Would I benefit from having linux on my computer? (dualboot)

[asiancorruption]

so, I just got this Arduino due for class and I was wondering if Linux, being the programmer's paradise that it is, would be worth dual booting on my laptop. I have a terabyte of HDD space so storage won't affect me. I'm a high school student with basic coding skills so any opinions and suggestions are welcome. 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Linux is definitely a much friendlier environment to work in, it doesn't get in your way as Windows has a tendency to. You should definitely check it out. For a first timer I suggest you take a look at Linux Mint.

[asiancorruption]

Linux is definitely a much friendlier environment to work in, it doesn't get in your way as Windows has a tendency to. You should definitely check it out. For a first timer I suggest you take a look at Linux Mint.

alright thanks

[GoodBytes]

so, I just got this Arduino due for class and I was wondering if Linux, being the programmer's paradise that it is, would be worth dual booting on my laptop. I have a terabyte of HDD space so storage won't affect me. I'm a high school student with basic coding skills so any opinions and suggestions are welcome.

It isn't a programmer's paradise. Linux based OSs are like any other operating systems out there. It has its strength and weaknesses. It is defined with it is library of software like any other OS.

Some people prefer Linux for its command line based nature, and the fact that you can do everything in command line, and is followed with command line software like VI or Vim. GUI is more of an afterthought for most distro's.

It fall onto which is better: having a mouse click to do an or a set of action, or typing your action, and using a longer set of keyboard shortcuts for many software. One can also argue that Linux has "best of both worlds", as you can install (well it comes default with most distros, which one can say it is a bit ironic) a GUI. But again, afterthought. However, some distro, like Ubuntu tries to improve its Linux GUI aspect by having a graphical user interface that minimizes the need of a command line, and has its own identity (and not try to be Windows). Linux is also not more friendly than Windows, that is a complete lie. It is in fact, its weakness. This is one of the biggest weaknesses the OS have, blocking it from gaining mass market traction despite multiple attempts by even computer manufacture to the consumer. A big problem with Linux community, which I think you'll quickly discover, is that they don't take criticism, they see as all Linux OS (beside Ubuntu), as pure perfection, while it isn't by far. This is probably because they try to paint the OS as perfect, kinda like Apple users, as a way to attract people to it, to gain market share and interest. In my opinion, I think it is bad. They should take this criticism, and find innovative ways to solve them, that is, to me, the key part that prevents Linux based OSs doing a dent into the laptop/desktop market. Android is a Linux distro managed by Google that showcase what happens when you do listen to criticism and apply fixes to it. Look how many Android phones are on the market. It knows its weaknesses and at every release it keeps on getting better.

Linux based OS is popular in the embedded system area (amongst other areas), due to its flexibility and power it provides to the user. However, in order to have this, you loose on ease of use. There is no way to get both. Windows is a balance between MacOS great simplicity and no power, and Linux.

However, Linux can run on anything. Its open source nature, and the way the OS is laid out, allows full hardware support between different architectures, and when a strong and large community support a platform, like Arduino boards, you have a solid, reliable experience, with driver support. Windows runs on x86 architecture system and that is about it. Windows Phone/Windows Mobile runs on ARM based CPUs, but only select ones, and is not publicly available.

Microsoft seams to want to enter the market with Windows 10 IoT, or Internet of Things. It is Windows 10 kernel running on select popular chips found on Raspberry Pi 2 and Arduino (with full driver support). It is fully free (yes, free), but don't get confused with it being like Linux. You don't have a desktop, despite connecting a mouse, keyboard and screen. Where it wins, or tries to, is to bring the massive library and framework power that Windows has over Linux to embedded system. Allowing developers, mostly targeting new comers to embedded systems, to develop with much ease Universal Applications or Windows Apps using (most) powerful IDE tool (Visual Studio) available, with languages like C# (you can use C/C++), with the full .NET library, and well documented (due to the popularity of the OS) Windows APIs. Out of the box, because it support Universal Apps framework, your software runs on any system, so you develop it on your desktop/laptop, test it (or portions of it) and upload it the Windows 10 IoT device for fully testing it, and deploying it once done.

Anyway, that was a bit off topic. For systems (including embedded ones) of low performance and limited resources, and if you want to learn the real world of Linux, look at Arch Linux. However, if you want a 'Windows like out of the box experience', look at Ubuntu. What is cool with Ubuntu, is that you can install it from Windows, like a normal Windows software, and it will give you dual boot, without you doing any partitions and stuff like that. That is possible because it create a virtual hard disk, and install itself onto it. However, you do reduce a bit of performance. Please note that driver support is very limited. Like we are not talking about performance here and polish of drivers, we are talking about just having drivers. So it is important to make sure your system have at least basic drivers for each of your hardware before installing Linux.

