I've been thinking about dual booting my laptop between XP and Linux but I've read one horror story after another about it. Should I abandon the whole notion or am I likely to manage it painlessly?

My experience with Virtualbox with dual boot Linux and XP turned out great. I use XP for the older scanning equipment that isn't compatible with Vista/Win 7.

I just want to run Windows or Linux as needed on my laptop. I fooled around with virtual box last night and got nowhere so i have to read more and tinker more with it.

I've had a multiboot system for years.
yes, you need to do your research.

I got a Windows7 laptop last fall and immediately installed Ubuntu 10.04 on it

first you should get a Live CD of whatever you wish to try out and make sure it's happy with your HW

when you are ready the first thing you must do is defrag the windows files.

only then can you make room for linux and proceed with the install. Ubuntu lets you do everything from the Live CD, but you have to research other distros.

At this point it's almost painless. It was for me.

and, one thing you should also do is backup your windows esp if there's data on it. I used the Windows7 feature to save Disks with the system files.

I'm in my Ubuntu 95% of the time and love it!

Never heard or had horror stories for dual boot

Only disturbance i bought my wireless usb thingy before and without thinking to check compatibility with linux (also because now most are compatible ) and that give me problem with wireless

I suggest to try kubuntu ubuntu or some other distro from live cd , and chose that working better out of the box

Anyway do a back up first,at 99% will be no needed but will allow to do everything without fear,

And as Cecilia wrote DEFRAG before start to install a dual boot with linux, that is very important

I had no problems either. I must have installed a dozen different distros to dual boot before I settled on Mint. I have been playing with Ubuntu 11.04 which I run from a 8gb jump drive. I'm using that about half the time now. Actually I've been saving documents, etc to another jump drive while using Ubuntu. Didn't have any probs with it connecting to the web. Was pretty automated.

What's a jump drive?

it's a USB drive

I just started running from Virtual box last night
GMS what are the issues you are running into?

Lack of patience. i uninstalled it until I have more time to dedicate to it. It looked like it partitioned drives and i didn't want to mess up and delete my Windows partition. And once I got it started I couldn't figure out how to run linux software with it. But it's no big deal, I was in a local computer store today and they have some pretty nice laptops for $150, so I might just buy one and put Linux on it. if i stand in front of Wal Mart and beg for about 12 or 13 days I might have enough money to get it.

I can play quite an effective broken down old poor guy, but then I AM a broken down old poor guy. if I put on my best clothes I'll look like a street person.

There's always a silver lining to the cloud.

GMS, what you need to do, is go to the Linux site, and download the Installer for your favorite Distro, and when it starts downloading it should be an ISO file.
Then after it downloads, install your VirtualBox, then click New, and follow the prompts, filling in the correct info, then select that ISO file, and it should start.

2 weeks of begging? Move to Portland, you'll get it in one day, lol.

One guy, dressed real nice in polo shirt and jean shorts was holding a sign that read: "Need new boat, new hobby, and new wife." People were stopping and giving him money. At least he was honest!

Also, here in Portland we have Geek Shops, where you donate your time toward a rebuilt computer. All that is required is that you volunteer to work at the shop until it balances out toward the cost of the rebuild. They may not be the best computers available, but they do work.

Well, I recently installed ubuntu beside my xp, and it's been running smoothly so far.

Only problems I've had have been with the Unity UI which seems a bit buggy... so I'm going to try installing gnome and see if it works out better.

DD: You don't get a preference on the install, to opt out of Unity? Gah! I've been hearing how yucky it is, I don't feel thrilled about updating because of it.

Not that I remember... could have been that I was just so excited to install linux that I didn't pay so much attention to the details...

Yeah, Unity seems sort of unfinished still. A lot of stuff simply doesn't work - like, it won't let me change any of the desktop settings, like clock, desktop image, etc. - and sometimes if I leave it so that it goes to screensaver it never comes back and I have to reboot to get it working again...

So, I'm hoping gnome will work out better.

Blech! I'll wait it out until I hear something more promising. I don't need the headaches right now.

Well... I'm typing this on windows now. Tried installing gnome... it messed up the whole system and it won't work at all now.

I'm starting to think linux is not for me. FFS, at least on windows I don't have to worry of every single thing I do messing up my whole computer.

/rant

Actually, it's (Linux) not that bad. It's just the unfamiliar territory thing that causes us to try things that don't always work the way we intend it to.

I always start with the support forum first, to see what other people, (like myself) have gotten the urge to do something totally noobish and be led astray. Before, I went off on my own and tried installing this, that, and everything. Not anymore. I check the forums first, always.