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I'm currently running Ubuntu in Virtual Box on Windows 10 host. I've been using the VM for about a year and it has generally been meeting my needs thus far (despite being extremely slow and buggy); however, I am about to start developing software for computer graphics (i.e. involving software Virtual Reality, WebGL/OpenGL, Unity). Currently I'm unable to even run WebGL programs in any browser (including Chromium) in my Ubuntu 14.04 VM even after having installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras. In addition to this, more immediately, I'm going to need to install a node.js server for some graphics work that I'll be doing soon, which I would think would be better in a Unix like OS; however, the graphics won't be able to run on what I have currently.

I was considering just dual booting Ubuntu as I've seen that WebGL can run on the dual booted version; however, I have some concerns about doing this:

  1. I like the workflow of being able to jump back and forth between Windows and Linux which is something that dual booting doesn't allow.
  2. I've seen that virtualization and dual booting are possible at the same time, but I'm not sure of the viability of this nor the associated risks.
  3. I could only use apps like Unity or Visual Studio through Wine, which wouldn't be ideal

There are some other concerns, but generally, given what my needs are going to be at this point, should I switch to dual booting or is there away to run this software properly in a VM, or is there a way to do both?

loremIpsum1771
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1 Answers1

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Well, if you want to develop apps on *nix, you should switch to it. There are similar programs for almost everything you had on Windows, even for Visual Studio (for Mono/.NET I'd suggest MonoDevelop). Unity has native support for Ubuntu, IIRC.

The truth is, you can't sit on 2 seats. Dual-boot helps to ease your transfer to the new world and it's the next logical step after virtualization. It is intended for constructing the new workflow, smoothly moving all your stuff to it and finally cut off the old roots. This can be done because Ubuntu supports NTFS (Windows filesystem) while Windows doesn't support Ext4 (Linux basic FS).

After transfer, for most Windows-specific tasks you can virtualize Windows inside your *nix system just like you did before. This means that host will be Ubuntu (if you choose it; there are plenty of another choices) and guest will be Windows. There even exists VMWare, which virtualization level is slightly better than in VirtualBox.

So, back up and go forward. We have dozens of ton interesting things here.

So, if you want to copy all your files to the new system, there are 2 ways:

  • Move everything you need to shared folder, install Ubuntu, boot there and access files from there.

    Pros:

    • Simple
    • Easy
    • Safe

    Cons:

    • You can loose some important files which are not in home directory
    • You will have to tune up everything again
    • It takes longer time

  • And you can copy entire image to physical drive, install GRUB then just boot. Pros and Cons will be mirrored. Consult Migrate from a virtual machine (VM) to a physical system article for tips.

Community
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Danatela
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  • That makes sense, although, since I have a lot of stuff on my current VM, is there a way to seamlessly port all of the data and files over to the dual boot because I'm assuming that before I partition the hard drive that I would have to delete the VM. – loremIpsum1771 Dec 28 '15 at 04:13
  • There are. I would simply copy disk image by dd. You can use graphical tools like Acronis. Receipt will be added soon to my answer. – Danatela Dec 28 '15 at 04:18
  • I didn't quite understand your last comment. Anyway, it has sense to check everything before cleanup. You may even want to revert back after success. Many people do. – Danatela Dec 28 '15 at 07:44
  • Sorry, I mis-typed my response. I meant to ask whether I should wait until after the hard drive is partitioned to delete the old VM. I just figured that since part of the computer's memory is technically already being taken up by the VM that the hard drive partition wouldn't be able to be created until the VM is deleted. – loremIpsum1771 Dec 28 '15 at 08:16
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    No, partitioning has nothing to do with virtual disks, which are just files. Of coarse, such disks take place, so they will influence on volume you can provide for new partition. Just be sure to have enough room for new partition. Usually 80 Gb are enough for first time. – Danatela Dec 28 '15 at 08:21