[asiancorruption]

It isn't a programmer's paradise. Linux based OSs are like any other operating systems out there. It has its strength and weaknesses. It is defined with it is library of software like any other OS.

Some people prefer Linux for its command line based nature, and the fact that you can do everything in command line, and is followed with command line software like VI or Vim. GUI is more of an afterthought for most distro's.

It fall onto which is better: having a mouse click to do an or a set of action, or typing your action, and using a longer set of keyboard shortcuts for many software. One can also argue that Linux has "best of both worlds", as you can install (well it comes default with most distros, which one can say it is a bit ironic) a GUI. But again, afterthought. However, some distro, like Ubuntu tries to improve its Linux GUI aspect by having a graphical user interface that minimizes the need of a command line, and has its own identity (and not try to be Windows). Linux is also not more friendly than Windows, that is a complete lie. It is in fact, its weakness. This is one of the biggest weaknesses the OS have, blocking it from gaining mass market traction despite multiple attempts by even computer manufacture to the consumer. A big problem with Linux community, which I think you'll quickly discover, is that they don't take criticism, they see as all Linux OS (beside Ubuntu), as pure perfection, while it isn't by far. This is probably because they try to paint the OS as perfect, kinda like Apple users, as a way to attract people to it, to gain market share and interest. In my opinion, I think it is bad. They should take this criticism, and find innovative ways to solve them, that is, to me, the key part that prevents Linux based OSs doing a dent into the laptop/desktop market. Android is a Linux distro managed by Google that showcase what happens when you do listen to criticism and apply fixes to it. Look how many Android phones are on the market. It knows its weaknesses and at every release it keeps on getting better.

Linux based OS is popular in the embedded system area (amongst other areas), due to its flexibility and power it provides to the user. However, in order to have this, you loose on ease of use. There is no way to get both. Windows is a balance between MacOS great simplicity and no power, and Linux.

However, Linux can run on anything. Its open source nature, and the way the OS is laid out, allows full hardware support between different architectures, and when a strong and large community support a platform, like Arduino boards, you have a solid, reliable experience, with driver support. Windows runs on x86 architecture system and that is about it. Windows Phone/Windows Mobile runs on ARM based CPUs, but only select ones, and is not publicly available.

Microsoft seams to want to enter the market with Windows 10 IoT, or Internet of Things. It is Windows 10 kernel running on select popular chips found on Raspberry Pi 2 and Arduino (with full driver support). It is fully free (yes, free), but don't get confused with it being like Linux. You don't have a desktop, despite connecting a mouse, keyboard and screen. Where it wins, or tries to, is to bring the massive library and framework power that Windows has over Linux to embedded system. Allowing developers, mostly targeting new comers to embedded systems, to develop with much ease Universal Applications or Windows Apps using (most) powerful IDE tool (Visual Studio) available, with languages like C# (you can use C/C++), with the full .NET library, and well documented (due to the popularity of the OS) Windows APIs. Out of the box, because it support Universal Apps framework, your software runs on any system, so you develop it on your desktop/laptop, test it (or portions of it) and upload it the Windows 10 IoT device for fully testing it, and deploying it once done.

Anyway, that was a bit off topic. For systems (including embedded ones) of low performance and limited resources, and if you want to learn the real world of Linux, look at Arch Linux. However, if you want a 'Windows like out of the box experience', look at Ubuntu. What is cool with Ubuntu, is that you can install it from Windows, like a normal Windows software, and it will give you dual boot, without you doing any partitions and stuff like that. That is possible because it create a virtual hard disk, and install itself onto it. However, you do reduce a bit of performance. Please note that driver support is very limited. Like we are not talking about performance here and polish of drivers, we are talking about just having drivers. So it is important to make sure your system have at least basic drivers for each of your hardware before installing Linux.

Thanks for that. [emoji3]

[ColonelPanic]

-snip-

 TL;DR - Yes

[noisebomb44]

You could use a emulator with linux in it, so that you could switch to windows when you need to, and not have to reboot when you switch

Although performance would suffer

[Findarato]

You could go with OSx it is basically pro linux. Or if you really do not want to throw money at Steve you could just run CentOS the default shell is very classic and it is solid as a rock. Cent is the free version of Red Hat Enterprise. The same software running the stock market.

[ColonelPanic]

You could go with OSx it is basically pro linux. Or if you really do not want to throw money at Steve you could just run CentOS the default shell is very classic and it is solid as a rock. Cent is the free version of Red Hat Enterprise. The same software running the stock market.

 

Would you mind explaining why OSx is 'basically pro linux'? 

I think OP would probably be better of sticking with Windows, if they're comfortable with it, there's plenty of Arduino support for any kind of OS.

As for Linux distros to go to as a newcomer? Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin and even Elementary OS would probably be good places to start, as their GUIs are relatively easy to use.