[NTLUG:Discuss] Installation learning curve

[david]

Allen Meyers wrote:
> >From my perspective the decisions required in a linux arena are made 
> extremely difficult simply because MS capitalized on my being lazy and they 
> created what I term another windows dummie.
> So I know for sure I must shrink the windows partition, then possibly after 
> resizing go to BIOS to make certain my boot sequence is correct.
> The decisions I mentioned begin at this point.
> Is there an advantage to installation without partitioning?
> If partitioning is the decision does one need more then 1 if one has in 
> excess of 1GB of RAM
> Finally is colinux a viable option over partitioning and all of this from 
> the perspective of a new user.
>
> Allen 
>
>
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LiveCD versions are a great way to try many different distros before 
committing.
As for partitioning I go with: 5-10G /, 2G swap (drive space is cheap 
why not use it)
and the remaining free space can be allotted to /home. I prefer to 
divide the remaider like this:
2/3 goes to /home and the final 1/3 to /tars. After downloading and 
installing new programs I move
the tar file to the /tars space. In the unlikely event I have to 
reinstall my OS I can choose not to
reformat /home and /tars and all my data will be there when I am back up 
and all the programs I
previously downloaded are right there for reinstall. This of course is 
just my way of preparing for
disaster recovery.

Also you might want to have a look at Wubi. It is Ubuntu that installs 
into Windows, no partitioning
required. Some users on one of the forums I frequent report great success.
http://wubi-installer.org/