Eh. When ditching W10, I did install on a separate partition; I have one piece of software that I knew would be troublesome.
Then one day I needed space, and just nuked windows. Didn’t boot it in months anyway.
I remember when I was dualbooting Windows and Linux. The year was 2006 and many devices needed special drivers that were closed sourced and available only for Windows. Laptop cameras, WiFi, memory card readers… Linux would run on most laptops but many things still didn’t work right. Similar thing with some software. You would buy a smart watch or something and it would require running some weird Windows only app to set it up. We’re so lucky those strange times are behind us now.
I haven’t really messed with it since installing it on a PS3 so the growth combined with MS bullshit is compelling to bring me back
You would buy a smart watch or something and it would require running some weird Windows only app to set it up.
Unfortunately still the case for most BIOS updaters, RGB/cooling setups, and proprietary HID stuff. You need Windows for anything beyond the basics.
most BIOS updaters
I’ve had to RMA plenty of otherwise perfectly usable motherboards because Windows had fucked up their firmware with unprompted updates, bordering on zero-click malware behaviour. The farther that shit stays from Linux, the better.
Not really. Plenty of hardware to choose from today. Yes, it’s possible that some random RGB/cooling setup will not work with Linux but you can easily find one that will. 20 years ago it was possible that the one device with Linux drivers what too expensive or didn’t have the features you needed.
I have a separate drive for windows. I’ve heard tales of how windows can simply break or eat Linux partitions or something. It’s only there so I can run games that won’t run on Linux.
It would wipe the boot loader, might still do that it’s been a long time size I dual booted, and from what I remember would get massively confused if it couldn’t boot in to windows during one of its update/reboot x3 cycles.
Also would eat kittens given half a chance
I’m dualbooting Linux. Mostly because I’m in the process of switching distros and I’ve been dragging my feet for a long time.
Make the plunge my friend, u could dual lot TWO Linuxi instead ;)
Don’t worry windows. You may be back as a small virtual machine for some obscure rarely used reason.
I use WinBoat for work. Easy to set up and does what I need. I definitely prefer this over setting up a VM manually.
Setting up a vm is a trivial task for me. I’ll take a look at winboat though
Just got my printer working so even my virtual Windows can go away now 🥳
Library, or print at work.
Seriously, library printing is underrated.
My local library lets me print up to 80 pages per week, completely free.
Sadly, I’ll be doing the same because the software I need to configure my mouse, keyboard, and controllers don’t support linux. They run in wine, but they can’t see the peripherals.
Namely: running software.
(JK JK I swear I’ll switch as soon as I’m not fighting abject poverty and can afford a hard drive, internet, etc.)
About a month ago I was very happy to replace Window on both my pc and a laptop. The last one is now a server in my utility closet. I couldn´t be happier and can´t imagine going back to Windows for any reason!
even though I don’t have any arm devices I’m kinda excited about that steam-os-like arm distro
If you don’t respect the bootloader, you don’t get a seat at the table.
There’s a chance I’d still have a windows install alongside Linux, if windows would just mind its own business.
I was setting up some template VMs on a fresh Proxmox VE (VM server) yesterday. Total install and troubleshooting times for each template were as follows;
- Linux Mint Debian Edition - 20 minutes
- Windows 10 IOT LTSC - 3 hours
- Windows 11 IOT LTSV - 6 hours, with the benefit of lessons learned from the Win 10 install.
The amount of obscure configs I had to dig up just to get them going was disgusting. Also, why the fuck are so many drivers not in Win10/11 by default, yet Linux has no issue including them all at a fraction of the ISO size?
I believe it’s due to kernel philosophy.
Linux and Mac are a monolithic kernel, which I understand to mean that the entire OS runs in kernel space to operate the compatible hardware. This has the advantage of making sure the OS is in the drivers seat for resource management, and no individual program is easily able to overload the system and create instability, but it may limit the power of some programs and delay compatability of new hardware and software.
Windows, on the other hand, is a hybrid kernel, which means some functions are managed in user space so that a program has more control over the hardware. This can be useful for pushing gaming to the limit or running experimental/custom programs, but it can lead to instability from resource hungry programs or security vulnerabilities from Trojan horses.
As for why their ISO is huge, I s’pose it’s due to all the extra crap they throw in there like AI, pinball, and data collection stuff.
Apologies if I got something fundamentally wrong—there are plenty of bigger nerds than me on here—but that’s my best attempt at explaining the difference as well as I know it.
