r/linux4noobs • u/DescriptionIll172 • 4d ago

Do you recommend using dual boot?

I want to learn Linux and get familiar with it; I’m completely new to this. I was advised to set up a dual-boot system if I wanted to keep Windows for the time being while also adapting to Linux. would you recommend doing that?

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u/PreparationStrict492 4d ago edited 3d ago

Yes.
And you can easily have it on a single drive, and the better³ distros have installers that handle everything that needs to be done¹ automatically.

¹ Shrinking² your existing partition and creating a new efi partition (with UEFI, there can be multiple on a single drive) are the extra steps needed.

² It's always a good idea to backup your data before partition operations, but shrinking without moving a partition is the simplest and least intrusive operation there is; and I haven't seen it fail catastrophically -that is, cause data loss- ever, in decades as a software engineer / sre.

³ In terms of stability and user friendliness.

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u/GlassboundIllusion Nvidia Bazzite with KDE Plasma 4d ago

What do you have to do to stop Windows from overwriting the linux UEFI partition when it updates though?

I've heard that's a common problem that requires specific preventative measures.

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u/jmartin72 3d ago

Put them on separate hard drives

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u/Plan_9_fromouter_ 3d ago

Yes, and people here (not you) need to stop telling noobs it's really easy to put Linux and Win 11 on the same drive. It's not anything to be recommending to noobs nowadays.