[Westwales] Linux with XP

[Dick Bain]

Pax wrote:

>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!)
>
>  
>
I would say that Mandriva is fine to run alongside XP, just make sure 
that you run defrag before trying to shrink XP partitions.
There are of course the live distros Knoppix, Mandriva  one, ubuntu 
etc., but if you are comfortable with Mandriva use that.
And as someone just posted you must have access to the XP cds and 
licences so you can always re-install yourself.
Dick