I plan to do a pc upgrade very soon. Alongside that I plan to start with Mint or Fedora. Is there any real or big downsides to dual booting ? Aside from the harddrive space lost ?

If I like or really like my time with Mint I would probably switch permanently but I felt like I wanted to test it for a couple of months before making a complete switch.

Im a big freeze-gamer so that impacts my consideration. Dont really play much multiplayer shooters so I dont have a problem with kernel anticheat games not working.

  • chgxvjh [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    29 days ago

    The main downside is that dualboot doesn’t reduce your computer annoyances in any way but adds additional computer annoyances. You still need to service your Windows installation but now you also need to service a whole other OS as well and the two fight occasionally.

    • 9to5 [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      5·
      29 days ago

      How do they fight ? Its not like Windows 10 is getting anymore upgrades that could brick something ? I also dont understand the annoyances part. Not trying to argue its totally possible im missing something.

      I plan to mostly use Linux until I likley do a full switch to it in early 2026. By then i will have checked everything that needs to work on Linux and (hopefully) can make a full switch.

      • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        28 days ago

        They shouldn’t fight as long as you’re using UEFI to boot, which has been required by Microsoft at least since Windows 8. You should not be installing any boot loaders via the MBR method in 2025.

        Linux distro installers typically support booting via both BIOS and UEFI (from the same disk image), and will usually install using the mechanism that they were booted with. BIOS boot compatibility should be disabled in the UEFI settings first to ensure the installer and resulting OS boot with UEFI.

        I dual-booted for a long time (stopped recently). Since Windows XP. The main downsides are partiton clutter, needing to do updates on two OSes, needing to do peculiar configurations to keep the system clock correct, preventing hibernation, and limiting your filesystem choices to ensure cross-compatibility. Otherwise, it can be useful, but I found myself booting Windows once every 3 months.