OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/24367/How_to_Run_Multiple_Operating_Systems Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Fri, 24 May 2013 06:02:58 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Comment by darai http://www.osnews.com/thread?460835 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460835 This has been one thing I've been doing for years. To me, it's always a good idea to have at least two OSes on machine, because you never know what might happen to cause an OS to go awry.

Also, good article, it was a very nice read. ;) Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Darai) Comments esata is the way http://www.osnews.com/thread?460836 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460836 Personally, I use sata drive bays and esata drive bays. I have several of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071&...

In my towers, I have usually two of these installed:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994057

Then I kept the drives out of my old file server, since they were all sata. I can load anything on the drive I want and boot it on any machine I have. Works well for playing with different OS's. Virtualization works well also, however, I tend to be interested in the hypervisors as much as anything, so I kind of need to run a lot of things on the actual hardware. Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (TechGeek) Comments Windows EXT 2/ 3 Issues. http://www.osnews.com/thread?460839 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460839 At one point I had a n issue with the windows programs that allow the reading of ext 2/3 because the ext 2/3 partitions were on LVM. That also needs to be understood by programs. Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bill Shooter of Bul) Comments Virtual machines + eComStation / IBM OS/2 Warp http://www.osnews.com/thread?460841 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460841 For users of eComStation / IBM OS/2 Warp

here is the collection of reviews how to install eCS inside VMs, how to install other OSes to Virtual Machines available in eComStation -- http://en.ecomstation.ru/software/?action=vm Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (e-co) Comments If you have two (or more) physical disks http://www.osnews.com/thread?460848 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460848 ...you can install each OS on it's own disk and use your BIOS' boot menu to select what OS to boot. The upshot of this is that you don't have to worry about the different OS' clobbering each others partitions and you don't have to fiddle around with a boot manager. On the other hand, it probably doesn't look as fancy as a boot manager. Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments coLinux http://www.osnews.com/thread?460849 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460849 Not sure if this fits the article where you mostly talk about refurbished PC's, but you can also run Linux as a Windows-process:

http://www.colinux.org/

There is also a packages version of Ubuntu where you can run the Ubuntu-desktop applications in a window on Windows:

http://www.andlinux.org/ Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Lennie) Comments RE: coLinux http://www.osnews.com/thread?460852 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460852 Thanks for those links, I had never heard of those projects. Makes for something fun to play with! Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ventajou) Comments RE: Comment by darai http://www.osnews.com/thread?460853 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460853
This has been one thing I've been doing for years. To me, it's always a good idea to have at least two OSes on machine, because you never know what might happen to cause an OS to go awry.

I think that's a bit of a wasteful reason to dual boot as live CDs and bootable USB keys have been around for years.

Personally though, I dual boot my main laptop:
* Win7 for audio producing
* ArchLinux for everything else Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Laurence) Comments Not necessarily malware-free http://www.osnews.com/thread?460855 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460855 "One big benefit to Live CDs is that you're guaranteed a malware-free OS."

Just for the record: If the Live CD or Live DVD image contains malware (e.g. by malicious design), then this is not the case. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (GeorgesBraque) Comments Don't Forget about VMware Player! http://www.osnews.com/thread?460859 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460859 Don't forget that since Version 3 of Player, VMware Player has the same feature set as VMware Fusion and is able to create virtual machines, import Windows XP mode and more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Player

Disclosure: I work at VMware, but any opinions here are my own. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Wemgadge) Comments RE: Not necessarily malware-free http://www.osnews.com/thread?460860 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460860
"One big benefit to Live CDs is that you're guaranteed a malware-free OS." Just for the record: If the Live CD or Live DVD image contains malware (e.g. by malicious design), then this is not the case.


For the record: If the Live CD or Live DVD image is made from open source it can be verified. If it is verifiable by anyone and widely distributed then someone somewhere will verify it, and "blow the whistle" if they find it to contain malware (or indeed anything at all which it shouldn't).

Outcome: If the Live CD or Live DVD image is made from open source and it has been widely distributed for some time, there is a very high assurance that it does not contain malware. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (lemur2) Comments RE[2]: Not necessarily malware-free http://www.osnews.com/thread?460861 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460861
Outcome: If the Live CD or Live DVD image is made from open source and it has been widely distributed for some time, there is a very high assurance that it does not contain malware.


I whole-heartedly agree. However, "probable" and "possible" are not the same thing. Bad things happen when we assume we are safe, and malware creators bank on that. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (GeorgesBraque) Comments USB thumb drives are very cheap http://www.osnews.com/thread?460866 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460866 USB thumb drives are now so cheap that it doesn't matter if they don't survive a huge number of write cycles. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (unclefester) Comments RE: USB thumb drives are very cheap http://www.osnews.com/thread?460886 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460886 It depends on what data you store on them ;) Having backups for a liveUSB voids a bit the point of the whole thing, but storing a single copy of important data on flash memory is never a wise thing to do.Edited 2011-02-04 07:06 UTC Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Neolander) Comments paradigm change http://www.osnews.com/thread?460891 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460891
One useful technique is to run multiple operating systems on a single computer. This retains the benefits of the existing Windows install

This should have been "of an existing Windows install". Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (frajo) Comments RE[2]: USB thumb drives are very cheap http://www.osnews.com/thread?460893 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460893 I meant they are great for cheap bootable drive. I would never use one as a critical backup drive. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (unclefester) Comments RE[2]: coLinux http://www.osnews.com/thread?460902 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460902 The hardest part is setting up the networking. ;)

And some of the documentation shows the old methods and other documentation shows the new methods.

