Dual/Triple Boot setup with Win 7

[wanderer11]

Hi all,
I've been curious about Linux so was going to give a few different distros a try. I was going to start with Linux Mint and Ubuntu (other suggestions would be appreciated). Anyway, my question is how would a dual boot work? I'd like to be prompted at start up for which OS I want. Would I have to change boot priority to pick the partition with the OS I want, would I be prompted automatically, or would something else happen I'm not thinking of? My plan is to make a bootable flash drive for the install(s) (I found out that my 1GB ones are too small so I ordered one), and make a couple 15 GB partitions off my ssd just to mess around with. Thanks in advance.

 

[tonyzet]

before you install anything to your hdd, you could try various linux distros in virtual machines (google "vm virtualbox") and see what suits you best. A good distro to start with is linux mint http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=144 .

 

[wanderer11]

I've never used a virtual machine. Will I still have to go through the process of creating the bootable flash drive or will it work differently? As for the dual boot prompt, any ideas on what to expect when I do get a distro installed?

 

[Ijack]

Install Windows first, then Linux. It will automatically set up a boot menu. You can do it the other way round but it's a bit more work, so no point in doing it that way.

For most purposes a VM is a perfectly good way of running Linux. No flash drive required, just install from an ISO file.

 

[wanderer11]

Ok well thanks. I'll look into the VM first.