HEY

I WANT TO INSTALL Ubuntu BUT DON'T KNOW IF MY FILES AND APPLICATIONS FROM WINDOWS XP(MY CURRENT OS) WILL STAY ON THE HARD DRIVE (DUAL-BOOT)

THANKS ALOT

Hi davidg,
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As long as you follow the instructions in the setup wizard you should be fine - just make a back up of all your stuff on XP first, you should be doing this regularly anyway.
What version of Ubuntu are you installing? You might want to wait for five days for the latest one to be released and install that instead. That gives you plenty of time to make backups, too

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Ash
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i thought on ubuntu linux it says that it doesnt remove any info from ur hard drive when its installed. pretty sure it was on their site. my tech teacher told me that too. but the website should have pretty specific details on how to install, and what partitions you might need to make. havnt looked at ubuntu for a while though.

PhatLINUX.COM : Main Page - Now You Can Install Linux in Windows!
Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

I'm not sure if this user will be back... he may need to find his caps lock key, as passwords are case sensitive here
Linux will modify your hard drive if you install it. A live CD distribution will run from RAM - unless you install it from the option which is usually on the desktop.

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ash ur positive "ubuntu" linux will modify your hard drive if you install it? cant you just partition it if worst comes to worst?

(once again i havnt looked at it in a while, so not like im trying to tell you your business.)

Basically when you install Ubuntu, it will either resize / create your Windows partition or take over the drive, depending on what option you pick. Both of these modify data on the drive.

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Ash
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I installed Kubuntu and Ubuntu on my server (diff times).

It's real simple - Ubuntu can partition remaining data and use it without losing any of your data.

Ex. Say you have a 100gb hard drive, you have XP on there and let's say that takes 10 - you have 40gb worth of additional data.

So you have half your hard drive used - you can pop in the Ubuntu CD, and install it as a dual boot - it can partition the remaining 50gb (or whatever you want it to, 40, 30, 20, whatever) and convert it from NTFS to whatever format Ubuntu uses (ext3 I think). Then you can run a dual boot no problem - no data lost. It's very user friendly and easy as pie.

Don't forget to leave yourself 2gb or so for a swap partition. It's idiot-proof unless you come across weird errors (which happen occasionally).

hey i know you can load a live version on a storage device or whatever, and try it out, and it seemed pretty sweet when i tried it out, but what advantages does it have over xp? it has an awesome look but is there some type of purpose it specifically serves? also when you guys say it modifies data, what does it modify? i understand that it partitions xp, and other data, and data for itself. but what would that modify?

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It just modifies the partitioning on your drive and the data in the partition you run it. The main advantages are that you can copy, modify and redistribute it however you like. It's legal to install Ubuntu on as many computers as you like, and you are encouraged to do so. It can do everything XP can do but faster and better, and there are free alternatives for more or less all programs - some companies even make their paid-for Windows software Free on the UNIX platform.

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Ash
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but what about games and stuff? aren't they mostly for xp? unless you buy a version specific for like mac? you wouldnt be able to run as many games right? isnt that a disadvantage for the average user?

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The average user dosen't play that many games

You can run most older games either in a virtual machine or using Wine. But apart from that, you can't play games written for Windows [flash games are OK].

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Ash
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lol. oh well as long as i still have my flash games like tg motocross, and that one with the 3d paddle pong.

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