Im using windows XP but want to set up a partition for Linux. Is "partition magic" software the easiest way of doing this?
I have a 160G HDD with 1024 RAM.

Ill be using primarily Linux but still want to keep windows. Any tips? Is there anything I should watch out for>memory allocation for instance?

Oh yes! where can i download linux from?
Thanks in advance,
meniscus

I have a dual boot system as well. When I installled Windows, I left a space open for Linuux. Since yours is alreay formatted, I would say that it would be good to partition it with whatever is good for you. Then, reboot with the Linux CD in and let it do it's own formatting on the partition. You can mount the other partition with Windows in it during this install, so you probably want to do that.

I have been told that it is best to leave the Windows bootloader alone and use the Linux one. I think once you install Linux and ID the Windows partition, it will let you decide which OS to boot to and such. That is probably what you want to do. It depends on your flavor of Linux as to how to go about setting this up. As far as where to get the distros, I don't know. A friend gave me his Madriva CDs and I went from there. I do not have much experience with Linux, so if someone says somethign contradictory, believe them. Best of luck

PM works well (if you already have a copy)
1) first defrag the existing partition
2) then shrink it, but leave adequate free space (go figure)
3) reboot (this writes the new partition map)
4) add the Linux partition, usually ext3
5) reboot (this rewrites the new partition map)
6) now you're ready to boot the Linix CD of your choice and install

pay attention to the typical restriction that the Linux Boot must be at or
below cylinder 1024. some boot loaders require this, and a few have gotten around it.

this means that the Linux partition will likely be placed BEFORE the existing
Windows. PM can move it before you perform (3) above

What Linux are you going to install?

I'm pretty sure that anything released after 2002 will boot just fine from anywhere on the hard disk. The 1024 cylinder limit is ancient history.

Also, Linux releases from the last few years can resize Windows partitions. Just pop in your Linux CD, boot from it and follow instructions instead of introducing another point of failure in the form of a separate partition manager.

Sorry i dont know! Ive never used linux before>I thought you could maybe download it from somewhere! Whats the best type to use?

OK.. We assumned you had done a little bit of research beforehand.

Yes, yhere are many version of Linux, most of them can be downloaded for free.

What you could try first, is Knoppix - a Linux distribution that runs entirely from a CD. Your hard drive will not be altered in any way. It is a bit slow, but gives you a pretty good idea what Linux looks like and how it operates. If you like it, then you may consider some distro that installs on the hard drive.

Download and burn an ISO image from http://www.knoppix.org (hint for the visionally impaired: click the little US/UK flag to get the English page)

Iv actually dabbled with it I was younger. It had already been setup on the machine i was using though. Ive read stuff on since.

Is there any advantage/disadvantage of using Redhat/Fedora over say others like Xandros or Kubuntu>functionality for instance? I want to be able to download and use the free packages Lm_sensor package, RDDTool, Collectd and RDDGraphing Front-end. Do all linux types support these? and all free source codes in general?

There is not much difference between the top distributions (bar the amount of rabid fans). And most of the differences can be levelled with some work.

Fedora is very buggy in my experience. It may work wonderfully for you or it may give you a lot of grief.

Most open source software is written to be usable on Linux. If you are willing to compile stuff yourself, then the Linux distro version doesn't really matter.

As for the availability of binary packages, Debian (and therefore K/X/Ubuntu), Gentoo (not binaries actually) and Redhat have the widest selection. Can't really say anything specific about other distros and your tools.

So u would use redhat over fedora then> if u were installing it? Also can i confirm that i shouldnt go partitioning my HDD if i was to use Redhat? cos on the redhat website it says to shrink and partition it! Im not doubtin ya!:-) Is it gunna cos me $179 too??

you can download any distro free accept mandrake and suse
they have demos' only
debian and redhat(core 5 fedora) are free to dwnld
a may be wrong bout the first 2 ,but I have yet to find full versions for free
there are a few others out there just do homework on them
I have dwnld the complete 5 cd and dvd version of redhat fedora core 5 works great


good luck

Fedora is a free Linux distro sponsored by Redhat. There are no free RedHat-branded products. No, I personally wouldn't touch Fedora with a 10-foot pole (I just did this morning and.. Never again &%¤&!%#!!! ).

SuSE 10 series is free. And I believe you can get Mandriva for free too, although they hide the thing on their website.

try softpedia.com THer you can download linux like suse, ubuntu, and mandriva

Once you get it installed the issues you will have, well i guess not really issues just ignorance. You can post here for help or use the good old www.google.com/linux search.

the best linux distribution, in my opinion is Debian.
It might be a little hard to install, but it is very efficient.
An easy to install distribution would be ubuntu.
Fedora has too much cds to download.
Ubuntu has only one cd to downlaod.
Debian has a lot to downlaod, but the first cd is all it needs, and has a lot of applications on it.

If you want to partion a drive, you can used the partition tools that came with the distribution. It is found somewhere in there, mostly near the install.