Partitions with XP/Linux or Unix

[Tamacracker]

Alright I just have a few questions, I'm Linux/Unix dumb, but I want to learn how to use it with my own experiences and with havin people tell me some simple shortcuts, as well get books on it. What is most easiest between the Linux and Unix? And which is more interactable when it comes to media? Also I want to know what are the ups and downs about partitioning. Would it slow things up? And when you partition do you only partition one hard drive? Or can you put them on seperate hard drives? In my recent posts I kinda made it clear that I do not need anythin in my PC's way of it's peformance. Enough is enough with the slow performance, I do all the maintainance as many times as possible to make sure things are on the up keep, it's slowed down to the point where if it slows down again, I just take it apart and make it my new project PC. (Which that's my plans anyways after buildin my next PC)

[Budfred]

Linux is a user friendly open source set of programs made from a UNIX kernal. In general, UNIX in raw form is not for the casual user. There are a number of different flavors (distros) of Linux available for free download on the web. Knoppix is one you can run from a CDR so it is a good one to just learn to play with Linux. Mandrake is reputed to be pretty user friendly as well. Lindows is an attempt to make Linux very comfortable to Windoze users, but charges a subscription fee to download most of the programs you might want.

As for partitioning: you can partition as many drives in as many ways as you would like (with some limitations). Partitioning can actually make some things run faster and generally doesn't make anything run slower. Many people like to have a small parition to install the OS so that if it breaks down you can reformat and reinstall without having to redo all of your programs and data. It also makes it much quicker to defragment and do general maintenance when you have smaller drives, especially since huge drives are now the norm. If you have anything more than about 10gigs, partitioning is definitely a good idea.

[Rick]

By all means partition your drives
But do a little advanced planning .

One place where partitioning or the lack of it I should say will cause things to slow down is with linux ( and Win2k,xp in some cases) is where you install these O/S on to a preformatted drive.
Installing Linux onto a fat32 partition has in my experience caused it to bog down
during all disk access ..

What I have done in the past few systems I setup for myself and others is,
Set aside a large segment of the drive for fat32/NTFS ( Windows 9x partition fat32 )
Set aside another larger segment for data files (Fat32)
And the remainder of the drive is unused till Linux is installed
Allow Linux to install in the unused segment
It will partition and format it into it’s own required segments normally

By setting up the Data area ( Partition as fat32 ) you can dual boot and access the data files using all your operating systems and programs

In a 2 or more drive system.
I leave the second drive for Data only ( Again Fat32)
Installing the O/S’s on the first primary drive

To keep the performance at it’s peak.
Install ONLY what you need . In all operating systems .
Especially in Linux and WinXP

[Tamacracker]

so for a newb on the linux, I should get my hands on a copy of Lindows but you have to buy other programs to make your Linux some what more of a use... Would walmart sell Knoppix? And do I as well have to purchase other Linux software to make it interactable with media that windows can obtain and interact with. Like can I use Adobe Photoshop on Linux? or should linux be used for other tasks?

[Budfred]

I wouldn't encourage you to get Lindows unless you just want something that seems a lot like Windows. You can download Knoppix HERE (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html) or you can download another distro of Linux through Linux links here. (http://www.linux.org/)

I am not sure what you can run from Windoze on Linux, it varies by the individual program, but most Windoze programs have a Linux equivalent that is free. I urge you to read more about Linux through the link I put at the end of the first paragraph before choosing and installing. The advantage to Knoppix is that you can play with it before committing to it since you install it on a CDR...