[PLUG] Advise for laptop dualboot

[Richard Steffens]

stuart mathews wrote:

> Are there distros that are better-suited for dual booting, laptops or Thinkpads
> in particular?

Can't speak to XP, but I've had no trouble installing Linux on a
Thinkpad 390X (400 MHz Celeron, 96 Mb RAM, PCMCIA ethernet card, combo
floppy/CD drive). The first one I tried was the RH 7.1 version
distributed by the K12LTSP project. I didn't try dual booting that one.
Next, I cleaned that one off, reinstalled Win98 from the IBM supplied
recovery CD, and did a network install of Debian woody. No problems to
speak of there, either as far as the installation itself went. (I had
trouble getting the ability to add filters to the GIMP, but it probably
doesn't relate to dual booting). Dual booting from Lilo worked with no
problems. Finally, I cleaned that off, reinstalled Win98 again, and
installed RH 8.0. No problems dual booting with GRUB. 

> What XP system files should be backed up first?

Can't help you with that one. I'm hoping that Win98 is the last MS OS I
have to put up with. I haven't bought a new machine with the latest
thing from Redmond installed for a few years, now.
 
> Should I do a "laptop" install or "custom?"

In each case, I selected "everything" when the time came to choose which
kind of installation. I'm using the machine as a learning experience,
mostly, although now that I have the RH version of the GIMP, I can, and
do use the LoG filter that I was able to add.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens
http://rsteff.home.attbi.com/