newbie : need opinion for redhat installation
 

I use xp and ubuntu 9.10 both in dual boot mode on my system and wish to install a new red hat based linux on my computer, so which is the best redhat based system to start off with : fedora or mandriva ?

also,

How many operating systems can i install on my system ?

thank you.

There are MANY RedHat based systems. Go to Distrowatch and look them up. And there is no answer to 'best'...it's what YOU like best.
Depends on how much hard drive space you've got, and what your purpose is.

That you have to decide. First get live CD of both and see which one do you feel better.

As much as you can, Constraint is the disk space.

I have decided to go with fedora,
also my hard drive already contains 2 operating systems, one is xp and other is ubuntu,
will that create problems while installations, and what care should be taken by me during installations,
will grub and the swap area of ubuntu be affected during the installation ?

also for installing fedora, i am going to shorten my xp drive using easeus partition manager, and then install fedora on the free space.

thank you.

Fedora is good for desktops, personally it is my second best desktop distribution after Ubuntu.

There is no problem as long as you have free disk space to install.

Please do not install grub here. Just skip grub installation, otherwise this will overwrite your previous grub installation and makes ubuntu not accessible.

Also you can

1. Share /home partition between fedora and ubuntu as it is personal laptop.

2. Share swap partition as well.

Happy installation !!