I would suggest a dual boot configuration like this: Create a windows ntfs partition for winxp. Create a windows fat32 partition for data. Create a linux ext3 partition for linux root filesystem Create one or more linux ext3 partitions for linux data Create a linux swap partition. Never store anything you want to save in the winxp or linux root partitions. This way if you ever need to reinstall either you leave your data partitions alone and never lose anything important. The windows fat32 data partition can be mounted in linux so you can move files to and from windows. Note that ntfs is read only in linux so best to use fat32 for this partition. Make one of the linux data partitions the /home mount. I usually make a small partition for /home but a large one, actually several, for data. I also usually create a separate /usr/local partition for software I compile from source to add to the original distro, but that's not really necessary. The reason I do it is so its easy to save stuff that might have taken a while to figure out when adding extra software. For the bootloader config, set winxp to be the default boot, linux as the second choice. If you use a timeout then it will automatically start winxp for your father. If you don't want to use timeout, just tell him to pick winxp from the boot menu always. There is also the possibility of using vmware but I am finding that vmware is getting to be a performance problem lately, at least with the new free versions. Best to have a dual boot into native os and then you can still add some vmware on either or both winxp or linux in addition to the dual boot. I used to have a laptop setup that could dual boot into native win2k or linux, but could also run linux inside vmware on win2k, that was really nice. It used the vmware workstation 5, which seemed to be much better than the free vmware server that they give away. Another suggestion: create a rescue partition, and set up a small linux system with speech enabled, add this to your boot menu. If you ever have problems with the other bootables, you can boot into that and then mount other drives to make any necessary changes. If you boot into the rescue partition you can chroot into the regular linux root filesystem if its not booting. -- Doug
