CLAM's main purpose is to scan files (mainly for use on email servers - to protect windows machines). It does not do "realtime" protection. An infected windows executable on the linux partition (assuming you're using a non-windows filesystem for your linux partition) will not be able to infect your windows partition.

A lot of the (larger) distros have searchable databases of packages:

http://packages.gentoo.org/categories/
http://packages.debian.org/

If there are particular packages that you must have then googling for "package name distro name" will usually give a fair indication of whether it is available.

Actually YES!, your reason for installing linux appears to be to learn more about it. Installing practically any linux distro will enable you to learn more about it. Whether a car has heated leather seats is probably of little concern to you when you're still learning to drive the car.

One of the joys of using linux is trying out various distros to find one that you like. Trying to do masses of research and canvassing people's opinion on which distro you should install, hoping to have picked the "right" distro the first time is to unnecessarily limit your options.

I suspect most people are like me and use several different distros depending on application. My main work computer runs gentoo for flexibility and wide range of packages. My older slower machines which are mainly used for web browsing runs something lightweightish like Xubuntu. My media playing machines runs something requiring less maintenance than gentoo, eg sidux/aptosid, sabayon. And my laptop runs Opensuse.

kureyon - Right you are. For short money I could buy another smaller, SATA hard drive and dual, tri or quad boot a number of Linux based OS's and just change the drive out when I need Windows. If I need files on the Windows drive while using one of the Linux distros I can use the Thermaltake Black-X eSATA thing to attach my Windows 7 Pro-64 drive (so long as that distro works with my eSATA connection). Then I could do just as I did with my Vista Ult 64 to clean Win 7 Pro 64 change. Tear things to pieces to try and find evry little possibility and way to do things then wipe clean and re-install.
I think that's what I'll do. New small (320GB) drive and Ubuntu, opensuse, Fedora and maybe one more. Then I can give all the 64-bit options a try, wipe the drive and go to 32-bit if I experience problems (which seems likely from what I've been told here). With the new drive there is no concern for bleed over to Windows.

I should fdisk, partition and format all in ext4, I assume?

Anyone aware of problems with multiboot setups with any of the distros? Can my multiboot options include both 64 and 32 bit options? If Windows can I assume the Linux distros can (only one is running at a time and doesn't care about the others).
Any problems with reading from an NTFS formated Windows 7 64 bit drive with the 32 bit Linux distros?
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this thread!

David

http://www.blackdiamondpestcontrol.com/linuxlaptop.htm

Looks like all components of my notebook are covered (in an older version of Fedora at least).. Cannot find anything directly relevant to Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Opensuse or otherwise but I assume since the Linux kernel is shared I should be just fine with any of them.

Now I just need to know which file system to use (I am guessing ext4) in formatting the partitions and if any of the distros have trouble in multiboot system.

Anyone have some experience in this regard?

opensuse.

used it for years.

12.1 due out in November should have both a brilliant kde4 and Gnome3 desktop, and a very up-to-date configuration.

Ubuntu or derivatives like Mint are probably the best pick if you want hardware to work out of the box. It is a bit bloated but no where near windows. Most things will run smooth with Ubuntu. Ubuntu are developed to be easy. It uses Unity as shell by default. All other shells can be installed though. Like Gnome-shell, KDE, XFCE, LXDE... and so on. I installed Linux Mint for my father who likes it a lot.

Fedora is great. I like Gnome-shell better than Unity. But last time i tried it gave me dependency problems. The program install process is also slower and a bit more cumbersome. The community is no where near as helpful as the Ubuntu one.. almost impolite in some ways.

Archlinux is my favourite but more for intermediate users or if you want to learn. The best wiki which brings tons of documentation. Could be a bit steep for a beginner though.

If you have an usb-pen then i advice you to test them all. No install is needed. Just insert the usb and then boot from it. A great app to do it is Multiboot (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/index.php?pages/install). Also consider Burg as boot loader. It is graphically nicer than Grub.

+1

I was going to suggest Arch or Gentoo Linux. If you would really like to learn what is going on under the hood and if you have some time to tinker, they are great distros. I have been using Gentoo for 7+ years and pretty much started out as a beginner. By following the very detailed installation manual you get a pretty good idea how a Linux system is set up etc.

These distributions also give you a lot of freedom, e.g., you are free to use whatever window manager you like (you can install KDE, Gnome, ... all at the same time)

NewEgg has a 500GB, 7200.4 SATA 2.5" drive on sale for $50 with free shipping. I'm going to grab one of those and install:
Debian 32
Debian 64
Fedora 32
Fedora 64
Ubuntu (or since I'll be using the KDE interface anyway Kubuntu) 32
Ubuntu 64
- And maybe one or two more.
I assume I format the 32-bit partitions in the EXT3 and the 64-bit partitions in EXT4, yes? I'm still not clear about which file system the Linux cores requires HD's be formatted in and the info I'm finding online is old and suggest EXT2.
Is there a limit to the number of partitions I can create or make use of in Linux distros? At this point I'm looking at about 6 to 8 and maybe one just to hold my personal files.

David

Partitioning the hard disk is an art, and you will never be satisfied

I would suggest you get Puppy Linux and use that for booting (grub) and for partitioning etc. Put it on a small partition, 3-4 GB is more than enough, and also keep one at all times on a USB stick, because some of those distros have a habit of screwing with your boot sector when they are updating. With Puppy on a stick, it is easy to fix.

Sorry, but 10.04 is a prehistory... Go download 11.04 better and try Ubuntu Classic GUI.


Because wubi installs Ubuntu as a program. Download page is just boot cd. You install it not from windows. Wubi is run from windows. Wubi is exe downloading the cd and installing it.
I ran from Ubuntu 10.04 from standard installer, no wubi. And dual boot worked always.

Guys, choose Ubuntu. The best choice for beginners. Now as I'm more hardcore I'm trying Debian

Which file system to format the new drive? EXT2, EXT3 or EXT4? Does it matter which for 32 vs 64 bit versions of the various distros?
EXT3 for 32 bit and EXT4 for 64 bit? All use the same file system (EXT4)? This is a little tough to find online as the wikis tend to discuss OS versions old enough to pre-date EXT4 (most are suggesting EXT2 and the 64's don't make mention at all of which to use).
EXT4 was developed for use with 64-bit distros, wasn't it?