installing GNU/Linux, dual-booting

[gusl]

Now that my HD data is as safe as it's going to get (although it's currently unusable), I can go ahead and reformat the partition, and reinstall WinXP (Tablet Edition) from the recovery partition.

Once that's done, this would be a good time to create a partition from which to run GNU/Linux: in case anything goes wrong, little would be lost.

Thoughts:
* I would like a distro/environment that supports my tablet functionality, and is easy to use in every sense
* but since I use Cygwin already, what's the use of having GNU/Linux afterall? I suppose it would good for accessing my files in case Windows won't boot, as happened earlier this month. Also, it would prepare me to escape from the looming clutches of Vista.
* whatever I do, I need to make sure the WinXP recovery partition is still accessible, via F11, hopefully before the boot-screen appears.

Comments

[chrisamaphone]

1. ubuntu is almost definitely the distro you want.

2. while vista looms, windows 7 looms behind it, which i hear is "what vista should have been".

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

<< "what vista should have been". >>

"should have" from whose perspective? does that make it even more pernicious?

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

stat(2) is way slower under Cygwin, so all bulk operations on trees of files take forever. Also, fork() emulation is lame.