[Wylug-help] Which Version of Linux?

[Dave Fisher]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 06:16:44PM +0100, david powell wrote:
> if you want to have the machine dual boot windows and linux , 
> install windows first ,partition the drive  allocating the required partition 
> space for it

Do _not_ partition any drive with an existing OS on it until you're
really confident about your understanding of low-level drive formatting.

Stick to your original plan of using a separate Linux hard drive.  

All the mainstream distro installers will allow you to choose which
drive to install Linux onto and will offer to install a bootloader for
you in a sensible default configuration.

The only vaguely 'tricky' decisions you have to make are:

  1. Which bootloader to install.
     
     Go for Grub.  It's more complex/powerful than LILO, but you don't
     need to know anything about the complexity. The installer will
     handle that for you with simple defaults.
     
  2. Which drive to install Grub on to.

     The simplest option is to install it into the Windows drive's
     Master Boot Record (MBR).  The distro installer should offer you sensible
     defaults, i.e. you boot directly into Grub and grub provides a menu
     where you can choose Windows or Linux.

     In the old days beginners preferred to put Grub on the secondary
     (Linux) drive, because they were scared of rendering the whole
     machine unbootable if they messed up the MBR on the primary
     (windows) drive.  
     
     There is very little risk of this happening with a good modern
     installer, it avoids all sorts of hassles with chaining Grub to the
     crappy Windows bootloader, and even if things do go wrong it is
     usually fairly straight forward to recover from. Just ask a mate or
     on this list.

Many people experiment with several distros before finally settling on
the one that suits their particular needs, but I would endorse Smylers's
view that beginners should choose the one that (level-headed and
helpful) mates use.

If you are on your own, I'd recommend Ubuntu (or Kubuntu, the KDE
desktop version).  

It provides a good balance between easy desktop installation (the
Ubuntu-specific bits) and easy long term adminstration with a large
package base (the underlying Debian bits).  

Do not be put off by the reputation that Debian has for being a scary
hackers' distro.  It's been a while since the reputation was fully
justified and any remaining rough edges are pretty well hidden beneath
the smooth surface of Ubuntu.

Dave