dual booting? good or bad?

[badbran]

so i got a hammydown computer with windows installed on it and it was so backed up and slow that i couldnt stand it. so i installed ubuntu. i have had good success with everyday activities except i am now learning that i actually really want the ability to run windows cd roms such as games and stuff on my computer. so now i am looking into dual booting. i think the reason the system was running slow on windows was because of several viruses and random crap which if i reinstall windows now, i would avoid such problems. I am wondering what the pros and cons are of dual booting and any good background info on the best way to go about such a task. I especially want to know if there are any cons to this. thanks

[lisati]

I dual-boot Vista Home Premium & Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop. The main reason I do this is that my laptop is my every-day machine: I use Ubuntu for most of my surfing & email, and use Vista on it for video editing (my laptop's specs seem to cope better than my desktops)

[Claus7]

Hello,

I would advice you to go for dual booting. That way you have independently both operating systems. I would not like to argue much about the pros and cons. I have not used the other method, so I cannot tell you much. I would advice you to go for dual booting, because my experience says that it is "simply working".

For advice and info I do not think that you will need more than this web site:
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/index.html

Regards!

[Cavalryman]

I do it on some of my computers. The pro is that you can choose which OS you want to use based upon what you want to do. The con is that you have to shut down and restart the computer in order to change operating systems. That really pretty much sums it up. I don't see any major down side. Theoretically, you can install Ubuntu 9.10 to launch from inside Windows XP, but I haven't tried it.

[zkriesse]

Dual Booting has many purposes. Depending upon the things you wish to do I'd either recommend it or not. I do not dual boot myself but I can give you a documentation on it. Hope it helps. DualBooting Ubuntu (http://gwos.org/udsf/doku.php/core:dualbooting:ubuntu)

[louieb]

Good cafe question. Windows does some things Linux can't do. Like run some games and catch viruses. Linux does other things better.

Two ways to have both: dual boot or use a Virtual Machine. Using a virtual machine takes better hardware - faster CPU - more memory.

I still dual boot - don't know why - almost never boot windows. Ubuntu is easier on my old man eyes.

[presence1960]

People dual boot because it suits their needs. If you want to play games and the like then you will need windows. So regardless of the pros & cons the decision should come down to whether you want the ability to play your games or not. If you do then dual boot Linux and Windows. if you do not then stick with linux. Simple!

[Cavalryman]

It's not just games,though. I have all of National Geographic on DVDs, but it uses some sort of proprietary reading system which I can't get to run in Wine. There are a few other non-game apps like this which don't have a Linux equivalent. That's why I dual-boot.

[HeadHunter00]

It's not bad in any way I can think of.

[darco]

I prefer to dual boot w/2 different HD's.....in case the HD craps out, you still have a working OS.



darco

[badbran]

ok thanks for all the responses. they help. so from what ive heard i need to reinstall windows xp and then reinstall linux on top of it right? there is no way to start with ubuntu and just add xp in.

[oldfred]

I have always like Herman's site posted above by Claus7. You do need to have windows in a primary partition, so it depends how you have your system partitioned. It is easier to install windows first but not an absolute requirement.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows
http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dualbooting_guide_linux_vista_and_x p_stepbystep.htm
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/

[badbran]

thanks again guys

[presence1960]

It's not just games,though. I have all of National Geographic on DVDs, but it uses some sort of proprietary reading system which I can't get to run in Wine. There are a few other non-game apps like this which don't have a Linux equivalent. That's why I dual-boot.

was specifically addressing what the OP asked about (which is the purpose of this thread), not everyone's reasons for dual booting.