Does anyone do dual booting of windows/linux? How is your experience with it?
Back in the day I loved DOS. I was using QEMM and Quarterdeck's DESQview to run a BBS. I remember being very reluctant to switch to Windows 95 at the time. DOS just worked.
I did eventually switch to Windows 95. After having lived through decades of using Windows, I can honestly say that, aside from some shining moments, I never really liked Windows or the direction Microsoft was going with it. Even more so today with the current trajectory.
Windows 10 end of life was looming, and I knew I didn't want to upgrade to Windows 11 (my system didn't support it anyway). I started trying Linux distros years ago. This was back when things were still buggy and support was lacking. This led to me dual booting Windows and Linux. I distro hopped for some time, even using Arch, before settling on Linux Mint.
I dual booted Windows and Linux Mint on the same drive for some time, but the ideal way to do it is to install each OS on separate drives, as there were times when a Windows update would break my boot loader. The reason I kept dual boot was my dependence on Windows software. It was nice to have both, but tedious to have to reboot when you wanted to do one thing or the other.
In May 2024, over a year before Windows 10 end of life (October 14, 2025) Microsoft announced Recall. I was already looking for an excuse to leave Windows. Again, what was keeping me from doing so was my dependence on software. Recall pushed me over the edge and I made the decision that I was going to switch to open source software and let go of Windows once and for all. And so I did.
If I really need to run Windows software I can run it through a compatibility layer (which is really good these days), or load up a Windows virtual machine.
In my view, dual boot is convenient, but it's not the best solution. Picking one or the other is. I chose Linux.
