Types of Linux installations if you are using windows operating system in your desktop/laptops

if you are using windows operating system(windows 10,8/1,8,7 xp) and you want to install IT@school linux or any other linux distribution in your system, then you can do this in two ways.
1.Install linux as a separate operating system along with windows
             For this you have to  free one hard disk drive for this purpose.Remember if your allocated drive for Linux ,it wont be available for use in windows operating system.But in Linux operating system you can use both drives.In this installation either windows or Linux operating system will be available at a time.you cant  use both operating system at a time
2.Install third party virtualization software which allow you to install Linux with in windows environment and you can use both Linux and windows at the same time.One of best free virtualization software is Virtualbox from oracle.