this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Can Linux be dual booted on a computer with Windows? (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I have a Lenovo Yoga running Windows 10 on a 1TB SSD and at some point will probably have to upgrade it to Windows 11. I use it for school and have to keep Windows on it for now because of what I'm currently doing. I want to start getting into Linux in hopes of making the switch sometime down the line. Is partitioning the disk and dual booting Windows/Linux a thing and is it possible/easy to do? If so, what distro would anyone recommend? (I've heard good things about Mint). Back in the day I had gotten bored one night, installed Ubuntu on an external drive and played around with it a very tiny bit before forgetting about it, but that's the extent of my Linux knowledge, so kindly keep explanations ELI5 :)

Edit: Thank you everyone! You've given me lots of good advice and knowledge, some terms to Google, and some good places to start. I appreciate it! Looking forward to joining the wonderful world of Linux!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

5 years ago I would've said dual booting is a great answer. Now days it is much simpler to run Windows in a Linux VM. You can install Gnome boxes or Virtual manager and then create a VM. (No Virtual box for performance reasons)

Keep in mind you will need to install the virtio drivers from the Fedora project for best performance and guest features like screen resizing and copy and paste.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I really like Gnome Boxes but they're no 3d acceleration for Windows installs yet, right?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Boxes and virtual manager are frontends for libvirtd. With that being said, boxes is way more limited as it tried to work with little hassle. Boxes VMs run as the user so networking options are limited. For 3D acceleration you need to manually edit the config file. Just running windows with the virtio drivers in boxes works fine for me.

Long story short, if you want more advanced features like vfio and custom VM configurations use the command line or virtual manager.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For most things Windows on a VM under Linux is unironically faster than native Windows.

I have an edge case that works better on bare metal and I fucking hate how Linux messes with the system clock every time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

You can configure it not to

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Thats a good solution only if you:

  1. Don't use BS software that refuses to run in a VM.
  2. Don't need proper graphical acceleration.

Depending on what OP need on windows this could be a problem.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

From a graphics perspective it runs pretty smooth once you install the virtio drivers. Unless your trying to play games you are fine. As far as software that doesn't work in a VM that is a fairly limited edge case. Maybe test taking software won't work but that's pretty obscure.

Maybe someone somewhere has a edge case for for most people Linux is fine by itself and for the few people who need legacy software a Windows VM is also fine.