If you don’t respect the bootloader, you don’t get a seat at the table.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2026
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There's a chance I'd still have a windows install alongside Linux, if windows would just mind its own business.
Windows modified my partition layout after a forced update. I felt violated...
I was setting up some template VMs on a fresh Proxmox VE (VM server) yesterday. Total install and troubleshooting times for each template were as follows;
- Linux Mint Debian Edition - 20 minutes
- Windows 10 IOT LTSC - 3 hours
- Windows 11 IOT LTSV - 6 hours, with the benefit of lessons learned from the Win 10 install.
The amount of obscure configs I had to dig up just to get them going was disgusting. Also, why the fuck are so many drivers not in Win10/11 by default, yet Linux has no issue including them all at a fraction of the ISO size?
I believe it’s due to kernel philosophy.
Linux and Mac are a monolithic kernel, which I understand to mean that the entire OS runs in kernel space to operate the compatible hardware. This has the advantage of making sure the OS is in the drivers seat for resource management, and no individual program is easily able to overload the system and create instability, but it may limit the power of some programs and delay compatability of new hardware and software.
Windows, on the other hand, is a hybrid kernel, which means some functions are managed in user space so that a program has more control over the hardware. This can be useful for pushing gaming to the limit or running experimental/custom programs, but it can lead to instability from resource hungry programs or security vulnerabilities from Trojan horses.
As for why their ISO is huge, I s’pose it’s due to all the extra crap they throw in there like AI, pinball, and data collection stuff.
Apologies if I got something fundamentally wrong—there are plenty of bigger nerds than me on here—but that’s my best attempt at explaining the difference as well as I know it.
Didn't they remove pinball from Windows?
It’s just like Microsoft to remove the one I might actually want out of those three. More pinball, less data collection!
There's a Linux port of it on Flathub
Yeah I think it was removed in windows 7 or 8.
Windows, on the other hand, is a hybrid kernel, which means some functions are managed in user space so that a program has more control over the hardware.
Windows and Linux are both monolithic kernels, in the sense that most device drivers run in kernel mode with kernel privilege. They're not like Mach or Hurd.
Windows outsourced their device driver development early on to the hardware manufacturers, and they encouraged closed-source drivers with separate source trees and builds. To facilitate this, Windows NT developed a system called plug-n-play (PnP) which searches for and loads driver modules (.sys files) from disk into the kernel.
Linux developed a similar system of loadable kernel modules (.ko files), but their system arrived much later. One reason is that Linux's GPLv2 license mandates that driver source code be licensed under compatible terms. That and Linux has always been pretty open about accepting driver code into their main source tree. Finally, manufacturers were never interested early on in writing Linux drivers, so the driver development was being done by the community, which was already using the Linux source tree.
So Linux didn't have as much pressure to develop a loadable module system. So they did it later.
To the present day, the majority of Linux device drivers are submitted to mainline Linux and go through the Linux review process. Windows drivers are mainly developed by third parties, but they do have to go through the Windows Hardware Quality Labs review and testing process.
Apple writes all their MacOS drivers internally, because they are also the hardware OEM.
Your standard off the shelf easy to setup Linux ISO (mint for example) is like 4 GB after install, it includes a whole office suite, a few games, screensavers, GIMP, and a whole bunch of software you may not ever realize is on there or even need.
Did you know many distros standard install includes the GNU C/C++ compiler? Do most people need the GNU compiler? No, but the whole OS and all these tools is already smaller than a barebones install of windows since microslop just ships bloat.
Well you see, if there are less drivers included there is more room for user friendly features, such as persistent ai intrusion. You probably also gonna update them anyway, might as well download fresh 😇
A pivotal moment in my life was when I first installed Linux to the entire hard disk instead of a separate partition.
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Don't worry windows. You may be back as a small virtual machine for some obscure rarely used reason.
Just got my printer working so even my virtual Windows can go away now 🥳
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I did dual booting for a month just to make sure there wasn’t a single use case for windows left. Not ONE use case for me.
I did it for almost a year. Went back over once just to get files I missed moving the first time.
Just so ppl aren't dissapointed Daws like ableton and fl studio don't have support (Reaper and Bitwig do tho, some others too)
Visual programs like touch designer and resolume don't work (seen workarounds but they have issues)
Davinci resolve may crash, it worked fine on arch but on bazzite it freezes my pc when loading projects
On the gaming side obv there are the games that won't function without anticheat like wrc, iracing, f1, etc. No game pass ofc.
I still wouldn't swap back to windows and I barely use it, maybe once a month if I really want to use something not on Linux.
Main downside is lack of piracy. Houdinifx should work fine on linux natively, but lacks a crack. So even if the paid software does work, if you pirate to use this stuff as a hobby than you'll have to swap to something like Blender/Inkscape that is free and works on linux. Only crack I've found was for Davinci Resolve.
