-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Karen, When I first used Linux, I also kept DOS as the primary OS, and installed Linux on its own partitions on the same drive. DOS was a sort of emergency system that I knew well, and would always work. But I haven't had a DOS partition or drive on any of my computers for maybe five or six years now. What I would do if I were you would be to install your Linux OS with its own native file system, except perhaps for a partition dedicated to sharing files between Linux and DOS. You could even have that shared partition be the very one your DOS was installed on. That's what I did. There's no reason why your Linux distribution needs to use the same file system for its several partitions, so let Linux be happy with what it likes, but create a shared place where fat32 can bridge the gap for you. Anything you write to that partition can be read by a DOS program, assuming you get your end-of-line terminators right, and anything you write there from DOS can be read when Linux is running. The only thing you will not be able to do is read files on a native Linux partition from your DOS environment. Be sure not to cripple your Linux environment from the outset by confining it to the more primitive DOS conventions. You will end up concluding that Linux sucks, and you will remain convinced that DOS is the place for you. With a planned way to share files, you can let Linux have its preferred environment, but still share files easily. Remember, your applications will NOT be shared, only the data they access. i.e., no speakup in DOS, no nettamer in Linux. But mp3 files are mp3 files wherever they are stored, and text files are text files too, assuming you cope the the CR/LF requirement of DOS and the LF-only requirement of Linux. The programs "fromdos" and "todos" in Linux will help you do that. Good luck, hope you enjoy your new system. Chuck On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 01:14:17AM -0500, Karen Lewellen wrote: > Hi all, > I would rather look silly, than make a mistake, especially since at least > the DOS factor will be one before I get my new machine. > Having one built that will run an edition of DOS as its main os with > Linux on a separate drive. > Here is the silly question. > Can distros like Fedora and ebian read fat 32 partitions? > There are a few advantages to this in DOS, so I am wanting to use one > that supports fat 32 unless this will create a problem for the Linux > distribution. > Answer off list if this is just too newby a question lol. > Karen > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup - -- The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (57% of Full) My web site is: http://hallenbeck.ftml.net, my phone is: 1-518-334-9022, and I also Jabber. My JID is: chuckh at jabber.org -------- National security is in your hands - guard it well. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHjd4J0maTgpPXM9cRAtd0AJkBFfxRcc3USm/Pv3UbLRKJU3ilygCdHSuX NdyeOMxRGzh8R0igE2b7qso= =pvM8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----