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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Tips on running multiple distros together on my laptop? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by Macaroni9538@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Hello all, sorry for such a newbish question, as I should probably know how to properly partition a hard drive, but I really don't know where to start. So what I'm looking to do is install a Debian distro, RHEL, and Arch. Want to go with Mint LMDE, Manjaro, and Fedora. I do not need very much storage, so I don't think space is an issue. I have like a 500+ something GB ssd and the few things that I do need to store are in a cloud. I pretty much use my laptop for browsing, researching, maybe streaming videos, and hopefully more programming and tinkering as I learn more; that's about all... no gaming or no data hoarding.

Do I basically just start off installing one distro on the full hard drive and then when I go to install the others, just choose the "run alongside" option? or would I have to manually partition things out? Any thing to worry about with conflicts between different types of distros, etc.? hoping you kind folks can offer me some simple advice on how to go about this without messing up my system. It SEEMS simple enough and it might be so, but I just don't personally know how to go about it lol. Thanks alot!!

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[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You don't need to create a storage partition if you don't want to. You could theoretically reduce that partition table from the diagram to three partitions - one for each distro. It's up to you, really.

The problem that I see with that is organisation and security:

you'll likely use one distro more than the other two. That distro's partition will get full of personal files faster. Eventually you'll need to juggle files to the other two partitions.
you'll need to remember which system you were using in order to remember where your files are. And since you'll be juggling files back and forth, you'll reach a point where you need to search three directories to find a file.
if your personal files are spread across multiple partitions, you'll likely need to mount all of them in all your systems. This means that you'll need to mount Debian's and RHEL's partitions in Arch, Arch's and Debian's in RHEL, etc. It's generally not a good idea to mount partitions with system files unnecessarily.

[–] Macaroni9538@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Oh ok, so scratch that idea then lol see, this is the stuff I have no clue about! thank you