Windows, on the other hand, is a hybrid kernel, which means some functions are managed in user space so that a program has more control over the hardware.
Windows and Linux are both monolithic kernels, in the sense that most device drivers run in kernel mode with kernel privilege. They’re not like Mach or Hurd.
Windows outsourced their device driver development early on to the hardware manufacturers, and they encouraged closed-source drivers with separate source trees and builds. To facilitate this, Windows NT developed a system called plug-n-play (PnP) which searches for and loads driver modules (.sys files) from disk into the kernel.
Linux developed a similar system of loadable kernel modules (.ko files), but their system arrived much later. One reason is that Linux’s GPLv2 license mandates that driver source code be licensed under compatible terms. That and Linux has always been pretty open about accepting driver code into their main source tree. Finally, manufacturers were never interested early on in writing Linux drivers, so the driver development was being done by the community, which was already using the Linux source tree.
So Linux didn’t have as much pressure to develop a loadable module system. So they did it later.
To the present day, the majority of Linux device drivers are submitted to mainline Linux and go through the Linux review process. Windows drivers are mainly developed by third parties, but they do have to go through the Windows Hardware Quality Labs review and testing process.
Apple writes all their MacOS drivers internally, because they are also the hardware OEM.
Your standard off the shelf easy to setup Linux ISO (mint for example) is like 4 GB after install, it includes a whole office suite, a few games, screensavers, GIMP, and a whole bunch of software you may not ever realize is on there or even need.
Did you know many distros standard install includes the GNU C/C++ compiler? Do most people need the GNU compiler? No, but the whole OS and all these tools is already smaller than a barebones install of windows since microslop just ships bloat.
Didn’t they remove pinball from Windows?
It’s just like Microsoft to remove the one I might actually want out of those three. More pinball, less data collection!
There’s a Linux port of it on Flathub
Yeah I think it was removed in windows 7 or 8.
Well you see, if there are fewer drivers included there is more room for user friendly features, such as persistent ai intrusion. You probably also gonna update them anyway, might as well download fresh 😇
I did dual booting for a month just to make sure there wasn’t a single use case for windows left. Not ONE use case for me.
Just so ppl aren’t dissapointed Daws like ableton and fl studio don’t have support (Reaper and Bitwig do tho, some others too)
Visual programs like touch designer and resolume don’t work (seen workarounds but they have issues)
Davinci resolve may crash, it worked fine on arch but on bazzite it freezes my pc when loading projects
On the gaming side obv there are the games that won’t function without anticheat like wrc, iracing, f1, etc. No game pass ofc.
I still wouldn’t swap back to windows and I barely use it, maybe once a month if I really want to use something not on Linux.
Main downside is lack of piracy. Houdinifx should work fine on linux natively, but lacks a crack. So even if the paid software does work, if you pirate to use this stuff as a hobby than you’ll have to swap to something like Blender/Inkscape that is free and works on linux. Only crack I’ve found was for Davinci Resolve.
Linux has plenty of free and capable alternatives for paid software, I like that it has me using Foss more. Went from learning Houdini + Davinci to just sticking with Blender for my hobby visuals, not mad about it, prefer that I was forced to focus on one.
Davinci resolve may crash, it worked fine on arch but on bazzite it freezes my pc when loading projects
I guess it’s weirdly picky about distros for some reason?
Personally, I’ve been using it on Ubuntu just fine with absolutely no issues. But I’ve heard of other people on other distros saying they could never get it to run.
Went from learning Houdini + Davinci to just sticking with Blender for my hobby visuals, not mad about it, prefer that I was forced to focus on one.
Yeah … though I still have Davinci Resolve, Kdenlive is actually my go-to video editor. It’s not quite as full-featured as full-on Davinci Resolve … but it feels simpler to use and more intuitive to me, and it’s got all the features I need for my basic stuff. Kdenlive is some good shit.
just sticking with Blender
And, actually, I’ve had linux-related issues with that. Not in Blender itself, but if you use any plugins, you might have issues. A lot of the people out there making Blender plugins are apparently not concerned at all about linux compatibility, so some Blender plugins don’t work in linux.
Just so ppl aren’t dissapointed Daws like ableton and fl studio don’t have support (Reaper and Bitwig do tho, some others too)
And while Bitwig runs great, there’s a much smaller selection of Linux-compatible third-party plugins. I didn’t have any luck with compatibility layers, so I switched my complete plugin stack when I switched to Linux. I’m relatively ascetic when it comes to plugins so its fine, but lots of people won’t be willing to work like that.
