I've been wanting to give linux a try for a while now, but have been too lazy to do it. Now I'm planning to finally take the leap and try installing ubuntu alongside xp in a dual-boot configuration.

As I understand, I need to resize the existing windows partition... I'm a bit confused on the details, but I hear the installation cd comes with a software to do this? I'd like to get this right at the first try, without messing everything up...

well, basically, I'm a bit afraid it'll turn out like this:



So I'd be thankful if someone could provide some insight and advice on this.

the FIRST thing you need to do is Defrag the windows. That is crucial !

When I did this my new system is Windows 7 and I made all the necessary recovery Disks that Windows7 lets you.

And a friend of mine gave me a CD with Paragon Software which lets you create a new partition which is where you will place your Ubuntu.

now, I believe you can do that last bit with the Ubuntu Live CD and if you need help you can look http://openubuntu.com/
where very nice people can walk you through it.

I found that making my system multiboot was actually easy.....even though I am always nervous about this.

I was going to and when i actually sat down to do it, loaded the cd i got in the mail (Ubuntu 10), everything froze.
So i removed the cd and forgot all about it.
I am like you, it aint broke so i aint fixin it.

If however i get another computer maybe ill try with a fresh empty shell then.And run just Linux on it.
Until then i am happy with Windows XP.

Thanks for the input... I'm defragging the hd now. I've already downloaded the ubuntu cd... I think I'm going to give it a try, and see how gimp looks in it's native habitat...

Ok, I'm writing this on ubuntu now. Kinda exciting! The UI looks very nice. I've yet to check if xp still works, so fingers crossed for that...

great! you should definitely make sure Ubuntu works on your system first using the Live CD. Even if everything isn't perfect it should be stable.

I have to say that I am using linux 95% of the time. It feels great to know that as I surf the web I am safe and secure. In fact I have never surfed under this new laptop in Windows. (that doesn't include the usual updates that Windows sends of course). I would never NOT have a multiboot system. It's way to versatile.

it should be on the grub list.....and even if xp says it has to "check" something, just let it because we know how much windows hates things to NOT be windows

Whatever you do, do NOT use Wubi. You will regret it.

Not using wubi. I have a split partition.

Aaand, I'm posting this from windows, so everything seems to be in order.

You know what else feels great?

Not having a damn firewall complaining once a minute, having to guess if the things it says is something windows is supposed to do or if someone is trying to hack my computer. So, not having that is kinda great.

I've been using Linux for about 6 months now, I've tormented everybody here for information and i've become familiar with it to the point i can say with all certainty that linux is so much better than windows that i can't list all of the reasons here. Every day I like it more and more. I hope you find it just as satisfactory as I do.
I just learned something new this morning. I run linux on a spare computer so if I mess it up, (which has happened 3 times) I can start fresh and do another complete install. the only pain was that I had to go find and install all the software that I like again, that can be a pain. I found this morning that I can save all my favorite application as one big package and re install them all them again without going through the ordeal of doing it manually. It's a lot like Febe, a Firefox extension that lets you do the same thing with all your extensions. The first time you update Ubuntu you'll see partly what i mean about it's superiority to Windows. Two clicks in Linux update everything, the operating system, all the applications, and all the drivers, all in one shot.

Well I'm enjoying the speed so far. Things go much smoother than in windows...

Oh and I finally managed to get gimp 2.7 compiling... only took me 2 hours, lol...

Well good luck with your new toy dd!

Luck is much more required on Windows :-)

lol good point there ofnuts.

BINGO!

that's why I never use a browser when in windows (well, not on this laptop). I'm glad your experience was successful!

btw, I have found ubuntu tweak to be extremely useful. It can help clean up some files that you no longer need and places in one program things like your sources, getting rid of excess thumbnail cache (they can accumulate to gigantic proportions if you don't watch out) and a bunch of other things to tidy up. You may not need it NOW because your system is brand spanking new, but it will come in handy as you get more and more upgrades.

Yep, Zone Alarm used to drive me nuts sometimes.

Linux uses iptables to implement a IPV4 firewall. It never bothers me. I bring it up because you might notice it running as a system service you want to keep.

Fedora defaults to SEL(Security Enhanced Linux), which is yet another level of protection. Last time I checked out Ubuntu, SEL was not the enabled by default, so I guess most Ubuntu users don't run SEL. That may have changed.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux!!

Thanks guys. And thanks for the tip cecilia, I'll check that out.

Hmm, I'm not sure if I messed up something while compiling 2.7 (probably) but it seems really buggy to me... docks disappear, toolbox acts weird... I know it's not a final version but I don't think it should be this messed up, maybe I should try redoing it. Can I just delete the gimp-2.7 directory with rm and do the compile steps again, or is there something more that needs to be done like in windows?

Also, I still haven't gotten pressure sensitivity to work on my tablet, the wacom package seems to be installed and gimp recognizes it, but doesn't seem to be getting the pressure information... got to look into that too.

Well the solution to browsing in Windows is using a Sandbox. A shame that so many folk create viruses to attack Windows, but when Ubuntu get's a significant market share, trust me, folk will attack it too (as MACs are currently seeing signs of now). Yeah, I'm pretty much a die hard Windows guy, but also dabble in other OSs including Ubuntu. Being from the old school days, it wasn't hard for me to work at the command prompt (terminal) level to do things (which I had to in order to get Ubutu 11.04 64-bit to work right and share with my Win7 system data). I still plan on getting GIMP to work too (to clear HD space, I did hose my Ubuntu 32-bit OS so everything is back to scratch with Ubuntu; lol). Thanks to folk like Partha and Samj, I've not found too many reasons to go back to Ubuntu but to do so out of learning something new which is a motivator for me. I'm glad you are finding Ubuntu a cool OS and more then a replacement for you dd. Ubuntu really is getting powerful with the new Unity interface which I actually like (though some folk I here are complaining).