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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!

StrawberryPigtails ,

Duel booting has been a thing for as I have been using Linux, say 2004ish, and it has only gotten easier over the last 20 years.

Some things to watch out for though. First, make sure that you have sufficient free space on your drive before beginning, and make sure that you have backups in case something goes sideways. Good practice anyways.

Second, Windows likes to hijack the bootloader making it difficult to boot into Linux. I would make sure that Windows is installed first and have a live linux disk/jumpdrive available in case Windows decides to hijack the boot loader at a later date. That has only happened to me once, and wasn’t difficult to fix, but it was a pain in the butt.

As for which distro, dealer’s choice. I don’t think that there is a bad distro out there currently. Currently, I’m using NixOS but I think highly of Ubuntu, Fedora and all of their derivatives. Really, it’s whatever boats your float.

user224 ,
@user224@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Important note: Shrink the Windows partition from within Windows!

When I did it in Linux Mint during install, Windows did not recognize those changes and thought its partition is still as big as it used to. Then soon I was hit with “Repairing drive C:” which screwed up the Linux Mint install (not the bootloader).

chayleaf ,

it’s probably caused by fast shutdown

skullgiver , (edited )
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

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    teawrecks ,

    Yeah, this matches my experience. 10+ years ago, a windows update might randomly wipe out grub and I have to live boot and repair it. These days, my dual boot config has worked without issue for several years.

    StrawberryPigtails ,

    Good to know! I haven’t run a dual boot configuration in at least 15 years.

    aniki ,

    Honestly, I always HATED dual-booting off one drive. It’s infuriating and Windows can and will fuck your boot loader. I always found it so much easier to just have two disks and select which one I wanted to boot from the quick-post boot menu, or hopefully have a grub that matches the windows drive. That way both disks stay agnostic of the boot partitions and partition types. When I was a runt in college I had a laptop with a drive tray back when those were a thing. Now I just run Windows in QEMU on my laptops.

    MonkderZweite ,

    Yep. Get a second drive for Windows. Far much less a hassle.

    ozymandias117 ,

    Even with separate drives, the Windows 8 -> Windows 10 update wiped all the GPT drives in my system

    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.

    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.

    paradox2011 ,

    Yes, it’s super easy to do as well. Most distro installers give you the option to automatically install for dual-boot without any manual partitioning.

    Definitely try Mint, I was on it for years and it is very thoughtfully designed for stability and ease if use.

    The hardest part will be getting the liveUSB made for the Linux ISO. You can find some simple tools like Balena Etcher that make it easy though.

    ChihuahuaOfDoom ,

    I tried this with Mint and broke my Windows partition somehow.

    paradox2011 ,

    That’s a bummer, sorry man. That is super rare though, I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone else in my 10+ years of Linux life. Don’t let it keep you from trying it again. I guess that is a testimony to the importance of backups, especially when working with partitions.

    OP, the most trouble I’ve ever heard of or experienced myself was some GRUB issues, which are just a matter of the bootloader recognizing that there is a windows or Linux partition alongside whatever is being booted up. There are a ton of tutorials on how to address that type of issue though, it’s usually a matter of one or two commands in a terminal or command prompt.

    cosmicrookie ,
    @cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

    Same here. It somehow broke my BIOS and I couldn’t even force it to boot off my windows install flash drive!

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