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 hosting more than two operating systems. |
| All the Boots You Ever Wanted |
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| System Commander from V Communications was a boot manager that let you install multiple operating systems. |
| (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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