[7 Dying Trees]

Well, as of some point this week and next there'll be a day of cursing and swearing as I piece together a new PC, which'll be fun as it is probably the nicest PC i'll ever have had.

Also, thanks to being a lowlife student I have access to whatever Microsoft OS I want from their free agreement with my university, which is a bonus

Hence it is my job to do something really really stupid to it, and hence I want to make it run several operating systems. I'd ideally like to switch between the following:

- Windoze2000 for my music stuff (I have an ancient sound card that doesn't like XP or 98, shit drivers)

- XP

- XP 64bit

- Linux

possibly Windows server2003

why?

well, I want to play arounfd with all of them, and be able to remove them as and when i wish, while still being able to always have win2000 on there so i can make music noone wants to hear

So, any ideas on partition programs, or anything else like that?

[noodles]

For Linux, use Suse 9.3 or later (10 just came out). It has an excellent multi-OS boot loader.

Remember, slice your Windows partition out of the disk and install Windows first. Linux will know how to play nice with the neighbors. Windows, however, does not, and if you install in after anything, it will completely stomp all over the boot sector with it's own stuff, leaving your other OS(es) unable to boot.

[giannifive]

For Linux I strongly recommend Gentoo. It's not for everyone, but if you're into tinkering and learning how the OS works you will get one of the most stable, streamlined distributions out there. And it also comes with a ton of packages to boot! I've been a Gentoo convert for over 2 years now, and a Linux convert for 6.

[giannifive]

Originally Posted by noodles

For Linux, use Suse 9.3 or later (10 just came out). It has an excellent multi-OS boot loader.

Doesn't it use GRUB like every other distro?

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by giannifive

For Linux I strongly recommend Gentoo. It's not for everyone, but if you're into tinkering and learning how the OS works you will get one of the most stable, streamlined distributions out there. And it also comes with a ton of packages to boot! I've been a Gentoo convert for over 2 years now, and a Linux convert for 6.

With all due respect, recommending Gentoo to a linux newbie is a really bad idea. It's notorious for being the most complicated distro out there. I doubt he wants to compile everything right off of the bat.

I'd recommend Fedora Core 4, or Ubuntu. SuSe's automated Yast crap sucks, and it doesn't write to the config files like everyone does.

[giannifive]

Originally Posted by Polaris20

With all due respect, recommending Gentoo to a linux newbie is a really bad idea. It's notorious for being the most complicated distro out there. I doubt he wants to compile everything right off of the bat.

I'm guessing you've never tried it? The installation is lengthy, not complicated. And daily maintenance/use is actually simpler and more streamlined than other distros.

I now see in his post where he says he "wants to play around" with the different OSs. I didn't catch that before. If he is, in fact, a Linux newbie then Fedora Core might be a better option, as you say.

[7 Dying Trees]

Well, last time I used Unix seriously was at university, some 6 years ago or so, so it's not an alien world (well, not entirely), but still I'd be practically a beginner again.

As far as the linux goes, I'd like something that isn't too hard to set up, but will allow me to really play around with it once I get used to it.

Is it possible to install a different linux version over one you have (a different distribution) or would that require reformatting?

Also, what's driver support like, and can hardware be disabled or enabled according to what you want running, as most likely I'd like to be able to switch between the two soundcards (onboard and the one I use for recording)?

[giannifive]

Originally Posted by 7 Dying Trees

As far as the linux goes, I'd like something that isn't too hard to set up, but will allow me to really play around with it once I get used to it.

Is it possible to install a different linux version over one you have (a different distribution) or would that require reformatting?

Also, what's driver support like, and can hardware be disabled or enabled according to what you want running, as most likely I'd like to be able to switch between the two soundcards (onboard and the one I use for recording)?

You'll probably want to use something that's easier to install then, like Fedora Core. You generally can't mix distributions, since each has a different package manager and conventions for location of config files, log files, etc. But what you can do is install different distributions of Linux in different partitions. Driver support in Linux is never guaranteed. In fact, usually you make the hardware choice based on the existence of Linux drivers. This is not so much an issue for sound cards, which have decent general support, but can be an issue for video cards if you want 3D acceleration. Since you already have the hardware I would just install and see what happens. Multiple sound cards work with the two main sound systems in Linux (OSS and ALSA), but may require some hand-configuration for your setup.

You may want to also look into Knoppix, which is a bootable CD containing a live Linux OS. In other words, you can run Linux from the CD without installing on your hard drive.

[Digital Black]

Partition magic always work well for me-quick and easy.

[Digital Black]

Originally Posted by 7 Dying Trees

Well, last time I used Unix seriously was at university, some 6 years ago or so, so it's not an alien world (well, not entirely), but still I'd be practically a beginner again.

As far as the linux goes, I'd like something that isn't too hard to set up, but will allow me to really play around with it once I get used to it.

Is it possible to install a different linux version over one you have (a different distribution) or would that require reformatting?

Also, what's driver support like, and can hardware be disabled or enabled according to what you want running, as most likely I'd like to be able to switch between the two soundcards (onboard and the one I use for recording)?

Xanadros OS. Full driver support. Super simple. Multi os boot. Looks and feels a lot like windows so the transistion is easy. Only wireless cards and adapters need some tweaking with this.