dual boot
A computer with two operating systems. At startup, a boot manager program lets the user choose which one to load. "Multiboot" may refer to a dual boot system or to one that hosts more than two operating systems. For example, System Commander lets you install all the operating systems you wish on one PC and choose which one you want at startup.
Dual booting and multibooting are not the same as a "virtual machine," although sometimes the terms are used synonymously. Virtual machines host multiple operating systems, but can run them all at the same time. See virtual machine.
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| All the Boots You'll Ever Need |
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| System Commander lets you install all the operating systems on your PC that you are ever likely to need. On startup, the menu lets you choose your OS. (Screen shot courtesy of Avanquest Publishing USA, Inc., www.v-com.com) |
| (operating system) | dual boot - Any system offering the user the choice of
two operation systems (OSes) under which to start a
computer. A dual boot system allows the user to run programs
for both operating systems on a single computer (though not
simultaneously). The term "multiple boot" or "multiboot"
extends the idea to more than two OSes. The OSes are generally unaware of each other's existence. They are installed on separate hard disk partitions or on separate disks. They may be able to access each other's files, possibly via some extra driver software if they use different file systems. The OSes need not be completely different - they might be different versions of Microsoft Windows (e.g. Windows XP and Windows NT) or Linux (e.g. Debian and Fedora). A dual boot system differs from an emulator such as vmware, which runs one or more OSes "on top" of the primary OS, using its resources. |
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