Elysian Shadows

If I buy a hard drive, partition it, and install, say, debian on a partition. WIll the rest of the space be available for both windows(on a separate hard drive) and debian?

yes, but if you want to dual boot, the best choice is to install a non-Windows bootloader, most likely GRUB.

I think debian comes with grub when you install it.

JaxDragon wrote:I think debian comes with grub when you install it.

yes, but you'll probably have to configure it to allow a Windows boot.

if you install windows first, then linux, it will most of the time setup dual booting for you with no tinkering.

avansc wrote:if you install windows first, then linux, it will most of the time setup dual booting for you with no tinkering.

Yeah, I've done this before. Definitely works on XP.

Kind of off topic, but can someone recommend either debian or ubuntu? I know they both don't take up that much HD space, but which is more suited for development?

Ubuntu is based on debian, they are the same for all intense purposes. you can use any platform for development, Windows is fine, and if you can get your hands on a copy of visual studio, go with windows. but if you are gonna go with linux, get ubuntu, just a bigger community.

avansc wrote:Ubuntu is based on debian, they are the same for all intense purposes. you can use any platform for development, Windows is fine, and if you can get your hands on a copy of visual studio, go with windows. but if you are gonna go with linux, get ubuntu, just a bigger community.

I agree, get Ubuntu
It also gets updates every few months. One in April and one in October.
The update releases are numbered by the year and the month.
For example, the current update is 9.10 (2009 => 09 => 9) . (October => 10) = 9.10
The next update will be out late this month 10.4