advantage of dual-boot?

demonikal

demonikal

New Member
I'm assuming that the advantage of people having, for example, Windows 7 with Windows XP as a second OS, is because of the software and hardware that is not compatible with 7.

But what is the advantage of having Linux as a second OS? I was going to put Linux Ubuntu as the only OS on my old HP Pavilion a1110n, but then found out through AT&T U-verse that Linux is not compatible with our AT&T U-verse leased router. The farthest they go is Windows 2000 Professional. Now I'm thinking that I'll just put my never used copy of Win 2000 Pro on with Ubuntu as the second OS, but I don't know what the advantages would be.

Thanks for any feedback!
 
Im sure there is a more updated distro, but essentially the dual boot advantage for me is that if one OS becomes infected, unstable or un-enterable, i can use the other to back up any files etc.
 
If you can't think of any benefits to dual booting then it's not going to benefit you to do it. Though there are a lot of people who would prefer to use a unix based OS for there everyday tasks since they are more secure, but when it comes to gaming, you really need windows to do so.
 
I haven't used dual boot on any of my systems for years. I use VMs (VirtualBox, VMWare Player or Virtual PC) to install whatever secondary OSes I want on my system. I can bring up those secondary OSes in a window or full screen while my main OS is still running. No need to reboot. I'd never go back to dual boot.

I can do everything I want/need to do with my main OS (Win 7 Pro) but like to play around with other OSes and learn about them.

Here's a list of OSes I have installed as VMs on the laptop I'm typing this post on:

Mint 11
Ubuntu 9.1
Ubuntu 10.04
Ubuntu 11.04
Xubuntu 11.04
ReactOS
Puppy 4.3.1
WFWG 3.11
Win 98SE
Windows Vista
PCLinuxOS
Win XP Pro
Win 7 XP Mode
Win ME
Win 95
FreeDOS
MS-DOS 6.22
 
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johnb35 said:
I think you have some wrong information there. There are users on att uverse that run windows 7. Here are the system requirements for att uverse.

http://www.att.com/u-verse/explore/system-requirements.jsp

I would hate to think that ATT's newest form of internet is only compatible to a dead operating system of windows 2000.
Click to expand...

Sorry if I got you confused everyone. I am running Windows 7 using AT&T U-verse just fine. A while back I was told over the phone, when I asked if Linux would work and they told me no, that Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 were the only operating systems that worked with their router/gateway. There was one point at which our old leased router/gateway through them did not work with Windows 2000.

The only reason I would put Windows 2000 on my old HP Pavilion is because the PC came with Windows XP Home and I already wiped the hard drive long ago and don't have a retail or OEM copy of XP. I do, however, have a retail copy of Windows 2000.

Was just wondering why people put Linux as a secondary OS along with a Windows operating system as their main OS on their computers.
 
Troncoso said:
If you can't think of any benefits to dual booting then it's not going to benefit you to do it. Though there are a lot of people who would prefer to use a unix based OS for there everyday tasks since they are more secure, but when it comes to gaming, you really need windows to do so.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not much of a gamer anymore. Quake II was the biggest I got into gaming and that was back in 1999.
 
strollin said:
I haven't used dual boot on any of my systems for years. I use VMs (VirtualBox, VMWare Player or Virtual PC) to install whatever secondary OSes I want on my system. I can bring up those secondary OSes in a window or full screen while my main OS is still running. No need to reboot. I'd never go back to dual boot.

I can do everything I want/need to do with my main OS (Win 7 Pro) but like to play around with other OSes and learn about them.

Here's a list of OSes I have installed as VMs on the laptop I'm typing this post on:

Mint 11
Ubuntu 9.1
Ubuntu 10.04
Ubuntu 11.04
Xubuntu 11.04
ReactOS
Puppy 4.3.1
WFWG 3.11
Win 98SE
Windows Vista
PCLinuxOS
Win XP Pro
Win 7 XP Mode
Win ME
Win 95
FreeDOS
MS-DOS 6.22
Click to expand...

