Setting up PC to Dual Boot

I just found out I can run a different OS on my eMachine and was wondering how to set up my system to dual boot....i think that's what it's called when you select what OS you want to use if you have more than one. I have Windows XP home now and want to use Ubuntu( linux based ) as a second if that's possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dual boot is a headache to maintain
just build another box to play with a different o/s on
trust me i'm a professional

You're gonna need a LOT more support than /comp/ will ever be willing to provide anyone. Might want to go join linuxquestions.org or a similiar forum, or look for a nearby LUG. For what it's worth, most modern *nix operating systems come with a bootloader that also can load Windows. For linux, its GRUB, for BSDs, they have their own bootloader, which is simple and minimalist, but it gets the job done, and supports a good deal of configurations (ie. USB drives)

Oh, or you could just try a livecd.

>>2
Have you actually tried it lately? The current releases of Ubuntu (and indeed most other Linuxen) get along very nicely with Windows. The trick is to install Windows first, leaving enough empty, unpartitioned space on your hard disk to install Ubuntu (you could use something like PartitionMagic to resize your partitions - saves having to reinstall from scratch). Then boot your Ubuntu CD and start the installer. Tell it to only use the unpartitioned space, and it'll create the necessary partitions for you, and write the GRUB bootloader to your primary partition, automatically configuring it to create a boot menu with Ubuntu and Windows listed. Even a complete Linux noob can get Windows and Ubuntu to dual boot, it's so stupidly easy. If you change your mind and decide to remove Ubuntu later, you can just boot the Windows CD into recovery console and enter the fixmbr command to overwrite GRUB. This will make it go back to booting straight into Windows, and you can then delete the Ubuntu partitions.

>>5
2 is probably a troll.

>>3,4,6 is probably the same person.

>>7
Great detective work there. "Probably"...