especially if you wish to go the Gnu/Linux route and load your M$ Windows via VM.

A VM is basically an entire physical PC emulated in software. The OS installed in the VM doesn't touch your hardware or your Windows installation in any way at all.

Hm, I thought I posted a response to the dual-boot issues. I am quite confident in setting up dual-boot however I've never used a VM due to the lag, however, for my purposes, it may be good, even though it may be considerably slower, purely to avoid having to re-boot to get into Linux. I wouldn't have a clue how to set up a VM though, do you install the VM, and then install linux through it ? or install Linux independently, and then use the VM to access Linux.
How do you set up Linux without dual-boot ?

The exact method depends highly on which virtualization software you use, but the basic procedure is this:

• Download Linux distribution ISO
• Open virtualization software and set up a virtual machine with the specs you want (the level of tweaking you can do will depend on the software)
• Create a virtual hard disk (basically just a file on your existing HD which acts as the VM's HDD) and set it to use the Linux distro ISO as the CDROM
• Boot the VM and install the distro

From then on, it's pretty much just like using a physical computer, with the obvious exception of it being entirely in software. Another thing you may want to do is install "Guest Additions" or "VMware Tools" (depending on which virtualization software you use), so that you can get enhanced functionality in your VM, such as mouse cursor integration (not having to switch between guest/host cursor all the time), 3D acceleration support, and various other host interoperability features.

I thought that my above post would make it clear. Since the VM is an entire PC emulated in software (the CPU, GPU, memory, motherboard, hard drive, CD drive, literally everything) and no part of the guest OS touches you physical PC, that obviously rules out installing Linux on your PC before installing the VM software.

Check this out: http://www.virtualbox.org/

Download it and install it. If you don't understand how to use it, there's a good manual on their website.

(BTW, this is my 5000th post!)

AFAIK, the guest OS can directly access the physical computer if you have the right support (Intel VT-d, AMD AMD-Vi/IOMMU).

*breaks out the party hats and sparklers*

I'd bake you a cake, but fitting 5000 candles onto the cake would mean really small candles. Or a really big cake. Or both.

Right; virtualization isn't quite the same thing as emulation (where the hardware literally is completely emulated in software), but even so, yes, certain features do require CPU hardware enhancements for things like direct HW access, a VM "context" allowing a dedicated "area" for VMs to run in (VT-x/AMD-V), etc.

IME however even without the really fancy stuff like VT-d everything's just fine. IMO VT-x/AMD-V is a must, though, otherwise performance really suffers.

But from the user's perspective, it's still looks like it's emulated but going really fast. I intentionally over-simplified it since the OP seemed completely clueless about what a VM is.

Hello again,
well I ended up installing Ubuntu via virtualbox and my first experience using virtualbox was a good one. Apart from exiting it the wrong way and having to re-install Ubuntu, it was all good.
I haven't had a chance yet to experiment with 3D to make the most of my ASUS 260GTX but I'll get there.

Thanks everybody for your support.
\m/

In a virtual machine you will also have a virtual graphics card. You will not get a direct access to your physical card and the virtual card will be much slower and lacks some of the functions of your physical card.