You’d be better off installing Linux on another drive if you’re going to dual boot. Windows loves to mess with the EFI boot partition which ends up borking the Linux bootloader.
If your family does more than just browse the web, there’s definitely going to be a bit of a learning curve, it’s possible though. I converted my 73 year old father to Linux after he used Windows for 25 years.
If you install the Linux bootloader on a separate partition from the Windows bootloader, then it’s trivial to repair it, but that might be a bit advanced for a basic user.
I have been wanting to make the switch to Linux myself, and have done a bit of research on which to try for a beginner coming from windows. However the dual boot dangers are worrying me a bit, I dont want to nuke my windows installation just yet and only test the waters.
I have an SSD with windows on it and another with most of my programs and files. Could I partition the latter for a Linux installation or would I risk windows messing with it anyway?
Installing Linux on a separate drive is probably a better bet. I’ll admit I didn’t have much trouble with it, but I dual booted Windows 8.1 with Linux, not 10, and my understanding is it has only gotten fuckier.
In either case you may wish to “test the waters” by installing and running Linux in a virtual machine or on a thumb drive at first, to take it for a test drive and see if you can live with it.
Yep, in fact, installing it on a different drive completely would probably be your safest bet 😉 Windows may still mess with it, but if it has its own EFI System Partition, it should hopefully leave the one for Linux alone.
Ah really? I could put it on the hard drive, but the whole point of the SSD was for it to take the OS… Will have to think on that.
They generally don’t do more than browse the web so I’m not anticipating any major issues. I used to game on it, but it’s so old now I’ve stopped using it for games.
Maybe I’ll put it on a usb for a while instead of dual booting.
You’d be better off installing Linux on another drive if you’re going to dual boot. Windows loves to mess with the EFI boot partition which ends up borking the Linux bootloader.
If your family does more than just browse the web, there’s definitely going to be a bit of a learning curve, it’s possible though. I converted my 73 year old father to Linux after he used Windows for 25 years.
If you install the Linux bootloader on a separate partition from the Windows bootloader, then it’s trivial to repair it, but that might be a bit advanced for a basic user.
I have been wanting to make the switch to Linux myself, and have done a bit of research on which to try for a beginner coming from windows. However the dual boot dangers are worrying me a bit, I dont want to nuke my windows installation just yet and only test the waters.
I have an SSD with windows on it and another with most of my programs and files. Could I partition the latter for a Linux installation or would I risk windows messing with it anyway?
Installing Linux on a separate drive is probably a better bet. I’ll admit I didn’t have much trouble with it, but I dual booted Windows 8.1 with Linux, not 10, and my understanding is it has only gotten fuckier.
In either case you may wish to “test the waters” by installing and running Linux in a virtual machine or on a thumb drive at first, to take it for a test drive and see if you can live with it.
Yep, in fact, installing it on a different drive completely would probably be your safest bet 😉 Windows may still mess with it, but if it has its own EFI System Partition, it should hopefully leave the one for Linux alone.
Ah really? I could put it on the hard drive, but the whole point of the SSD was for it to take the OS… Will have to think on that.
They generally don’t do more than browse the web so I’m not anticipating any major issues. I used to game on it, but it’s so old now I’ve stopped using it for games.
Maybe I’ll put it on a usb for a while instead of dual booting.
I meant installing Linux itself on another drive, but having the EFI System Partition on another drive could work theoretically.