That’s the best part about this method: XP doesn’t even know that there is a Linux partition. You use wither GRUB of LILO, and you should even be able to have the Windows install be the default OS, so your kids don’t need to make any selections, they just turn it on.
I just thought I’d let all you helpful types know that I ordered a system from Monarch. They had a good rating in resellerratings.com, which helped. I got pretty much exactly what I was looking for. In fact, what I got isn’t too different from the machine above, although I did go with the two SATA drives. (I will install from DVD’s and CD’s, so the SATA issue raised before won’t rear its head.)
Sorry for the late response, GorillaMan. The issue wasn’t with a specific distribution. The issue was with GRUB and the 2.6 kernel. I’m a little fuzzy on the exact details, but it seems the GRUB folk realized that there was actually a bug in the way Microsoft Windows calculated the size and configuration of the hard drives. The bug has been there for years and everyone just counted the same way.
The GRUB folk decided to Windows be damned, they were going to count correctly. And that’s where the problem came in. If everyone does it the same way, no one notices. But count differently and Windows doesn’t boot.
It doesn’t always happen. Last I heard, it took the 2.6 kernel with GRUB installed to the MBR.
Google will turn up the work around if you are a dual-booting Linux user that just gots to have all three of those things together.