Tips on moving to Linux?

[ElPolloDiabl]

If you want to dual boot, get a partition manager to manage your partitions. The default partition manager won't let your resize primary partitions.

Virtual Box is quite advanced now. Use that to play around with Linux. Download the 32-bit Linux for Windows XP.

Problems I've had:
The setting of the hard drive to AHCI or IDE is important.

Another problem I had was during the install Linux would set to the max graphics resolution and stop installing.
My 3G modem causes a crash. That would be buggy drivers.

[ElPolloDiabl]

3. Any tips or good guides on creating a dual boot system?
5. Any tips on creating a Linux partition on a hard drive WITHOUT having to destroy and re-install the XP partition that already exists there (i.e. Swissknife?)?
6. Any complications or pitfalls I need to watch out for on a dual boot system?
7. Are all Linux strains compatible? I don't want to be stuck with a Linux branch that can't run common binaries.
8. In future, will I always need a Windows XP partition to run my legacy Windows XP applications, or is Wine under Linux good enough now?

Read a guide on how to recover the Windows MBR from DOS.

Wine is quite buggy. I have never gotten it to work for games, it did work for MS Office.
I'm getting use to Virtual Box. It took me two days to get a DOS 6.22 install working properly, but it was worth it.

[ElPolloDiabl]

My reason to avoid Windows: $150 to have 15GB of my hard drive taken up by who knows what.
Linux: an OS that is not intrusive.

Half the Linux software you download is buggy unfinished etc. but there is plenty that works great.

[ElPolloDiabl]

They were possibly using a Vista PC with tonnes of crapware, defrag on all the time, defender scanning all the time, system restore and the indexing always on.  It helps if they had 2 MB RAM.  

I have tweaked my dual XP/Vista install and i bet no-one would tell vista apart from Win 7 once it booted: most benchmark reviews I've seen put them neck and neck, even Vista ahead in some tests.

Other than boot time, I saw no performance gains in using Ubuntu on the same system.  And no Direct X10.

When Vista first came out, there were a lot of programs that wouldn't work. Software written just a few years earlier. By SP3 Vista is nearly identical to Win 7.

[ElPolloDiabl]

@above
Do you actually get into the registry and start optimising things. Are we discussing the OS, or just the UI?
Amiga is pretty good on both counts.
Neither Linux or Windows is very friendly when you are hunting down errors. It is usually easier to uninstall drivers etc. and then reinstall them.

Eventually hobby OSes will get the offcuts (I mean drivers and software) from Linux anyway.

[ElPolloDiabl]

I forgot to add...

I have had trouble trying to install from a USB stick. No problems installing from a DVD however.
Any tips on installing from a USB stick? Is it worth fiddling with the BIOS to do it?

[ElPolloDiabl]

@ral-clan

Don't bother with the MS Virtual Machine. It is rubbish, it can only emulate very basic things.
Oracle VM is very advanced and fun to play with. You can fiddle around and not break anything.

[ElPolloDiabl]

No. Everything needs to be on the host. Only CD drives etc. can be added separate.

[ElPolloDiabl]

What you want to do is pick something else.
On the next screen select: New Partition
You should be able to figure out where you want the partition. Use the mouse for that.
Select: /
(that means root) as the mount point and ext4 filing system.
Skip the swap partition for now.

It won't actually format the partition until you start the Linux install.
Click back if you didn't get it right and your partitions will be unharmed. Then click the manual partitioning again and have another go.

I say leave the drive in, but don't proceed until you are sure the partitions are correct.

[ElPolloDiabl]

/
It just means the root of the drive. As opposed to a folder in the drive e.g.
/mystuff (the mystuff folder)
Equivalent to C:
by itself or C:\mystuff\

[ElPolloDiabl]

A boot repair use to be: FDISK and edit config.sys

Though Windows really gets surly when there is more than one drive. It has written the MBR on the spare drive on several occasions. I don't know why.

edit: I just found an answer. You change the drive order in the BIOS.

[ElPolloDiabl]

Water cooling was going to be the future for single core desktops. Fortunately they decided to take a a different approach.
Adding a second core gives between a -5% to %100 speed improvement.

[ElPolloDiabl]

I know what the names mean. They are the names of the major ubuntu releases. From Karmic Chameleon, Natty Narwhal and so on. KLMNO

[ElPolloDiabl]

I found this:

8 deadly commands you should never run on Linux
Link:
http://www.howtogeek.com/125157/8-deadly-commands-you-should-never-run-on-linux/

So someone could give you a command that erases your entire drive?

[ElPolloDiabl]

When Linux just freezes at boot, it can be really offputting.
I have a fix... Go back to an earlier more stable version. The latest release with great features is not the best Linux. An earlier version that has all your drivers is the one to pick.