Schwaltzvald Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 So yeah after some recent threads I've been interested in trying out Linux, the thing is I realized there are quite probably innumerable amounts of "distros" out there, some popular, some perhaps not even seen the light of day unless googled. Is there a way I can run a "LiveCD" or what I've learned as a cd/dvd that I can run as a bootable OS on my WinXPPro system without killing the pc and the contents it has..? I am more interested in building a system specifically for Linux but since I don't have the new rig yet I'd at least like to try out a distro before installing it on the new rig... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phill Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 I would start with the Ubunutu LiveCD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 I would start with the Ubunutu LiveCD. Nothing wrong with suggestions but that doesn't answer my question at all.. To be clear... Is it safe to run a distro, such as Ubuntu, on my current PC, despite it already has Win XP pro installed. Will I be able to try the distro out without killing the PC and its content? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Author Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28Linux_distribution%29#Install_CD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikigami Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 assuming youre not doing anything crazy with the file system, yes it should work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 alright I'll be checking it out asap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.T.W. Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 hey if you have Windows XP Professional, you could try Windows Virtual PC, install Linux in a separate hard drive and check it out using WVPC. I did it that way in a college class, but we worked with Fedora Core 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpine Flame Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 hey if you have Windows XP Professional, you could try Windows Virtual PC, install Linux in a separate hard drive and check it out using WVPC. I did it that way in a college class, but we worked with Fedora Core 4. Virtualization FTW!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted September 25, 2007 Author Share Posted September 25, 2007 I actually do have spare 320GB drive but I didn't know I could use vertualization. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx This be the program aye? That being so, I'd be trying the damn thing and testing other floundering distros. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drack Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Yes, you can run other OSs from within Windows using Virtual PC. It's really cool. It (and numerous other virtualization solutions) lets you bypass a lot of barriers and restrictions (like safe, reliable NTFS writes) through abstracting it to the host OS. But if you want to start learning Linux, I'd suggest booting off a LiveCD/LiveDVD. Ubuntu is good for starters, as it has everything you need, is excessively popular and well supported, and runs on virtually everything with zero configuration. However, it's quite bloated and will run slowly (compared to other distros) on most computers. Another quicker LiveCD you can try is Knoppix. As it uses KDE instead of GNOME as its desktop environment (GUI, window management, desktop, folders, icons, etc) it's got a different feel than Ubuntu. If you like KDE but like Ubuntu's software, you can get Kubuntu, a version of Ubuntu that uses KDE. There are countless other distributions, with different styles and configurations. I use Gentoo myself, but I wouldn't recommend it to beginners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikigami Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 try VMWare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kusabi Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 I'll second the LiveCD/LiveDVD method, or VMWare if you want. As long as you don't do anything screwy with the filesystems on your drive, you'll be fine. If you use a LiveCD, it will be slow (loading everything off the CDROM), but it usually isn't too bad (My Knoppix disk isn't that slow, but then I have the RAM to load pretty much everything into RAM) But if you have a spare hard drive, you could also install on a partition on that drive, and dual boot the machine. I have that setup with my Windows PC as well as my PS3. (It runs Linux 99% of the time, unless I want to pop a PS2 disk in to play, or a movie) But the better way to start is with a LiveCD, and then virtualization, and then take the leap and install a Linux on a second hard disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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