Which has less disk space required? linux or windows xp?

ive got a computer which supports windows xp, which i am using at the moment, im thinking of geting linux, ONLY if it requires very little disk space on hard drive. but their is a problem! will i be able to install windows applications like windows media player, microsoft office 97, and other applications.

Definitely linux

Linux doesn't take up very much space at all. Windows programs like media player and office won't work but there are free versions like Open Office that are free and meant for the Linux OS. Just do a search on Linux software and you'll find what you need.

Most any Linux distro uses less space than XP. And you don't need to install WMP, Office, etc, because there are Linux alternatives to every Windows program and they're free and usually much better. Instead of WMP, you'll have VLC, BMP, and a million others to choose from. Instead of Office 97, you'll have OpenOffice, KOffice, and lots of other choices. Go with Linux, it rocks.

Salaam Hussain, Linux is not an ISO Image and is not based on Fat 16, 32 or NTFS of the file system so it is obvious that
it requires very less space.

Linux Mint is the smallest ever Operating SYstem you could ever get.

Besides Linux is freely available to everyone and is open for any amendments... so go ahead with Linux dude.

I would suggests you go with Ubuntu which can be downloaded from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download...

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Safeer

You won't be able to install and run Windoze programs under Linux. You can try to use Wine or other emulation software to run them under Linux, but it is difficult and often won't work.

There are some Linux distros that require very, very little space, but they are limited, and they do NOT run Windoze programs.

There are some distros that require more space than Windoze.

I use Ubuntu on all of my machines, and play with some other distros from time to time. I think you should stick with Windoze.