How many gigs necessary to run both xp pro and linux at the same time?

if i wished to try linux, what would i do since i run windows xp pro on one machine and home edition on another with a small wireless network?

1. how many total gigs must i have to run both operating systems?

2. where can i learn how to partition my hard drive to run windows xp pro as well as linux on just the more powerful machine, the desktop?

3. if i run both xp pro and linux, what will happen to the user of the laptop that only runs windows xp home edition?

fyi: i am administrator on both machines. my friend is only a limited xp user. i cannot allow her to be an administrator.

i only want to find out why so many people are now talking about going to linux and quitting microsoft windows.

so therefore, my purpose is for testing.

4. what browsers work well with linux?

5. do you get viri as much as you can on wins xp as linux and why? or why not?

6. do you need a firewall with linux?

7. can you make your current software work with linux without writing code?

How many gigs necessary to run both xp pro and linux at the same time?microsoft downloads

Here you go:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technol...

This will take you step by step to running windows and linux

1. You will need at least 1gb ram - 2 is better

2. is in the above link

3. The laptop user will see the windows device *and* any linux enabled PC compatible services like "Samba" disk sharing

4. Firefox works fine with Linux

5. More virus' on Windows by far, it's a juicier target

6. Yes you need a firewall with linux, I'm sure there's one for it

7. You cannot run windows programs on linux - they would have to be (minimally) recompiled to run natively on linux (without an emulator)

How many gigs necessary to run both xp pro and linux at the same time?microsoft word 2003 internet explorer

1. Linux is known to run on machines with 400mb hard disk space and 4mb memory. So as far as 'gigs' are concerned linux is really lightweight.

2. Use any search engine , more over read the installation HOWTO's on http://tldp.org.

3. Not a very clear question , if you install linux on machine A, it can in no way affect machineB, linux is great but it does not have any magical powers. As far as access control, linux is much more secure for multiple users with their individual home directories. Only the 'root' can make system wide changes.

4. mozilla, firefox - most common there are hundred's of browsers for linux all you have to do is search the internet.

5. Linux is designed that a program can only read or write files of the user who runs the program. So viruses can do system wide damages only if you run untrusted programs as 'root'

6. Depends on the environment

7. What is 'current software' ? Programs written for windows will work with linux(with an emulator 'wine'). Tens of thousands of programs are available for linux which cover most needs . look up freshmeat.net, gnu fsf directory or sourceforge.net
I believe what you want is called a "dual boot" system. I would recommend at least a 40 GB drive for that. Here is a dual-boot how-to article http://www.linuxboards.org/showthread.ph...
I wouldnt change it could cause errors and not help ur machine run right and folders files will be mixed up all over place and u will lose memory and hard drives wont work well