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There are many forms of Linux(such as SUSE, Mandriva, Dreamlinux, Mint, Fedora, Debian, etc) and assuming that you have little or no linux experience I would strongly recommend Ubuntu. It is user friendly like Windows and you can make it look even better than Windows imo:wink:

This images are pulled off of different pages of the Internet and wanted you to see them. The wording is mostly mine. I first started with SUSE and Windows and wished I had a tutorial like this to help me, oh well. I would backup everything before attempting this.

Vista installed first:
You will need to prepare the Vista partition by making it smaller. The great thing about Vista is that it has its own partitioning system so you do not need third party software to shrink it.
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You will need to shrink this first. Do do this, boot into Windows Vista and go into Disk Management - right-click My Computer, Manage, Disk Management.

It will now comeup with something like this.
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You need to shrink it down at least 10GB(my recommendation is 20GB, depending on the size of your harddrive)

Select shrink and it will create partitioned space.


You will need an Ubuntu iso burned to a CD
You can download it here:
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-Choose our settings, and if unsure about whether you computer is 32bit or 64 but choose 32bit. I learned that the hard way:frown:
-You cannot just copy the iso onto a CD, you will need to burn it with an application like Magic Iso.(search torrents for it)
-Every iso you download has a "live CD" when you burn it. These means it will test Ubuntu on your system to see if you like it, etc. Keep in mind it looks really ugly and can change the appearance later.

When it boots, it should show this:
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You should try out linux before you install it imo by choosing the "Try Ubuntu without...." first. Note: wi-fi, etc wont work because drivers are not installed yet
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Then choose your location(no screenshot)
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Then it will ask for your name, login, password, etc. No not forget any of it!! Write it down...

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After it completes, it will restart. Make sure to remove the disk when it tells you to.

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-The top is linux, bottom is windows vista. If you do not choose within 10 seconds, it will automatically boot into Ubuntu.
- To change this, open terminal, type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst" and the linux bootloader file will open. Find the line saying "Default .....0" and change the number according to where your XP is in your boor menu. 1st position is 0, 2nd position is 1, etc.

If you didnt understand terminal stuff try searching You must login or register to view this content. I can also help you. To enable sudo, you must type

    sudo passwd

and set it.

XP installed first

This only changes a little bit. Since XP doesnt have a built in partitioner, we have to have the Ubuntu CD do this. When I did this, it corrupted my XP partition. To fix this, make sure you have your original windows cd on hand, as it will work as a "recovery disk" and fix any erriors that Ubuntu made when shrinking it. I lost nothing in my XP partition by doing this.

After the live CD loads:
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Ubuntu will then load the disk partitioner to determine where it's going to be installed. The default option is that Ubuntu will resize the Windows XP NTFS partition to make space for the Ubuntu install. You can drag the dividing line left or right to increase or decrease the amount of space to be freed up.

Once you're happy with the selection, click Forward.
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-When finished and just starting up(at bootloader) it should look like this
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If you have any problems, feel free to ask, I can help. I had to do manual install and understand how to do it by brute force if Ubuntu doenst detect your freed space. If you choose to do it manually, there needs to be a 500MB-1Gb SWAP partition, and a 10+GB ext3 partition that you will install Ubuntu on. The other partition should be NTFS or FAT-32(windows)


+reps are greatly appreciated =p. I made this for NGB and decided to post it here.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ"]YouTube - WINDOWS VISTA AERO VS LINUX UBUNTU BERYL[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYgV2GlsufI"]YouTube - My Ubuntu Beryl Matrix 3D Desktop[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmvGXSXvJE"]YouTube - Ubuntu 8.10 - Showing off my Desktop[/ame]

I actually have a website made. Just don't want to get bummed for advertising.

For what? Dual booting?