Grub quick question

[Aston Villa]

I've installed linux a couple of times now, on the boot loader screen it gives you the option to not have a bootloader.

I was just wondering on what occassion you do not need a boot loader?
Is it when you only have 1 operating system on the hard disk?

Cheers

[bmxface]

i dont know about with linux but i always throw Grub on none the less.

[bpark]

Well, the function of a bootloader is really to load an operating system so in other words, you have to have it. In general, it is used almost every operating system. In Windows, unless you have multiple Windows OS, it will not show you the bootloader and instead, just boot you directly into the only OS you have. Linux isn't like that. It either uses LILO or GRUB as the bootloader. Both LILO and GRUB have been easy to manipulate through a table that you may see when you boot your computer.

[Dolda2000]

Not installing a boot loader is useful when you have alternative methods of loading the O/S, such as when you have another boot loader installed already and want to use it instead, or when you want to use a boot floppy to boot Linux.