two operating systems

[vietboi]

what are the advantages and disadvantages of having two OS on a computer?

which os are you talking about?

win2k and winxp?

winxp and linux?

some people install two os's to play around with another os. i.e they use windows as there main, and have linux on when they want to learn and play around with the os.


Another reason when win2k some older games didnt work on it. so people would have win98 and win2k on there. they would boot into win98 to play games. and then do everything else in win2k because it was more stable

[vietboi]

winME and XP

[Xeroid]

some people install two os's to play around with another os. i.e they use windows as there main, and have linux on when they want to learn and play around with the os.

Exactly. It eases the transition to Linux. You still have an OS that you are familiar with on one HD or partition and you have another OS on the other HD or partition that you can learn at your own pace.

I've also seen people keep a Win98 partition because XP wouldnt play nice with a piece of hardware they needed.

vietboi personally from my stand point i dont know why anyone would have winme installed on to a machine.

another solution if you dont want to partition your drive is to look into vmware

[StealthyV]

knoppix is a flavor of linux which runs entirely from cd-rom...it exists in system memory and sometimes uses a "swap" file (less than 500mb usually) on the hdd.
peanut linux is a tiny os as well. a google search will point you in the right direction (where to get these FREE os's)
a dual-boot is nice...but I prefer to have one box be linux-based (I use red hat 8) and have one box be windows (win2k advanced server).

~Branson

[John Prophet]

A bit different reason is to keep one os "pristine" and if something happens to the main os, the backup os has the replacement files ready....have I ever heard of anyone doing this?? No, lol...but it sounded good.

[Beemer]

I have 3 installed. Win98/Y2K/XP.
1.) I can avoid file protection by accessing system files from one O/S to another. EG: O/S Customization Hacks.

2.) I can better relate to tech support items if I can boot to the O/S in question.

3.) I can impress my friends with a multiple selection O/S screen....lol

4.) Because, I can.

Each of my O/S's access the same Favorites, Windows Addressbook & Outlook Express Store, files & folders.
EG: When I add a new Contact/Favorites/receive E-mail, the change is reflected in all O/S's.

Separate partition for each O/S and at least one other partition for misc files including the common files I just mentioned. This misc files partition is a good safety net as well. If an O/S goes south on me, it doesn't take with it any of my important common files data.

I also have a Programs Partition. This partition contains 3 folders.
Program Files98
Program FilesY2K
Program FilesXP

Each O/S partition and the Programs partition being ghosted. Misc files partition on backup CD's.

Cheers!

[Redwolf]

4.) Because, I can.

Why else would you even consiter using a computer beyond the novice level?

For ME and XP, eh...

Advantages:

*You can run programs (like video games) that run under ME but not XP. For this reason, 98 is probably a better system to use, because it is a bit faster.

If one OS dies, you can still use the machine even at reduced functionality.

Hardware that doesn't work with XP can be used in ME.



Disadvantages:

*Will take up a good bit of HDD space, mainly due to the fact that ME CANNOT read XP (NTFS) partitions (however, XP can read and write to ME (FAT32) partitions).

Useless unless you have software or hardware that needs to be run under ME.

As a backup, it's not as trustworthy, especially if placed on the same disc (you can dual boot using 1 HDD for both OSes, or the better method of multiple HDDs for multiple OSes).

Performance Losses are possible, but not likely.


If you REALLY want to have fun w/dual booting, you can go for more exotic operating systems to play around in. Some examples:

MS-DOS 6 (for old games, provided you have a sound card with DOS support)
Linux (a popular choice of experienced computer enthusiasts, people looking for a good server and programmers, but is gaining popularity across the board due to it's improving ease of use)
FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD (Ever wanted your own version of UNIX? Pick any of those 3, and you get a BSD UNIX and more, what with all the free software for it and such)
BeOS (An OS with a cult following, but it declined in popularity when the company went bankrupt. It was quite powerful though.)
FreeDOS (If you want your own version of DOS to program in without having to track down MS-DOS compilers, then look at FreeDOS, which comes with it's own compiler (a GCC variant)).
Windows 3.1 (Set the Wayback Machine and impress your friends with Solitare...in full 16-color mode (no, not 16-bit)).

[Beemer]

*Will take up a good bit of HDD space

With 178 gig's available between 2 HDD's, I'm not to worried myself.

Win98/Y2K/XP all FAT32 on my machine.

The formula for performance is each O/S on it's own separate partition, swap/page file on it's own separate partition on a separate HDD from O/S, Programs to be loaded on separate HDD from O/S.

Cheers!