Multiple OS’s and Various Implementations

By: 2LT SinnerANS

This was supposed to be an article on dual booting, HOWEVER, since I started researching it I’ve found some different things that I think are interesting that I didn’t know before.

There are many benefits to installing multiple Operating Systems on a single computer. For example, some OSes are clearly stronger and more stable than others, while others have a wider array of applications to chose from, and still others are able to complete complex graphic design problems much easier and more smoothly.

But there are other reasons too. If you happen to be running windows as a primary OS you are well aware of the need for the continuous scanning, cleaning, and maintenance of the system to keep things running smoothly. And despite your best efforts one day you are reading about brute force attacks and click on a bad link and then its all over. Things slow down; your AV maybe stops updating properly. Your computer gets hostile and goes on long vacations while you wait for applications to boot. But having a second OS installed, or at least a second OS live disc prepared, will allow you to boot into a clean, simple environment with that new-OS smell, allowing you to run an AV scan and begin to fix your machine. Better yet, is the ability to explore the many new features and vulnerabilities(/exploits) of new OSes without the risk to your system integrity. (I think you might even be able to set up virtual networks?)

There are multiple ways to experiment with multiple OSes on a single box. You can dual boot from a partitioned hard drive, dual boot from multiple hard drives, you can run virtual machine, or in the case of most Linux distributions, you can use Live version. Because a Live version is the easiest and safest let’s go over it first.

A live version is a complete albeit bare-bones operating system run from an .ISO image from a variety of media sources. The standard issue is used on a CD/DVD but you can also write it to a USB stick and carry it around with you, which is handy if you are going to be using multiple workstations. From the live desktop you can chose to install the complete version pretty easily. Which brings me to dual booting.

Dual booting is a bit more complex but still not hard. It’s best if you can plan ahead and do this with a fresh system but that’s not available most of the time. So if you haven’t created separate partitions ahead of time you will need to do it now. In windows you can use the run & gt ;diskpart.exe utility. Because windows is a greedy/arrogant piece of software, when it installs it likes to re-write over the Master Boot Record whereas most Linux distros don’t have this problem from what I have been able to see and read. So it is a better idea to install your windows OS first, then let your linux work around it.

Another thing to consider is a boot loader which is a program such as GNU Grub or Macs Boot Camp software that allows you to chose which os to boot when you start your computer. GRUB 2.0 is the current release but according the GRUB website its still a beta version.

I am still working on virtual machines, it seems as there are multiple implementations out. Currently a proprietary version VMware developed in part by a former Microsoft Exec acts as a sub OS seems interesting. It is primarily used to increase server efficiency by allowing you to boot multiple operating systems and use them independently and concurrently.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14