So, I’m up all night and have time to think, and this came to my mind and I wanted to see what others thought.
It’s been my slowly forming opinion that dual booting is very detrimental to the conversion of thought required to daily drive Linux. Why I say this is because (and it depends on the person), it remains too convenient /easy to just boot to Windows to do anything, without the effort of thinking of how to do it under Linux.
I posit this because with a few exceptions (like until very recently, Adobe products, yes I am aware of recent breakthrough here, but go with the previous state, or maybe the stupid anti-cheat games) almost any task can be accomplished in Linux. I don’t believe most things are inherently harder (often it’s easier in fact), the real difficulty is in breaking some in-grained thought patterns.
There’s also the problem that Windows updates reset the bootloader and people ‘lose’ access to their Linux partitions (yes I know it’s an easy fix..for us…) or shared data partition (NTFS looking at you) gets locked because of Windows.
What do you all think ? Are there really benefits to dual-booting? Or are people better off to just cut the ties abruptly?
I started my Linux “career” by dual-booting. This was of course on time when Windows updates did not so easily break your setup. However, I always found it in the end not so convenient and usually ended back into Windows, especially because gaming on Linux was not on the level it is now (I think Fallout 1 & 2 were only games I managed to get run on my Ubuntu).
I think for average user, who doesn’t use Windows specific apps for like work etc. or play games that require Windows to be able to run, it’s best to, as you put it, “cut the ties abruptly” especially if one has found distro of their liking.
I think otherwise it’s going to end into forward and backward pendulum that never ends or if it ends, it ends into user staying with Windows.
I think we all probably started that way. I’m trying to think about the current state and a new user and their success rates.
I’m glad to see you don’t think I’m completely crazy (sometimes I think that lol).
My personal success after the classic dual booting failed to bring me out of the Windows ecosystem (mostly as a gamer, but also work related) I decided to install Linux on another SSD. After that, I put the Windows drive out of the boot order in BIOS. What I learned was that when my first distro of choice did not work out for me, instead of going back I just installed EndeavourOS, and it clicked.
My reasoning is: dual booting does not take enough effort for me to really unlearn the stuff. I know this was a more techie approach, but I could see this with a new device. What it does: it gives you the security you could get back, if all hell breaks loose, but you have done enough to really daily drive the Linux system and try to find solutions there before just giving up. I think the pressure we might have in real life could make any obstacle on Linux (which there will be) bringing us back into the known territories with dual booting. But, without the safe space to know that you have your “old world” available if everything fails, makes us more “courageous” to give it a try. It is what I am suggesting to friends.
When I first started running Linux, I was dual booting with Windows 2000. That safety net made it a lot easier for me to try Linux out. Maybe I was unusual but I rarely booted Windows when I had Linux installed and after I hadn’t booted it for 6 months, I made the switch permanent.
Nowadays, it’s certainly easy to say that you should just install Linux with no Windows, but it will be much scarier and probably discourage many people from trying Linux and discovering how good it is.
Well, quite contrary to what OP stated, I think that going “cold turkey” ditching proprietary OS’s in favour of Penguin is counter-productive.
Most of the people that switch have no idea about how to use Linux whatsoever.
For everyday computer usage, Linux is easy to get along, especially if you go with something like Mint, Zorin or Pop!_OS, where desktop paradigm is similar to Microsoft’s and Apple’s solutions.
However, the nichier your use case is, the more trouble you might have to get yourself comfortable and sometimes you just rely on a specific programme that you can’t run on Linux.
Well, that was me when I switched nearly 4 years ago. Once I learned my way how to do my things on Linux, I just reinstalled the distro I was using back then to the full drive and never looked back.
So yeah, dual boot is great when you start using Linux, the point is to learn the way of doing things and reduce the dependence on proprietary.
While we probably all started off dual-booting, I’d say with the speed of USB memory these days, booting off a Live environment with a static writeable partition may actually be more of an option. But frankly, we’re also in a far stronger position in terms of compatibility, where just nuking it all and installing Linux solo is a genuine approach.
Yeah I know when I switched years back One of the things I did was to stop using the MS software apps like office and media player. I had made myself learn some cross platform apps before I felt comfortable with Linux. When I first started with Linux it was very “Terminal Centric” while they did have GUI’s mainly KDE and GNOME both were very very young and limited. So lots of software I used in Windows that had no “cross platform” support I had to learn how to use other programs and the way they operated vs the way I was used to with Windows apps.
