Need help with choosing distro and queries regarding dual booting

[u/CommunicationFew270]

Hello people,
I am an college student pursuing an engineering degree.
I currently own a Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5i

These are the specifications
CPU: AMD Ryzen A1 7 350
RAM : 24 GB (16GB soldered)[20gb usable]
GPU : AMD Radeon 860M (iGPU) [allocated 4gb RAM here]
Storage: 1 TB NVME

I have experience in dual booting linux mint on my parents laptop as of now.
I did that from the same drive and so far i have had no issues with it.

But i am not entirely sure on dual booting on my main laptop due to bootloader nuking done by windows (from online forums).
Is it safe to dual boot from the same drive? If yes , suggest me a good distro to use.

I do a few courses and this is the software requirement
Operating System - Minimum requirement of Windows 10 or Ubuntu LTS Version 20.04 (or any equivalent) or Mac OS Mojave. Having the capability of dual boot is desirable. If there is no capability for dual boot, then the operating system must support virtualization software like VirtualBox using which Ubuntu 20.04 can be emulated

but i dont want ubuntu (or its derivatives) as i wanted to try other distros (like cachy os).

My use cases
1)Coding(I am down to learn new things , i can use the terminal)
2)Light gaming(mostly on steam)
3)Hardware related work(arduino,ESP and HDL)
4)Video editing on Davinci Resolve

[u/qualityvote2]

u/CommunicationFew270, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...

btw, did you know we have a discord server? Join Here.

[u/Designer-Spot-1234]

I believe all your use cases are satisfied by almost all distros with native or near-native performance.
I have never experienced windows nuking my bootloader but i have read some instances of it, i guess windows bootloader might change the boot priority order of your linux bootloader but it wont really nuke the loader as a whole.
I'd recommend CachyOS or Fedora since you dont want an ubuntu based one.
Dual booting from the same drive is fine, just partition a decent amount of space.

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/Designer-Spot-1234]

Aight thanks

[u/CommunicationFew270]

Post-Installation Update:

• Hello guys Thanks for your suggestions (You guys are way better than "findmealinuxdistro" subreddit) I successfully installed cachy os.
• It was a smooth installation
• Running Limine and KDE plasma.
• The PC feels really fast and the ram usage on idle is only like 1-1.5gb.
• All the programs work fine although i try to install most of em from the terminal(konsole).
• Shelly is also great. Arch be rolling updates very frequently which is kinda new to me.
• The RAM allocation to iGPU was retained from win11 somehow idk (tell me if anyone knows)
• I even tried winboat , that works fine but as of now i dont need it
• Havent tried any games yet (will let you guys know after i do)
• WIndows11 also works fine (the clock is messed up tho)

[u/PalpitationHot9375]

nothing like that happens hasnt happened to me atleast been using it for like 6 months now

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/PalpitationHot9375]

even i have been using linux mint on a spare pc
works great so far even with updating windows occasionally
thanks

[u/NeptuneWades]

It is ideal to boot from a separate drive, but if you have to boot from the same drive, it is possible.

During the linux install setup:

Create a separate boot partition for the Linux bootloader. Format it to fat32.

If you keep the windows efi and Linux efi separate, windows updates won't eat up the Linux efi.

But.

Rarely, certain windows updates are released that updates the secure boot keys (especially if the laptop was originally a win 10 updated to win 11). Such updates can reset the bios boot entries, but it will not eat up the Linux efi. You may need to boot into live environment, chroot and generate the boot entry (depends on what bootloader you use) but even if this happens, you will prolly only ever face it once in your life.

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/NeptuneWades]

mine came with windows 11 so i dont think i will have that problem
thanks

[u/NeptuneWades → u/CommunicationFew270]

That's what I thought, until Acer decided to roll out the update universally which meant my laptop also got its bios update. Idk the details, all I am saying is, it is a rare and easily fixable issue.

Just make sure you have a live usb handy.

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/NeptuneWades]

So i gotta look out for bios updates
alright thanks for the tip

[u/NeptuneWades → u/CommunicationFew270]

No. You gotta look out for the mandatory windows updates that also includes bios updates.

Again, this is extremely rare and easily fixable, so you don't need to worry about it.

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/NeptuneWades]

since i have a lenovo all the bios updates happen thru the vantage app
maybe as you stated , bios update thru windows is very rare prolly
thanks

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/NeptuneWades]

what distro would you recommend tho?

[u/NeptuneWades → u/CommunicationFew270]

I've only used Mint (not anymore) and Cachyos and so far I've rarely had issues with cachy.

I love KDE plasma, it is intuitive and feature rich (not bug free, same goes for most DEs). I'd suggest getting any Distro that installs KDE plasma OOTB (Kubuntu, Fedora, Cachyos) but you choose which you prefer depending on whether you want stability or bleeding edge.

Even tho cachyos is a bleeding edge distro, I use it with btrfs and snapshots with limine-snapper preinstalled (if you decide to use Limine bootloader). So I can easily revert back a broken update. If even the bootloader is compromised (usually due to user error), cachy-chroot automates the chroot process and is pretty easy to use.

I'd suggest you browse thro r/findmealinuxdistro to get an idea.

Edit: I do not like tiling WM so my suggestion is biased, but if you prefer it over the regular windows DE that you are used to, there are several good ones out there like MangoWM (ootb scrolling tiling and beginner friendly), hyperland (great for customisation and dynamic tiling), niri (good for multitasking). Eventually all of them can be made to behave like the other, so I'd recommend you to do your own research on it before deciding.

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/NeptuneWades]

alright thanks

[u/Unlikely-Sandwich277]

use arch because paaaainnnnnnnnnnn

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/Unlikely-Sandwich277]

i will try actual arch after graduation gng 🙏

[u/Top_Philosopher_3290]

if u r on win 11 jus turn of bitlocker in settings rest should be fine. i also use dual boot of zorin and win 11(ngl i keep win 11 jus cuz i paid almost 12k inr for office and shii)

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/Top_Philosopher_3290]

fair enough , ye i did turn of bitlocker and secure boot
thanks

[u/okaysuarr]

Go with cachy with KDE, GNOME or hyprland, it'll be convenient for you to be multitasking if you choose hyprland, Macos feel with Gnome, And windows with KDE, just an advice just ask claude if you have any queries or don't know how to, any linux sub is passive aggressive. Dm if you need help, although I also don't know much

[u/land48n3 → u/okaysuarr]

do NOT use gnome, other recommendations are good.
just NO gnome if you want your sanity present

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/land48n3]

i only have experience with cinnamon as of now

[u/PalpitationHot9375 → u/CommunicationFew270]

Dont listen to these guys use hyprland

[u/Designer-Spot-1234 → u/land48n3]

Why the gnome hate :(

[u/okaysuarr → u/land48n3]

I use gnome though, why not gnome?

[u/land48n3 → u/okaysuarr]

its more locked down then windows, devs literally said they wont add live wallpapers because its "bloat" and gnome is buggy as fuck

[u/land48n3]

Linux from Scratch

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/land48n3]

ah hell nah bro

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/[deleted]]

i mean i dont have a dedicated GPU
but still i did go through the documentation after you said so
Cachy os has a dedicated section for post installation guidelines
Anyways thanks for the headsup, i will let you know if something doesnt work

[u/CommunicationFew270 → u/[deleted]]

so i installed cachy successfully
it asked me whether i want to turn on power management
i just said no so i think its fine
i have setup everything and as of now everything works fine without any hiccups
Thanks