How many people dual boot?

bman

Hey,

I was just wondering how many people on here dual boot Windows/Mac OS and Linux, and how many just run Linux on their machine? I've started booting into FC5 more than Windows now, although I only installed FC5 about 2 months ago. It got me wondering if I'd be able to manage without Windows the next time I'm buying a computer. If I can't manage without Windows then whats the point in me having Linux?!

If you aren't dual booting then how long did it take before you were totally free of Windows?

melekalikimaka

my main pc dual boots, my smaller server is linux tho

Creamy Goodness

quad-boot...

windows xp x64
windows vista ulimate edition RC2
ubuntu 6.10 x64
damn small linux

i assume i can vote yes then

bman

Cremo wrote:

quad-boot...

windows xp x64
windows vista ulimate edition RC2
ubuntu 6.10 x64
damn small linux

i assume i can vote yes then

I should have phrased the question differently, do you just boot linux?
Although I don't think you can count DSL if your running it from usb or cd

By the way, when I asked if people only boot one OS I meant linux not windows/mac (although this is probably obvious anyway).

leeroybrown

I normally use Linux but I have an old Win2k install I use for occasional Windows specific work and a bit of gaming. I often go months without needing to boot into it though. I probably would have gotten rid of it by now except for the hassle of sorting through the data on the partition.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Meh, I've dual booted a few times over the years, but I found it a bit pointless for me personally... I can do everything I want to do in Windows.
The other OS would usually just sit there taking up space after the novelty wore off.
If I did need an additional OS for some reason I'd probably just run it in a VM anyway... save me rebooting every time.

Creamy Goodness

bman wrote:

I should have phrased the question differently, do you just boot linux?
Although I don't think you can count DSL if your running it from usb or cd

By the way, when I asked if people only boot one OS I meant linux not windows/mac (although this is probably obvious anyway).

ok, i have this setup on my laptop and have grub to boot into ubuntu after 5 seconds so more often than not i use linux on my laptop. i only use my laptop for college and i can do everything in linux for college.

vista and xp is only if i need wireless internet because seeing that broadcom are stupid fcukers and me for using 64-bit ubuntu so i can't use ndiswrapper so i believe. i'm doing a reinstall though tonight and i'll be sticking with a 32bit version just to see if i can get wireless working.

Khannie

bman wrote:

If you aren't dual booting then how long did it take before you were totally free of Windows?

I tried dual booting on and off for years. Never properly used linux as long as windows was there.

Then one day, I grew some balls and ditched windows. It was a big decision for me, but there's nothing (for me) that I need windows for (wine works for the occasional application that can't be replaced, yet (or is just easier to use, like dvd shrink)). Basically, my advice is that if you're already using linux more than windows you should just make the move. I haven't looked back.

KTRIC

Just started dual booting Suse 10.01 and Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005 today.

As soon as I can replicate what I do in Window in Linux then the XP partition is getting deleted.

bman

Khannie wrote:

Basically, my advice is that if you're already using linux more than windows you should just make the move. I haven't looked back.

I'm not brave enough for that yet, only 2 months so I may go running back to Windows at some point yet! I'm going upgrading to FC6 when the exams are over and I'll be giving it more of my hard drive this time, so slowly but surely it'll eat up Windows.

Goodshape

Yes. For Photoshop, the odd computer game and testing webpages in Internet Explorer.

I much prefer working in Linux but unfortunitly I also really like being able to open Photoshop on an impulse so I find myself booting into windows more times than not these days. It's a pitty because pretty much everything else I do works better in KDE.

Oracle

Interesting poll. I used to think dual-booting was a first step towards using Linux exclusively but after dual booting on and off for years, I realise that to finally dump Windows I'll have to have a separate Linux machine.

oscarBravo

One word: VMware. I haven't booted Windows for months.

MarkR

Using edgy and xp as i'm still a bit of a linux noob.

Blowfish

Dual booting on laptop and desktop, plus OpenBSD running on server. On my laptop I only use windows for games, everything else is Linux, and with the amount of free time I have, it usually means that I can easily go a few weeks without booting windows.

Windows is only on the desktop because my parents use it too, although I have discovered that every so often, because Linux is the default boot option, they end up booting it by accident, and are quite happy to use it instead

ethernet

I was dual booting with XP and SuSE 10.1 for several months. Just used a big, fat FAT32 partition [get it, ah hah] for editing common files.

I'm now running Vista RC2. SuSE, not being able to look into the future, couldn't detect Vista. I even edited the grub menu manually but Vista insisted on spreading its illness on a new, *logical* partition. Goodbye dual booting!

I use Ulteo on a live CD now instead but it's killing me -- I'd love to have Fedora 6, Ubuntu 6.10 and SuSE 10.2. I'll get over it. I intend to buy MCE before this Vista evaluation copy expires then I can dual-boot again. FreeBSD is catching my attention lately, however.

I'm sure someone on the board has been hacking and is running Windows, Linux and OS X [share your wisdom, oh wise ones]!

bman

ethernet wrote:

Just used a big, fat FAT32 partition [get it, ah hah] for editing common files.

I do the same but I recently installed ntfs-3g so I can write to the ntfs partition from linux. Do other people use this? I'm sort of still afraid to write much using it as it's fairly new and I'm afraid there may still be bugs (or is this me been overcautious?).

oscarBravo

ethernet wrote:

I'm now running Vista RC2. SuSE, not being able to look into the future, couldn't detect Vista. I even edited the grub menu manually but Vista insisted on spreading its illness on a new, *logical* partition. Goodbye dual booting!

That's good to know. If there was ever the faintest danger of me installing Vista,¹ it just evaporated.









¹ There wasn't.

SouperComputer

Multiple drives, multiple partitions and multiple OS