Changing Boot options in GRUB

GRUB (GRand Unified Boot loader) is Multiboot Boot Loader. Briefly, boot loader is the first software program that runs when a computer starts. It is responsible for loading and transferring control to the operating system kernel software.

GRUB is the bootloader on my system where it has WinXP and Fedora 7.
First I installed WinXP and then Fedora 7(F7). As I chose default options in installing F7, the default boot option was set to F7. Now this post gives the way to change the boot options in GRUB, so that the default is to WinXP:

First boot to F7 and then open a terminal and login into root using su -, then
cd /boot/grub
cat menu.lst --This displays the GRUB.conf as menu.lst is the link directed to grub.conf
cat grub.conf -- If menu.lst is not there, then directly use grub.conf

which displays the following

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,6)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda7
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,6)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz ?
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.21-1.3194.fc7)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7.img
title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title 0 is Fedora Core and title 1 is Other. Other corresponds to WinXP.
but the default = 0 specifies title 0 is selected, so to change the default OS to be booted, I need to change this default.

So to boot into WinXP by default, change to default = 1 (where title 1 corresponds to Other means WinXP)

Timeout specifies the time the system waits, in which if we didn't press any key, the default OS will be booted. In mean time if we press any key then we will get the Boot Menu to chose the OS to be loaded.Here Timeout = 5 so there will be 5 seconds time for me to get booted into default OS.

Want YOUROWN Linux Distro -- A Good Learning Exercise

Sounding like conquering another world, an impossible thing....Absolutely wrong if you think so. For Novice Linux users like me probably it must be daunting task. But there is a solution for that too. Linux From Scratch(LFS). Of course its not at all a program/course which is meant to create the OS like the way OS developed from decades...Again Its not just putting the DVD of a magazine and just installing some XYZ default packages which u even dont know ...Then what exactly this LFS.
LFS gives u the feasibility of designing your own os. I mean the packages,programs, etc u need for ur environment. of course u can change and tweak the source to ur needs.
Simply LFS is to use the existing host Linux system's development tools to develop ur own distro using the source tar balls of different pacakges and programs that are downloaded or created by our own.
Also, for the novice users like me, it will give good understanding of how a Linux system works, how it ticks with the hardware..A good learning exercise.

After getting good idea of ur environment and then the applications u need just try to build ur own Linux distro using the existing Linux Host system's development tools. For getting help on this, just try to search LFS in Google, The Great. And also plz visit http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/.