Operating Systems

DarkMetal · Post by **DarkMetal** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:45 am

Hey guys,

Here lately, I've been exploring the possibilities of other operating systems. My computer life-span (the ammount of time I've owned and used a computer) is actually pretty short, about 2 years. So I decided to come here and ask a few questions from a curious beginner...

1.) Is it possible to have another operating system on a partition of a machine that has Windows on it?

2.) If so, what operating system would be most recommendable?

3.) If not, is it possible to install another operating system on a separate hard drive and select which operating system to boot upon startup?

Thanks for any help you guys give in advance.

-DM

ScottyGEE · Post by **ScottyGEE** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:55 am

You cannot have another OS on the same partition, however you can divide you existing hard drive into mulitple partitions. from there you are able to instal the OS of your choice...
I don't have too much experience with differnt OS's, but Mac OS X is good, XP and Vista are good and I hear Ubuntu coupled with Beryl are good...
But ultimatley, it all depends on what you want to do...In most cases, Windows is able to cover every base that other OS's have, albeit not to the highest quality and stuff...
Anyway, Acrosnis disk director suite is an excellent tool for managing such things, you just set the OS/Partition of your choice as the active primary partition anf away you go.

shadowkhas · Post by **shadowkhas** » Fri May 04, 2007 10:43 am

Gaming and nearly every program out there: Windows
If you don't care too much about some games (but you still have some like Halo, WoW, etc): OS X
No games but uber functionality and reliability: Linux

ExileLord · Post by **ExileLord** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:39 pm

shadowkhas wrote:Gaming and nearly every program out there: Windows
If you don't care too much about some games (but you still have some like Halo, WoW, etc): OS X
No games but uber functionality and reliability: Linux

Actually, I've heard that Wine has been developed to a point where many games are now playable at decent FPS.

DarkMetal · Post by **DarkMetal** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:42 pm

My plan was to create another partiton on my hard drive (I've got at least another 130gb on here) and putting a distribution of Linux on here. I also plan to keep XP, but use Microsoft's Virtual PC program to have Vista within XP (because I've had a bit of trouble with vista in the past...).

Any recommendations for which Linux dist. to get?

FleetAdmiralBacon · Post by **FleetAdmiralBacon** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:50 pm

I dual boot Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux 7.04 off of a single 120gb hard drive.

I can't offer much help in doing it, though, because mine took a while to set up.

[cc]z@nd! · Post by **[cc]z@nd!** » Fri May 04, 2007 2:23 pm

i don't do enough in linux as i should, but i do know a bit. essentially, linux can do anything, you just need to find out how to do it.

as for dual-booting, i'd personally just install another hard drive, install linux on that, then select which OS i want to boot up into in the BIOS, or maybe use a virtual PC.

FleetAdmiralBacon · Post by **FleetAdmiralBacon** » Fri May 04, 2007 2:39 pm

[cc]z@nd! wrote:i don't do enough in linux as i should, but i do know a bit. essentially, linux can do anything, you just need to find out how to do it.

as for dual-booting, i'd personally just install another hard drive, install linux on that, then select which OS i want to boot up into in the BIOS, or maybe use a virtual PC.

Partitioning a single hard drive is easier... Especially when you're on a laptop that only has one hard drive.

DkHawk · Post by **DkHawk** » Fri May 04, 2007 4:40 pm

Ubuntu is probably the best distrobution of Linux because it come with actically everything you need and lots more than you would probably get with the other OS's of Linux like SuSE.

Altimit01 · Post by **Altimit01** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:39 pm

Not only is ubuntu actually a decent release, it's also going to be bundled with dells.

Ar5eNiC · Post by **Ar5eNiC** » Sat May 05, 2007 2:55 pm

I've been using openSuSE for a couple years. It's a very good distro, but a week ago I decided to give Ubuntu Feisty Fawn a spin and I'm really impressed. It is hands down the most user friendly distro I've used. The install is very easy and only takes about 20-25 minutes. Ubuntu will definitely be the easiest transition from Windows to Linux.

shadowkhas · Post by **shadowkhas** » Sat May 05, 2007 8:58 pm

ExileLord wrote:Actually, I've heard that Wine has been developed to a point where many games are now playable at decent FPS.

Interesting. I haven't kept up with information in the OSS scene since I left OS X, but that sounds cool.

ScottyGEE · Post by **ScottyGEE** » Sat May 05, 2007 10:07 pm

edited out

G.I.R. · Post by **G.I.R.** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:28 am

I recently tried Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn and....I loved it. <_<
I'm usually a 'hardcore' Windows guy, and sorry shadowkhas, but those Mac commercials just...Completely turned me off that OS. Ubuntu is just...Really great though.

FleetAdmiralBacon · Post by **FleetAdmiralBacon** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:40 am

I'd love to know how I can get Halo to run through Wine, though.
That would make my day : )
Hmm... Ideer - I'm gonna see if I can run the Visual C# Express installer through Wine, that could get interesting... I'll need to download them on Windows though...
Writing Windows programs on Linux...

Oh, and yeah, Ubuntu Feisty ftw. Period.

Ubuntu Linux 7.04 + Beryl = Best OS ever.

Here are some things to read.

Dootuz · Post by **Dootuz** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:44 am

DarkMetal wrote:
1.) Is it possible to have another operating system on a partition of a machine that has Windows on it?

no you cant

UNLESS its like Windows 200 and XP. (thats what my freind said)

FleetAdmiralBacon · Post by **FleetAdmiralBacon** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:49 am

Yes, you repartition it.
It's part of the Ubuntu installer (and most distro installers), and it's really easy if you actually read the instructions.
I'm currently running on four partitions (did you know that Windows Vista has it's own boot partition? w.t.f):
+ Windows boot partition
+ Windows Vista partition (Codename 'acer', my lappy manufacturer)
+ Linux Partition (Running Ubuntu)
+ Linux Swap (which I need to make a lot smaller... I added an extra 0 when sizing it... oops)

Most, if not all, Linux distros come with a bootloader. Ubuntu comes with Grub, which is fairly simple, just a standard b/w menu with "Ubuntu (vers#)", "Ubuntu (vers#) safe mode", "Windows 95,98,ME,XP" and "Windows Vista (longhorn)"
I've had no problems with dual-booting. Ubuntu came with all my required drivers except my SD card, but that's because SD card manufacturers are evil. (And SD card readers have been the hardest thing for Linux-ers to crack)

Great quote:
"The real reason that linux is better is not the money it will save, not the ease of use or the fancy eye candy [...] It is the pedigree and foundation on which it is built."

Edited for grammar

G.I.R. · Post by **G.I.R.** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:22 am

So is Wine some sort of Windows emulator for Linux? If so, sweet; I may end up installing Ubuntu on my other PC then.

[cc]z@nd! · Post by **[cc]z@nd!** » Sun May 06, 2007 2:15 pm

G.I.R. wrote:So is Wine some sort of Windows emulator for Linux? If so, sweet; I may end up installing Ubuntu on my other PC then.

kinda sorta. basically, it allows you to play windows games on linux, although games are still better in their natural habitat imo.

gmp_gmp · Post by **gmp_gmp** » Tue May 15, 2007 8:03 pm

GMP is here. GMP Speaks. Wine Is Not an Emulator

*fades back into his linuxy shadowplace*

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