Honestly I think it depends on why one is dual booting. Personally I like everyone else did when I first started. Back then I had no choice I had a win modem and well anyone who remembers those knows that Linux did not play well with those at all.
In today’s environment I would highly discourage users from Dual Booting. Reason one being that Many times I have seen people come in and ask for help getting back into their Linux do to an Update that Microsoft has made. I know its fixable but for those new to Linux how to fix may not even cross their mind as they are just used to and OS that if it breaks you just “reinstall”.
Another reason I don’t is that Microsoft doesn’t give you access to your Linux formats by default (I’ve haven’t used it since 7 however) I often wonder if THEY can still get access to them. (We all know Microsoft loves to steal data) I don’t trust them.
If at this time I needed to have a MS I would simply just have a dedicated machine for it. If I could not do a separate machine I would at very least keep MS on its own drive.
Again it is really going to depend on each persons use case. I just say for Me I have no plans of ever installing that OS ever again.
As @thefrog and @dbarronoss mentioned already, dual booting doesn’t always provide the safety net a would-be Linux newbie might hope for.
It provides little incentive to push past those first hurdles, and may very well be the thing that causes things to trip up.
Like @thefrog said, converting to the cross-platform applications while still using Windows eases the transition. Once those have been tamed, one simply needs to go all-in.
This was what I done back in June 2024 when I started linux and haven’t come across any issues, never used Linux as a live system to use before that. I wiped Windows off all drives and then Installed EOS and wiped NTFS for Ext4 on all drives, and abandoned photoshop and other software I had, then 7 months later went to Arch and been on Arch since. I knew it was the end of windows for me anyway since what set me off on my journey was copilot and AI integration announcement, so I had a very strong motivator to replace everything I ever knew on Windows to the equivalent on Linux. I wanted to never be lured back and tackle any bumps in the road I come across or find a solution to a problem, took me about 40 minutes to learn how to install my first package since it was so different to Windows but I ended up knowing the correct way to install, update, manage dependencies etc within that time.
I would suspect this is true, although for me I don’t know what it would be like had I dual-booted. I was essentially forced to learn everything and write notes as I had no fallback, I was also very careful to learn everything properly and understand since this is the only system I have to work on. I currently have over 250,000 words worth of notes in my knowledge repository, I note down everything I learned and how to set things up. Within 1 year of linux I even made my own bash scripts to automate backups, encrypted root partition and managing encrypted partitions via the shell. But I know most won’t do this though.
Even on Windows I knew a lot on how to do a lot, I made batch files when I was at school, understand the registry, extracting files out of .exe’s and used to do all sorts so I already knew a lot before I started working as an IT technician in 2015 and enjoyed tinkering. But now I feel I know and understand Linux way more than I ever knew Windows at this point (Including what I knew for my job), all within less than 2 years to the point I am doing Linux courses to eventually work with Linux as part of a job and already knew 90ish percent of the first course already purely from things I picked up on my own prior.
While I think instantly switching and abandoning Windows is the best way (even ignoring my prior skills with computers when I switched) some people just simply want to switch to a different OS and not necessarily learn it all and there are distros out there for them and not everyone is interested in learning stuff and simply want to be away from Windows for whatever reason. Even installing a new OS itself is more than what most people would know so people will always need to learn something to switch over regardless. But I feel not duel boot is the best path if there is nothing that you absolutely need that only runs on Windows, as duel booting encourages going back and fourth and likely falsly makes linux seem more complicated than it is or easily creates a view that things you want to do can’t be done on linux or is difficult as someone never looked how to do it or alternative software in the first place and just switches back to windows as it’s faster, and things like boot loaders not working will be blamed on Linux as being the problem.
It was quite a while ago but, for me, I think I would have found it difficult to make the switch without the comfort of knowing I could boot back to Windows if I had an issue. In fact, in the beginning, I did need to go back and forth quite a bit. Not because I couldn’t work in Linux but because I would realize there were settings or information I had left in Windows and needed to pull over.
Also, this is not an issue for me, but there is the situation for gamers. For those who play competitive multi-player games, there is really no option except to dual-boot since many of those games don’t run on Linux.
This is one of those things where the answer won’t be the same for every person. To some extent, you need to know yourself and how you think. It is a bit like dieting in that there is no one right approach that works universally.
