Hi, I’m an old windows user who have played with linux* a few times, but never commited to it.

I want to dive deeper and I though about installing linux in a VM. Some basic questions:

  • Is that a good idea? / Anything I should take into account?
  • Is there any preferred VM manager for this? Windows comes with Hyper-V, but I remember reading about how Hyper-V is not ideal (I could be wrong).
  • Do different distributions work better or worse on VMs?
  • Are there any major differences when using linux in a VM compared to a bare metal installation?

And some not-so-basic ones:

  • Is there any [dis]advantage to “Linux VM on Windows” VS “Windows VM on Linux”?
  • If I start with “Linux VM on Windows”, would it be possible to swap them in the future? What I mean is:
    • Virtualize the Windows installation so it can be run as a VM.
    • Un-virtualize the Linux VM (with all its contents and configuration) and move it to bare metal.
    • Run Windows VM on linux.

Notes:

  • I did a quick search and, although I found multiple articles about the topic, the ones I’ve read just show one way to do it without comparing it to the alternatives.
  • I’m aware of WSL(2), but I would like to be able to decouple from Windows in the future.
  • EIDT: I tried dual booting in the past. The main problem is that I’m too lazy to reboot every time I want to try something in linux and I end up not using it.

Thanks!

* Mandatory linux = GNU/Linux

  • @[email protected]M
    2•1 year ago

    What do you use Windows primarily for? If it’s not for online multiplayer gaming (which uses anti-cheat software), then you should do it the other way around, ie install Linux as your main OS and use Windows inside a VM. That way you will be sort of forced to use Linux and adjust, and you can always fire up your Windows VM if you need to.

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•1 year ago

      The only program that I’m aware I need Windows for is Photoshop (I don’t know if Wine is an option or if that counts as "Windows).

      So you’re probably right. The main reason I prefer to start with VMs is to try a few distributions before committing to one of them… and the laziness I get thinking about how to migrate my current Windows installation to a VM… or (even worse) reinstalling Windows from scratch :P.

      • @[email protected]M
        2•1 year ago

        You should definitely just do a fresh install of Windows instead of migrating. It takes less than 15 minutes to install, and since your only need is Photoshop, then you don’t need a bloated full-blown Windows - just install a “lite” version of Windows, like Tiny10 or Tiny11, which will also save you some RAM and CPU resources.

        But sure, do check out Linux instead a VM first if you wanna try out a few distributions. Another option is to use Ventoy to create a bootable USB drive, then you can just chuck multiple Linux ISOs onto the USB and try them out, this way, you can test various distros on your actual hardware (which is always handy for testing compatibility) without needing to install anything first.