[LUNI] FW: [Chicago] can I buy a ubuntu dell from a local store?

[Eric MacAdie]

How do you shrink the ntfs partition? Do you do this before installing 
Linux?

I have Ubuntu on a few systems, but I always get a second hard drive and 
use one drive for each OS.

Eric MacAdie

nbi at wideopenwest.com wrote:
> Yes, that Dell price difference was reported in a recent issue of 
> Linux Journal.
>
> It may not be necessary to completely wipe Windows off the system. In 
> fact you may regret having done so later on when you need to run 
> legacy apps only available for 'Doze.
>
> For starters I would make it a dual boot system by shrinking the ntfs 
> partitions (for preinstalled Windows there's often 2, one of which is 
> for disaster recovery) and partitioning the resulting free space for 
> Linux. It's usually safe to put GRUB in the mbr so after having done 
> that you'll have a convenient dual boot system. As a finishing touch I 
> would add fuse support and ntfs-3g for NTFS R/W access from linux.
>
> My recommendation for distro would be Debian as I consider linux in a 
> multi-boot scenario as "mission critical" and would want the most 
> solid and dependable distro available. Others would probably fit the 
> bill too, but Debian always ranks at the top of distro polls for good 
> reason.
>