Interesting thoughts @_Six. Your habit of note taking is something I started doing too, years ago when I started managing FreeBSD servers. Those documents are precious libraries of information purchased with hard work and study!
I’d probably suggest a Virtual Machine before suggesting dual booting in most cases. Maybe GPU heavy applications running on a single GPU system (no pass through) might be the only possible exception I can think of.
Note taking is pretty important for me, I have always believed that you don’t necessarily need to know everything from memory, but a good skill is knowing how to find the right information and then knowing exactly the right things to note down.
I should have mentioned that before switching I actually used VMs to test about 10 different distros (Or around that number) and tested 5 desktop environments to figure out what I like and don’t. I would recommend this path for anyone if they want a feel for a Linux system, this was when I discovered desktop environments are a thing and any of them could be used on almost any distro, once I noticed multiple distros had the same UI.
About three weeks before switching I also looked up what the differences were between Linux and Windows and what works and doesn’t. I read about anticheat games and adobe software not working. I was prepared to give up Photoshop but thankfully I don’t play multiplayer games. But I agree if anyone definitely needs this stuff on windows then they would need to duel boot.
I tend to do better personally just by cutting things off and moving on, even for simple things like switching browsers or switching software, if I have both running and available it takes infinitely longer as I keep switching or holding it off. But I make sure cutting something off is actually feasible first though.
Of course I came to Linux quite late though and had a luxury of Linux being very compatible with games and developed, I probably would have duel booted had this been a decade or two ago when things were probably more uncertain.
I had always been using Linux on and off so I was already testing different distros all the time. However, before I switched, I used Linux full-time in a full screen VM for a week or two to prove out that it could work for me.
I’m quite new to Linux in terms of actually using it, at most I installed Ubuntu in a VM a few times when I was in school in 2012-2014 and again a couple times 2015-18 but it was only at most a look around for 30-60 minutes and that was it, nothing I consider as actually using it properly but the only experience I had prior to 2024.
Using a VM for a week or two is a good idea though to be completely certain how things will play out and work, and a safer route for many as well as it adds certainty before commitment.
I’d say it all depends on how much you want to switch and learn linux.
As many others, i started by dual booting, but the only times i would use windows were when i had to use certain apps that did not work on linux (my old mouse software and mainly online games).
Even if i had the option, i never chose to boot windows because it was “easier”, i was too lazy or anything.
Yet, this provided a nice safety net and allowed me to keep learning while i figured out how to do things on linux without the frustration of not being able to do what i wanted at all, which could be a reason many people give up.
“I can’t spend weeks/month not being able to do “this or that” while i learn how to do it on linux, if i can do it at all” is something i’ve heard quite often and probably one of the main reasons a lot of people haven’t switched yet. That’s why i would recommend to dual boot or use a VM at first.
After i found solutions/alternatives and didn’t need windows anymore, i just removed it from my computer and never looked back.
So if having windows as an option is enough for you to not learn something else, then maybe you are better of staying on what you know already, if the laziness is stronger than you … there is nothing i can do.
I never dual booted. I enjoyed win 7 pro until the updates stopped, then dove directly into linux; Ubuntu initially…I had already tested and learned enough about linux so the transition was fairly smooth. Dual booting has always seemed un necessary to me. The challenge to make it happen seemed to pull at me occasionally, but I never indulged.
I’ve always found trying new operating systems interesting. I grew up with an Amiga that had a hard disk so Dos/Windows wasn’t my first proper OS. With that in mind I never really felt tied to Windows like a lot of people do.
My computer is more a tinkering hobby than a work machine so I have the option when things get rough to just turn it off and leave it for tomorrow. Most people have too many commitments and need their one PC to work.
The only serious way I would Dual Boot a computer would be to have the two operating systems on 2 physically different Mass Storage Devices (ssd, nvme, etc). Then select which MSD to use in Bios on log in. However, I haven’t done that for over a decade now.
Now I have a x86_64 low power (Intel J5040 CPU based motherboard) that is my daily driver. One RPi 5 aarch64 device that is my dedicated dev computer,
Then I have about six other ARM devices that I can tinker with to my heart’s content.
ARM devices are great for tinkering.
I did that back in the day with removable drive bays. I really only needed Windows then because some of IBM’s internal websites would not work on anything but Internet Explorer.