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Can Linux be dual booted on a computer with Windows?

I have a Lenovo Yoga running Windows 10 on a 1TB SSD and at some point will probably have to upgrade it to Windows 11. I use it for school and have to keep Windows on it for now because of what I’m currently doing. I want to start getting into Linux in hopes of making the switch sometime down the line. Is partitioning the disk and dual booting Windows/Linux a thing and is it possible/easy to do? If so, what distro would anyone recommend? (I’ve heard good things about Mint). Back in the day I had gotten bored one night, installed Ubuntu on an external drive and played around with it a very tiny bit before forgetting about it, but that’s the extent of my Linux knowledge, so kindly keep explanations ELI5 :)

Edit: Thank you everyone! You’ve given me lots of good advice and knowledge, some terms to Google, and some good places to start. I appreciate it! Looking forward to joining the wonderful world of Linux!

Fryboyter ,

A dual boot system is not a big problem as long as you boot in EFI mode and use GPT partitions. I have been running a dual boot system (Windows 10 and Arch Linux) for years without any problems.

You should allocate around 500 MB for the EFI partition. This allows you to install Windows and a Linux distribution and still have reserves if you want to install additional Linux kernels, for example.

If you want to change partitions, first make a data backup on another data medium. Because something can always go wrong. Even if it’s just a power failure.

GolfNovemberUniform , (edited )
@GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

Dual boot exists for a long time. You just have to make sure your drive is partitioned with the GPT table and not the MBR one

nossaquesapao ,

It can. Perhaps this link can help you: tomshardware.com/…/dual-boot-linux-and-windows-11

viking ,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

It’s very easy if Windows was there first. If you install it after Linux, they’ll hijack the bootloader and you have to restore it before you can boot back into Linux. If Windows is already installed, Linux will install a custom grub (bootloader front-end) allowing you to choose which OS to boot by default, or to choose on each boot.

I’d suggest to update from Win 10 to 11 before you install Linux, you never know what the update does.

As for the Linux flavor, my favorite is Xubuntu, a very lightweight variant of Ubuntu using the xfce window manager, which is lightning fast. I’ve tried many, many variants and stuck with it for performance and stability.

WolfLink ,

Whichever order you install the OSes in, they will all fight over who gets to boot first. Multiple installs of Ubuntu will even fight with each other. It’s manageable, but annoying.

Veraxis ,

Yep, I dual boot on my laptop so that I can run certain programs for my schoolwork as well. I use Refind as my boot manager so that I can easily select one or the other on startup.

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