I want to give linux a try but cant figure out how to duel boot with windows 7 with it on a completely separate hard drive hard drive.
I have been trying to get fedora to duel boot. when I boot the computer it says grub with error I tried easybcd that didnt help. So I formatted the drive and installed Ubuntu it dueled booted just fine so I figured since that installed fine I will try installing fedora with the replacing option during the install.
Well low and behold it gave me the same error.
mind you I have been trying to figure this out for the last three days.
So now my Question now that you have an idea where I am coming from.

what is the best linux out there (if fedora how do I duel boot it with windows?)
how do you install programs on it from my research there are three different file extensions for programs.
Do I need a certain extension for a specific distro?
Thank you!

If you can install Ubuntu, it seems to me, that you should keep Ubuntu & install virtual-box to learn more about fedora installation, you can practice setting it up & then installing or you can keep it or any other os in it without having failed boot issues.

For dual booting i suggest to visit http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dua...stepbystep.htm link you can view screenshots of installation procedure.
Fedora OpenSUSE Ubuntu Slackware Mandriva Mandrake are awesome OS distos in linux .you want to install other softwares in OS you have to download software packages from their website.and file extension willbe *.deb or *.rpm. if you want to install windows applications like photoshop,MSoffice you have to install WINE software package from www.winehq.com .

As I can't really figure out from your description why this should be happening, I'm going to have to ask for more information.

Firstly, dual booting should just work (TM) with the major distros and an installed copy of Windows. My guess is that you are being asked a question and misunderstanding what you are being asked for, and things are going wrong from there.

So, am I right in thinking that everything about Ubuntu was fine, except that it was Ubuntu and you wanted something else? Or, am I missing something that didn't work? If so, what exactly happened that you didn't like?

Any chance of saying exactly what that error was?

Sorry, but no clear answer. Every Linux distro out there suits somebody or another, or some use case or another. I don't know which one suits you, but try a few Live CDs to get an idea of which it might be.

I am afraid that you are overcomplicating things; Linux distros (largely) have application installers; use the app installer, click on what you want and its installed. Not hard. It will automagically deal with getting the right version for your distro. It will automagically ensure that you get your software from an approved source. It will automagically ensure that you don't have to worrry about file extensions.

There are probably command line options for the distro that you select, but you don't want to start there, unless you want to show off, or do something to several programs at once.

OK, I don't like Fedora (historical reasons), but some people do. Probably the most frequently used 'starter' distro is Ubuntu and there is nothing terribly wrong with it, but you might also look at Mint or Simply Mepis, as 'quite like Ubuntu, but with a somewhat different slant' distros.

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Can I ask if this is a desktop system with an added internal drive or is it an external USB one? I believe (and I may well be wrong) that when a system is installed on an external USB drive that the Grub boot loader is placed on this drive but the "main" internal drive has its MBR modified to point at Grub on the second drive. If some other USB thing is plugged in before the second disk, the allocated USB IDs would be different from those during the install and so the boot would fail with Grub saying something like "No bootable OS."

That's my which may be totaly irrelavant but Hey...!

Play Bonny!