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Can I separately install a third party boot loader which can boot both Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) . I want to use a boot loader other than the boot loaders which come with these operating systems. I am trying this out of curiosity. Please suggest some strong and stable boot loaders.

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Linux already comes with bootloaders that can boot Windows as well (Ubuntu uses Grub by default and comes with several alternatives). What features are you looking for? – Gilles Aug 28 '10 at 7:50
Thanks for your response. I know Ubuntu uses Grub and it can boot Windows as well. I want to know can I install any other boot loader separately? I don't want to use boot loaders that come with operating systems. Is there any such boot loader, stable and powerful? – M LOHIT Aug 28 '10 at 8:10
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I'd like to point out a subtlety that isn't being made; while GRUB is packaged with Ubuntu, it is not associated with Ubuntu (it's a part of the GNU project). It's a free program developed by separate individuals that Ubuntu throws in for convenience. This is unlike Microsoft's Windows Boot Manager or NTLDR, which are developed by Microsoft explicitly for Windows. – Babu Aug 29 '10 at 16:14
+1 for Babu. GRUB is used by many other operating systems and is "third party". To answer your question, yes you can have other boot loader as long as it can boot the operating system or call boot loader which shipped with operating system. – AndrejaKo Aug 30 '10 at 11:47
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4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I'm seeing that a lot of people like EasyBCD

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

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Thanks for the response. Its very useful. My vote is now locked in unless this answer is edited. Please edit your answer a little bit and make it more informative, so I can vote on it. – M LOHIT Sep 2 '10 at 5:27
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up vote 2 down vote

This wikipedia page gives you a huge number of boot loaders and their features.

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up vote 2 down vote

I really like BootItNG (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm). Makes it easy to setup multiboot partitions that are isolated from each other.

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up vote 0 down vote

Of course you can. As Giles said, Ubuntu comes with Grub2, and will automatically detect other operating systems. See Grub2 - Community Ubuntu Documentation :

  • Automated searches for other operating systems, such as Windows
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