Installing Linux as a second operating system
 

Hello all ... I am currently I a running XP Pro on an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with 2 Gigs of RAM and 750 Gigs on 3 hard drives. Could anyone please point me to a link that will tell me how to install Linux as a second operating system?

Thanks!

You haven't specified which distribution you want to install. But in any case there is not much hazzle in installing GNU/Linux as the second OS. You just need to boot the CD and follow the instructions. One thing you have to take care is when you partition the disk. Be careful not to lose any data.

Do you mean to install it as a multi-boot option? Of so, check one of the "user-friendly" distro's like (K)Ubuntu. The installation guide will tell you how to set up Linux and offer you the choice at boot time.

If you mean to run two OS-es concurrently use a virtual machine. It seems that you can install VMWare on XP and run Linux as a guest. I would prefer to set up Linux as a host and XP as the guest, but it depends on you Linux skills whether that will be succesful.

For beginners I would recommend the multi-boot install and switch over to a Virtual Machine after you gained sufficient Linux experience.

jlinkels

Welcome to LQ!

Chapter 5. Installing Slackware Linux

Hope that helps. If not, remember <Linux> - Google Search is your friend.

I would NOT recommend Slackware for a beginner......

With 3 large drives like that, I recommend putting the operating systems on one drive, and using the other two for shared data.

Depending on the current setup, you may need to re-size a Windows partition to create empty space. In the typical Linux "Live CD" distribution, there are partitioning tools that will do that. If the Windows setup has been running a long time, you'll want to de-frag before resizing.

Be sure to backup all important data before doing any of this.

The "Getting Started" link below might be useful.