phatlinux, winlinux
 

I am totally new to Linux, and currently have a single laptop (hp xe3) with windows 98. As I currenly cannot afford the cost and risks involved in purchasing new hardware or re-partitioning my HD, and as I do not linux at all, I thought trying these distributions would be a good way to start getting into it.

I have a few questions some of you might know the answers to:

1. Should I expect any special installation problems with my laptop (except the ones I already know of, with the winmodem) if I try to install winlinux or phatlinux?

2. Can both opertating systems see and access each other's files and directories, or do they just share free disk space?

I would be glad to hear any important thing about any of these distributions.

Thank you very much

1. One of the problems you might face is setting up the X server (graphical bit of Linux). Although I believe that the current version of X supports many laptop screens, it would be a good idea to check. There are plenty of threads on this board about laptops + X.

2. What?

Re: phatlinux, winlinux
 

Well Windows won't be able to read the Linux partitions or files, but you should be able to mount the Windows partitions and read the files in Linux, as it supports many different filesystem types.