Multiboot on new netbook

[birdog]

I just got a new netbook and want to install several distro's to play with so would appreciate any advice you have. I have a 160gb drive so was going to dedicate 10gb to each distro and to xpsp3 that is comes with and about 2-4 gb for meego. Here are the distro's i want to install if possible

I am in love with KDE again so starting with
Kubuntu

hate the limitations of Gnome but like this distro
Good OS - gOS

this will be my first experience with XFCE
Dreamlinux

not sure if i will install both but the look so cool i probably will if i can but again this will be my first experience with Enlightenment
OpenGEU
OzOS

I like the possibilities of this better than android and just want to play with it
MeeGo - Netbook install

and the xpxp3 that comes on the netbook

the last 100gb I was wanting for mp3/movies/docs...
i was planing on putting the 100gb in NTFS so it could be shared with each OS? Not sure if that is possible or if there is a better solution but i want to be able to access the files from each os - in linux you just mount that partition to access it? and then i would also be able to access it via windows. I am assuming windows cannot see the ext3 file system and/or it is easier to use NTFS?

right now xpsp3 is installed so not sure if can back it up via usb or if i can just download a version and burn a cd as i have a key and use WinToFlash to put it on a flash drive or can i just make partitions leaving the xpsp3 install on the netboot?

Any opinions on filesystem / order of installs / how much drive space is ideal per distro / is it even possible for that many os's / which boot loader to use?

Any advise and/or opinions are welcomed

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Most of Linux distros support NTFS read/write access out of box. Data sharing through NTFS Partition is a good idea.

10GB Space is enough for most of distros. Make sure to create only one SWAP partition because all distros can share single SWAP partition and creating more than one will be a wastage of space only.

Distro installation order doesn't matter and you should not worry about Boot Loader. Installers of these distros will detect other installed Linux distros and setup multiboot itself.

right now xpsp3 is installed so not sure if can back it up via usb or if i can just download a version and burn a cd as i have a key and use WinToFlash to put it on a flash drive or can i just make partitions leaving the xpsp3 install on the netboot?

No idea.

[birdog]

Thanks devils casper for your reply

How big a swap space would you recommend? 2GB or more?
and can you resize the windows partition during the first linux install or do you think it would be easiest to just reinstall all and partition when I install the first OS?

again thanks for the reply

BTW with a handle like that you might want to try the Ubuntu Satanic Edition - It looks kinda fun especially around Halloween

[devils casper]

How big a swap space would you recommend? 2GB or more?

If you have 1GB or more RAM, there is no need to create SWAP partition. I would suggest you to create 1GB RAM to be on safer side.

can you resize the windows partition during the first linux install or do you think it would be easiest to just reinstall all and partition when I install the first OS?

Best way is, create partition before starting installation.

Resize Windows OS partition(s) and create one SWAP Partition. Leave rest of disk space as unpartitioned.
Create new 10GB Partition and install Linux distro. After successful installation of first distro, create another 10GB Partition and install new distro.

You can create/delete/resize partitions using PartedMagic LiveCD or USB. It has a lot of other useful tools too and it's one of the must have disk.

BTW with a handle like that you might want to try the Ubuntu Satanic Edition - It looks kinda fun especially around Halloween

Interesting ! I will try it.


If you have any confusion regarding partition structure, post the output of fdisk -l command here.