Trying different linux distros?

[jmate24]

i would like to try at least 4 different linux distros including ubuntu.

and i am wondering how i could set it up on my laptop.

right now i am running ubuntu karmic and it is running pretty well. but i have other linuxes that i would like to try even if it means rewriting my hard drive several times but i would like to either do it on an 8 GB thumb drive or use my laptop hard drive which is 372.61 GB and i have 3GB of ram installed.

how would i go about this?

the distros i am planing to use are as follows:

Windows XP -- 80GB or not on thumb
Puppy Linux 4.3.1 -- 60GB or 1GB on thumb (thumb installer)
OpenSuse 11.1 -- 60GB or 1GB on thumb (thumb installer)
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic -- 80GB or 1GB on thumb (thumb installer)
Open Solaris 2009.06 80GB or 1GB on thumb (thumb installer)
linux-swap -- 6GB or 4GB on thumb (thumb installer)

and what would be the best order to install these?

[audiomick]

Hallo.

Have you thought of putting the try-outs in a virtualisation?

If you are installing, windows first. Things I have read here in the forum suggest that SuSe is prone to ignoring other linuxes, but it should see a windows, so that next, then the others.

[EndPerform]

Hallo.

Have you thought of putting the try-outs in a virtualisation?

If you are installing, windows first. Things I have read here in the forum suggest that SuSe is prone to ignoring other linuxes, but it should see a windows, so that next, then the others.

Virtualization would definitely be the way to go if you want to experiment. That's what I'm currently doing right now. My host OS is Windows 7, and I have Ubuntu 9.10 installed via Virtualbox. Eventually I may switch back to dual-boot, but being able to start Linux from within Windows is a bit more handy than a reboot.

[jeb800e]

You can try partitioning your drive, but be warned, partitioning may cause file damage to your other operating systems, but the chances of that aren't too too high.

[JC Cheloven]

You can try partitioning your drive, but be warned, partitioning may cause file damage to your other operating systems, but the chances of that aren't too too high.

I also inform people that partitioning is quite a serious thing. But then I say that I have partitioned and repartitioned over 100 times in some 35 different machines without any problem.

I personally don't like virtualization. You may not get exactly the same behavior as installing.

I wouldn't install any swap in a pendrive. Probably swap will be never used anyway, but it is intended to work as ram if needed. A pendrive is much more limited in read/write lifetime that ram

I wouldn't install puppy. I'd use it from live, perhaps whith that is called "frugal install". It's what it is intended for. You'll get the best from puppy in that way.

I don't understand the need of trying distros using 60Gb each. With such a huge disk, I'd go for something like this:

xp --> 50 Gb NTFS
YourData --> 200Gb NTFS (or more)
then an extended partition containing:

suse --> 12Gb
ubuntu --> 12Gb
solaris --> 12Gb
whatever --> 12Gb
justincase --> 12Gb
(...)
swap --> (find out how much you really need)

The idea is to store all your data in the big partition, no matter which OS you are using (perhaps excluding win2, depending of what you do). Hope you find it useful.

EDIT: although you'll probably end up using only ubuntu, I'd suggest you to include Mandriva and Fedora in your tests. They're both worth, better than suse, imo.

[jmate24]

thanks. that really helps. plus i have an external hdd and i am just going to save all of my data on that and partition my hard drive accordingly.

first i am just going to make my hard drive extended,
then i will install as many Linux OSes as possible while only using one swap partition for all of them.

plus... i believe i have already tried open suse and i think i liked it? but maybe it has changed so much from then that i may end up using it.

i am also wondering if anyone likes open solaris?

the OSes that i am going to use are ubuntu 9.10 amd64 desktop, xubuntu 9.10 amd64 desktop, mandriva 2009.1 gnome i586, open suse 11.1 x86_64, fedora 11 i686, and open solaris 2009.06 x86/64.

i know that they can be finicky, but i am wondering in what order do i install these OSes?

jmate24--

[JC Cheloven]

first i am just going to make my hard drive extended,

A physical drive can have as much as 4 primary partitions. To advoid problems, my advice would be to setup at least one primary partition for windows (the first one). Then you can make an extended partition of the rest of the disk if you want, and put inside this extended partition as many logical partitions as you like (the data one, the small 12gb ones, the swap...)

plus... i believe i have already tried open suse and i think i liked it? but maybe it has changed so much from then that i may end up using it.

A matter of taste, and of how well it deals with your hardware. I disliked the affairs between M$ and Novell anyway.

the OSes that i am going to use are ubuntu 9.10 amd64 desktop, xubuntu 9.10 amd64 desktop, mandriva 2009.1 gnome i586, open suse 11.1 x86_64, fedora 11 i686, and open solaris 2009.06 x86/64.

I can't remember exactly, but I think I've read something about using the same swap space for 64 and 32 bit OSes being problematic. I'd suggest you to do a search

i know that they can be finicky, but i am wondering in what order do i install these OSes?

I've never installed solaris, but I'm pretty sure about ubuntu being able to setup grub correctly for the other OSes. So, I'd install ubuntu last.

[jmate24]

mandriva 2009.1 gnome i586, fedora 11 i686, and open solaris 2009.06 x86/64, xubuntu 9.10 amd64 desktop, ubuntu 9.10 amd64 desktop. including setting up a swap partition for each individual os. and skip open suse.

well there is a problem with setting up several swap partitions in that my memory on my laptop is 4GB and if i set up each individual one that is 8GB per os.

5x8=40GB, i wonder if i can get away with only having 2 swap partitions one for x86 compatable and one for x64 compatable?

jmate24--

[JC Cheloven]

@jmate: sorry I forgot to follow this post. Hope this is still of any interest for you.

Of course, only 2 swaps would be enough. Even NONE would do, having 4Gb ram !
Plus I wouldn't install any 32bit OS. You'll unable to use about 1 Gb ram from it.
Cheers

[jmate24]

so what i am wondering is what order should my distros be installed?