Dual Booting with Linux Mint

[Donut417]

Im not too happy with how MS like to handle privacy. Seeing how I really only need Windows for some games and for MS office, Im thinking of dual booting with Linux Mint. 

 

My setup

• i5 3570K
• 16 Gigs DDR 3
• AMD HD 7950
• 256 Gig Samsung 830 SSD
• 2x 1Tb Seagate HDD
• MSI motherboard 
• Dual 1080p Monitors 

Here's the issue. I have dual monitors, Ive been spoiled by Display Fusion. I would like to have a similar experience on Linux as I get with Windows 10 and display fusion. Also, its been quite a while since I lasted used Linux, Ubuntu on an XP machine. Do you still have a separate Swap file partions in Linux? Planning on reinstalling Windows, So how should I do my partitioning with Windows and Linux? Keep in mind my steam library is on 1 of my hard disks. Should I covert one of my hard disks to EXT format or leave them all NTFS? 

 

Oh to add, what Im primarly going to be doing in Linux is online video consumption. Youtube, Kodi and such. Chatting with friends thru Hangouts, if hangouts works in Linux. Mostly general computer use, I dont game much any more, so I can use Windows for the gaming portion. 

[Terryv]

Best way to go about it is clear your disk and manually partition half (or whatever you want to use for Windows) as NTFS then install windows on it.

 

Afterwards, install mint on the remaining unallocated space. The auto installer will create all necessary partitions on its own. Although, a swap isn't necessary (I don't personally use it as I have lots of system memory).

 

You can remove the swap and resize the main partition at a later time using gparted.

 

Dual monitors will work just fine after a quick settings change in the display manager. Assuming you need to do it at all.

[Guest]

It's not exactly installing mint, but if you install Ubuntu you can choose to dual boot when installing Ubuntu. I am unaware of Mint's ability to do so by default.

[Terryv]

2 minutes ago, fpo said:

It's not exactly installing mint, but if you install Ubuntu you can choose to dual boot when installing Ubuntu. I am unaware of Mint's ability to do so by default.

Your way is valid as well. Mint is a fork of Ubuntu. It will work the same for the dual boot option.

[Donut417]

Also I need software suggestions. 

 

Although Linux has a low chance to get a Virus I would like a good AV and Firewall software as well. I pay for Avast, but I dont think they offer anything but Business related products. So I want a good AV. While I do have a router, I believe you cant be too safe, I would like an easy to use Firewall program. 

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, Terryv said:

Best way to go about it is clear your disk and manually partition half (or whatever you want to use for Windows) as NTFS then install windows on it.

 

Afterwards, install mint on the remaining unallocated space. The auto installer will create all necessary partitions on its own. Although, a swap isn't necessary (I don't personally use it as I have lots of system memory).

 

You can remove the swap and resize the main partition at a later time using gparted.

 

Dual monitors will work just fine after a quick settings change in the display manager. Assuming you need to do it at all.

Im going to take it Linux Mint uses Grub Boot Loader. So I install Windows first, then Linux and grub should point to Linux or Windows depending on what one I want to use? 

[Guest]

49 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Also I need software suggestions. 

 

Although Linux has a low chance to get a Virus I would like a good AV and Firewall software as well. I pay for Avast, but I dont think they offer anything but Business related products. So I want a good AV. While I do have a router, I believe you cant be too safe, I would like an easy to use Firewall program. 

I think the programs subsection would be a better place to post up.

[noahdvs]

6 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Also I need software suggestions. 

 

Although Linux has a low chance to get a Virus I would like a good AV and Firewall software as well. I pay for Avast, but I dont think they offer anything but Business related products. So I want a good AV. While I do have a router, I believe you cant be too safe, I would like an easy to use Firewall program. 

There's ClamAV, but it's probably not as good as closed source, Windows (maybe Mac) only AVs. Another option would be to only install programs from the default repositories or from companies you trust. It's a lot easier to make sure you're only using safe software on Linux than on Windows.

[SCHISCHKA]

15 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Here's the issue. I have dual monitors

Canonical's Unity is surprisingly the best desktop for muti-monitor but it has been discontinued from officlal ubuntu support. Its back to gnome which isnt bad but just a sad story which has been discussed in other posts.

