[Westwales] Linux with XP

[Pax]

Hi

I've just got a job teaching IT at an English Language College in Bournemouth.
The machines all run XP and are badly infected with ad-ware etc. I've got full
admin privileges and would like to dual boot with Linux because all the compilers
are free, and I know what I'm doing with Linux, and I really can't cope with
Windows. However, I don't want to try installing Linux and then mash the machines
and have to go to the SysAdmin (outsourced) and ask him, redfaced, to re-install XP
on the machines I've graunched. Soooooo, on a scale of 1 to ohshitohshitohshit! How
safe is it to install, frinstance, Mandriva, with XP? Answers before eight O'clock
to-morrow morning would be nice (I live on the edge!)

Love and Peace

Bernard Pack