Linux

Hi all,

I am sorry if this is a repetitive question and would be happy if I get directed to a source where I can find details about this.

I have a laptop with windows 8, 8 GB RAM and 1 TB hard disk with most of the memory available for use.
I am trying to find a good option to install Linux as an additional OS on it (if it's possible). I know a little of shell scripting and perl and want to use this Linux version to work more on Perl and hoping to configure a web server like apache when I reach to that stage.

I have tried to search online and found some options like using VMWare, Cygwin, dual OS/boot and coLinux. Out of these I think only dual OS/boot or coLinux could be useful if I want to try web server configuration, etc.

While coLinux looks like best option, I came across lot of negative feedback about it which stoppped me from trying it out.

Can you please provide me your suggestion on using coLinux or any alternate option that I can try. Any references that you can provide would be of great help to me.

Thanks in advance!

You can use cygwin but that's not linux. I am not a fan of dual boot unless each partition needs access to the physical devices. I recommend installing the free VMware playing than installing an opensource Linux system like ubunto of fedora. Configuration in this fashion allows you to use both linux and windows at the same time. In this configuration, we say windows is the host system and linux is the guest operating system.

Dual boot is the definite option.

The latest Linux distros available will do the job and you'll be able to partition your HDD without a problem provided you follow the instruction prompted throughout the install process.

I'd recommend Ubuntu for its ease of use/install/setup/documentation/community but feel free to check out other distros.

I've been using/testing all of them distros (from gentoo to linux mint including CentOS or Archlinux and Mandriva...) and I'd strongly recommend Ubuntu as of today.

Thank you for your suggestions, blackrageous and vincent72

As opposed to blackrageous, I'm not a big fan of virtualization. Reason ? Well... I'd say it's a concept within the concept.

Let's say you want to use a linux distro for real, then go for it and either use 2 HDDs for dual boot OR a small amount of your single HDD where windows is already installed.

I'd even dare to say it'll be a lot faster to set up as opposed to a virtual OS.

I do use virtualisation to try an "exotic" distro, but when it gets serious (hardware compatibility, setting up a REAL server) I always go for a hard install.

Again, virtualization is a concept on top of a concept (in your case) and I don't recommend it unless you're ready to deal with the issues (i.e.: understanding what comes with it) as opposed to just install (15 minutes) the lastest ubuntu distro on your HDD and have dual boot.

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1- Install Ubuntu next to your existing Windows install (don't give it more than half of the remaining hd free space)
2- install a lamp server with ONE command line :

Code:

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 mysql-server libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql

This definitely sounds tempting to me
One question that just came to my mind, as windows 10 has just arrived, do you think I should wait to install ubuntu until I make my mind on whether or not to go for windows 10
As it's a free upgrade for me (windows 8.1 to 10), I am thinking about it!

A quick Google search shows some problems when upgrading Windows in a dual boot configuration. The fix is not too difficult but if you are new to Linux it might be advisable to upgrade Windows, then install whatever flavor of Linux you want.