It may be possible to use both. If you get a windows installation disk(not some "restore all software on the computer to bought state" disk) it shouldn't be any trouble to make your system dual boot. Why use windows at all, though? GNOME is a graphical environment very similar to windows that you can do most of your work in. You can also run most windows programs using WINE(Wine Is Not an Emulator). Unfortunately Dreamseeker for windows doesn't work in it. :(
Here's a link to a simple, easy to understand(mostly) linux guide: http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk

To get your computer to a 100% clean state:
1. Get dos boot disk
2. Put fdisk on it
3. Blow all your partitions to pieces
4. Try to set them up again
That should get rid of it. :)

one misconception is that you can run both OSes at the same at full speed - not gonna happen unless they are two separate machines.

You basically have these choices:

- one machine that dual-boots Windoze/Linux, this allows you the full power of one or the other OS. As mentioned before, you can run quite a few Windows programs using WINE under Linux (and quite a few games under WineX), but I understand that DS under Wine does not work very well (I think someone like CableMonkey was pretty close though, not sure). This method won't give you access to all your favorite Windows programs when using Linux, but you get a good server for hosting, and if a Windows program crashes it does not take the whole computer down with it.

- one machine running your favorite flavor of Windoze, and using VMware to run a Linux 'virtual machine'. Properly set up, this gives you the best of both worlds, although the Linux part runs a bit slower when running under Windows. The advantage here is that you get to run your Windozes games at full speed (unless the Linux side is doing some major work like hosting a heavy-duty BYOND game). Bad thing is that if Windoze crashes - everything goes down with it.

- one machine running your favorite flavor of Linux, and using VMware to run a Windoze 'virtual machine'. Properly set up, this also gives you the best of both worlds, and if Windozes crashes for some odd reason (as it often can), it won't take your whole system down. Conversely, if Linux crashes, it might not recover gracefully enough, and take everything else down with it too.

- two machines, one for Windoze and one for Linux. This, in my opinion, is the best solution. And with complete 2ghz systems coming in just under $500 (including 17" monitor, like what DELL is offering now: http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/offers/ specials_m_dimen2400.htm ), you can afford to have your cake and eat it too. But a nice thing about Linux is that you don't have to have the fastest machine for hosting - 500-750Mhz and up is more than enough to host several games on a properly setup Linux box. Remember, I was running Chatters, HedgerowHall, and three websites on a Pentium MMX 200Mhz box with 386MB of RAM (granted it was overclocked to 240Mhz, but that still is far slower than 500Mhz), and it ran fairly well before I moved.

You should be able to find a fully loaded 1.0Ghz box (no monitor) for under $300 to use as a standalone hosting machine - maybe even cheaper if you strip it down to just motherboard, small hard-disk (under 5GB), low-speed cdrom drive, as much memory as you can afford, and ethernet card for your broadband connection (many motherboards have onboard graphics and LAN-cards now - these are often pretty cheap). The great thing about this arrangement is that both machines cannot affect each other with crashes, you have a bit more control over security, and both machines can run at full speed without sacrificing anything.

Jon88 wrote:

It is 100% possible to get DS running under WINE. The first picture that appears though, and crashland! :)

then that means it does not run then, does it? no need to confuse Airjoe more than he is...

=|

I would suggest a second harddisk if you go the dual-boot method - it just makes setting up easier for newbies. And yes you can download a modern Linux distribution from hundreds of places, for free.

I dual booted from two hard disks myself.... it works.

- one machine running your favorite flavor of Windoze, and using VMware to run a Linux 'virtual machine'. Properly set up, this gives you the best of both worlds, although the Linux part runs a bit slower when running under Windows. The advantage here is that you get to run your Windozes games at full speed (unless the Linux side is doing some major work like hosting a heavy-duty BYOND game). Bad thing is that if Windoze crashes - everything goes down with it.

That is what I want. When I get a new computer, how can I use VMware to run Linux? Ah, nevermind. I'll ask at a later time when I get the computer.

[EDIT]
After reading your other post(s), I noticed you said I can use 2 hard drives and "dual-boot". Is this like the first thing, where they both can't run at full speed? I just want to use both windows and Linux, and have them both as fast as possible. Thanks for your time.

Many of those things, including computer games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City can be made to run under Linux using WINE(Wine Is Not an Emulator). WINE lets you run MANY windows programs at only slightly less than the speed you would see under windows. Some programs(such as dreamseeker) use windows functions that have not yet been implemented in WINE.

slight correction Jon - WineX can run those games, but not Wine itself (well, not without a lot of extra work at least). WineX (made by TransGaming) is a special version of Wine that pays particular attention to issues with DirectX or other Windoze-specific graphic drivers/engines, for example.

A proper license of VMware is not free...