It is a fact that 95% of PCs in the world have some version of Windows installed, loi it almost certain that virtually all end users and a huge percentage of people responsible for development and network administration knows only that operating system, it that closes the possibilities to begin fully in any other, either MacOS, Solaris, FreeBSD or GNU / Linux. Conclusion: almost certainly start with a computer with dual operating system, in fact, it is considered that the vast majority of users of GNU / Linux started this way and many, for work or custom (of the brothers who use the PC course), it maintained over the life of your computer.

However, it is sometimes quite difficult to install an operating system and customize it, having two in principle represents a doubling of chamba, also all users who have experienced, they know that an operating system, any operating system, has a certain level of difficulty, either Windows, Mac OS or Linux. This short tutorial aims to help a little in this initial process.
Select a distribution

Unlike Windows or MacOS, Linux has many manufacturers (it is estimated that around 250 different) and that supports a wide range of architectures, such as PowerPC, MIPS, RISC and other eccentricities, but the most common is for Intel Series x86 (80386, 80486, Pentium, AMD K5, AMD K7, Athlon, etc..), being one in which we will build.

Choose our distribution can not be, however, very difficult, rather it depends on our level of knowledge and sometimes our pocket. The latter is through deception, but then telling you.

Distributions are very solid and reliable, as Slackwave or Debian, but are not so newbies getting users, which since the facility could pose a problem, others seek a more commercial approach (very true, incidentally) and is SuSE or Caldera, which implies that there is a cost variable, obtained; at other options are to Red Hat or Mandrake are somewhere in between, which are very close to the average user but have a lot of server applications and workstations, in fact virtually Red Hat is the market leader, although Mandrake is recognized as one of the easiest distributions to install and customize, there are also special cases which seek to provide access Linux from Windows, as WinLinux, but before they are released to download it, I warn you that the full version without technical support, costs $ 20 USD.

Regarding the cost, I recall the actual translation of "Free Software": Software Free as in Freedom. Here we must not confuse freedom with the price, because although such applications reduce cost of ownership by not paying licensing.

The first step: Windows on the PC

If your disk is clean, it must partition with fdisk, you can get the same in both the Windows startup disks or the linux distro. We must create at least two partitions for each operating system, only large enough for both the OS and applications and our data fit, remember that as time goes on will need more space, so be smart, a partition of 5 GB for each will be enough to assure a future with few worries, unless they are addicted to some software and MP3 downloads. Smaller partitions are possible (3 GB or less) but should look fine when you install or upgrade the system. The first partition is recommended for Windows, it should be installed first.

If Windows already installed, then we check how much space is occupied and run some of our confidence partitioner (Partition Magic is considered the best), where we assign a "paragraph" to Linux.

We should note the limitation of many BIOS can not boot an operating system after cylinder 1024, so if you can not do it, especially with Windows already too high, we can build a Linux boot floppy.
Second step: Linux on PC

After having Windows on the computer (not affected if configured all network and device parameters or not), you can start installing Linux. The first step is to get a boot disk to install the distro (if our PC can not boot from CD-ROM), we generate as follows:

    1. Insert a new floppy drive.
    2. We insert the first CD of our distro.
    3. We searched the CD folder "dosutils" (usually the root). Please read the README file to have a little more info.
    4. Run the program "rawrite.exe.
    5. Then you are asked for "image" to be used, type: D: \ images \ boot.img (or the CD-ROM).
    6. Then you will be asked where the unit will be installed this "image". In this case we refer to 3 ½ inch floppy, so type "a" or "b" as appropriate.
    7. After a few seconds, the diskette that you entered, you are ready.

After creating the disk, reboot the computer normally, so we turn to the actual installation

At one point the procedure, ask us if we install Lilo (Linux Loader) or Grub (this may not exist in certain distributions or versions) to boot Linux. We must verify that recognize the Windows partition. Specified to be installed either on hda1 (C drive in Windoows ® and MS-DOS ®) or partition where is Linux ®. This small program allows to run several operating systems on a single PC, if any. By default, if you have installed Windows ® or MS-DOS ® on the C hard drive, resetting the system can access one of these operating systems by typing "two" in the LILO prompt or Linux ® with the press of the ENTER key. If for some reason you want to remove Lilo from the hard disk, use fdisk from MS-DOS ® or Windows ® and use the following command at the command of MS-DOS ®:

fdisk / mbr

If installing Linux is not before cylinder 1024, it will be advisable for the initiative through a boot disk, you can create the same complete installation.
Dual boot with Windows NT/2000/XP

Versions of Windows 95/98/Me can be initialized with the previous procedure, but for Windows versions 32-bit, as Windows NT/2000/XP, you must use the following procedure:

    1. We install Windows on a partition as we saw earlier.
    2. Install Linux as we saw earlier.
    3. Boot Linux from a boot floppy.
    4. At the prompt type in "cp / dosc / Bootsect.dos / dosc / bootsect.lnx.
    5. Make a copy of your kernel in / dosc / linux / vmlinux. The kernel is found in the / boot partition.
    6. Using a text editor (vi, emacs or pine), open the file "/ dosc / boot.ini" and change it so it looks like this:

      
       [boot loader]
       timeout = 30
       default = c: \ bootsect.lnx
       [operating systems]
       c: \ bootsect.lnx = "Linux"
       multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (1) \ WINNT = "Windows NT Workstation
       Version 4.00 "
       multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (1) \ WINNT = "Windows NT Workstation
       Version 4.00 [VGA mode] "/ basevideo / sos
       C: \ = "Microsoft Windows"
      
      

    7. Likewise, we must modify the / etc / lilo.conf payable are of the form

       boot = / dosc / bootsect.lnx
       map = / boot / map.lnx
       install = / boot / boot.b
       image = / dosc / linux / vmlinux
       label = linux
       root = / dev/hdb2
        read-only


    8. Save changes to lilo.conf and from the prompt run "lilo" (without quotation marks) so that appropriate changes in the boot.
    9. When the machine restarts, booting from NT must submit entry "linux", which when selected, will start booting Linux.