Why would you prefer dual-boot machines, especially with Windows/Linux?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:20:24 -0500

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Feb 4 at 2016 10:29 AM

LTC Stephen F. — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:29:01 -0500

In the past I have used dual boot systems when testing software prior to release to military clients so that we could test the software under different operation system environments SGT Private RallyPoint Member .

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2016 10:29 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:29:14 -0500

Sometimes you just need to Windoze... 92.86% of the time Linux does it for me... the rest of the time, for some reason the wife wants to use the history.

Response by SSgt Robert Jorgensen made Feb 4 at 2016 10:30 AM

SSgt Robert Jorgensen — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:30:56 -0500

Depending on what your doing, one is more secure then the other But one is limited in software choices.

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2016 10:38 AM

SGM Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:38:02 -0500

I am a Linux Mint user, but I do keep a bootable Win7 partition for proprietary software. The last time I booted it was April of last year when I did my taxes with Tax Act from H&R Block. Probably the next time I boot Win7 will be the same reason.

Linux is more stable, less hackable, less virus prone, and has more free software available. Linux also has less garbage sucking horsepower away from your computer, less advertising, easier methods of deleting what advertising there is, and more control for the user. Windows has proprietary software, and if that's what you need, then you need Windows.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2016 10:43 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:43:42 -0500

Dual booting windows /Linux windows for gaming and Linux for software development

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Feb 4 at 2016 10:51 AM

LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:51:40 -0500

There are reasons to use multiple OSs, especially if you are concerned about security, hacking, spying, etc... If so, Linux is probably a better choice to run. I suspect, though, that a dual boot machine could probably be hacked in some way. VMs don't provide the same security.

The only true safe machine is one that is not connected to anything. Short of that, separate machines, or separate, removable boot drives are more secure...

Personally I just use Windows. I don't do anything so critical that I'm concerned about getting hacked. And I have two routers and security software, along with practicing "Safe Internet..."

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Feb 4 at 2016 11:02 AM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 11:02:26 -0500

I was using a multi-boot Mac/Windows/Linux for a while.

It was nice. My mac had A LOT of nice features, but it wouldn't run a few games & programs I had. So I used "Bootcamp" & "Windows Parallels" on it. It gave me the option to set up partitions and operate natively. The nice part about that was if I was inside Mac, and I needed something from my Windows system I could launch Parallels and access it.

VMs are great, but every now and then don't respond "as well as" booting from. Just using too much computing power to keep both OS going. The better the hardware the less the problem though.

When I was playing with linux VM was definitely the way to go, but I almost always set up as Dual Boot and then "paralleled" it over. I just liked having both options.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2016 11:37 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 11:37:28 -0500

Im a huge Mac fan, and i run windows on my macbook because a lot of programs are on windows and not other OS. Im sure this applies to linux.

Response by SSG Nathaniel Bendel made Feb 4 at 2016 1:52 PM

SSG Nathaniel Bendel — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 13:52:53 -0500

I just use VMs. I haven't dual booted a machine since desktop virtualization became available. I thin provision so the HD isn't preallocated which saves on storage until needed.

Response by SSG Derek Scheller made Feb 4 at 2016 2:57 PM

SSG Derek Scheller — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 14:57:07 -0500

As much as I love linux currently I just utilize it through VM. Though the more I spend away from gaming, the more I will lean towards linux.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2016 6:14 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 18:14:30 -0500

Depends on what exactly you choose to do with your Linux box... Be offensive or harden your network.

Response by SSgt Mark Lines made Feb 4 at 2016 8:33 PM

SSgt Mark Lines — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 20:33:10 -0500

I definitely prefer dual-booting with Linux and Windows, especially on my gaming rig. I prefer the gaming performance and ease of use I get with Windows, but for older games (10 years-old) I prefer to use Linux. The older games require less tweaking to run properly on Linux. I also prefer to boot into Linux when my wife uses the computer. Still getting her to understand that she doesn't need to install a program offered by a website. With Linux, no worries.

The only time I prefer a single boot is with my Home Theater PC. There I boot solely into Linux. Currently I use Linux Mint with Kodi as the default desktop environment. It is faster, more stable, and gives a more set-top box feel.

Response by SSgt Mark Lines made Feb 4 at 2016 8:33 PM

SSgt Mark Lines — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 20:33:10 -0500

Response by PFC David Ryba made Feb 5 at 2016 8:23 AM

PFC David Ryba — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 08:23:15 -0500

This is an interesting question. I run Windows 10 and XP Media Edition with Oracle VM Virtual Box because of a great photo editing program that came with XP. However with flash drives getting so big (2.2 TB is the biggest I've seen so far) why not make boot-able flash drives and just plug in a flash drive with the OS you want to use and start your computer? Is that possible???

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 6 at 2016 6:12 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 18:12:05 -0500

With the status of virtualization technology available on the laptops & desktops of today's machines, I would rather use VMs than dual boot. That way I don't have to stop what I'm doing in one machine to do an action in another. And yes, I put my money where my mouth is, I run linux host with windows guest. (with the exception of 1 windows laptop)

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 23 at 2016 11:35 AM

TSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 11:35:54 -0500

Give me a Linux box, with VM software, then let me create my 7 systems on Windows, 3 on IOS, and whatever I want after that... wait, I have that on my desktop!