So how many OS's do you boot and what are they?
i run 3
98se, XP Pro and Ubuntu 6.06


(yes i know that 40 is very unrealistic but there might be just one person who does boot that many)

right now im booting vista and xp x64. but at other time ive had up to 5 at once...

just the one, XP Pro, for me to messy with other OS's

tired it b4, just wound me up, but thats me. Dual booting is good for those who use it

I picked 10-20 (approximately). I don't really use that many as desktop/server OS'es (XP and 2003 is what I use most), but the VMWare Server VMs is what drives the count up. I've got a couple testing Win2k VMs, a couple linux distros (ubuntu and centos mainly), but really it's the virtual appliances that account for the most part - they're built from just about any distro or OS they feel like using.

I use 4
1.- Windows 98 SE
2.- Windows XP Pro
3.- Windows Vista RC1
4.- Mandriva Linux 2007

And in the XP VMware other 5, 3 linux diferent distributions and 2 XP.
I need a life !!!

Between my personal machines I boot roughly 10 OSs depending on the role and task. So I picked 10-20, but I doubt if I get anywhere near 20.

My faves:
Win2k
Win2k3
OpenBSD
Various flavors of Linux

I always dual boot with two operating systems.

On the machine I'm using, its dual booting:

Windows XP Pro SP2
Windows Server 2003

On the other machine:

Windows XP Pro SP2
Windows 2000 Pro

just one

[X] just one

I only use 1 OS at a time - Xp Media Center. When testing Vista, I just make a ghost image of xp and store it on a different partition.

Windows XP Pro Sp2
Windows Vista RC2
Unburtu

Ubuntu? lol

I boot Microsoft Windows XP Professional

That's All!!!!

I cannot have more than 4 different *types* of OS becoz of the 4 primary partition limitation as i hav only one HDD
( why is such limitation ???, 512 byte mbr ?)

with 1 primary windows partition i boot XP, XP x64,2k3,
Vista need another primay partition otherwise (if in logical) it remap C: drive

linux dont need any primary partition if u use GRUB
so i install Ubuntu, SuSE & Fedora,debian

Then with another primary HFS+ use Mac OS X

the rest 1 primary partiton for any OS => for testing (if available -when vista installed in logical)

so total abt 8+

I boot 5 OS :

1. NT 4.0
2. Win 2000 Adv srv
3. Win XP Familial
4. Win 2003 R2
5. Linux Centos

Just 2 will do me, Xp Pro Sp2 and ME

Windows XP Pro SP2 at both work (IBM T42) and home (self-built rig)... 1 is enough for me! Although I have been playing with Virtual PC 2004 lately with DOS and soon Windows 3.1 if I can ever find my old diskettes. I've been working on converting some OLD but proven aviation programs.

Regards,
Dan

2 for me

[x] 10-20 -- Whew. too many!

Hardwired (host) OSes I run on my various machines:
Windows XP Professional SP2 RTM (32 bit)
Windows XP Professional x64
Windows Server 2003 Standard SP1 (32 bit)
FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE i386
FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE amd64
MS-DOS 6.22
DD-WRT (for my router)

OSes I run inside a VM:
*most of the above plus
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 98 SE
Windows 95B
Various flavors of linux (at least four, change all the time)

OSes I run on boot-CDs
Windows 98 SE (just the boot portion)
DOS 6.22
DR-DOS
Knoppix 5.01
DBAN Linux
*many more I just can't remember off-hand

Really, 10 or more? How much time do you spend on that ???
For me, 2:
- Win98 SE
- WinXP Pro

For you guys who boot 10+ - Do you have EFI or do you have 6+ Linux systems, which don't need a primary partition? Either way, it seems crazy
I have 2 - 3: it changes frequently (1-2 XP Pro, 1 Vista RC2)

If you mean on one machine then I might have had close to 40 not long ago when I had various betas of Vista and most versions or each as well – Home, Ultimate, Business, BusinessN etc. At the moment that machine must have around 20 different OSes. But if you’re counting clones as well then it usually has up to 70 fully independent OSes all on their own partitions with just one boot manager. And several in VMware. It’s just a standard 3-4 year old x86 PC. Screenshot

wow what a lot of partitions what size disks do you have?

There is four 160gig drives there. 18 bootable OSes per drive is a limitation of my bootmanager.

