[Tutor] OT: Recommendations for a Linux distribution to dual-boot with Win7-64 bit

[boB Stepp]

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 10:37 PM, David Rock <david at graniteweb.com> wrote:

>> I typed both "python" and "python3" in the terminal window to see what
>> is here:  Python 2.7.6 and Python 3.4.3 [Does this mean we are *on*
>> topic now?  ~(:>))].  Question:  Is Python 3 used by any of Mint's OS
>> functions?  Or does it only use Python 2?
>
> I don’t know off-hand, but unless you plan on doing work with Mint itself, I doubt it matters much beyond the academia of knowing for knowledge’s sake.  Are you concerned about a version conflict with something you plan to do on the system?  We are definitely getting back on topic if you want to talk about different versions of python and whether it’s better to just work with what’s there or install something different.

No, not at this time.  I was just curious.

One point I just discovered for those new to this and Linux:  tkinter
does *not* come pre-installed with the Python distributions; it will
have to be installed separately.  Of course, I'm sure that all of you
long-time Linux users knew that already!

>> Now when the new hard drive arrives tomorrow we'll see if I can get a
>> good dual-boot of Windows 7 and Mint Cinnamon going!
>
> Having the second disk will make this a breeze.  You are avoiding the biggest complication of resizing partitions on the same disk.  The one suggestion I would make about the install:  when it asks if you want to use LVM, say yes.  It adds a layer of flexibility with you disk layout that you will be sad you don’t have later.

I was thinking this would be a better way to go.  Thanks for the tip
about LVM.  Logical Volume Management was mentioned in some of
installation guides I read, but not all, so I actually was going to
look into this more deeply.  Thanks for saving me some research!

Alan Gauld said:

> If you really want to see what's on offer open the
>
> Menu->Administration->Software Manager tool
>
> And browse away... :-)

Wow!  "74, 905 packages are available" !!!  And they all come neatly
organized by topic!

-- 
boB