Formatting a drive, or drives, to run Linux and XP

[longrawker]

Hey.

For an upcoming build i'm doing, i would like to expirament with Linux, in some form. The problem with this is, the computer would be used for image rendering, graphic arts, web design, stuff allong those lines. The programs i would be using, stuff like Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, The Gimp, and so on. I have checked into it, and they do not work running on Linux. I still would like to check it out though, i'm curious/intrigued with linux.

So how would i go about partitioning a drive to run XP and Linux?

Would it just be easier to instal Linux on one drive, and XP on another? This seems like the easier thing to do, and more logical thing to do because i'm planning on putting two HDDs in the computer.

So how would/could i do that, and what distribution of Linux would i want to use? I'm new to linux, and have no coding background beyond HTML, PHP, and CSS.

Thanks, i hope i posted this in the right place...

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Installing on two drives could work for ya, just make sure to install Windows XP first as it will destroy the LILO bootloader if you install it after Linux.

I would have XP use all of your primary(or larger drive since you seem to be doing porgrams that need space) and then have linux partition the secondary drive. How you partition it is really up to you. You can have a large root directory(/ ) and a swap double your Ram, or you can go the route of so many MB's for /usr, /home, /var... I don't do that though as I am never sure how much I will need.

As for what distro, I dont really know what use a coding language would be, but I dont know any so maybe there are some secrets I dont know I would say go for SuSe or Mandrake if ya want just a perdy GUI and just intend to leave it at that really. If ya want a distro that makes ya work a lil more then I have heard Gentoo and Slackware are better. I am trying out slackware now and like it. Runs very speedily it seems on my 2nd machine with just some generic ATI driver that came with the distro. Sure I haven't gotten any further then that really, but I got it on the comp kinda late

[RHLinuxGUY]

Originally posted by longrawker stuff like Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, The Gimp, and so on. I have checked into it, and they do not work running on Linux.

The Gimp was made on linux, I think u didn't look into that more deeply. And there are two programs, that u can use, to run Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver MX, and Flash MX, all work on the free WINE project. ( www.winehq.org ) or u can check out (if u get lost) the apps, and the top 25 here http://appdb.winehq.org/votestats.ph...0b6939df02d93. (both dreamweaver, and ur version of Photoshop work, not perfect, but work well enough to be consider a 4 out of 5 or 5 out of 5. If u still dont like that, use the commercial version of wine, called "Crossover Office", which runs many programs, much faster, and better then straight WINE.
There are a couple of distros, that you might want. The first one is Mandrake 10. It comes with what u need, but not everything. The second (I believe) is geard towards family, and Multimedia design, and so forth. It comes with a free 3D Modeling, and a Audio and Video editors. Both come with a Video editor, and they come with The Gimp.

[RHLinuxGUY]

O, and both come with easy install setups (better then windows installation). So u can install linux, along side of windows.