Thanks, will peruse over some info. Regards...

From what I hear, Fedora is a very nice Distro, but I have not used it myself.

All of my experience has been with Debain based distros. So far I like Ubuntu the best. Ubuntu has a few variations:
Kubuntu - Same thing as Ubuntu, but it uses KDE instead of Gnome
Xubuntu - Same as Ubuntu, but it uses Xfce instead of Gnome

As far as the virus', Linux is more secure as long as you dont use the computer as a root user unless absolutly nessicary. Root in linux is roughly the equivlent to an Admin account in Windows. A normal user in linux (basically a limited account in windows) can not modify system files. To do so, you must use the Sude or Su command, to assume root privlages.

Most computers in the world are running windows, so in order for a virus to do maximum damage, it must target windows. The kernel for windows and linux are compleatly different, so differnt to the point that they are written in different languages (correct me if im wrong, but im pretty sure this is right). Windows is written in C# while Linux is written in C.

There are a few Linux virus' out there, and if you do come in contact with one (witch is nearly impossible) it probally wont do any damage to your computer. As long as you are not logged in as root, then the virus cant do anything.

wow! this is a long reply..haha

anyways, on to the dual booting subject...If you dual boot, you will need a partition that both Linux and Windows share...You would be stuck using a FAT, FAT16, or FAT32 partition. My understanding is that these file systems are not very secure (NTFS can handle encryption, FAT cant). Anyone could have access to the files on the FAT partition becuase no security could be placed on them. As long as you dont have valuable info on that partition, you have nothing to worry about.

There is my long answer, you actually chose a topic that I know a little bit about ^_^, so I could give you a good answer.

IMO, you should stick with Ubuntu instead of Fedora, Ubuntu has a much larger support community then any other distro I have ever seen....and in your case that would be extremely good.

From what I hear, Fedora is a very nice Distro, but I have not used it myself.

All of my experience has been with Debain based distros. So far I like Ubuntu the best. Ubuntu has a few variations:
Kubuntu - Same thing as Ubuntu, but it uses KDE instead of Gnome
Xubuntu - Same as Ubuntu, but it uses Xfce instead of Gnome

As far as the virus', Linux is more secure as long as you dont use the computer as a root user unless absolutly nessicary. Root in linux is roughly the equivlent to an Admin account in Windows. A normal user in linux (basically a limited account in windows) can not modify system files. To do so, you must use the Sude or Su command, to assume root privlages.

Most computers in the world are running windows, so in order for a virus to do maximum damage, it must target windows. The kernel for windows and linux are compleatly different, so differnt to the point that they are written in different languages (correct me if im wrong, but im pretty sure this is right). Windows is written in C# while Linux is written in C.

There are a few Linux virus' out there, and if you do come in contact with one (witch is nearly impossible) it probally wont do any damage to your computer. As long as you are not logged in as root, then the virus cant do anything.

wow! this is a long reply..haha

anyways, on to the dual booting subject...If you dual boot, you will need a partition that both Linux and Windows share...You would be stuck using a FAT, FAT16, or FAT32 partition. My understanding is that these file systems are not very secure (NTFS can handle encryption, FAT cant). Anyone could have access to the files on the FAT partition becuase no security could be placed on them. As long as you dont have valuable info on that partition, you have nothing to worry about.

There is my long answer, you actually chose a topic that I know a little bit about ^_^, so I could give you a good answer.

IMO, you should stick with Ubuntu instead of Fedora, Ubuntu has a much larger support community then any other distro I have ever seen....and in your case that would be extremely good.

I am fairly new to Linux, have used it for some months. But I remember what it was like when I finally got nearly violently angry with windows...it involves a 5000 word essay and a blue screen . Anyway... I remember most of all how frustrating it was to know nearly nothing and there seemed to be no clear advice that was constant. Everyone had something different to say and this was very confusing.
However I have come with knowledge. lol, yeh right. But I can offer a little help at least.

First of all don't loose heart, things may go wrong sometimes, well it's pretty much guaranteed but at the end of all your laboring you will see what a fast, stable, secure and yes beautiful OS you have and it really pays off(especially kde, but that's my own opinion and you may not know what that means yet ).

Secondly don't dive in at the deep end, please don't reformat you’re entire hard drive. If you do you are more than likely to get so frustrated that you will end up switching back to windows
This will be because you could be rendered without any operating system at all if something goes wrong. And so you will just not want to bother any more, I have been there!...twice. It happened to me because

While you still have windows you should try and clear some space, delete some unwanted movies or something so that you can use a program to resize the partition with windows on it, it will usually be marked with "ntfs" I would recommend a program called partition magic. It may cost, but I'm sure there are free or trial alternatives out there too. When you have made it considerably smaller, I would recommend at least 20GB to start with, if you continue with Linux you may find you need more in which case you could transfer data to your Linux partition and reduce the size of your windows partition so you can increase your Linux partition size again if need be.

When this is done you should have some "Free space" left. there is no need to partition it as fedora will have an option available (as most others do too) to "use the largest continuous free space" so it will set up all the partitions for you as Linux needs at least two to work as it does so well. One will be called a "primary partition" (the biggest where all your information is stored) and the other will be called a "swap" (this is similar to windows' virtual memory where this area can be used as ram for your system if it should run out)

The rest of the installation should be a piece of cake, Good luck! and feel free to contact me for more help, t_homasjones@hotmail.com <not sure if that was allowed?

I've found that package management is a lot easier in any of the debian-derived distros (such as Ubuntu). Software is a lot easier to get and install. I would recommend checking it out.

one could also try suse

That's "sudo" or "su" (remember, case matters in the *nix world).
Actually, Windows (even XP) existed long before C#. Many facets of Windows is written in assembly, as is Linux. Much is written in C, as is Linux. Much is written in C++, as is Linux. Sounds like they have a lot in common, doesn't it? Not really. The base architecture is vastly different.
Name one please.
Having a partition that both OSes can see is optional (though a good idea). Anyone with a double digit IQ would NOT use FAT16.
I'm a huge Ubuntu fan as well, but there is nothing wrong with Fedora and several very strong points also. Ubuntu has a larger support community than RedHat? I'd like to see some figures to support that claim. Let him experiment with distros and let him decide which he likes. That last thing in the world this forum needs is yet another "which distro" thread.

I hope the person who started this thread doesn't get scared off by all the posts in this thread.

However, if your purchasing a second hard disk for your computer, make sure you purchase one with the correct interface (find out if your computer supports IDE or SATA hard disk).

The older IDE drives are slowly becoming harder to get. SATA is taking over !