Wow. That's a lot. I didn't even know that was possible. I have free access to VirtualPC through dreamspark.com, but even from the summary about it, didn't quite know what it was used for.
 
demonikal said:
Sorry if I got you confused everyone. I am running Windows 7 using AT&T U-verse just fine. A while back I was told over the phone, when I asked if Linux would work and they told me no, that Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 were the only operating systems that worked with their router/gateway. There was one point at which our old leased router/gateway through them did not work with Windows 2000.

The only reason I would put Windows 2000 on my old HP Pavilion is because the PC came with Windows XP Home and I already wiped the hard drive long ago and don't have a retail or OEM copy of XP. I do, however, have a retail copy of Windows 2000.

Was just wondering why people put Linux as a secondary OS along with a Windows operating system as their main OS on their computers.
Click to expand...

It does work with Ubuntu with a little easy work and here is a post on Ubuntuforum.com where someone had the same problem. When you call major tech retailers remember most of them don't even know what Linux is so they will just read what it is compatible with on the box. Major companies don't usually work to create Linux versions but thank god to the open source community cause most people create stuff for it.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1094806&highlight=uverse
 
The whole router/modem thing is a bunch of BS if you ask me. If you try out a live cd, you'll find out real quick, as long as no drivers extra are needed (which by now there shouldn't be)
Why do i dual boot? Simple, all my daily task, programming, etc are handled in Linux. I boot into windows when i want to game, which isn't as often. I find doing all these task is much simpler for me when I'm in linux, and I can be more efficient that way.

as far as the VM's, I have about 25 setup right now :P I do a lot of testing of my programs, and I do a lot of experimental stuff in linux as well. Plus i review a lot of distros, in case you were curios as to why i have so many. :)

So, in essence, I find the need and want to. I actually tripleboot with blackbuntu, but that's for a different reason.
 
NyxCharon said:
The whole router/modem thing is a bunch of BS if you ask me. If you try out a live cd, you'll find out real quick, as long as no drivers extra are needed (which by now there shouldn't be)
Why do i dual boot? Simple, all my daily task, programming, etc are handled in Linux. I boot into windows when i want to game, which isn't as often. I find doing all these task is much simpler for me when I'm in linux, and I can be more efficient that way.

as far as the VM's, I have about 25 setup right now :P I do a lot of testing of my programs, and I do a lot of experimental stuff in linux as well. Plus i review a lot of distros, in case you were curios as to why i have so many. :)

So, in essence, I find the need and want to. I actually tripleboot with blackbuntu, but that's for a different reason.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to offend you. I wasn't questioning why you'd want all those OSes on your rig. I actually thought it was cool.
 
demonikal said:
I didn't mean to offend you. I wasn't questioning why you'd want all those OSes on your rig. I actually thought it was cool.
Click to expand...

Oh, i wasn't offended. :P
If i came across that way, sorry. I'm just a huge open-source/linux promoter. Ask any regular in the forums. :P
 
NyxCharon said:
Oh, i wasn't offended. :P
If i came across that way, sorry. I'm just a huge open-source/linux promoter. Ask any regular in the forums. :P
Click to expand...

I like the idea of open-source programs, but just don't know enough about them to get involved until I learn more. I would be one hell of an old college student, but I thought of going back...to the Univ of Advancing Technology in possibly 2013 or so. What this has to do with open-source is that they actually have a major in open-source technology. I thought that was kind of cool. Didn't know such a major/degree existed.
 
As far as AT&T telling you that Ubuntu wasn't compatible with their router, I don't get that. As far as I know a router is independent from the OS. My router works with all versions of Windows, Linux, Xbox 360, Android, etc... I've got a DVR and a BlueRay player that connect to my router as well.

Many times a company will say they don't support doing this or that, it doesn't mean it won't work, it means they didn't take the time to test it and don't want to support it.

Another reason to use VMs is that a VM uses the Host system's connection to the router and doesn't need to make it's own connection. To the Guest OS in the VM, it sees a wired connection thru an ethernet adapter regardless of how the Host connects.

BTW, VMWare Player and VirtualBox are both free and are better than MS Virtual PC in many ways. For one thing, MS only supports XP, Vista and Win 7 as Guest OSes where the other 2 openly support a wide variety of OSes.
 
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