I have now downloaded Ubuntu Studio. Ready to install it on my laptop.
I also do want to have WinXp installed.

What is the best procedure?
Installing Winxp, partition one part to Xp and leaving the other part unformatted for LINUX?

And this is very important:
I have a 60 gb hard drive.
How much should go to Xp and how much to Ubuntu Studio?

And one last question:
I've read from other threads, that it's important to divide the partition of Linux into several drives. Is that something i can do later or does it has to be done during installation?

I appreciate any comments/help.
Thanks in advanced!

Sincerely,
hargal

Step 1: Partition your drive using Linux.
This can usually be done from within the installer. Just make sure you don't go ahead and install the OS as you'll find yourself repeating the "Install Linux" step.
Linux needs at least two partitions; one for / and one for swap (swap doesn't need to be very big; approx. twice the amount of RAM on your system). So, at the very least, you will have three partitions on your drive.

Step 2: Install Windows.
You should make a mental note as to which partition you set aside for Windows, and which one for Linux. The reason this step comes first is because different bootloaders (GRUB, LILO, BOOT.INI) loooOoOooOve to overwrite each other. What we want is for Linux (GRUB) to overwrite Windows' (BOOT.INI) bootloader.

Step 3: Install Linux.
Just point the installer to set everything up on the other two paritions now. GRUB (The GRand Unified Bootloader) will overwrite Windows' BOOT.INI setup and will add a boot entry for Windows.

As for the partition sizing, that's completely up to you. A good formula to follow is:
- Start with 50% of your HD for each OS.
- Which will you use more often?
- Which will you install more stuff to? (Usually related to the amount of daily use.)

My particular layout would be:
- Windows (20GB)
- Linux (/boot 150MB, / 10GB, /home 25GB)
- Swap (whatever is left over)

Another point of view:

1. 8-10 GB for each operating system

2. Don't bother with a separate /boot or /home partition--just "/" is fine

3. 20-30 GB for shared data. For this, I now use ext3, which is nicely accessible from Windows using the the ext2fsd driver. You can also use FAT32.

4. The rest of the drive empty (unpartitioned) for future changes.

Have you already got Windows installed and want to install Linux along side it, or are you looking to install both?

If you've already got Windows installed then you can just run the Linux installer, which should give you all the options you need to set up a dual boot system.

The above suggestion will work fine, I will say one thing about the swap partition though, 512mb is more than big enough with todays pc's. The double your ram size was the old rule of thumb.

Good list, just interjecting a little.
1. What are you doing with your XP installation? If you're playing newer games, some of them may require a few gigs each of hard drive space. 8GB may not be enough. You may be able to get by by installing onto your shared data drive. Many Linuxers don't play games, so they don't take game requirements into consideration. (Sorry, pixellany )
3. ... Or NTFS with the ntfs3g driver?

I decided to make my LAPTOP as a total non-WinXP Linux-workstation.
I will let you know how it did go.
Let's hope I won't regret.

If I do I will take your advices from the above and make it dual-bootable.
Thanks for help so far :-)

Sincerely,
hargal