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

  • @Eldritch
    2•1 year ago

    Pre pandemic I would have recommended people get something like a Raspberry Pi to explore learn and experiment on. Even if you aren’t into all the electronics possibilities the gpio on them allows. They are awesome compact little systems. But right now they’re so costly and hard to find. These ancient x86 Business Systems are a more cost-effective platform for just having a learning system. Which is fairly nice. That way you’re not tying up one or the other. But can use both at once.

    Though I actually am trying to hold off at the moment from getting one of those new Lichee pi 4a systems to toy around with riscv. They seem pretty polished already. But I’m not quite that technical and would rather wait around for a bit more polish on the software side lol. That and a host board with m.2 nvme support.

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

      The Orange Pi boards are readily available at a decent price if you want an ARM SBC with some GPIO pins.

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

      Yeah, RaspberryPi-alike stuff if also something I want to look into in the future. But it is probably best to take it one step at a time.

      Thanks for the ideas!