Re: help

[Robert Voigt <f1k@gmx.de>]

On Monday 07 May 2001 20:30, barsi wrote:
> hello, I am a graduate student in molecular biology and I AM SICK OF MS
> WINDOWS! I am installing your debian Linux os on my IBM 600x laptop, but I
> still need a couple statistical packages currently only available for MS
> windows, my question is:
>
> Q: Can I have Debian/Linux OS installed on my computer while also having MS
> Windows OS installed (god knows I don't want to, but I need it for now). I
> was thinking along the lines of a partitioned disk, where each OS would be
> on it's own disk...? but how would I solve the booting-up situation, can I
> suppress windows and open it on command when needed?

Alot of people run Linux and another OS on the same computer, it's really 
easy. You do it by having them on different partitions and when you boot you 
have a bootmanager such as Lilo that lets you decide which OS to boot. It's 
very easy to configure with the Debian installation program. Most things work 
automatically. Just pay attention to the fact that you can install Win9x only 
in the first partition of the harddrive (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and 
if you install it when Linux is already installed it will erase your 
bootmanager. In this case you must boot with a bootfloppy (create one when 
you install Debian, you will be asked if you want to) and restore the 
bootmanager.
You may also want to look into the various ways of running Windows apps on 
LInux. I know 3 Programs that allow you to: VMWare, Wine and Win4Lin. Search 
the web for more information about them.
If you have laptop specific questions, there's also a debian-laptop mailing 
list.