
Originally Posted by
jcobban
You can do this but you are creating potential problems for yourself because Microsoft is hostile to sharing a computer with anybody else. Indeed Microsoft is currently requesting, in order to "prevent boot hacks", that OEM computers for the next version of Windows must include a verification feature that might prevent Linux from loading. And of course you void support from Microsoft or your OEM for your Windows system if you dual boot it. More importantly you are stuck doing either Windows or Linux at any given moment, with no way for the two systems to communicate. In my opinion it is safer and more productive to install a free virtual machine product such as VirtualBox or VMWare and run one of the systems as a guest. The safest configuration, since it does not void the warranty, is to leave your original OEM installation of Windows alone and install Linux as a guest, although I am personally running Windows (4 different releases!) as the guest of Linux because my primary use of the system is programming. Your Linux system will have access to the disks and printer on the host Windows system because it supports SMB directly, and the Windows system can have access to the Linux disks if you run a Samba server. You can even cut and paste between applications in the different operating systems!