[ale] Setting up dual boot machine

[Robert Reese~]

> My wife is finally going to join the Linux world, but she wants to
> take baby steps, so I need to lean about
> setting up a dual-boot system onto her Windoze machine.  Anyone
> have pointers to a good tutorial?

I don't know of any good tutorials, but I do have a few pointers, though most if not all have already crossed your mind.

1: A *REAL* image backup of the drive.  A great software, though not free, is Acronis.  http://www.acronis.com/

2: Start Windows in SAFE MODE to defrag the computer.  Sure, it can be done in regular mode, but the job is very sloppy and incomplete.

3: If she's on a desktop, it is strongly recommended that you install a second harddrive for the Linux installation.  Having to rebuild either Windows or Linux will be much easier if the drives are separate.  There's many more reasons, so getting a cheap second harddrive will be more than worth the $$.

4: It may not be obvious, but installing Linux second is much better than if it is the first OS on the machine.  Windows doesn't play nicely during its install; M$ doesn't think anyone should, or would want to, have another operating system in the machine.

5: Consider VirtualBox or VMWare, Xen, or OpenVZ.  I am familiar with both VMWare Workstation and VirtualBox, and OpenVZ has some really big fans.  Xen seems okay, though I can't speak from experience on it, or even on OpenVZ.

FWIW, you might not even have to dual-boot if you use the virtualization route.  Or, alternately you can far more easily give her the ability to try different distros via Virtual Machines (VMs).  Heck, you can have several distros simultaneously!  My laptop has a second harddrive and dual-boots to Ubuntu.  On Ubuntu, I have VMWare Workstation and a half-dozen different distro VMs to play with. Forget Live CDs/DVDs... I'll install it in a VM and play with it as a real installation.  I also have a W98SE, a couple W2K, and a couple XP VMs.  Not bad for a 50G partition on the second harddrive!

On my father-in-law's new Dell, I installed Kubuntu 7.10 and VirtualBox.  Inside I simply installed XP and maximized the VM.  He doesn't even notice the Linux layer between the machine and XP.  He does, however, know that it takes me just a few minutes to backup his "computer" and when he downloads all those virii, spyware, trojans, etc. I can fix the computer in anywhere from a couple of minutes to about 30 minutes max.  So his machine is NOT dual-bootable as it only boots to Linux, but he has the same benefits of his required Windows-specific software working and he gets his "comfort" OS without my security software interfering too much with his pr0n sessions.  I get less stress and I don't have to hear him moan and complain for the week I have his computer rebuilding it every three months!

Best of luck,
Robert~