[Solved] share programs between windows 10 ltsc and linux mint

[riccardoSardegna]

Hi guys i'm new here and i need help: my name is Riccardo, happy to meet you.
i have little experience with mint: i'll explain what i'd like to do.

I want to install mint with windows 10 and share some programs, specially matlab and similar stuff that i need for university and is really heavy on the ssd;
i explain why: Mint is faster and more stable, so i'd like to put most of my stuff there, like python for robotics, the problem is that stuff like CAD is only for windows and is really heavy, i need to do math on matlab and transfer on CAD, and my ssd is 480 gb, which is good, but with partition may be a problem to deal with space for both OS.

I thought of many solutions: install matlab on linux and transfer files in windows, pain in the ass, sorry but this language explains way better than everything.
Install some stuff on mint and some on windows: ok, but it would leave mint pretty much unused, would be really sad, i want to learn how to use it and the number of engineering programs for mint is small, and they usually need a lot of space, i'd have to leave mint for everything in windwos, just for some stuff. also having to double the files like pdfs of UNI just to study on both platforms.
Opensource engineering programs are not much used and i have to use Cad and similar. So another problem.

So i would like to make some folder that are readable in both OS, or/and some programs that re usable in both OS.
I guess this is not really possible, but i'd like to know your opinion
thks guys and girls

[xenopeek]

So i would like to make some folder that are readable in both OS, or/and some programs that re usable in both OS.

You can mount the Windows (NTFS) partition from Linux Mint, and if set up correctly you can read/write to the Windows partition from Linux. The other way around won't work; Windows doesn't read other filesystems.

Excepting interpreted languages such as programs written in Python, programs will be compiled either for Windows or Linux so you generally can't have a single program that is executable both from Windows and from Linux. You can use Wine to run Windows software on Linux (Wine translates Windows system calls the program makes to Linux system calls) but it can be a mixed bag how well that works. And even then, running the Windows program from the Windows partition in Wine are more hoops to jump through because normally you would install Windows programs inside Wine itself (so on your Linux partition).

If you require Windows programs for your study I would give priority to that. Use the majority of the SSD for Windows. Use what remains for experimenting with Linux. Say give Linux Mint 80 GB. matlab needs 30 GB for a full install so you could still also install it on Linux Mint but it depends a bit on what else you need on Linux. When you have the means upgrade to get a 2nd SSD or a larger SSD and then you can use more for Linux. I wouldn't risk getting behind with your studies by giving Windows too little disk space if they assume you will be using Windows.

As for science/engineering software on Linux, take a stroll on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... _for_Linux
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... _for_Linux
and the other categories linked from there. There's a lot of software.

[riccardoSardegna]

thks for replying, yeah i study mechanical engineering, so i'm stuck with Cad, and matlab is used to create data for Cad. I think i'll give 60, 80 Gb to linux and Then the rest to windows. Maybe i'll install matlab on both OS, cause linux is faster and more stable, or just a python editor for programming robotics(arduino).

This.Sucks. how can i make a folder shared between OS? I have problems to understand online

[Reddog1]

I have a windows-only CAD program that I use regularly for my consulting work. I also have SCADA software, some of which is Windows only and some of which is dual Windows/Linux. I'm fortunate in that both the CAD program and the SCADA software will run in Windows in a virtual machine. I've installed VirtualBox, then a Windows guest, and my CAD and the Windows only SCADA programming software. I can boot my Mint host, then boot Windows, and switch between the two systems with a click of the mouse. I have a shared folder on my Mint host, and can transfer files between Windows and Mint or Mint and Windows using the file manager. CAD printing is set up to be done from the Windows guest VM. I can print from the SCADA software from Windows (for the Windows only programming), or from Windows or Linux for the dual programming software.
This might work for you, providing that the CAD software that you are using isn't too graphically intensive. If the CAD program has a requirement for a powerful gpu, you still might get by using different VM software and pass-through.
Another solution, which would use the Windows gpu drivers and will certainly work, would be to install the Virtual Machine Manager software on the Windows machine, using the Windows machine as the host, and then installing Mint as a virtual machine (the guest). You would first boot Windows, then boot Mint from within Windows (using the virtual machine manager) and you could still switch between the two with a mouse click. You would set up a shared folder to move data from one machine to the other. You can also use the file sharing program Warpinator to transfer files between your guest and host, or to transfer files to and from any computer that has Warpinator installed. Warpinator is available for both linux and Windows.


Setting up a Virtual Machine is a bit daunting the first time, but after that initial VM it becomes a very easy thing to do.

[pbear]

I second Reddog's suggestion. Mint in a virtual machine is probably as close as you can come to your objective, given your software constraints. Only other viable option would be to get a second computer and put Mint on that. Takes more space, obviously, but performance would be better and you skip the VirtualBox learning curve.

[riccardoSardegna]

thks for all, mint is awesome and i decided to use and most space to windows 10 and some space to mint for most work easy stuff