Can you put Linux OS and Windows into the same PC and select the OS you want from a menu at boot time?
I am pretty sure the answer is yes but how this is done? You need to have your hard disk particioned so that each OS has its seperate space for the necessary files?
Does anyone know how this is done exactly?
yes you can do it but you have to use a linux app called, think it was lelu or lilu boot manager. you can do a search on any mozilla site and they will tell you how. Did it one in a networking class in college but that was years ago and I have forgotten. If you just want to play around with linux you can get a disk called knoppix 3.2 and this boots into a ramdrive partition of a fully functional os that you can surf and check it out but you cannot download or anything like that.
You can run them both. I'm running Win 2000 and Suse Linux. When I boot up I get Grub as a Boot manager which gets installed with Suse.
Only prerequisite is that the disc is partitioned, otherwise you'll have a hard time installing any of the two. You can use PartitionMagic for it, or start from scratch and use FDisk or DiskPart.
Browsing the foroms right now with Knoppix 3.8
It has FireFox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org 3 of my favorite free apps!
Not too slow considering it's being read off of CD either. This is definitely a great way to play with Linux without having to mess around with your hard drive. Anything you do is reset at reboot.
Did you manage to find it all right Alex200?
m
Edited for spelling
Sure,
If you have already downloaded the .iso:
It is a good idea to verify the md5sum (a sort of checksum that verifies the integrity of the downloaded file). You can find instructions for doing this here.
Obviously, modify the instructions to reflect the Knoppix .iso filename.
This will produce a checksum that you compare to the md5 checksum that should be available wherever you downloaded the .iso from.
You can't just copy burn the file to a CD. In whatever software you burn CDs with there is usually an option somewhere that reads something like "create CD from .iso image file". You need to use this option which will "extract" the CD from the image file.
Also, use the disc at once or close disc option.
By the way the most current version of Knoppix is 3.8.1 which I think is the most fun so far.
After you have your Knoppix CD:
Put the CD in your CD-ROM drive and reboot.
You may need to adjust your bios to be able to boot from CD-ROM.
Let me know if you need help doing this.
You will get a prompt shortly after the boot process starts. If you don't want to enter any "cheat codes" just hit enter an Knoppix will start to boot.
As Knoppix boots you will see some information about the boot process on the screen. Thats when you begin to realize how different Linux is from Windows
Something you want to keep in mind: If you are using the NTFS file system, do not use Knoppix to alter files on your hard drive!
Normally your hard-drives will be mounted read-only, and you should probably leave them that way until you know what you are doing (and maybe even after that! )
If you auotrun the CD from windows you will get an info page which has some useful tricks and tips on it. Especially the cheat codes.
Let me know if you have any questions!
m
i run w98 w2k and mandrake on a single drive, no problems. use lilo as boot manager. mandrake has a parttioning utility built in, can be used during the install process
lots of iso images here:
http://www.linuxiso.org/
It has FireFox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org 3 of my favorite free apps!
Not too slow considering it's being read off of CD either. This is definitely a great way to play with Linux without having to mess around with your hard drive. Anything you do is reset at reboot.
Did you manage to find it all right Alex200?
m
Edited for spelling 
Any help?