Tri-Booting? What os's to use....

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Ok,So my XP install is Screwed (Errors/BSOD's/Reg Error's etc etc etc) so im just going to backup and reinstall everything.So im planning to Tri boot XP Sp2,Vista Sp1 and linux.

So i have several questions:

1.What Distro of Linux should i use,Xubuntu,Kubuntu or Opensuse,maybe Studio Ubuntu?

2.In What order do i install the OS's,I was thinking XP,Vista and then linux,as GRUB would pickup the other 2 os's?

3.How do i backup my Emails?

Cheers :D.
 
1. I prefer Kubuntu. I've used ubuntu, kubuntu and suse and I liked kubuntu the most, though the other 2 were nice too. You could always download a few different ones and try the live cd to get sneak peak at the OS and then choose which one you want.

2. Correct. Shouldn't matter if you install xp or vista first, as long as linux comes last the boot loader (usually grub) will recognize all of the operating systems installed.

3. From outlook express? Open outlook express, then right click on inbox and choose properties. There you will see the path, just save the .dbx file. Then when you throw the .dbx file to the same place after the reinstall you should get all of the received messages back.

I'm pretty sure this is how I did it but I can't be 100% sure since it has been a while.
 
its better to install xp, then vista, then linux, as its all automatic. no messing about with the boot loaders or w/e.
 
I personally prefer to do linux first... Ubuntu has an easy partition manager included (gparted) - just format some for linux (ext), NTFS for XP, and NTFS for vista. I like linux to be "in charge" of my machine only because I feel like it's the most stable, even if i don't use it the most. I also prefer the GRUB boot manager to any others. I pretty much have the same config as you're planning on doing so I can just give you my menu.lst file which just has all of the data needed to boot each OS.

As for which distro, Ubuntu is definitely the easiest in my opinion with auto updates, drivers, etc. If you choose a more system-specific customizable distro like slackware, gentoo, or debian, be prepared to do a lot of configuration (but with good results with performance). You mentioned just a bunch of different variations of ubuntu, so between those I would choose Ubuntu. Kubuntu just has KDE, which, if you're interested in, you can just apt-get through ubuntu (although IMO ubuntu runs better using GNOME), and i dont know much about studio ubuntu, but again, id just go with the most popular release; it's always had what i needed (and have fun playing around with its desktop effects :D)

You might want to add another partition too if you ever get interested in fooling around with installing mac leopard on your machine - it can be a fun project and if you're tribooting... why not quad :p Even if you dont use mac, its good to have one FAT32 partition or NTFS (linux will like it but not as universal as FAT32) for documents/music/etc to use for all your OSs (you dont wanna copy like 40 gigs of music for each partition)
 
You do know if you install linux first, XP / Vista will overwrite the GRUB boot loader?
 
ah! right chris-- yeah hes correct - if you're gonna do it in that order, you should work with installing images to the partition - thats what I do (kinda skipped like 20 steps in my previous post), but long story short, you write XP/vista to an image through linux, then just deploy the images to each partition.

Some people think thats way too much work but if you make your image exactly customized (use vmware to install stuff to the image before deploying), youll have that backup whenever you need, so no need to reinstall all 500 of your applications every time Windows dies on you (which is pretty often in my case)
 
Thankyou jackson for your input,but im a linux n00b lol so i think i will install it in the order dude_se has pointed out.Ok,Now im cut between OpenSUSE and Kubuntu? Which one is the best lol??
 
I would prefer Kubuntu but theyre actually both great distributions - look up some screenshots to see what you like, also keep in mind that support for the [x]ubuntu community is HUGE, so if you do a bunch of troubleshooting that'll be nice. Like i mentioned before, all ubuntu related distros have an automatic updating functionality (similar to windows update, only less lame) that lets you keep your distro up to date, all the time!

I've only heard good things about OpenSuSe, but I can't give you any firsthand information on it. What I can say is that Ubuntu's package management is something i'd prefer to YAST... Apt-get is the easiest thing in the world to use

I'd definitely say do some research before deciding which one's best for you though, since its a pain in the ass to have to reconfigure an entire linux system
 
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