Introducing UNIX and Linux

Installing Linux

Overview
Starting out
Preliminaries
      Collecting information about your system
      Installation options
Single boot
Dual boot
      Booting from CD/floppy
      Booting from your hard disk
      A partitionless install
      A dedicated Linux partition
Emulators
      VMware
      WINE
Installing Linux
      Installer software
      Linux partitioning
            Typical partitions
            User accounts
      LILO
The window manager
KDE
      Desktop help
      Applications
      The KDE Control Center
      File access and the command prompt
Summary

A dedicated Linux partition

If you have enough disk capacity, then you can allocate a complete partition (or indeed disk) to Linux. If you are serious about running a safe, clean and reliable Linux alongside an operating system such as Windows, then this is a good option. Recognising this fact, many of the Linux installers provide a GUI-based (Graphical User Interface) partitioning package that is fairly simple to use. Partitioning is discussed in more detail in the section on Linux partitioning.

Note

(+)	most installers automatically partition
(+)	little impact on existing operating system
(-)	must clear proposed partition
(-)	must calculate partition size