Win7 + Linux on t420s on SSD

Hi All,
I've lurking here for some time. I was debating whether to get a t420 or 420s for a few days. I don't really need a long battery life since most of the time the laptop will be connected to an outlet. I want a lighter laptop since carrying my t400 with several textbooks and other stuff are a little bit too much. I can get about half of the cost reimbursed so I decided to go for a t420s, and go get a intel 320.

But I need both win7 and linux on my computer. I think I'll be mainly using linux, but from time to time I still need windows. Do you guys know anything about dual boots on the SSD? How do I set it up? And if there is any difference if I get a 420 instead? (just in terms of the dual system)

Thanks a lot.

 

It's possible to do a dual boot with Windows 7 and Linux, for example with Ubuntu they make it very easy for you to readjust the partition when you install the OS. I don't think experience wise you going to notice any difference with a T420 and T420s.

The SSD storage space could be a limiting factor when you have 2 OS' on one system, but this boils down to how much apps and files you will use on the system.

 

As an experiment I tried booting a Fedora 14 Live CD on my new Sandy Bridge CPU ThinkPad X220, and I just got a dark screen. Later I tried a Fedora 15 Beta RC2 Live CD and it booted up just fine. Moral? I suspect you'll need one of the upcoming releases of Linux for it to boot successfully on your new T420s.

Dual boot with Windows should be no problem. I have done it with several versions of Linux using the GRUB bootloader.

 

Thank you for your help. So no need to look out for anything in particular?

 

Newer linux or older linux that runs on a sandy bridge compatible kernel. Currently 10.10 runs off a 2.6.35 kernel that seems to be updated in march of this year.

Code:

$ uname -ra
Linux sphinx 2.6.35-28-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 18 18:42:20 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

 

Storage is not limited. The T420s has SEVERAL options. mSATA, 7mm SSD, and a full size ultrabay caddy that will take the standard 2.5" 9mm high notebook hard drives. Now that notebook hard drives are up to 750GB 7200rpm in the 9.5mm height drives, you can put a lot of onboard storage in a T420s.

You have several routes for linux and Windows. Native dual boot is one. Or, you could run one OS native and use virtualization to run the other.

 

I like the single boot linux with a windows 7 VM. works great for me, but will depend on what you use windows for. Honestly the win7 vm doesnt do much less then what windows 7 did before I reformatted it.

 

I will be doing some mathematical computations using C and other stuff using linux.
Windows will more be to play movies...

I think I'm gonna get a 420 after all. It seems it's not really worth that much money.Can I still add another SSD to the HDD? And how?

Thanks a lot for your answers.