Linux has plenty of free and capable alternatives for paid software, I like that it has me using Foss more. Went from learning Houdini + Davinci to just sticking with Blender for my hobby visuals, not mad about it, prefer that I was forced to focus on one.
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I set up dual boot just in case, but I can't remember the last time I even booted Windows. When I get a chance I'll probably just nuke it.
My VR set up simply will not work in Linux yet, or at least not correctly. Once that's fixed I'll nuke my windows part
literally the only reason I ever boot into WIndows now is for doing online exams for college that use spyware shit and throws a hissy fit if you'reon linux (both browser and app... well, if you can even get the testing app on Linux...)
I don't want to tinker around with something that determines my entire grade nor do I want to take my test on a school device because there might be files and programs I need, so I just switch to my Windows partition for that awful 5 hrs or so. But once I graduate that shit is getting nuked.
Yeah I’d done the same a while back just to play D2 (fucking Battle Eye), but found I just never booted into it and said fuck it I’ll live w/o games that have incompatible anti cheat.
For the noobs to Linux, heed the words of your endlers: don't dual boot. The operating systems have a way of killing each other's bootloaders. It might even run fine for a while, but then one day there will be an update and one OS will be unbootable. Not worth the risk as a noob. If you're really worried you might need a Windows program, then just run a Windows VM within Linux. If you want to keep the option for gaming, then you could dual boot, but don't do it on a work critical machine.
Dual boot is fine, you just need to choose some good options.
Method 1: Most recommended. use Refined as your boot loader and two drives, not partitions. This is the easiest, safest, and frankly nicest way to deal with this. At boot, before either system starts you get a nice graphical interface to choose which OS to go into.
Method 2: Partition style. Disable window fast startup. Disable windows hibernation (never hibernate windows before going into linux). Use UEFI and GPT no legacy methods. Don't encrpyt windows with bitlocker.
That said, my desktop and traveling laptop have been windows free for years, I have no need for it, and your advice is the safest way overall. A vm in linux with virtualmanager works very well.
The operating systems have a way of killing each other’s bootloaders.
Windows has a way of killing Linux bootloaders.
I've never heard of it happening the other way around.
i think it's in fact possible to install windows on btrfs or linux on ntfs.. and have them on one partition.
Both of these sound like terrible ideas
they are indeed lmao
Ew…
I remember when I was dualbooting Windows and Linux. The year was 2006 and many devices needed special drivers that were closed sourced and available only for Windows. Laptop cameras, WiFi, memory card readers... Linux would run on most laptops but many things still didn't work right. Similar thing with some software. You would buy a smart watch or something and it would require running some weird Windows only app to set it up. We're so lucky those strange times are behind us now.
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My first ever Linux install, I just went for it. I backed up my media, played around in the live environment for 5 minutes or so, then I wiped the drive and installed. No dual boot, no VM, just bare metal. That was 10 years ago, and I have never looked back.
I have Win10 IOT installed in VirtualBox, but I haven't booted it in almost a year. I don't have any use for it, that Linux can't handle.
I got curious last week with how windows is now and decided to just spin up a copy on an extra 250gb ssd I had. I had a windows 11 usb stick so I just installed it. big mistake. during the MANY updates post install it decided to "upgrade" the bios on my thinkpad and now the volume controls (up, down, mute) are "backwards". I had to go into the bios to set the F1 thru 12 keys to enable without the use of the FN key to be able to use the FN key with them. it's so stupid.
Also thank god when I installed windows I used a throw away email to setup the account because it immediately got spammed with microsoft emails.
Never again.
I did dual booting for a long time, because ✨ proprietary drivers ✨ , To this day I can't use my wifi (there's no patch for now) or bluetooth, but it's acceptable price for not being under microsoft's feet
I thought about dual booting on my PC when I built it like a year ago, but after reading about pros and cons a little bit I just said nah I'm good, let's do this, Linux. When my wife recently got a used computer from her sister, they didn't give us the login password, so instead of calling them and asking I just put my flash drive in there and said bye bye windows. My favorite part about installing Linux is how fast it is. I don't have to sit and click through a 20-step installation wizard where every step takes 20 minutes to do whatever it's doing.
I wish I didn’t have a purpose for Windows. I need to dual boot because I can’t get FL studio on my Steamdeck.
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I switched to Linux the first time couple of months ago. Thinking I would switch between Linux and Windows until I get evertything working under Linux. But after installing Linux, I never went back to windows xD but it's still installed
I forgot I even had a Windows partition…
Ok thats funny
And that was the moment Padme chose violence
I think most other linux distros get the same treatment to be fair. I know I usually just nuke / and use the old /home
My windows install is safely on a drive nicknamed "STORAGE".
I use arch, btw.
Eh. When ditching W10, I did install on a separate partition; I have one piece of software that I knew would be troublesome.
Then one day I needed space, and just nuked windows. Didn't boot it in months anyway.
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