Just an intro.

[Tony Baechler]

First, you'll need an empty partition for Linux.  I'm familiar with Debian, 
but any of them should work.  My dad preferred Ubuntu and had no problems. 
The installer should install a boot loader, GRUB which lets you access both 
Windows and Linux.  I don't use GRUB on my primary MBR due to my own choice, 
but with UEFI, you probably won't have an option.  As I said, I prefer dual 
boot because I can switch back and forth as needed.  What I have here is as 
follows:

sda1: Windows XP
sda2: 10 GB scratch partition
sda3: Debian
sda4: swap
sda5: extended
sda6: large NTFS partition

I have a second drive with a FAT32 partition, so I can easily exchange files 
between both operating systems.  I've learned from experience that it makes 
it much, much easier to have a universal FAT32 or NTFS partition which can 
be read by both.  With the ntfs-3g package, NTFS support is very good now 
and I use it somehwat often.  If you have a big drive, FAT32 is very slow 
and not a good choice.

For a virtual machine, there are several.  If you want a free option, look 
at VirtualBox, or virtualbox-ose on Debian.  If you don't care if it's free 
as in open source, VMWare is fine.  KVM and Qemu work great on Linux, but 
not in Windows.  KVM only works with the Linux kernel and requires hardware 
virtualization.  Qemu runs in Windows but is very slow.  KVM and Qemu are 
basically the same except that KVM is part of the kernel and requires 
hardware virtualization while Qemu is more portable and should run on almost 
any Unix.  Alternatively, Vinux has a prepackaged download with VMWare 
Player and a live CD image which you can run and that might be easier for 
getting up and running right away.  I haven't used it, but I looked at it. 
http://www.vinux-project.org/

I realize that much of this information is probably brief and unclear, so 
feel free to write off-list.  I do offer a $99 per year support package 
specializing in Linux and Debian, so that might be a good option for you. 
You can sign up by the quarter as well.  Let me know if you're interested. 
Feel free to ask for clarification if something doesn't make sense.

On 3/23/2013 12:56 PM, Dan Rossi wrote:
> So, what are my real options for putting Windows and Linux on one box? I've
> already got Windows on the box. What software would I install to then run
> Linux in a virtual environment? What software would I use to partition the
> existing disk and then set up for dual boot? Remembering that I am starting
> with a system with Windows already on it.
>
> Thanks.
>

-- 
Have a good day,
Tony Baechler
tony at baechler.net