RE-Linux

JesseRaymondBassett said:

Does anyone do dual booting of windows/linux? How is your experience with it?

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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.

I've used dual booting (Win/Linux) off and on over the years, and it worked fine for what I needed at the time, but these days I have one "gaming" machine in the house running Windows (I don't game anymore but the kids do), and all my other machines run Linux only (usually Fedora).

I do have a ProxMox server as part of my home lab where I keep both a Windows and a MacOS virtual machine if I need to test anything under those OS's

JesseRaymondBassett said:

Does anyone do dual booting of windows/linux? How is your experience with it?

Click to expand...

I’ve done it in the past, not so much with Windows 10 or 11 (with Windows 11 there are new issues); I prefer having one OS per hard disk. By the way on a modern system with USB 3 or better, booting an OS off a large thumb drive can be preferable to having two OSes on the same hard disk in different partitions.

Benam said:

I've used dual booting (Win/Linux) off and on over the years, and it worked fine for what I needed at the time, but these days I have one "gaming" machine in the house running Windows (I don't game anymore but the kids do), and all my other machines run Linux only (usually Fedora).

I do have a ProxMox server as part of my home lab where I keep both a Windows and a MacOS virtual machine if I need to test anything under those OS's

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Nice - a lot of former Vmware users have switched to Proxmox; I myself am going to do so kicking and screaming, but I hate what Broadcom did to that company (dump all non-enterprise customers, stop all R&D and raise prises into the troposphere).

I use Linux (Redhat Fedora) for most of my daily computer time and have done for some years.

I'm certainly not a geek. and and I suppose I would be seen as under utilising the computer, but I've found it pretty stable.

It also doesn't constantly try to get me to buy stuff, or pay for an upgrade etc.

Bob Crowley said:

I use Linux (Redhat Fedora) for most of my daily computer time and have done for some years.

I'm certainly not a geek. and and I suppose I would be seen as under utilising the computer, but I've found it pretty stable.

It also doesn't constantly try to get me to buy stuff, or pay for an upgrade etc.

Click to expand...

I installed the latest Fedora about a week ago on mine. Wanted to try out something other than an Ubuntu/Debian/Arch base. Chose the KDE Plasma edition. For some reason in the past I never really gave KDE a chance, mostly stuck with gnome and cinnamon. So far am enjoying this ( new to me ) Linux distribution, also google AI has been quite helpful, even answering most of the questions I had for it.

About 20 years ago, when my old iMac G5 packed up on me, I turned to Linux and have never looked back.

When you spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds on a computer, then in my view, that purchase becomes yours and you are the rightful owner. These days, if you purchase a laptop or PC, you are prompted to sign up to subscription accounts and share your data with multinational corporations. If you don’t, then you are often very restricted on what you can do with your computer.

It is a bit like purchasing a house outright and then having someone coming around to collect rent payments so you can continue to enjoy living in your own home.

The beauty of Linux is that it gives you total control over how you use your computer. You can choose from a wide variety of distributions. You can choose what desktop environment you want to use and customise it entirely to your use case. There are usually no subscriptions and no fees, although this is an option if you require enterprise support. You do not have to share your personal data and you can carry out upgrades at a time that suits you. When you’re using Linux, you feel like your computer is your own.