15 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I would like to have a similar experience on Linux as I get with Windows 10 and display fusion.

you are in the non windows forum. you have to elaborate because i have not used windows outside a cheap laptop or VM for a while.

15 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Do you still have a separate Swap file partions in Linux?

if you have 8gb or more of ram you dont need swap unless you use suspend. Proprietary Nvidia drivers on ubuntu and debian actually break suspend so I dont use swap on my desktop. I only use swap on my laptop with iGPU and I can put my swap wherever I want as I have always done, seperate partition or file in any random location doesnt matter with the Unix-POSIX-themed environment.

15 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Planning on reinstalling Windows, So how should I do my partitioning with Windows and Linux?

install windows first with custom partition. linux takes less than 20GB. dont be afraid of the custom options. With limited knowledge of you RAM and HDD i say dont worry about it its not like your running a P4 with 512mb of ram!

15 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Oh to add, what Im primarly going to be doing in Linux is online video consumption. Youtube, Kodi and such. Chatting with friends thru Hangouts, if hangouts works in Linux. Mostly general computer use, I dont game much any more, so I can use Windows for the gaming portion. 

consumption alone? you could prob just use a live cd or install ubuntu to a partition of about 20 gb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SCHISCHKA]

12 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Although Linux has a low chance to get a Virus I would like a good AV and Firewall software as well. I pay for Avast, but I dont think they offer anything but Business related products. So I want a good AV. While I do have a router, I believe you cant be too safe, I would like an easy to use Firewall program. 

There are commercial AV that have software for linux, you can google if the one you paid for has a linux app. For firewall there is

apt install ufw

which i use and is really neat. Cool thing about ClamAV or any commercially available linux AV is you can scan your windows partition while its offline. For tinfoil hat wearing users like yourself you could run snort on linux. you can google that and get better advice from the ubuntu or arch linux forums than what i can provide.

[Terryv]

12 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Im going to take it Linux Mint uses Grub Boot Loader. So I install Windows first, then Linux and grub should point to Linux or Windows depending on what one I want to use? 

Yes, it does.

[Donut417]

Watched a Youtube video on dual booting Linux mint with Windows 10. I think Im going to instead try this on my laptop, to test and find software that Id like to use. Once I have some money, Ill buy a bigger SSD for my desktop and install it on my desktop as well. I really want to give Linux a chance as I dont like the direction MS is taking Windows. 

[Terryv]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

Watched a Youtube video on dual booting Linux mint with Windows 10. I think Im going to instead try this on my laptop, to test and find software that Id like to use. Once I have some money, Ill buy a bigger SSD for my desktop and install it on my desktop as well. I really want to give Linux a chance as I dont like the direction MS is taking Windows. 

You can also try it via virtual machine

[Donut417]

10 minutes ago, Terryv said:

You can also try it via virtual machine

Ive run it under a VM, but I find the experience kinda shitty. If I ever move to fully Linux, I might consider running Windows Under a VM. 

[Wild Penquin]

About swap partitions: You don't really need one (for swap) with 16GB of RAM. But if you want to suspend, you might still have use for a SWAP partition (=> your RAM amount)

 

If you notice at some point you are doing something that hogs your RAM, a swap file is also an option (and has always been) in Linux, and quite trivial to setup.

 

About gaming: It's getting easier every day on Linux. It used to be NVidia-only up and until quite recently, but I've red online the AMDGPU drivers have improved and are continuing to do so (I'm currently using NVidia, but really considering switching to the red team). Depenging on which games you play, you might just be lucky and not need the Windows partition anymore! (this is coming from a casual gamer, which means: Civilization series until V, Fallout series, Bioshock series until Infinite, but a lot of oldies like emulators and Dos games).

 

Otherwise I agree with pretty much everything already said on thread. How you partition (Linux/Windows usage) is up to you. Install Windows first and then Linux (distribution of your choice) and you're good to go! =)

 

EDIT: Also, I personally hate the interface of newer MS Offices, and actually find that LibreOffice fills all my office application needs quite well. Unless you are forced to use the newer MS Office file formats, you might be able to ditch Office away, too...

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Wild Penquin said:

About swap partitions: You don't really need one (for swap) with 16GB of RAM. But if you want to suspend, you might still have use for a SWAP partition (=> your RAM amount)

 

If you notice at some point you are doing something that hogs your RAM, a swap file is also an option (and has always been) in Linux, and quite trivial to setup.

