Software setup for new systems

[wjgollatz]

I am purchasing two systems (notebooks) for myself and a family member. On both I would like to partition the drives to install a Linux distribution (to use whenever but not for main use). As opposed to my other systems, I would like to maintain the systems the right way from the start - and that means ant-virus, firewall...

Besides having the software for Linux;
1: What else should I have besides anti-virus and firewall?
2: Does anti-virus software generally include spyware detection?
3. Partitioning software (or find a Linux distribution that does the parition for you)?

How should I install the the software for best effeciency of the system (considering these are notebooks for battery life)

A. After XP, partition the disk and install Linux? Install rest of programs
B. After XP, install windows software, parition and install Linux
C. Format, partition, XP....
D. Suggestions?

 

[Zugzwang152]

generally people recommend format, linux, windows.

 

[wjgollatz]

Is there a reason to put Linux in first? Of an 80 Gb drive, I plan about 15-20 for the Linux.

 

[drag]

No, you put on Windows first.

The windows installer and bootloader doesn't care anything about Linux or other operating systems. When you install Linux it goes and looks for other partitions having OSes and tries to setup the bootloader to dual boot automaticly.

It's works 90% of the time, the only real problems I've seen lately is that there is a bug with Fedora's version of Grub (linux bootloader program. Lilo is the other, older, one) that causes some issues with booting from resized partitions.

You install Windows first, leave unpartitioned space for Linux and then let the linux installer take care of the dual boot and partitioning. Keep in mind the 4 partition limit on x86 machines. (4 real partitions, if you want more then 4 you have to make the 4th a extended partition and turn that into as many logical partitions as you want).

20gigs is enough for a full install + usable space for user files (full install is the recommended thing to do most of the time).

edit:

Also make sure that you have recovery console setup for Windows and make sure that you can boot into the recovery console from the windows cdrom. That way if you decide you don't like Linux or you need the extra space for Windows stuff, you can do the "fixmbr" stuff and recover the original Windows MBR.

 

[wjgollatz]

is the "fixmbr" stuff in the XP documentation - or should that be googled? I am totally unfamiliar with XP.

 

[drag]

It's basicly a modern version of "dos mode" for NT based operating systems (NT/W2k/WinXP). You use it to try to fix things when Windows won't boot or you need to access the OS without booting.

You use it for things like rolling back service pack 2 incase you computer can't boot with it installed, or reseting the password. In this case you boot from the windows cdrom and get into the recovery console and issue the command "fixmbr" to restore the Windows bootloader.

At least that's my understanding.

Microsoft introduction to recovery console:
http://support.microsoft.com/d...x?scid=kb;EN-US;314058

also if you google for it you should be able to find a more 'easy to read' detailed explaination.

The MBR, as you probably know, is the first 512k or so of information on the bootable harddrive. The first part of it contains the first stage of the bootloader, and the second half contains your information about your partition setup.

 

[Schadenfroh]

2: Does anti-virus software generally include spyware detection?

some have some spyware detection. It is good to run Adaware SE and Spybot Search and Destroy scans every once in a while. Linux is not nearly as bad as windows, but if you want to help secure the windows install see the prevention guide in my guide to malware

www.schadentech.com/Malware/spyware.htm

 

[dfi]

I would guess format, xp, then linux. When installing xp, it sees the partitions available and asks which partition to install xp on.

Personally, I only use the windows default firewall, along with closing off some router ports. I use an anti-virus, but I do not allow it to auto-start. Instead, I only run the anti-virus at my leisure. In addition, I also have adware/spyware software that I run at my leisure.

The best thing I ever did was setup root/user accounts in windows xp. Just like on linux, I use the user account 99.9% of the time, and only log into root when necessary. In addition, I also use firefox/opera. I have been adware/spyware/virus free since doing so.

dfi