Questions about Linux and Dual OSes
 

Well.. basically.. I'm considering on trying Linux, but I'd definitely want to dual OS and not just depend on Linux since theres a lot of programs that Linux doesn't support. Anyways, how difficult is it to dual OS and to maintain it? And eh.. is there really any disadvantages or requirements?

dual os?

you mean dual boot I believe...dual os I guess would be something like vmware or colinuxhttp://www.colinux.org/

dual boot is just setting up a boot loader and keeping windows and linux on different partitions
it's relatively easy with a fairly modern distro.
Most neophytes get drawn to either mandy, fedora, or Suse first, also many other newb friendly distros exist.
I cannot attest for any of them myself because I never have used suse or fedora (stay away from redhat 8 :p) and haven't touched mandy since 9.0

I do suggest is that you download the knoppix livecd and try it out first, (runs from cd and does not touch the hd unless you ask it too)


goodluck and remember these two very important pieces of advice...

google is your best friend
Read the effing manual

If you're new to Linux I'd recommend Mandrake 10.1. I recently installed it and I love it. Never really liked the "easy" distros before, I'm more of a Gentoo/Slackware guy, but there is something really nice about this one.
I do believe that the installationprogram for most modern distros lets you resize partitions so you can install Linux on the same harddrive as windows. Of course, I'd recommend you install it on a separate harddrive is possible, just to avoid any accidents. (Believe me, I've had a few...)

oh one more thing stay away from most #debian channels....just trust me they aren't nice...(I'm still banned from the freenode one)

If you plan on dual booting between Windows and Linux be certain to install Windows first.

If you install Linux first and then Windows, Windows will overwrite the Linux boot sector.

I say grub a lot in this post. grub = boot loader. It can boot linux or boot different OSs off of different filesystems (like a WinXP one), which you can set up.

As for belkins post, definitely! And unless you made a boot disk during the install, it can be a pain re-installing grub if you're not sure what you're doing.

Windows likes to be on the C: drive only, from my experience. You can fight it (through grub at least) and swap drives in the config.. but it's added complexity.

From my experience, when you're setting up grub during the install phase on Fedora (I've done installs of FC1/FC2/FC3, they all had this option I believe), it shows you a list of other harddrives/partitions you have and what it detects them as (filesystem wise [ ext2/ntfs/fat/fat32/etc ] ). You can check a box next to the the ones you want to include in the grub menu (and change your default if you want).

Just a warning with FC2, it had a problem where it could wipe the boot record for windows.. so the dual boot wouldn't work. It's a (fixable) problem, but it's more hassle.. I'd suggest getting the latest version (Fedora Core 3) anyways.

Yeah, debian people can be assholes (especially bendsley :D) There are plenty of fedora forums out there to help you if you chose that route. Same for Mandrake and most other "newbie-friendly" distros.