Hi. I have an HP Pavillion Ellite m9490d installed with Windows Vista. I'd like to parallel install linux. Which distro will be best?

Welcome to LQ!!! How much ram do you have? Everyone will have a different favorite. See http://distrowatch.com. Try VBoxZorin

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What are your requirements?

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If that is the only requirement, almost but not quite ANY of them. Most desktop and server versions of Linux coexist nicely with Vista in a multi boot configuration. I think we may be able to make some suggestions, if we have a little more information.

Just be aware that you are installing a multi-boot loader (generally GRUB) to the boot sectors of your boot device, and cannot back out withoout removing or overwriting them. If you plan to back out, make sure you use a utility to make a backup of those sectors first. If you never plan to look back, you can skip that backup step. Recovery to pure windows without that backup may require your Windows install or recovery media.

A better question might have been "what is the best distribution for X when dual booting with VISTA?", where X is the main thing you want to do with your machine. Lets see if we can make progress with that. What will you USE Linux for? You want a distribution of Linux that will pretty much work for what you want upon install. We cannot recommend on that basis until you let us know what your usage case will be.

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Hi !!!, jsbjsb001 & wpeckham.


Thank you very much for all your replies.

Apologies for the lack of details in my initial inquiry. Here are the details of the the PC: Model: HP Pavillion Ellite m9490d, Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz, RAM: 2pc x 2.00 GB.

My intention is to use the system for Android app development and if possible for Labview 14 as well.

Thanks again.

Core 2 Quad with 4GB of RAM? It will easily run any linux distribution. However, I would recommend you use the lightweight XFCE4 desktop environment to conserve RAM, since you want to do Android development. Assuming you want to set up and Android VM for testing, a good chunk of RAM is going to be devoted to that VM. (Fortunately, you have four CPU cores so that side of things won't be too bad.)

My personal preference would be Debian with XFCE4 desktop environment. That's what I'm familiar with, and I like it because it doesn't take up much RAM. For your purposes, I feel that a RAM upgrade to at least 6GB and an SSD (if you don't already have one) would make a big difference.

Assuming you want to run an Android VM, 4GB is what I'd consider..."adequate". It'll work, but you'll be juggling resources to make it happen. I'd be more comfortable with 8GB of RAM.

I don't know what sort of resources Labview 14 needs or works well with. But generally, software development tends to involve tons of little bitty files, which means that the seek times of spinning hard drives are a real drag on performance. I'll bet that an SSD would make a big difference.

Basically any distro will work happily on that machine, but if you are going to be developing, I would suggest having at least an equal amount of swap to ram, otherwise, just choose your distro.

Might consider trying a free virtual machine to start.

Be sure you have a full disaster backup method and know how to use it. New users trying dual boot have been known to make mistakes. (Like all of us did)

I second the vote for Debian. I prefer it for development myself.

Hello again.

Thanks for all your replies.
I will go for Debian.
This is a very supportive and active community.
Appreciate the help.

You should mention something about your motherboard and what type of memory it uses. Does it use DDR3 memory or older DDR2 ? Socket LGA775 boards can be either older DDR2 or newer DDR3. Does it have four memory slots ?

As others have said the processor should be fine however you could use more RAM.

With only 4GB RAM might not be a good idea. People are recommending more RAM even with single booting Linux. If the OP will be running an Android VM you are suggesting they run an Android VM inside a Linux VM with only 4GB RAM.

MINT

https://linuxmint.com/

or MINT DEBIAN

https://linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

Do bear in mind, if you need to shrink your Vista partition in order to create space for Linux that, unlike XP (which was quite happy having partition size reduced), Vista is extremely touchy about having the reported size of its partition altered in any way, shape or form.....and may refuse to boot at all afterwards.

It would be preferable to run a Linux distro from a separate drive, if at all possible. Disc drives are pretty cheap.

I never understand this obsession with having huge amounts of RAM. I run multiple versions of Puppy Linux on an elderly Compaq desktop; only 3 GB of DDR1 RAM, and I never have problems with running out of space....

Whoa, whoa, whoa; hold it.....RIGHT there. The long-term attraction of Linux has always been that it can keep older hardware useful, which can't keep up with the requirements of Windows. And you're seriously expecting us to believe that even Linux now requires high-spec hardware?

Never heard such nonsense.....


Mike.

You do understand that you are using Puppy linux, essentially a toy Linux implied by its own name ? Most Linux users use standard distributions with standard features. The OP wants to do software development and therefore needs a real distribution that could run an Android VM.

Most Linux users don't need something that runs on 15 year old desktops or feel a need to live in the past. By the way 8 GB is not huge in 2017 as it is only $60-70. A 4 GB expansion ( 2X2GB ) would be only $35.

I get really fed-up with constantly explaining my personal preferences to folk, but.....here we go. Again.

Puppy is as capable of running any Linux software you care to name as any other distro, due to the fact that our developers put the effort in to minimise software 'bloat'. And whether you believe that or not is of absolutely no interest whatsoever to me. The Woof-CE development crew would run rings around the devs for most major distros; I know this for a fact, because I've seen just what they're capable of. I've developed software for Puppy myself for some time now, so I know what goes into it.....and the tools that are available work beautifully, because they're written to work with Pup's unique way of doing things.

And Pup is as capable of running on ultra-modern, top-end hardware as any other....it screams on equipment which most others 'chug along' with. Personally, I've found my 'distro of choice'; I have no need to look any further.

If you run Windoze, you have to look for the highest-spec software possible just to get it work at an acceptable level.....especially given that Windoze is designed to gobble-up and commandeer every resource available to it.

If you run Linux, the whole point is that you seek out a 'sympathetic' distro that will maximise the potential of your existing hardware. Or at least, it used to be.....

And running elderly hardware is hardly 'living in the past'. More a case of not wanting to clog up the world's landfills with perfectly functional equipment.....besides which, some of us like to see what such 'vintage' equipment (by your definition) is still capable of (and don't feel a need to rush out and buy the latest wonder-gadget the instant it hits the market). And older gear is just built better.....much of it before built-in obsolescence became such a feature of modern life.

I've got better things to spend my income on.....like bills, keeping a roof over my head, and boring stuff like that. I don't have endless amounts of disposable income.....unfortunately! So it's a case of maximising the potential of what I do have.


Mike.

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