Discreetly setup linux?

Hey I got Linux (Ubuntu), however my mother is convinced it'll destroy the computer and/or send all our personal info to hackers, is there a way to set it up so that it won't show up when you start up the computer unless you press F8 and choose it.

I only have one hard drive so I can't just change the order it boots from.

yea you can set something up using grub ect.. or set windows to your default bootable partion

Is that done the same way as setting the default drive to boot from, i.e. pressing the delete key to enter setup and changing the order there? Because I'll have to do it all in one go when I do it.

this might not great but you could set the time for the default boot to 1 second… and the if you want to use linux just hold the down key to cancel the countdown.

Wouldn't have a problem but wouldn't the GRUB screen be visible for a second, thus making it apparent that I've installed Linux, if I set the "timeout" variable to 0 would it load instantly without going through the screen, and if so, would the computer booting look any different and how would I get into Linux?

the only other thing you could do is put the bootloader onto a floppy adn re-install the windows one. then if you wanted to boot into unbuntu you just stick the floppy in at bootup.

By Re-Install the windows one do you mean I have to re-install it anyway, because I haven't yet setup Ubuntu so I'm assuming if I do it right I won't have to do much with Windows. And what exactly do I need to put on a floppy, and can it be done on a CD (haven't used a floppy in years… Insert sexual innuendo here)

i found a better way.

you can edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add "hiddenmenu". This will hide the menu until you press <esc> or until it loads the defualt OS. so there will be a black screen and then windows should boot. during the black screen you press <esc> and select unbuntu.

Sorry missed part of your post…

is defanetly menu.lst. just add hiddenmenu somewhere in it and make sure you've got enough time to press esc.

Sweet, don't have time to do it now but I'll do it as soon as I can (expect more noobish questions in a few days)

You can get a live CD. It boots linux off of the CD and it's only in the RAM so if there is no CD then it won't boot linux.

I have a LiveCD but you can't download or edit stuff and it's too much bother to edit the live CD so alot of functions that I could make automatic, such as loading my Windows partition, would have to be done manually everytime.

Once again…..use virtual machines!!! You can install vmware in windows and create a new virtual machine. Then install Ubuntu(or other) in the virtual machine and setup it as you want then save changes and state of the virtual machine. You can start it when your conputer power on too.

For more detail about using virtual machines feel free to contact me.

Live cd's are slow as hell!