OT: Linux

Thilock_Dominus · #1 July 23rd, 2004, 06:39 PM

Oh...I have a question: My harddisc (80gb) is splitted into 3 partitions all in NFTS format. Do I have to erease them before installing Linux?

Another question: Should Linux have to be install before or after XP for dual boot?

best regards
Thilock

Taqwus · #2 July 23rd, 2004, 07:22 PM

Last I checked, Linux could read NTFS partitions pretty well, but writing might still have been considered unstable. Haven't checked for a long time.

Generally speaking, it's fine to keep existing partitions -- although having one partition free would be a rather good idea; while you can install at least some Versions of Linux into a FAT32 filesystem, for instance, it's not too advisable. Better to keep it separate. A swap partition is also a good idea. If they take up your entire drive currently, you may want to look into partition-resizing software and whether a given distribution comes with any.
The usual bootloaders available (lilo, grub, others) are pretty good at letting you select which OS you want to boot from at start.

Esben Mose Hansen · #3 July 23rd, 2004, 08:33 PM

What I did back then was buy a new harddisk for linux... Easy but costly.

If you install XP Last you need to reactivate the boot sector, as XP can't even let a boot sector alone :-/ Otherwise there is not difference.

If you're willing to delete the entire harddisk, you could simply split it into partitions.

Will · #4 July 23rd, 2004, 08:37 PM

You could also grab a Knoppix CD to test drive a Linux environment, so you get a better feel for it before diving right in.

Sheap · #5 July 23rd, 2004, 09:51 PM

Linux can't really write Version 5 NTFS partitions (as used by XP). And it can't handle XP's "dynamic disks" at all. But it can still read NTFS pretty well.

Since you have three partitions on your drive already, you might be well off just converting one of those partitions to Linux. Or, you can get a whole other hard drive to run Linux on. Or run it on another computer, if you've got space and an old computer lying around.

Cainehill · #6 July 23rd, 2004, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Will:
You could also grab a Knoppix CD to test drive a Linux environment, so you get a better feel for it before diving right in.

Except that Knoppix is likely to leave a real nasty impression of Linux, regardless of whether you're more a Windows or Unix person. I tried Knoppix and despised it, and I've been programming msdos/windows since about 84 and Unix since 90.

Knoppix : A bad desktop, a bad shell, and making even a fairly fast (Athlon 2600+ with 512 megs on an nForce2 mb) computer feel slow.

Ewww. The _only_ thing Knoppix does is let you avoid losing a partition (or entire drive, if things go bad) while installing a proper Linux.

SalsaDoom · #7 July 23rd, 2004, 10:42 PM

Slackware Linux 10.

Slackware is fast, stable and secure. Its got a great selection of apps on the cd, your choice of gnome or kde.. no linux distrobution is as fast or stable as Slackware. Gentoo's reckless use of optimizations and poorly tested ebuilds makes it unstable. Red's unsecure, bloated... SuSE is .. commerical, and the free Versions are incomplete. Debian is ugly, crufty and messy. I've been using linux since '94, and I learned on slackware and its the best thing, because Slackware doesn't hide the OS from the user with a bunch of (usually unstable) GUI tools. When you learn slackware you can say you've learned linux, with redhat or suse your just learning redhat or suse.

Course, all of the above is just my opinion

--SD