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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Questions about running Linux in a VM on Windows (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi, I'm an old windows user who have played with linux* a few times, but never commited to it.

I want to dive deeper and I though about installing linux in a VM. Some basic questions:

Is that a good idea? / Anything I should take into account?
Is there any preferred VM manager for this? Windows comes with Hyper-V, but I remember reading about how Hyper-V is not ideal (I could be wrong).
Do different distributions work better or worse on VMs?
Are there any major differences when using linux in a VM compared to a bare metal installation?

And some not-so-basic ones:

Is there any [dis]advantage to "Linux VM on Windows" VS "Windows VM on Linux"?
If I start with "Linux VM on Windows", would it be possible to swap them in the future? What I mean is:
- Virtualize the Windows installation so it can be run as a VM.
- Un-virtualize the Linux VM (with all its contents and configuration) and move it to bare metal.
- Run Windows VM on linux.

Notes:

I did a quick search and, although I found multiple articles about the topic, the ones I've read just show one way to do it without comparing it to the alternatives.
I'm aware of WSL(2), but I would like to be able to decouple from Windows in the future.
EIDT: I tried dual booting in the past. The main problem is that I'm too lazy to reboot every time I want to try something in linux and I end up not using it.

Thanks!

* Mandatory linux = GNU/Linux

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You just want to get a feel for it, so I suggest what I've used with success in the past :

Windows host
Virtualbox
Linux Mint with the XFCE desktop environment.

All free, Linux mint is newbies friendly and XFCE is light enough to run well in a VM. It is Ubuntu based so it's very well documented (basically 99% of the tutorials for Ubuntu work with Mint) but it comes with less bloatware and a more ethics.

Of course no single Linux distribution is perfect or we would all be using it but I suggest you don't lose time looking for a distro. Just pick one and install it. If you don't like the look and feel, then try another. You can distro hop through several of them to taste the variations. But the general principles are pretty much the same across the board.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the suggestions.

Do you know if there is any reason to prefer Virtualbox over Hyper-V?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Sorry just saw the answer.

Virtualbox is very easy to use out of the box, even if you have very little experience with virtualization. Everything is in one place and pretty much self explanatory.

Hyper-V is more complicated and requires that you have a Enterprise, Pro or Education license. It cannot be activated on the Windows 10 or 11 home edition.