Jon Upchurch

Well, I was just notified that someone read my post and tried to install Linux on their PC with a dual-boot and had trouble. Ouch! Let me make some suggestions in case anyone else tries this:

• Download VMWare Desktop or MS Virtual PC if you’re not going to make Linux your only Operating System.  Yes, Linux will support a dual-boot, but depending on your hardware you may have issues with either LILO or GRUB as your new boot manager, and if you do have troubles it can become an issue.  Most cases just to get your feet wet with Linux a virtual image is plenty.
• Make sure you choose the right Linux Distribution.  For beginners, I highly recommend Ubuntu 8.04.  Really, any of the 8.0x editions are great.  If for some reason you can’t find or don’t want Ubuntu then I’d choose Red Hat.  An alternative if you really want the shell experience then you could try CentOs.  Beyond that, once you have experience, you can branch out to other distributions.  SuSE is a really nice distribution.
• Back up your files before you start!  If you’re just using a Virtual Machine to run Linux, then you’re probably safe, but it really can’t hurt and you should probably back up anyhow!
• If you don’t want to run Linux as a virtual machine, then the next best bet is to find a machine you can just install it as your primary Operating System.  Make sure you don’t need anything from the old system (read: Back Your Files Up!) and start from a clean slate.

Yes, it is definitely possible to do a dual boot, but unless you already know what you’re doing (and don’t need this article) it’s probably not the best solution.  If you get stuck, send me a message. Find me on Twitter (jonupchurch) or Facebook (facebook.com/jonmupchurch), or gmail (jonupchurch at gmail/dot/com) and I’d be glad to shoot you tips.