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I'm about to take computer science classes in college. Will I be needing Windows for some courses? I want to remove Windows and install Ubuntu but I might need it for school. Should I just have them both? Or can I install Windows (7 or 8) again after replacing it with Ubuntu?

Braiam
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nainai
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    Why don't you simply install Ubuntu alongside Windows? It is simpler and you can choose which one to boot on startup. – To Do May 28 '14 at 14:01
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    "CS"? Counterstrike? (please don't use 2 letters to refer to windows programs if you post on a non-windows site) "Will I be needing Windows for some courses?" ask your college. For the rest: you can. – Rinzwind May 28 '14 at 14:03
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    @Rinzwind: He probably meant computer science! :D – jobin May 28 '14 at 14:06
  • @ToDo I did think of that, but I didn't want to allocate space to Windows when I would only be using it for school. – nainai May 28 '14 at 14:07
  • Yup, computer science. Sorry. – nainai May 28 '14 at 14:08
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    @jobin I was just being a smart ass (counterstrike would not be very effective usage of a college) :+ There fixed >:-D – Rinzwind May 28 '14 at 14:13
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    It greatly depends on the programs you would need and the requirements of the course. There are downsides and upsides for each method. Can you be more narrow about what kind of installation you plan to have and the requirements? The short answer is "yes, but..." – Braiam May 28 '14 at 17:34
  • You should be able to use Linux/Ubuntu for everything; however, every couple of years there will probably be a successful marketing effort by some vendor and you'll find your school with a new piece of software that breaks compatibility. Find out if your school uses something like blackboard: blackboard.com. That's usually more of a show-stopper. – belacqua May 29 '14 at 01:50
  • This appears to be more of a discussion question. If you want discussion, opinions and input you can ask on http://discourse.ubuntu.com or http://ubuntuforums.org. Thanks! – Seth May 29 '14 at 03:44
  • Sorry, I didn't mean for it to be a discussion. My question was edited, but that was what I really wanted to ask. Is it possible to install Windows (dual-boot) on a laptop running Ubuntu? Because tutorials are usually the other way around. – nainai May 29 '14 at 12:31

5 Answers5

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If you intend to use windows for a short period of time, it would be better to use it as a virtual machine on ubuntu. You won't lose your present data and can also easily "throw away" the virtual machine after use.

To create a virtual machine, you would need a hypervisor that supports running on linux-based distributions and running windows as guest systems (operating system on virtual machines).

VMware Player is one such software you could use for free. There are others such as virtual machine manager and VirtualBox too.

If you are going to use VMware Player on ubuntu 14.04 you may have to patch it to be compatible with kernel 3.13. This blog may be helpful for this purpose.

jobin
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    You can also do the reverse -- run Ubuntu inside Windows. I only recommend this if you have a very Windows-centric environment with Microsoft everything (which I expect is more common in the workplace). Xubuntu and Lubuntu also work very well as VMs if performance is an issue. – belacqua May 29 '14 at 01:47
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Ubuntu (Linux) is an operating system - Windows is another operating system... they both do the same type of work on your computer, so you can't really run both a once.

However, it's possible to set-up your computer to run "dual-boot". You make room for Windows on your disk (a new partition) and install Windows besides Ubuntu. At boot-time, you can choose between running Ubuntu or Windows.

Another option, is to install Wine on Ubuntu, this allows you to run Windows-programs under Ubuntu. It doesn't work for all programs, but then again for many it does.

Your final - and perhaps easiest option (if you have plenty of disk, plenty of RAM and a rather fast computer) - is to use virtuallization and install Windows in a "virtual computer" "inside" Ubuntu. VirtualBox and Qemu are examples of virtualization-solutions - personally I'll probably recomend VirtualBox.

You start VirtualBox under Ubuntu and set-up a "virtual computer" for Windows, by deciding things like how much RAM (you'll be "using-up" the RAM in your actual computer) and how big "disk" (really a file you store under Ubuntu) you need. Then you "boot" your virtual-computer, and install Windows on it (from a CD) as you'd do if you installed Windows on a "real" machine. Your Windows-installation will then run in a window inside Ubuntu (although you can make it full-screen, thus "obscuring" Ubuntu below).

Baard Kopperud
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  • Sorry, when I said "have them both", I did mean dual-boot. I'll probably give virtualization a try and see if my laptop can handle it. Thanks. – nainai May 28 '14 at 14:13
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Many colleges use login systems that do not support linux. You might want to research what sort of system your school uses. You could always either.

  • Install ubuntu in a windows vm (like virtualbox)
  • Resize your windows partition with the ubuntu live usb/dvd, install ubuntu to the empty space and dual boot.
Scott Goodgame
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I don't know will you need it. Better to do dual-boot. Boot from Live-CD and repartition the hard drive (shrink Windows' partition and in the left space make new, ext4 one). Choose the new (ext4) partition for installing. GRUB will automatically configure for choosing between M$ Windows and Ubuntu.

aastefanov
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You can not install Windows on Uubntu, but you can install Ubuntu and Windows in a dual-boot environment which allows you to choose between Ubuntu or Windows.

You also can choose either OS as a primary OS and run the other OS in a virtual environment. I personally use VirtualBox, but VMware or KVM can work as well. In my personal case I use Ubuntu as my 'host' OS and run Windows 7 and 8 in VirtualBox.

The dual boot solution will only allow you to run one OS at a time. VirtualBox will allow you to run more than one. I have had Ubuntu (host), Windows 7 (guest), Windows 8 (guest), and Windows 2012R2 (guest) running all at the same time. Virtual machines may have issues with directX components working properly.

cprofitt
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