On Tue, 12 Nov 2013 08:32:55 -0500 Miles Fidelman <mfidel...@meetinghouse.net> wrote:
> > > But, having said that, when one really uses two operating systems on > the same machine, I expect it's more common to run one under > virtualization, so you can run both at the same time - dual booting > is a real pain if one is really USING both operating systems. > > What are other people's experiences? How many folks here use Windows > (or Mac o/s) on the same machine as a linux distribution? Do you > dual-boot or do you virtualize? > > I dual-boot a laptop, XP and sid. Some applications I use work only on Windows, some only on Linux, most unusual USB peripherals work only with Windows. A lot of non-IT hardware uses USB for firmware updates and sometimes configuration, and the software driver is nearly always Windows-only. The government of my country requires pretty much all business taxation to be dealt with by their own software over the Net, and though they offer a Linux fig-leaf, it doesn't cover much e.g. needs 32 bit support, which no longer exists in sid (no, it doesn't work in a 32-bit Wheezy VM on 64 bit sid). I don't do that work on the laptop, so the dual-boot isn't really relevant, but it is another reason that I do need to keep Windows around the house. I haven't done any recent experimenting with virtualisation, and previous experience was that USB on the virtual machine varied from primitive to non-existent. Maybe it's better now. Also, something not many people seem to realise, and probably don't care about, is that only 'professional' versions of Windows are licensed to work in a VM, and I don't have any suitable Windows version. I do also use the laptop on free public wi-fi, and there's no way I'll do that with Windows, even using a VPN. I need Linux to run natively, to make use of iptables, so I can't really run either OS in a VM in the other, and I doubt that I have the RAM to do so usefully anyway. XP needed about a quarter-gig when it came out, but seems to need twice that much nowadays. From April next year, I won't dare connect XP to the Net, so I'll be looking out for a laptop that allows Linux to boot. I don't necessarily want to dual-boot it, as I now have a sid installation on a USB hard drive which seems to boot on nearly anything, but I do need it to work. -- Joe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20131112184609.660b2...@jretrading.com
