F10 & XP Dual Boot Install Help Required.

First, I'm a total Linux newbie.

Ok, I'll try to keep a l long story short.
I got a Aspire one 10inch, not to long ago to run my little one man show business on the road. I have been a Windows user for years, and I am looking for something better. I have done, I don't know how many different USBlive's with different Distros, I have lost count. I have come down to two, Linux Mint, and Fedora, both in Gnome, not a fan of KDE. For reasons unknown, Fedora has my interest more then Mint, so I feel it's install time.

So here is what I am looking to do.
While I go through the learning curve, and get programs that I need working under Wine, or find alternatives that are Linux based, I still need to run XP. I can't have any down time. I need a dual boot. On my first attempt to install Fedora, I came to the part of the install were you setup partitions, and file type. I figured out how to set how much space I wanted, but it gave me no indication what it was going to do to the XP and it's installed programs. Meaning, without care would it wipe out portions there of. I have tried going to theirs site and looked at their how to, but it seems to go on, and on, about stuff that I am not interested in yet, and that is quite techie deep in the requirements of understanding.

I guess I am asking for help on how to setup a dual boot install of F10 and XP that is done right, without damaging what's there now.

thanks

4GibMe.

 

Not sure if the Fedora partitioner asks you if you want to resize your XP partition when you run the Fedora installer with the HDD in its initial state. If it does, that's what you want to do. If it doesn't you'll want to select "custom partitioning scheme" from the available choices and shrink your XP partition manually. Make sure you've backed up all the important stuff on your XP partition before you start shrinking the partition. It's not supposed to mess things up, but better to be safe than sorry.

 

Thanks for the post.

As it stands now, I have made no move to install. I do have a full backup program for XP that I intend to use before I make that move to install.

My son has the 8.9 that I got for him to use in school. He made the move to go the way of the Linux about a week ago, and has been running Mint. Mint has been, and is, very user friendly, even the installer rocks, and at this point I am starting to sway in that direction. At least for my first time install and uses of a Linux OS. Ad to that, I can draw on our experience from everything that he and we went through. The only draw back I can see to Mint, is that I have to install the Native WiFi drivers, which were dam easy. All we did was download the Linux drivers from the Athoeros site, and Mint had a driver installer in the networks. All we had to do was tell it that the drivers were on the USB stick, reboot and bang, Wifi. Even the kill switch light works.

F10 looks very clean and pro-like, and by no means am I, or, will I, say there is anything bad about it. I am just looking for the path of least resistance to start getting my feet wet in the world of Linux. As I start to get, and have more understanding, then I can pick a Distro, based on experience, instead of, fear of the unknown.

Cheeers, and thanks.

4GibMe.

 

Nothing wrong (that I'm aware of) with Mint or with any of a number of distros. On my computers, Fedora, Ubuntu and whatever else I install (except for Puppy) all tend to look alike by the time I'm done customizing. Installing the Atheros drivers the way you did isn't a significant drawback in my book - if it's easy and it works, go for it

 

You make it sound like a walk in the park.

well to you it most likely is.

If it were a Windows thing, it would be for me.

But I love to learn new stuff, and explore new worlds, so yes, I feel the need to expand my knowledge in the computer world, by working with another OS, outside of Windows. That is made for the people, by the people world of Linux appeals to me as well.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers.

4GibMe.

 

Mint installed.
Writing this Post within it.

Install was, compared to even Windows, well, a walk in the park.

This is got to be one of the most user friendly Linux OS's I have ever seen, or work with. Most definitely a good Distros for first timers. When I came to the partitioning of the hard drive, it shows you what part is for Windows and what part is for Mint. You can easily resize it by placing your mouse over the dividing line, and slide it from left to right. while your moving it, it tells you the sizes. Even better then Windows. One nice peace of work. Now comes all the other learning curves, should be fun.

4GibMe

 

Sounds nice, but what does not work on the acer. for example a lot of people appear to complain about the wifi not working. :roll: