I have a windows xp desktop, and I was wondering how to put linux on it, and if I could chang back to my xp?

Question

This is a shared computer, me and my parents. I was wondering if I could put linux on it, and change back to xp if needed, and if ALL of my software will work on it. Also how does virtual box work. I found a "You Tube" video, and was wondering if I would need anything extra to do this with my computer, like install linux (is an xp now), and use this feature, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzyHoRklWLE. We have Bluetooth
Yahoo Messenger (The newest)
Kodak Easyshare
Avvenu
Palm Desktop
Active Sync
Mcafee
Google Desktop
Adobe Acrobat Reader (the newest)
Corel Paintshop Pro X
Corel Painter IX
Corel Photo Album
Microsoft Powerpoint, Word, Exel 2003 (We bought this for 200).
How does our doccuments work (as in can i install linux without loosing anything), and how compatible is linux with other computers?

Answer 1

you can do it if u have a drive which u can delete.

just go for installation of linux. select the drive that u want to delete ( except the root drive of ur windows , generally C: which is shown as the first option //hda/....like that)

continue creating the ext3 partion and swap partion....select grub as boot loader...select the OS that you like to be your default boot option and continue with installation and finish..enjoy dual booting.

now when u want to remove Linux,,,,just boot to recovery console of XP and use fixboot command....linux boot option will vanish..use disk management in Xp to recover the disk space.

hope this helps u
do it if you have some idea about windows installation else this may corrupt ur windows...take help for a friend who knows
if u happen to corrupt ur windows then just goto reco console and use fixboot
rgds
bhaskar

Answer 2

I use a Mac and I think it is great. Key things to note about the Mac: It is a steep learning curve coming from a windows based machine. It is a little bit more expensive than your windows machine. The programs you list will not work natively on the mac. The Mac does allow you to install windows on it as well, so you can run the windows applications. There is a version of microsoft office (word, excel etc...) for the Mac. Good tip: I would recommend going into your local apple store and having a look at a 21" iMac or a 15" MacBook pro (later is a laptop, former a desktop). I don't know a lot about Linux. I love my Mac (some would say a little too much) and I would recommend it to anyone. Have you thought about upgrading your pc hardware tona faster machine and boosting the operating system to windows 7? Might be a little more cost effective. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

you have several options, you mentioned a virtual box, this runs an operating system within another operating system there is a programme which is free that will do this, go to this site and download the windows version, you'll have to register but it's no problem:

http://www.vmware.com/download/player/

once you've installed the player you have to download the virtual appliences you want to run, they're on this page:

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/cat/48,45,25

This isn't a bad way to try linux but not as good as a proper installation.

The next option is to us a live CD which is a linux distro that runs directly from your CD drive and doesn't affect your computer at all. Use a distro like Knoppix get it from:

http://www.knoppix.org/
with a live CD you put the CD in the drive & reboot making sure the computer boots from the CD first, you may need to alter the bios to do this, or try pressing F12 as the machine boots up, you will then have linux running from your CD drive. There are quite often live CDs given away with computer mags. When you've finished just shutdown and remove the CD and the computer will boot into XP next time. This also isn't a bad way to run linux but again not as good as a proper install.

The next option would be to get an extra hard drive installed and dual boot with XP & linux, this would be a proper installation and would run linux as it should be, the downside to this is the cost of the drive and you would also install a boot loader which is a small programme that installs on the MBR and flashes up on boot to give the option of booting into windows or linux, the advantage of this method is that if you install linux on the new hard drive it won't affect the drive with XP on it, other than to install the boot loader, use a linux distro like opensuse for this:

http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org

again this is free & comes with about 1800 free programmes, also download the addon CD to get the closed source programmes like the linux version of Adobe reader. To install linux put the CD in the drive & reboot as with a live distro an choose install, it will go pretty much automatically with a few questions you must answer, and it will give you the option to install on the new hard drive.

With dual booting a machine in this way you will have access from your linux drive to all the files etc that are on your Windows drive (though not the linux files from windows).

The last option is to dual boot using the drive which is in your computer, this would put windows & linux on the same drive in different partitions, again this is a proper install if you use opensuse for this it will do as the above install except it will partition your drive for you & install on this partition, you will be able to access your files from windows as before & it shouldn't damage your XP installation although it will take some of your hard drive space.

As for the programmes you asked about, very few Windows programmes will run natively on linux unless they are written in java, although there is a programme called wine which will enable you to install some windows programmes office 2003 will but not as well as office XP, paintshop pro 7 will also install. Go to this site for more info on wine: http://www.winehq.com/

Linux has a full set of programmes which will do the same as windows programmes open office will read and edit all your Microsoft docs. you won't need to defrag linux or use antivirus.Adobe reader is available as a linux version.

Email me if you want any more info and check with your parents about any install.

Linux is well worth using, but remember it's different from windows. I think it's better & use it all the time. It will take a while to learn how to use linux but it's worth the effort. make sure you do some research.

Answer 4

Honestly, you'd be better off just leaving Windows on it just like it is.

If you want to explore and play with Linux, get a drive tray and another drive. Swap it out to do your experimentation. That way you can load different Linuxes, Vista, etc., then blow them away and try something new without affecting your primary system.

I do this and it works very well.

To answer your other question: no, the programs are different in the Linux world.

Answer 5

if you just want to play with linux then go and get a knoppix cd its a complete graphics user interface that boots completely from the cd, never writes to your hard dis and looks just like windows (almoast) the disk is free and you can even surf the net with it.. might be worth a try before you go the whole hog