Got an old laptop from a friend I’d like to rejuvenate, the plan is to set up a light distro so it wouldn’t be as slow as it is right now with windows 10.

Now, I’m aware windows updates can fuck up a dual boot system, so i have a few questions about how to minimize the threat of that happening.

What i think of doing is running a few scans to check the disk, then setting up Linux Mint, because it is beginner friendly, and (relatively) light weight.

What I’d need help with is trusted guides and also tips for setting up dual booting, I’m sure I’ll need to do disk partitioning and I’ve done that before but I’d still want to make sure I’m doing it correctly.

Any help would be welcome.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•10 hours ago

    I haven’t done this recently enough to guide you on the details, but step zero is to decide whether you are certain you want to dual boot or not. It adds a lot of complexity and brittleness that is best avoided if at all possible.

    • Try to find Linux compatible replacements for the software you need.
    • if that doesn’t exist, see if you can run it on Linux with wine.
    • If that isn’t possible, consider running windows inside a virtual machine on Linux.
    • If you do want honest, bare-metal windows then using two different physical drives will be easier and more reliable. Ideally your laptop has room for two drives, otherwise you can dangle a USB SSD (not a flash drive). Windows won’t install to a USB drive but Linux doesn’t care.
    • @[email protected]
      4•10 hours ago

      Yeah for anything except some games, wine/lutris or a virtual machine will work wonders. Not having to reboot is much nicer. You can also consider booting windows off a fast usb stick or usb ssd.

      • @Droggelbecher
        4•10 hours ago

        For me personally, having to reboot is part of why I like my dual boot. I have adhd, so it’s good to keep gaming entirely separate from anything productive.

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•10 hours ago

      I’m going to use it for software development as im studying software engineering in uni, so probably not much else, and windows is the old OS of said device, so i just need to limit the windows partition and make a new linux one

      • @[email protected]English
        2•9 hours ago

        Your best option by far is to overwrite windows completely. For most software development Linux is way better anyway.