One has an XML-based configuration file to other is a much simpler and does not use XML. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Lennie) Comments RE: Don't Forget about VMware Player! http://www.osnews.com/thread?460905 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460905
Don't forget that since Version 3 of Player, VMware Player has the same feature set as VMware Fusion and is able to create virtual machines, import Windows XP mode and more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Player

Disclosure: I work at VMware, but any opinions here are my own.


Indeed. I personally like VMware, it's pretty fast, it's got lots of usability-enchancing features, and it's stable. Not to mention that VMware Player is great for simply running another OS without all the bells and whistles of the full-blown interface of Workstation. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WereCatf) Comments RE: coLinux http://www.osnews.com/thread?460912 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460912 Note that coLinux works with 32 bit Vista/XP/Win7 only. This shouldn't be an issue on older hardware, as there's no good reason to install a 64bit OS - but it's something to be aware of.

Apparently porting coLinux to 64bit is a non-trivial task. I've really missed coLinux the last few years.

Not sure if this fits the article where you mostly talk about refurbished PC's, but you can also run Linux as a Windows-process:

http://www.colinux.org/

There is also a packages version of Ubuntu where you can run the Ubuntu-desktop applications in a window on Windows:

http://www.andlinux.org/
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (joshv) Comments RE[3]: USB thumb drives are very cheap http://www.osnews.com/thread?460923 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460923 You probably not. Having seen how flash memory can die after a short life without a single warning or sign of wear, I wouldn't either.

But as soon as other people start installing OSs on flash drives, using them regularily, and saving data on them, they are at risk of losing important data in a blink of the eye unless they think about backing up the thing. This is one of the reasons why I don't know how I feel about liveUSBs... Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Neolander) Comments RE: esata is the way http://www.osnews.com/thread?460931 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460931 I have been using slide out drive bays for at least 10 years. I have a disk fixed in the case for my files and change out my oses (Windows/Linux/BSD/Open Solaris) as needed. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bolomkxxviii) Comments RE[2]: Comment by darai http://www.osnews.com/thread?460945 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460945 Similar hear

Desktop; 95% booted into Debian, haven't been gaming as much and nothing else Win needs that kind of direct hardware access for my needs.
- hostos Debian
- guestos WinXP Workstation
- guestos Debian Server
- guestos [various pentargets]
- guestos [various OS of interest]
- guestos [skeleton VM for booting liveCD]
- hostos WinXP
- guestos Debian

Notebook; 95% booted into Debian with Win7 for testing and exploration. Any real Win based work gets done in the winXP vm (running Outlook and connecting to the corp VPN).
- Win7 enc
- Debian enc
- WinXP enc
- Debian server development builds

Palmtop; 99% booted into Maemo4 tweaked with a factory fresh bootable partition and my older Maemo3 prior to upgrading the OS. Haven't played with Debian, ubuntu or other alternative OS on it yet.

- Maemo4 clean
- Maemo3 built out
- maemo4 built out

Actually, the one thing attractive about Apple hardware is the ability to legitimately run osX; my notebook would instantly become a triple boot; maybe even add a Backtrack bootable partition as number four. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jabbotts) Comments RE[2]: esata is the way - that's what got me started http://www.osnews.com/thread?460947 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460947 VMs really killed that setup for me but I originally started with IDE drive boxes in the family shared computer; I was allowed to muck about provided I didn't break the family machine..

Fantastically handy to be able to just swap out a box like that though. Nice setup keeping the data drive in place also. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jabbotts) Comments RE: Don't Forget about VMware Player! http://www.osnews.com/thread?460948 http://www.osnews.com/thread?460948 Make it work with Debian.

VMware really was my introduction to virtualization and is fantastic at what it does but not being able to install VMware Server 2 on Debian 5 or 6 was the deal breaker. I was on the verge of buying VM Workstation based on it shipping a working Linux native build but couldn't confirm that it would work any better with Debian. When Virtualbox delivered easy bridged network device setup the competition got me.

VMware (Server edition at least) still has the advantage of easy "boot at host startup" settings for VMs where Virtualbox prefers to run them inside a user session.

Debian is not obscure enough a distribution to not be supported though; especially if Ubuntu can be, according to the download site. Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jabbotts) Comments GRUB1 and GRUB2 http://www.osnews.com/thread?461046 http://www.osnews.com/thread?461046 menu.lst is part of GRUB1. Many OS'es have switched to GRUB2. If available, install GRUB CUNSTOMIZER. If you use Synaptic, here is what you have to do:
in terminal: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
then you can update using synaptic GUI or with the command: sudo apt-get-update and sudo apt-get install grub-customizer.
GOOD LUCK. Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (capricornus) Comments Install on separate disk http://www.osnews.com/thread?461272 http://www.osnews.com/thread?461272 I too prefer to do my linux installs on a separate disk, then use the BIOS boot menu to choose the proper disk. Make sure to install the boot loader to the linux disk.
This keeps the main Windows disk un-touched.
I've had mixed success in the past modifying the windows partition and adding boot managers to the master boot record. Tue, 08 Feb 2011 01:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gbus58) Comments