can you have more than one operating system on a computer?

Question

I have seen lunix and I was wondering if I could put it on my computer without disturbing XP

Answer 1

Yes, its possible.

If you have two separate partitions. If you have two hard drives and you do separate partitions for each one, then you can have two O.S on one machine.

1. Operating System (OS): It is the software that lets you control and use your computer. Windows, UNIX, Linux, OS/2 are all OSs, while Winamp, Netscape Navigator and all others are mere programs that run on the OS.
2. The hard disk (or hard drive): It is the part of your computer which stores your program, data and other files permanently, i.e., the contents of the hard drive will not get erased when the power is turned off, but you can add or remove data from the hard drive using your OS.
3. Disk formatting: To read/write the information on a hard disk, the disk should be organized into identifiable parts so that the computer would know where to look or write. The basic form of this organization is formatting. Hard disks must be formatted in 2 ways: (i) Physical formatting, which is done by the manufacturer. (ii) Logical formatting, which should be done after the physical formatting. Logical formatting creates a file system on the disk. Different OSs require different file systems and hence different types of logical formatting.
4. File system: The file system is an arrangement for managing data. Different OSs use and recognize different file systems. DOS uses FAT file system, while Windows 98 uses FAT32. Windows 2000 use NTFS system. Linux uses ext2 or ext3 and swap file systems. Windows XP can recognize FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems while Linux can recognize all these and also its own file systems. Newer versions of Linux support many more file systems.
5. Partitions: A partition is a separate physical section of the hard disk. It is created after the physical formatting and before the logical formatting. If your hard disk has more than one partition (which is usually true), each partition functions as an individual unit, and can be logically formatted with any desired file system. So you can have more than one file system on your hard disk, which means you can have more than one OS. But there are certain restrictions.

There are 3 types of partitions: Primary, Extended and Logical. A primary partition is a main disk division. Most OSs can be installed and booted from only primary partitions. One hard disk may contain up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition. At a time only one primary partition may be visible and active, all others are hidden. An extended partition cannot hold any data by itself but you can further physically divide the disk space in it by creating an unlimited number of logical partitions, each with a different file system. The extended partition is meant to overcome the 4 partition limit. Logical partitions and are meant to contain only data files and OSs that can be booted from a logical partition such as Linux and Windows XP.

If you already have Windows installed, it is almost certainly on a primary partition. Also, most home PCs have just one primary partition. I recommend that you install Linux on a logical partition.

Now, all you have to do before installing Linux is to create additional partitions that can hold Linux. The idea of this article is to help you in doing just that (Without damaging Windows).Of course, we are presuming that Linux can actually run on your hardware and that you have already verified this with the hardware compatibility list of the Linux distribution. Also, you must be familiar with the setup process before beginning.

Answer 2

You can but if your XP install takes up the entire hard drive then you would have to add another if you don't already have two. Also, installing Linux in a dual boot is tricky depending on the distro you plan to use. Almost all distros will install either Lilo or Grub loader on your primadr hard drive's MBR overwriting the one currently there. This is all right unless you decide to get rid of the linux install at a later time as you cannot simply delete the MBR.

Good luck. Any questions, aske here or email me and i will help you if i can

Answer 3

Actually you can even have multiple OSs on one partition... (but it doesn't work with MOST OSs :p) What you really need is a bootloader.

If you want to experiment with linux (not lunix ;) ) I'ld like to recommend you Knoppix. It's linux that you can put on a disc and boot without even installing it! ;-) I use it a lot to rescue pcs that can't boot anymore (or have that strange virus windows xp or something on them ;) )

If you like it and want it to work faster, you could install Fedora or Ubuntu (google for them) to your hard drive. Those are quite easy to install (easier than windows xp) and to work with. Or you could make it hard to yourself and find out how linux really works by installing Debian or Gentoo. (I learned a lot about linux just by installing gentoo... took me a couple of weeks though :p -- on the other hand, there are very good manuals and good fora to ask questions about gentoo, so you'll never run out of answers!)

Answer 4

yes,but with more skill