Derek Jennings wrote:
On Sunday 21 Sep 2003 12:43 pm, Lance Cummings wrote:
I am going to give Mandrake 9.1 a look, coming from the MS world.
Until I get real comfortable with the idea the Linux can work for me, XP will remain the primary OS on the box, so we start by needing to work around that a little bit.
I have about 35 GB at the back of a 160 GB Seagate ATA100 that I'm going to use to see how this goes. The space is an extended partition right now; there are already three primaries in front of it.
My plan would be to put the entire works in logical drives inside the extended, with a boot floppy for starting Linux. (I'd like to keep the loader off the MBR for now, since I have critical stuff on the MS primaries, and I really hesitate to put anything between me and a straight XP boot, at least until I'm very sure that it won't interfere with me getting into Windows when I need to. Maybe somebody can convince me otherwise; I'm a pretty reasonable guy.) ^_^
I'd like suggestions on how to partition this 35 gig space for the Linux file system, and which particular file system to use. I have a gigabyte of RAM, and until I become very convinced that I want to make this migration, I would not be using the Linux side for anything extremely intensive (no video editing, for example).
Appreciate any and all input in advance.
Lance
Well done on deciding to give Linux a try. I hope like me you will find it is *way* better than Windows. There is a steep learning curve though so do not be surprised to find 'we do do things differently'
You have masses of space for your Linux partitions. It does not really matter how you partition it up. Just make sure you have a separate /home partition. That is where your user data goes. So if you ever reinstall you can preserve it. The Mandrake installer will suggest partiton sizes for you. You might as well just stick with that.
If you want to share data with Windows be aware that although Linux can read an NTFS partition it cannot (yet) write to one reliably. So you might want a FAT32 partition for common data.
The default file system is Ext3 other choices are Reiserfs, XFS, and JFS, but to be honest as a newbie you will not notice the difference between any of them so leave as default.
The default Linux kernel will not address 1GB of RAM you will only use 700 odd MB. There is an 'Enterprise' kernel on the CD which will address the 1GB, but the extra instructions needed to use the high memory actually makes it run slower than the standard kernel. So I would not worry about it. Linux will run much faster than Windows even with less memory.
It is actually quite safe to let Linux overwrite your MBR You would get a nice graphical screen to select which OS you want to run. Most of us here do that. But if you would rather boot from floppy thats your choice. It all works ;-)
Have fun.
When you install you will notice you do not have to fiddle around for driver CDs. You do not have to reboot all the time, and you will end up with a system with Hundreds of great apps instead of just minesweeper and solitaire.
After you are installed. You do not need to defrag discs. You do not need anti virus protection, you will not get pop ups in your browsers, and the OS will not crash. Whats not to like? :-)
derek
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
I must wholeheartedly agree with Derek.;-)
I have dual and triple booted all versions of windows including xp with linux without any problems, and I always use the linux boot loader. ( it is easier and faster than a floppy too ) I use Mandrake 9.1 in a production environment at work everyday ( an information management firm where everything is critical ) and run excel and word 2000 everyday IN LINUX!!! . I used to boot into the windows partition at work occasionally, ( win 2000 pro on an nt network ) but I found it much faster and more stable to just stay in Linux. I setup the work box to run a fat32 partition and can share files freely. I log on to the windows network and even store some of my files on our windows server. I only keep the windows partition now for the IT guy.
fear of the unknown isn't unusual, however though unknown to you, what you want to do is not unknown by any means. its' safe and well worth the effort.
--
Mike McNeese Springdale, Arkansas USA
======================================================
Dual booting 98lite;MDK 9.1 stock kernel Kde 3.1 Registered Linux User #248955 liquid/acqua Theme ======================================================
"If obstacles are what you see in your path...
Then you have lost sight of your goal! "Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