 

About gaming: It's getting easier every day on Linux. It used to be NVidia-only up and until quite recently, but I've red online the AMDGPU drivers have improved and are continuing to do so (I'm currently using NVidia, but really considering switching to the red team). Depenging on which games you play, you might just be lucky and not need the Windows partition anymore! (this is coming from a casual gamer, which means: Civilization series until V, Fallout series, Bioshock series until Infinite, but a lot of oldies like emulators and Dos games).

 

Otherwise I agree with pretty much everything already said on thread. How you partition (Linux/Windows usage) is up to you. Install Windows first and then Linux (distribution of your choice) and you're good to go! =)

 

EDIT: Also, I personally hate the interface of newer MS Offices, and actually find that LibreOffice fills all my office application needs quite well. Unless you are forced to use the newer MS Office file formats, you might be able to ditch Office away, too...

Unfortunately my school hasn't gotten the memo about Google Docs. Some professors allow us to turn shit in via PDF format, I think Canvas doesnt allow us to use Google Docs, but most professors want it in MS format. I do all my collab work Google, then copy it over to MS Office later. But the school has computer labs where you can have access to MS office if you need. So its almost like you dont need it. 

[Salacious B Crum]

I just powered up my pre-built that I duel boot with Linux mint it boots up to a screen where you select which OS you want to run if you do nothing it times out and boots into mint, sorry can't be of much more help as I did this a week or so ago and have not played much with it I will say it was straight forward in the partitioning of the drive windows was already installed and the software walked me right through it you can grab the partition and drag it to whatever size you want within the drive space available.

[Wild Penquin]

14 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Unfortunately my school hasn't gotten the memo about Google Docs. Some professors allow us to turn shit in via PDF format, I think Canvas doesnt allow us to use Google Docs, but most professors want it in MS format. I do all my collab work Google, then copy it over to MS Office later. But the school has computer labs where you can have access to MS office if you need. So its almost like you dont need it. 

Now that sucks. I have no experience with Canvas (and no idea how it works). Still trying things in LibreOffice might work; it can open the newer MS Office formats, but if the documents are more complex, it might fail with formatting (and because of missing fonts etc); with older MS Office formats the compatibility seems to be way better. Worth giving a shot, perhaps.

[Donut417]

3 hours ago, Wild Penquin said:

Now that sucks. I have no experience with Canvas (and no idea how it works). Still trying things in LibreOffice might work; it can open the newer MS Office formats, but if the documents are more complex, it might fail with formatting (and because of missing fonts etc); with older MS Office formats the compatibility seems to be way better. Worth giving a shot, perhaps.

Not in a 400 Level classes. I only got 1 more semester left. Then I can rid my self of my MS bondage. LOL. 

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Unfortunately my school hasn't gotten the memo about Google Docs. Some professors allow us to turn shit in via PDF format, I think Canvas doesnt allow us to use Google Docs, but most professors want it in MS format. I do all my collab work Google, then copy it over to MS Office later. But the school has computer labs where you can have access to MS office if you need. So its almost like you dont need it. 

You can use google docs but if you collaborate using google docs, then just copy pasta into a text editor and save the final version for a file upload.

Not all my teachers use google docs even when it's excel files and sometimes they don't allow it for text files. It depends on the assignment. I usually just copy paste into text entry if it's permitted.

[Donut417]

14 minutes ago, fpo said:

You can use google docs but if you collaborate using google docs, then just copy pasta into a text editor and save the final version for a file upload.

Not all my teachers use google docs even when it's excel files and sometimes they don't allow it for text files. It depends on the assignment. I usually just copy paste into text entry if it's permitted.

Thats the issue. They dont allow. Most professors at EMU can barley use Canvas. I was told by a professor who also teaches at another collage, that the way EMU set up canvas was backwards compared to other universities. Shit, I had a professor who didnt use Canvas for grades, he just had a grade sheet he would pass around and email to us. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Thats the issue. They dont allow. Most professors at EMU can barley use Canvas. I was told by a professor who also teaches at another collage, that the way EMU set up canvas was backwards compared to other universities. Shit, I had a professor who didnt use Canvas for grades, he just had a grade sheet he would pass around and email to us. 

Unless the college forces them to use Canvas, they won't. And they'll kinda fight using it if they don't want to use it if required.