I want to use debian... (Score 1)

... because I believe in the principles of GNU. As a beginning CS student, I firmly believe that without FREE open standards the internet will never reach it's full potential. There is potential for a pervasive, interractive, responsive, wireless data and service network. The damage that buggy software providers like M$ does to the integrity of the internet is widespread. The more sloppy patches to legacy software we have, the more often those pesky "leaky abstractions" pop-up, thereby reducing available computer resources worldwide, and adding to the already enormous problem of cross-device compatibility. ... however... it's installer SUCKS!!! It should be priority 1 of the GNU team to make an installer that will seamlessly migrate a windows system to a dual boot linux/windows system. I can't afford the downtime, or the incompatibilities (lots of college required software is Win only) I would have to face changing my whole system to Linux all at once. Also, I don't really understand HOW to set up dual boot manually. So that's my reason. I actually have debian installed, however I haven't done anything with it, because I still haven't been able to figure out how to boot to it. If anyone has good advice or links on how to get Win XP & Debian going at the same time, please contact me! -peace.