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So here is my situation. I am already using Ubuntu 20.04(primary) and Windows 10(only for school). Both systems are installed on separate drives in UEFI mode. To be honest I very rarely use Windows and the only reason I am using it is because some of the programs I use for school(and I don't mean MS Office) don't exist in Linux version. Also, one of the reasons I am asking this question is that I watched some videos about dual booting and many of them don't consider this as dual booting (having every OS on separate drive) so I am little bit confused about that. The main reason I am asking this question is because I am planning on getting a new PC and I want to play some games from time to time(that's why I want Windows 10 as secondary OS) so I don't know should I go with dual booting(separate drives) or virtualization.

I know this questions has been asked (and answered) many times but I am new to the whole Linux world so I would appreciate if someone could in detail explain me what is better and why. Also, if for some reason you need more info about my current dual boot setup feel free to ask me.

4 Answers4

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Same here I am also new to Ubuntu 20.04 and I was also having the same question but sorted out according to my resources like ram and cpu.I have a low end pc so I felt that I should dedicate my full resources to a single operating system so I have installed both OS and access them by dual boot.As I have a low end pc the VM splits the resources into two and I already I knew that my resources are not capable for that as the main OS crashes the secondary OS running in the virtual-machine also crashes so I prefer dualboot.But if you have a high end pc and wanted to operate more than 2 operating systems to do just a certain task or just to try it I would prefer using virtual machine.So according to your needs the answer depends on you,if you are supposing to sit hours and hours on the second OS in virtual and doing resources hungry task like gaming it is not suitable on a VM.

I am not giving drawbacks of VM I am just trying to explain the needs because the answer depends on it.

Piyush Mhatre
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If Ubuntu is the primary OS a dual boot is the better choice for your use case for two reasons.

  1. The Ubuntu host OS requires its own hardware resources even when the Window virtual machine guest OS is running. This will reduce your performance when playing games in Windows.

  2. You will get better performance in Windows if it is installed as a dual boot alongside Ubuntu because the Windows operating system can use the physical hardware of your computer directly instead of interacting with the physical machine's hardware through the intermediary of virtual hardware that is created by a virtual machine application. Having good physical hardware is necessary for getting a good user experience in many games, but even if your PC has great hardware you will not be able to take the best advantage of it unless Windows is the only operating system that is running when you are playing games in Windows.

karel
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I have used linux distros time to time for years. Since my job, i should use some softwares that is not distributed for linux. That situation and also performance gaming issues always hold me at the Windows side and i could not continue with linux until a couple of months ago.

A few months back i realized that an academic software has linux version which i use everyday. So i thought that why not? I moved my daily life to linux keeping windows in dual boot. Of course i will use windows for my other operations.

I choose Ubuntu since that academic software and some other developers releases for Debian based distros.

Now i feel free, comfy and fresh with limitless customization.

There are plenty of handy tools like Ulauncher and desktop environment experiences.

Bottom line, why i talked too much?

Use Linux in your daily life as much as possible, use windows for "other things" with dual-boot. Virtual machine never satisfies concerning performance and convenience.

inspiron
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If you need Windows only sometimes, choose dual boot (as for your doubts, it doesn't matter if the OSes are on one drive or on separate drives, selectable by GRUB or UEFI, it's still dual boot - you boot two OSes on the same machine interchangeably).

For playing games, it's definitely better to run Windows native on bare metal than in a VM (however, try to look at gaming possibilities for Linux - Steam for example has games for Linux available; also Wine allows to run quite a lot of Windows games under Linux).

If you however need to constantly switch between OSes and simultaneously do some things under Windows and other under Linux (as I have at work; at home I use Linux only) then you need a virtual machine.

raj
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