install Linux with Windows??

[Chetan1991]

I want to install Linux with my existing WinXP .Will it be safe to do so?
What are advantages of Ubuntu?

[Pathik]

yup its absolutely safe... pls search the forum 4 the answers of ur remaining questions...

[Aberforth]

Yes it would be safe to do this if you do it as the procedure. The advantages of Ubuntu (in my opinion)

1> It has a big and active community online which is very important to troubleshoot problems
2> It is a completely free project which means the won't be neglecting the project for a commercial
3> Its a small and clean install, will have almost everything you need and a lot of extra softwares are available should you need more.
4> It is one of the easiest to use Linux and if you are trying out Linux first time, it will be a starting point before you try out other distros. You can also stick with it if you wish, its still one of the best inspite of being easy.

[mehulved]

Since you haven't mentioned anything about partitioning, just let me tell you that you need a separate partition of atleast 5-6GB and ideally 10-12GB for a linux distro, just in case you didn't know.

[MysticDews]

yeah it will work absolutely fine..
i wud suggest u can go for openSUSE (latest version is i guess 10.2). I found it easy.. Dont know bout ubuntu.


I made a "free space" of bout 10GB from a existing XP partition and another 5MB "partition". Used the 10GB space for main install and 5MB for a swap file that linux needs..

Try it..u ll love it..
Good luck

[drsethi]

Take care to not delete Windows partitions during installation.
Read about Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

[Aberforth]

Originally Posted by MysticDews

yeah it will work absolutely fine..
Used the 10GB space for main install and 5MB for a swap file that linux needs..

Try it..u ll love it..
Good luck

5MB would be too small for swap....

[MysticDews]

^^Can i do something NOW (after having installed it) to increase the swap size???

[mehulved]

Make a new swap partition if you have space on your hard disk. Swap should be 1.2-2 times your RAM to the maximum of 2GB. Anything more doesn't make much sense unless you are into such things that require lots of RAM.

[Aberforth]

If you have both Windows and Linux on your system, defragment the last Windows partition, make some free space and boot into Linux, resize the last Windows partition to give you some decent swap. Than use that free space to make a swap partition.

[mehulved]

There was also a how-to put up in this section, on creating swap on already existing partition. here it is howto: swap file sharing in windows and linux

[gary4gar]

If u really don't about partionning & all that stuff and want to try ubuntu the check this
Windows Based Ubuntu Installer