I did it for almost a year. Went back over once just to get files I missed moving the first time.
A pivotal moment in my life was when I first installed Linux to the entire hard disk instead of a separate partition.
I have done it a few times over the years but never on my main driver. Until last month… I bought a new laptop for my business and immediately installed Linux on the entire drive. I never initialized the win 11 that came with it.
So far I have had a few hiccups with getting some things working. I have also yet to find a basic WYSIWYG editor for my very basic HTML business webpage on Linux. So I am keeping my 6 year old laptop with win10 up and going on my desk for now.
I wish I didn’t have a purpose for Windows. I need to dual boot because I can’t get FL studio on my Steamdeck.
I don’t have a Steamdeck, but to be the linux guy of music software: you tried Reaper, yet?
Not quite. I’ve downloaded and looked at it a little, but after all the time I’ve spent learning FL, looking at a new DAW doesn’t sound fun. is there anything similar to FL that has all of the instruments, piano rolls, effects and all that good stuff? if I don’t have to touch windows for the rest of my existence I’d be great.
Have you tried stuff like WINE? I thought I’d heard of people using FL Studio without much issue, but I may be confusing it with another program.
I’ve done my research, and apparently Wine can run it pretty well… Until you add third part plug ins. I’m pretty new to Linux since having the steamdeck and I really want nothing to do with windows… I just really want to work on music and I’ve been learning FL for years so I don’t want to switch. I also never find anything as vast as FL with its piano roll, instruments and effects etc.
If you really want to get rid of your dual boot but need Windows, you could set up a virtual machine running Windows. You need a bit of a nicer machine to deal with the overhead, but it’s not so bad as people assume a lot of the time. As long as you don’t need the GPU for what you’re doing, I think it’s even pretty easy to give the VM direct access to the base hardware it needs, which cuts a fair bit of overhead. It may or may not get fairly technical to set up, depending on your hardware, distro, and personal luck, but it might be viable.
I think most other linux distros get the same treatment to be fair. I know I usually just nuke / and use the old /home
I back up /etc as well.
I’m too worried about config misconfigs to do that, I usually have a clean slate for /etc and then delete per user configs as I hit snags.
I don’t copy it over the new one but I do grab things like fstab settings and other things.
1: Back up /etc.
2: Install your fresh distro.
3: Backup the fresh distro’s new /etc.
4: Start targeted migration of /etc subfolders into the new /etc, testing things as you go. Only copy things you actually want to use the old configs for – it’s probably actually not that many, so it shouldn’t take too long.
5: After each migrated subfolder, if it causes an issue, delete the subfolder and replace it with the one from the new distro’s fresh backup.
Also, do the same with
/home/user/.config/to do targeted copying of configuration files from there. Always keep the fresh distro’s version available as a backup copy in case some version incompatibility or something causes errors. (It usually doesn’t, though.)Between those two, it’s amazing how painless distro migration can be. “Oh no, now I have to redo all my config choices!” turns into, “Oh, look, it’s back just the way I like it again, like magic.”
The last winblows in this house is on (one of three) its own disk on a t440p, just in case a piece of shit needs a firmware update, and I dread that moment, last time I needed it was an 8BitDo , now in the hands of my kiddo on Bazzite (thank Athena I now have a steam controller). Not sure what I’m saying other than let the BIOS do the switching and may you never need to boot windows again.
For the noobs to Linux, heed the words of your endlers: don’t dual boot. The operating systems have a way of killing each other’s bootloaders. It might even run fine for a while, but then one day there will be an update and one OS will be unbootable. Not worth the risk as a noob. If you’re really worried you might need a Windows program, then just run a Windows VM within Linux. If you want to keep the option for gaming, then you could dual boot, but don’t do it on a work critical machine.
The operating systems have a way of killing each other’s bootloaders.
Windows has a way of killing Linux bootloaders.
I’ve never heard of it happening the other way around.
Dual boot is fine, you just need to choose some good options.
Method 1: Most recommended. use Refined as your boot loader and two drives, not partitions. This is the easiest, safest, and frankly nicest way to deal with this. At boot, before either system starts you get a nice graphical interface to choose which OS to go into.
Method 2: Partition style. Disable window fast startup. Disable windows hibernation (never hibernate windows before going into linux). Use UEFI and GPT no legacy methods. Don’t encrpyt windows with bitlocker.
That said, my desktop and traveling laptop have been windows free for years, I have no need for it, and your advice is the safest way overall. A vm in linux with virtualmanager works very well.
