Newb looking for hardware/dual-boot advice
 

Hi all,

New to the forum, new to Linux as of two months ago.

I've learned a ton in a few short months about command line, distros, packages... certainly no pro, but can get by without being frazzled as I was a few months ago.

Here's the reason for my post: My current work gig is over in a few months and I'd like to continue practicing Linux on my own after that.

I wouldn't need to get a Linux server, but I'm wondering:

1) I'd like to get either a desktop or laptop to run Linux. Any thoughts either way on which is a more viable option? I'm leaning towards a laptop just for portability, but should I consider a desktop as well? I wouldn't be doing any hosting; I would mostly be using it as a sandbox.

2) I currently have a 5 year-old Windows desktop. If I were to install Linux on this machine, or any other Windows machine, are there massive performance issues with a dual-boot machine? I guess "massive" is relative, but I guess I mean would each OS suffer a significant slowdown, enough to be noticeable to an average user?

If anyone could point me in the right direction that would be much appreciated. Thanks...

You can only boot one operating system at a time unless you are using VirtualBox or some other virtual software. If that's the case, you could expect things to be slower. Just having multiple operating systems on a computer shouldn't in itself affect performance. Maybe I'm missing the point of your question?

Go ahead and install a dual boot, it will easily help you migrate from windows to linux. Make each O.S be on its own partition and you will chose which one to boot from the bootloader at start up. None of the O.S's will affect performance of the other as long its running independently. But if you try using vim ware the the resources will be shared by half as in linux in windows, it will be a bad idea.

Ok, if each OS runs independently and having a dual-boot won't affect performance of either OS, I might try doing that.

I gather there's no real advantage of using a laptop or desktop other than portability, so I'll try installing Ubuntu or something on my Windows desktop.

Thanks!