Distro

[dime]

I have a friend who has never touched linux, but wants to; she however has no partitioner and wants to dualboot with windows.

I would have suggested Fedora, however it does not have a partitioning stage really (well, I know 5 didn't).

What do yall think would be a good distro for her?

Also, the main question is: how would you go about setting up dualboot with this distro?

[techieMoe]

I would have suggested Fedora, however it does not have a partitioning stage really (well, I know 5 didn't).

All the Linux distributions I've tried recently had a partitioning stage, including Fedora Core 5. What do you mean exactly when you say you want a partitioner? Do you mean you want it to have the ability to shrink an existing NTFS partition and use the empty space?

What do yall think would be a good distro for her?

Pardon me for being blunt, but this question comes up a lot: no one can tell you that. Asking that question is like asking us to tell you what your friend's favorite flavor of ice cream will be. If she's new, pick a popular one and let her try it. If she doesn't like it, try another until you find one that grabs her. That's what we all do.

[dime]

All the Linux distributions I've tried recently had a partitioning stage, including Fedora Core 5. What do you mean exactly when you say you want a partitioner? Do you mean you want it to have the ability to shrink an existing NTFS partition and use the empty space?

Yes, that's exactly what she needs. Sorry, I wasn't really clear about that.

Pardon me for being blunt, but this question comes up a lot: no one can tell you that.

Well, my question really is, what popular ones have a partitioning stage that can shrink partitions.
It's been a while since I installed Ubuntu; does it have one?

[techieMoe]

Yes, that's exactly what she needs. Sorry, I wasn't really clear about that.
Well, my question really is, what popular ones have a partitioning stage that can shrink partitions.
It's been a while since I installed Ubuntu; does it have one?

Ahh, see that's a different question. To the best of my knowledge Ubuntu can shrink partitions... but I haven't done it myself. Hang in there, perhaps someone else has more experience with that.

I know Xandros can, but it's not free. You know, if she's really that new (and therefore unsure) you might just want to give her Ubuntu or Mepis and let her use the LiveCD without installing anything first. If she likes one, then you can worry about setting up a dual-boot.

[Thrillhouse]

A good suggestion here might be to get the Fedora Live CD and use GParted to shrink the partition, then you can do an install using the install CD's with no problem, and dual boot will automatically be set up. The Ubuntu Live CD will also do this. The only difference between the two is with the Ubuntu Live CD you can begin the installation directly from the Live CD whereas with Fedora, you'd have to shrink the partition with the Live CD then restart the computer with the first Fedora install CD or DVD in the drive to begin the installation.

[illuminati11_13]

Ahh, see that's a different question. To the best of my knowledge Ubuntu can shrink partitions... but I haven't done it myself.

Ubuntu can shrink partitions but not NTFS ones without destroying them. When I wanted to dual boot Ubuntu/Windows I used QtParted from a Knoppix liveDVD.

I suggest either this or the gParted liveCD. After you partition it you can just install your distro of choice.

[Juan Pablo]

Ubuntu can shrink partitions but not NTFS ones without destroying them. When I wanted to dual boot Ubuntu/Windows I used QtParted from a Knoppix liveDVD.

I am afraid you are wrong, Ubuntu's default partitioner (GParted) can shrink NTFS partitions without problems, I have done this several times and Windows has booted without problem from the partition, just defrag before shrinking