trying to figure this out windows vs Linux

[crazyboz]

Hi again all

Trying to figure out which way to go dual boot, live usb or virtualization (with windows 10 host)

First the easy one running virtualbox with linux mint i know it uses windows resources but can you effectively test linux mint for games that way?
Does it use alot of resources for windows 10 ?

Second With both OS ive heard linux uses alot less resources then windows 10 and doesnt overheat new laptops like windows 10 does anyone know exactly how true that is? i mean windows 10 loads everything into memory whether you use it or not and therefore consumes resources...

Dual boot - with windows 10 on internal hdd 1tb and 1tb ssd for linux mint but ive heard that mint firefox writes so much to the ssd that it will wear it out faster?

[lsemmens]

A lot of misinformation there. Linux uses FAR fewer resources than Windows and does not swap out to disk nearly as much as Windows does. Tell us what games you wish to play and then we can advise the best path to follow. Typically, the best option is to run windows in a virtual machine for most things windows, or you could dual boot which is the method I use to update my bits of fruit (Apple products), helmet intercom, and security all of which have no true Linux equivalents. If you just want to try Linux before you "buy" (so to speak), you can just boot into a live session and play around without changing anything.

[crazyboz]

thanx for the reply, mostly i play wurm online, everquest, rust occassionally, shards of dalaya, and a few others

so if i put a 1tb ssd in my laptop (dell inspirion 15 7000 gaming) and use 500 gb for linux with 500 gb for files and such to use for both OS i should be fine and it wont tax the ssd like some online say. Ive read stories of firefox writing so much it can wreck ssd.

i use linux mint 20 in persistant lve usb but its bugged so the persistance doesnt take

[Moonstone Man]

... it wont tax the ssd like some online say....

People who tell you that are stuck in the dark ages. SSDs today have a life expectancy far exceeding that of most commercial HDDs.

[dave0808]

At work I run Linux inside VirtualBox running on Windows 10. It works OK, but I have a quad-core CPU and 32GB RAM. Certain tasks don't run that quickly and I would assume (but have no experience) that games wouldn't be great. However it's a great way to try out a system without installing it properly and is better than booting the LiveISO because you can still do stuff in Windows at the same time.

If you want to make the switch to using Linux more often, then I would dual-boot so you've still got Windows should you need it. I've been running multiple machines on SSD for many years now. Of course, they can fail, just as HDDs do. Regular Backups are the only solution, no matter the storage type.

After this stage, you wouldn't need to do anything about Windows, though one day you may realise that it's been years since you used it.

[Rocky Bennett]

Hi again all

Trying to figure out which way to go dual boot, live usb or virtualization (with windows 10 host)

First the easy one running virtualbox with linux mint i know it uses windows resources but can you effectively test linux mint for games that way?
Does it use alot of resources for windows 10 ?

Second With both OS ive heard linux uses alot less resources then windows 10 and doesnt overheat new laptops like windows 10 does anyone know exactly how true that is? i mean windows 10 loads everything into memory whether you use it or not and therefore consumes resources...

Dual boot - with windows 10 on internal hdd 1tb and 1tb ssd for linux mint but ive heard that mint firefox writes so much to the ssd that it will wear it out faster?

This is completely false. The difference between Windows 10 running at idle and Linux Mint Cinnamon running at idle is minimal. There is absolutely no difference on the CPU, so it will not affect your fan or your operating temperature. Also, the difference is mainly in RAM resources that are used, and there is only a minor difference.

viewtopic.php?t=319903

[Termy]

thanx for the reply, mostly i play wurm online, everquest, rust occassionally, shards of dalaya, and a few others

Unfortunately, games like MMORPGs are a problem in Linux, because of anti-cheat mechanisms being far too aggressive in thinking Linux is a 'hack'. I'd love to play online games on Linux, but too many have been booted and even permanently banned from Steam. I have over 200 games on Steam, so I ain't riskin' that!

This problem is being worked on, however. It may even not be as bad as I last heard. I've not looked into it for a while.

[Reddog1]

You are unlikely to get video games to run in a virtual machine, at least not in a usable way. A Linux VM is a fine web surfer and general use machine but if your activity requires a lot of processing power use a real machine. Any program that requires high gpu performance is especially problematic.

[Termy]

You are unlikely to get video games to run in a virtual machine, at least not in a usable way.

PCI Passthrough combats that very effectively, but apparently it's really difficult to set it all up, but when it works, it's like the perfect combination of (sandboxed) Windows for gaming and Linux for everything else, without actually having to install Windows on hardware.

[Petermint]

Some applications are VM/Wine friendly and some have Linux versions. I had to run some Microsoft products for one project and dual boot was the only option that worked. Adding Linux to Windows as a dual boot is almost easy when you follow the right steps and avoid some defaults that create problems later.

Dual boot also lets you experiment with Linux in a VM on Windows and Windows in a VM on Linux and Windows applications in Wine on Linux. You can also start replacing Windows only applications on Windows with open source applications that run on both operating systems. What do you use on that computer outside of games?

[crazyboz]

mostly on laptop i just game websurf stream broadcast webcam and view streams video editing and of course itunes lol

[ajgringo619]

... it wont tax the ssd like some online say....

People who tell you that are stuck in the dark ages. SSDs today have a life expectancy far exceeding that of most commercial HDDs.

Perfectly stated.

Now, @crazyboz - where did you read/hear that Mint Firefox has a problem with excessive writes? Even if that were true, it would affect every OS it ran on, not just Linux.

[Petermint]

Firefox, on every OS, writes dozens of little status files for every request plus temp files. There is a setting in Firefox to put the temp stuff in memory and write the status files less often. For machines with more than 4 GB, the settings are useful.

In Linux, you can put the temp directories in RAM. All these tricks were developed years ago to make rusty disks faster. For SSD, it reduces writes which can stop heavily used SSDs from slowing down due to heat. It can also extend the life of cheap no brand SSDs.

You can set browser.sessionstore.interval to something 10 or 100 times bigger. The only difference will be the sessions restored if you happen to reboot while using Firefox.