I used to have Linux as an secondary or "optional" OS, with some photo editors too, long time ago. Alas, Linux itself (I tried a few "distros" like Mandrake, Ubuntu...) proved to be somewhat unstable, so finally, after a 5 or 6 re-installations I gave it up... Although, I use a sort of a mini-Linux based set of tools (system repair utilities called Parted Magic) on a bootable USB flash disk.