3. Choices

3.1. Architecture

The following is a summary of the architecture choices that you should consider. Your choice will probably depend most on your compuer expertise level, value of existing data, and expected division of usage between Windows and linux.

Table 1. Architecture

Separate for linux and Windows	Shared by linux and Windows	Support	Pros	Cons
	address space	Not Supported. Windows must be the only operating system in its partition.
address space	partition	Not covered by this HOWTO. VMWare under Windows	No need to disturb the current configuration. Linux can be loaded on the emulated system.	linux is slow.
address space	partition	Not covered by this HOWTO. VMWare under linux	No need to disturb the current configuration. (unverified) Windows can be loaded on the emulated system.	Windows is slow
address space	partition	Not covered by this HOWTO. DosLinux	No need to disturb the current configuration.
address space	partition	Not covered by this HOWTO. Armed distribution (unverified)	No need to disturb the current configuration.
partition	disk	Windows requires that Windows reside in the first primary partition	Works with standard mail-order home computers from the major dealers.	Requires more installation effort.
disk	host		Minimizes risk to existing system and data. Requires less installation effort.	Normally requires a second computer and extra disks.
host	network	Not covered by this HOWTO. Classes, books, and online help is readily available.	Minimizes installation effort.	Requires at least two computers equipped with network interface cards. Data is not directly available to the other operating system.

3.2. Filesystems

Your choice of filesystem is usually constrained by the hard disk manufacturer, your choice of Windows version, and your choice of linux distribution.

Table 2. Filesystems

Type	Code	Support	Description
DOS6	0x06	Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, linux	IBM DOS default filesystem. Names limited to eight characters + 3 character type
NTFS	0x07	Windows NT, linux read-only	Windows NT default filesystem. Names have arbitrary length. Names cannot include special characters
FAT32 LBA	0x0c	Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, linux	Windows95/98 default filesystem. Names have arbitrary length. Names cannot inlcude special characters
swap	0x82	linux	linex default memory cache filesystem
ext2	0x83	linux	linux default filesystem. Names have arbitrary length. Names can contain arbitrary characters. Tends to suffer little external fragmentation. Scales well over several magnitudes of size. Runs quickly on semirandom access systems.

3.3. Linux Distribution

Your choice of distribution will depend mostly on friends' recommendations, your level of computer expertise, and easy availability of packages. Most distributions will happily reside on the same disk, so there is no reason not to try several distributions until you find the one that is best for you.

Table 3. Distributions

Distro	Publisher	Source	Pros	Cons
RedHat	Red Hat, Inc.	http://www.redhat.com/	Easy to install. Home-user-friendly. Commercial support available. Large number of bundled packages. Tolerates unbundled packages.	Does not tolerate multiple versions on same partition.
Slackware	Walnut Creek CDROM	http://www.slackware.org/	Largest number of bundled packages. Professional-user-friendly. Easiest software development. New packages most often appear here first. Tolerates unbundled packages. Tolerates multiple versions on same partition.	Moderate computer expertise required.
SuSE	SuSE Gmbh	http://www.suse.com/	Easy to install. Business-user-friendly. Aimed at business users. Commercial support available. Tolerates unbundled packages. Tolerates multiple versions on same partition.

3.4. Backup Tools

Table 4. Backup Tools

Tool	Requirements	Description
Norton Ghost	Windows 95/98/NT network drive	Easy to use. Makes and restores images of disks or partitions. No selection or deselection of files/directories. No index generated.
tob	linux tape drive	Easy to use. Easy to configure. Selects or deselects files/directories to backup or restore. Generates index of backups searchable to find archived files.
yast (untested)	backup tool	Graphical interface for system administration tools. Included with SuSE linux

3.5. Compaction Tools

Table 5. Compaction Tools

Tool	Requirements	Description
fips	Windows95 (Included in tomsrtbt-1.6.335)	Splits a FAT16 or FAT32 partition into two partitions without destroying data so that the new partition can be loaded with a different operating system.
fips	Windows98, Windows98 (requires at least version 2.0), Run under Windows98	Splits a FAT16 or FAT32 partition into two partitions without destroying data so that the new partition can be loaded with a different operating system.

3.6. Repartitioning Tools

Table 6. Repartitioning Tools

Tool	Requirements	Description
fdisk	Included in tomsrtbt-1.6.335	Supports editting of a partition table. Two-tiered menu system. The first level includes read and normal operations. The second level lets you fix inconsistencies.
fdisk	Included with Windows 95 and Windows 98	Does not permit creattion of partitios associated with filesystems not supported by Windows, nor selecting a bootable partition other than the first primary partition.
yast (untested)	backup tool	Graphical interface for system administration tools. Included with SuSE linux

3.7. Formating Tools

Table 7. Formating Tools

Tool	Requirements	Description
e2fsck	Included in tomsrtbt-1.6.335	Checks an ext2 filesystem for errors
format	Included with Windows 95 and Windows 98	Creates a vfat filesystem on a chosen partition
mke2fs	Included in tomsrtbt-1.6.335	Creates an ext2 filesystem on a chosen partition.
mkswap	Included in tomsrtbt-1.6.335	Creates a swap filesystem on a chosen partition.

3.8. Boot Managers

Table 8. Boot Managers

Tool	Requirements	Description
lilo	linux	Configures which operating system is booted. lilo itself if very robust and configurable. Some care is required, since lilo is usually used to overwrite the master boot record, lest one carelessly loose the ability to boot Windows automatically.
loadlin (uc)	Windws 95 or 98	Started from Windows in dos mode. (Can be placed as shortcut in Windows) Replaces linux with Windows in memory. Since loadlin does not overwrite the master boot record, a failed installation should not be able to risk Windows.

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