I both agree and disagree K7AAY (what is your name really? I feel weird
addressing you that way).

What are you solving for?  Because that really effects the choice of
solution.

Bryan makes a valid point in regard to having real time experience with real
hardware.  If your intent is to learn everything you can about running Linux
- a virtualized install isn't the way to go.

A good use of virtualization at that level is for instance testing Windows
client side applications agains nix server side apps on the same box.
Larger scale virtualization is to make 4 1U servers in a rack act as a dozen
virtual servers with a product like Xen.  Larger still..  Make a piece of
big iron like a Z series mainframe act like dozens or hundreds of servers
with Z/VM.  Point is virtualization has it's place dependent on what you're
solving for.

I'm still not a fan of multi-boot though - especially if what your solving
for is a crash course in Linux.  I've seen far too many people approach
Linux this way professing to want to *learn the OS*, but every time
something isn't Windows-intuitive to them or momentarily in their way..
Windows is only a reboot away and they bail.

IF (big if here) Learning Linux is the objective.  You have to first accept
as a given that Linux can do everything Windows can (and much of better than
Windows can) and make the switch.  Do a full Linux install and make a
commitment to hit those Not-the-way-Windows-does-it moments and prevail
(Google knows all - just ask it).  Otherwise you'll spend most of your time
in Windows with a chunk of your drive dedicated to an OS that doesn't often
see the light of day.

On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 6:01 AM, Bryan Smith <[email protected]> wrote:

>
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> Well K7AAY,
>
> I strongly encourage you to multi boot your system with as many
> OS's/distros that you can. Someone gave you a suggestion to run the
> distro in a VM. Running a system in a vm really cheats you out of
> serious interaction with the bootloader and using the Linux kernel with
> real-time performance. With VM's systems you'll really never know what
> modules or chipsets your devices use because the kernel sees virtual
> hardware. I don't know your intentions but you already have proficiency
> in Windows. If anything run Windows in a vm and learn to cope with
> Linux. It's cool to run a VM but not as cool as installing Linux on your
> box.
>
> You should create an extended partition with several logical partitions
> within it. Linux is not like Unix and other systems when it comes to
> booting from partitions. You can put that kernel ANYWHERE and it'll boot
> as long as the boot loader knows where to find it. Ff you had enough
> space you could actually make one Extended partition and have a bunch of
> logical ones inside it. Then you can put Linux on anyone of them. Here
> is my drive on my laptop
>
> Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
> ~ 1      32.3kB  10.7GB  10.7GB  primary   ntfs         boot
> ~ 2      10.7GB  17.2GB  6440MB  primary   ext2
> ~ 3      17.2GB  56.9GB  39.7GB  extended
> ~ 5      17.2GB  32.2GB  15.0GB  logical   reiserfs
> ~ 6      32.2GB  55.8GB  23.6GB  logical   reiserfs
> ~ 7      55.8GB  56.4GB  535MB   logical   linux-swap
> ~ 8      56.4GB  56.9GB  535MB   logical   linux-swap
> ~ 4      56.9GB  80.0GB  23.1GB  primary   reiserfs
>
> This drive has 3 separate Linux installs and each share a /home and load
> balanced swap space between 2 partitions(7,8). Partition 1 is XP,
> Partition 2 is Linux, 3 is the extended container that's 40 Gigs. 5 is
> Linux, Partition 6 is the shared /home. 7-8 are both swap and 4 changes
> from OpenBSD-FreeBSD-BeOS-RHEL 5, depending on how I feel.
>
> Unix(Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc) requires a primary partition to
> boot. Yet Linux can boot from logical partitions...how nice.
>
> There is no need to shrink your Windows partition in this case. Just use
> that unallocated space and make it a logical partition. The only issue
> might be the size of your home partition which I highly recommend you
> making separate. No swap means no suspend to disk so in light of that
> and the possibility of using logical partitions I'd make one that is
> 512MB at least. 7-8 Gigs for root and 2 gigs for home.
>
> Have fun
>
> Bryan
>
> K7AAY wrote:
> | 149GB hd from factory in my Lenovo SL400. Vista's Disk Management snap-
> | in shows this partitioning for Disk 0:
> |
> | Letter        Volume Size     Status
> | --    -----------      ------ -------------------------------------------
> | S:    SERVICE003      1004 MiB        Healthy (System, Active, Primary
> Partiion)
> | C:    SW_Preload       135 GiB        Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary
> Partition)
> |        unallocated     10 GiB  recovered from C: w/ Disk Mgt snap-in & by
> | shrinking Q: w/ EASUS Part. Mgr.
> | Q:    Lenovo             6 GiB        Healthy (Primary Partition)
> |
> |  It's my intent to install a Linux (eLive? Kubuntu? pcE17OS 2nd Ed.?
> | Dislike GNOME, fer sure) and I've been given to understand there's a
> | maximum of four (4) Primary Partitions on a hard drive, so how do I
> | overcome that? With extended partitions? Linux wants two partitions
> | (well, three, but since I have 2GB RAM, I think Linux will do OK sans
> | swap).
> |
> | Your on-topic responses are truly appreciated.
> | |
>
> - --
> A healthy diet includes Linux, Linux and more Linux.
>
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> >
>

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