There have been a few people in this thread saying they can’t run Windows independently from logical partitions. It’s true you can’t install to a logical without using the Windows bootmanager, but you can clone an install there and so free up the primaries, then use another boot manager. If you use a compatible cloning tool and bootmanager then all you have to do with NT is edit the boot.ini in the clone to point to the correct partition number, (normal cloning precautions apply with NT if the parent is going to be present on the system during first boot of the clone). With Win9x there is no boot.ini so they boot fine as is. You just need your bootmanager to hide the partitions before it.

You can do the required partition tweaks manually if need be.
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ptedit.htm

With 20GB theres not much you can or want to do.

WinXP Home good enough, with a 5 year old PC, reaching 6.

Just one:
w98SE usp3.0

i boot 3:

1. Windows XP Professional
2. Windows 98 Second Edition
3. Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon"

On all the various machines I work on...

Windows XP Professional SP3
Windows XP Professional x64 SP2
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2
Windows Vista Business SP1
Fedora 8 64-bit
CentOS5 32-bit
CentOS5 64-bit
OSX 10.5
RHEL5 64-bit

I chose 10-20...

i am using 3 operation systems

1. Win98
2. Win XP professional
3. Win Vista Ultimate

Windows XP Professional SP3 , Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x86 and Kubuntu 8.04 x86

Right now I've got XP Pro SP3 and Ubuntu 8.04. I had vista too for a while but needed the space it was taking up.

I always use GRUB, and run 98, 2Kpro, XPpro, Vista (OMG, how totally lame), Solaris, Suse, Fedora, PCLOS, along with a few other (transient) Linux flavors. Not a blind obsession, I need to test my apps on all platforms. But my first partition for the past 10 years, is always W98SE, and it is the ONLY WinTel I ever trust on the net! Of course, that is after a lot of castration... removing the MS-Malware: MSIE, MSOE, WinUpd, WSH, WinJava (ruled illegal in DOJ Sun suit anyway). Once that is done properly, I have never found a virus that doesn't bring up a "duh, whattayawannaopenthisthingwith?" dialog. Nothing left to "collaborate with the enemy". Absolutely immune to all viruses ever made, once FireFox w NoScript/Flashblock have been configured sensibly. Of course, there is no way any of my Win kernels will get any software updates from MS.com after all this, but who wants someone lifting up my gal's skirt on line, anyway? W98SE was quite simply, ostracized by its own daddy, because of its potential invulnerability and stability, not its "security hazards" as MS claims. Removing the lift-and-peek built-in back doors from W98SE makes the most stable Win platform ever made, since 622. That is why they pressure Sandisk, Kingston, PQI and all the other USB manufacturers to deny 98 compatibility... specifically (all manufacturers who provide W98 USB access natively get removed from standard driver packages in the newer editions). MS-Blackmail, the usual suspect. This is so they could force ignorant consumers to use an OS on line that would totally lay down and drop its drawers for any probe... and more importantly, data collection. The first time I registered my W2Kpro on line, I got barraged with spam in my (previously) spam-free mailbox, overnight. All the spam was personal, addressed to the ("user") name I used on line in that registration. Some was rude, obscene, proving beyond a doubt just how few moral scruples MS has about "to whom" it sells its registered user database. So I participated in your poll, not to boast, but to explain why I have a scrolling menu list at boot time, and why W98SE is the only MS entry I ever punch while the 10-100 is plugged in. So I really appreciate this forum, which seems to have attracted all the sensible folks who (know) the MS spin against 98, and unjustified abandonment, is BS. It is the ONLY safe 32-bit progeny of a rogue corporation, so we will never allow it to be annihilated. We will keep it alive -and vital. I suspect MS will order this entire comment removed... but I will send all here, big kudos anyway.

I have Windows 2003 Server (my favourite OS) on one computer with bootpart (http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm) giving me double-boot to Linux CentOS 5.1;
On another box there is an n-lited WinXP (I detest that virus-like Windows Media Player, plus I slimmed down some other components);
A third machine runs pure Windows XP, which until very recently was double-booted for testing with Windows Server 2008 (removed due to hardware incompatibilities, although it was nice and speedy).

I also run Knoppix from time to time...

Vista (forced to), XP, Slackware Linux, slamd64, freebsd and several in virtual machines or less often : Plan9 (yes !), Haiku (though not lately), ReactOS to check the progress.

The 2 Os I use are:
1. Windows XP Pro 32 bit.
2. Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit.

regards,
@rvind