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Linux Dual Boot?

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  • Dual Boot
  • Computers
  • Linux
Last response: in Linux/Free BSD
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January 23, 2014 3:00:41 PM

Ok, I just created a pretty decent computer from scratch as a Computer hobbyist the set up is as follows:

BioStar T-Z77 1155 ATX
Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy (3.4GHz)
ASUS HD7770-2GD5
G.Skill 16GB 4x4 DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24-2, So not the fastest RAM)
Scythe YASYA HeatSink
Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB SSD
ThermalTake Black Widow 850W
BluRay Burner Drive
DVD Drive
Rosewill All in One Card Reader
HT Omega Striker 7.1 SoundCard
TP Link Wireless-N PCIe Card

Monitors:
2x 19" VGA, 1x 22.5" HDMI

Running Stable in Partition space of the Kingston HyperX SSD (7 days + counting) all drivers operating normally - 1 crash report (Win8)

I want to use the other half of the Kingston SSD to dual boot into Linux, also I want it to be a version of Linux that an IT Professional would use to maintain large level business servers

*Bonus for the real deal (if you exist and understand what I'm truly asking)*
Could I perhaps even run an environment of Win7 on my secondary monitors and drag and drop between the three OS remotely from say a tablet or a cell phone using a remote access application? over-network printing? server manipulation via remote?

Need some real help folks,
Christian

More about : linux dual boot

a b 5 Linux
January 23, 2014 11:45:35 PM

If you're looking for a linux system for remote maintaining of servers it really doesn't matter what system you choose as everything is going to be done via ssh and any linux distro can do that. You could install win7 in a virtual box and then have both on screen with your dual monitors, at least in Ubuntu and I'd suspect most others as well. Over network printing is an option with any server and yes, most, if not all, linux distros can handle file and print sharing. Ipads are problematic about some file sharing but that can be overcome and most of the rest, phones and pads run linux anyway.

I'd suggest you go to distrowatch.com and have a look at what's on the menu. Most common ones recommended here are Ubuntu and Mint. I myself maintain a server and use Ubuntu with the gnome desktop.
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Best solution

January 24, 2014 3:44:35 AM

If performance isn't critical, VirtualBox is a very easy and convenient solution. As said before, any Linux would do. Of course, the die hards would go for server setup without desktop/GUI, just a terminal screen.

If you want to run Windows and play graphic intensive games on it, and dump dual-booting alltogether, I suggest Xen or kvm. Xen is a bare metal hypervisor that lets you run multiple guest systems with nearly no performance penalty. It also allows you to pass through a graphics card to a guest OS for exclusive use by the guest, for example Windows. Your hardware seems to be suitable for that.

Here some more information and a how-to: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=112013

As for Linux distributions, I find Linux Mint the most gratifying of all. Ubuntu is fine too if you can get used to Unity (or know how to rid yourself of it). By the way, if you use Linux Mint you can use most of the documentation for Ubuntu, and vice versa. By far the best documentation can be found for Arch Linux, and although I run Mint I often refer to their documentation.
CentOS would be a distro dedicated to enterprises. But there is nothing stopping you to run servers etc. on Linux Mint or Ubuntu. If you are new to Linux, I recommend those two.
I'm running ssh servers on most machines (all behind a router and not accessible via Internet) and connect using ssh between these machines. Make sure to change the sshd.conf file to reject root login and password login - you should use keys (it's also MUCH more convenient). The media server runs also a lightweight web server to stream movies to iPad and phones - it works great. Remmina is my favorite remote desktop application, and I also use powerwake to remotely start a PC using wake on LAN. Again, I do NOT expose my PCs to the Internet. But of course you could, in which case I would run a firewall as a virtual machine and get a second LAN card (if you don't have 2 ports) and pass the LAN port/controller to the guest running the firewall using PCI passthrough. There are some dedicated Linux firewall distros or, if you really want to dig into that, check out the Shorewall firewall and documentation - see http://www.shorewall.net/XenMyWay.html for a bridged Xen setup. Shorewall can be installed via repositories (Debian stable would be a good distro for that; or perhaps CentOS).
There are some VNC applications available for iPhone and Android. I use tightvncserver and xtightvncviewer on Linux, as for iPad/iPhone/Android vncviewers I can't help with recommendations - the best would be some remote X over ssh as this seems more secure, if you need to access from the outside.

Good luck!
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January 24, 2014 11:34:54 AM

Thank you both for your knowledge, I'm going to begin my expedition into this cruel unforgiving world, I'll report back within the week to tell you the stability of the system and my findings!

Thanks a million,
Ritchie
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