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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] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I tried dual booting, and I found it to be annoying as well. I always had to reboot because something I needed was on the other OS. Over a few weeks Linux was just taking space on the drive.

More recently what I've been doing was to run Linux in a VM that starts automatically on full screen when opening my Windows session (easy to set up). So now I can work with both in parallel, transfer data, synchronise clipboard with Ditto, have my Windows-specific software while still using Linux as my daily OS. Even better now since I have a NAS which I didn't have during the dual boot period, so I can mount drives for both. For that you can either use VMWare Workstation Player or Oracle VirtualBox, they're both free.

When it comes to swap, of course you will be able to run Windows in a VM on Linux. But transfering your current data ? I'm not sure at all. It might be doable, but I think you should save your data externally for both machines and do a proper reinstall. It will save you some time and hassle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the answer!

May I ask you how do you balance resources (mainly RAM) between Windows and Linux?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well that's my main issue, my rig runs an i5-6900 and I have 16GB RAM. I gave 6 to the Linux VM, and try to maintain the usage on Windows as low as possible : not having the browser running on both, a plug-in to put to sleep tabs not used, stopping processes I'm not using. KDE is a bit too much in my case, but Cinnamon, or XFCE are working fine. I've found a new love with i3wm but it needs some time to tinker it to your taste.

But if you have a more recent computer, you should be fine. Upgrade the RAM maybe, if you find it to slow.