[conspire] (forw) [sf-lug] Dual boot (was: pair of own suggestion)

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On 10/13/21 01:50, Rick Moen wrote:

> Most Victors, or shall we say at least 6 or so deciVictors here in the
> Bay Area, also have a spare, disused, 5-year-old computer sitting around
> unused because, say, it ran WinXP but wasn't studly enough for Win7.

Fully abandoning Windows and move to Linux now still requires 
"reasonably strong" motivations since alternatives that let you remain 
on Windows and use Linux are really effortless.

I do understand that if you don't use Linux regularly enough to get 
confident you won't switch and dual boot has all the inadequacies you 
mentioned but if you don't need to get used to a Linux DE, Windows now 
comes with its own Linux environment and if you do need a Linux DE, 
having 2 boxes force you to find a comfortable place for that box, 
possibly work with a smaller monitor, switch keyboard and post.
Another route could be investing few bucks on an rpi that can share your 
workplace with your everyday PC.

Trying Linux inside virtualbox may be more satisfactory and being 
satisfied is a great incentive to switch.

Virtualbox will let you install Windows inside Linux inside Windows... 
that could possibly be an interesting exercise to gain confidence.
eg. check if all your hardware works well with usb passtrough.

My everyday box has a 10 years old CPU[*] and I let Windows run on very 
limited resources (1 core, 80% CPU, 2Gb RAM) and it struggles a bit if I 
actually need the GUI, but most of the times it is running on demand 
headless and I don't want it to interfere with what I'm doing on Linux 
but I've enough confidence that on a bit more modern box with no 
resource limitations you could run a Linux GUI full screen without even 
noticing it is running under Windows.
And that will let you see if you feel comfortable with more mundane 
applications like music players etc... in a much smoother way than with 
a 10 years old notebook with 2Gb RAM running Linux natively. Just 
running stuff on a SSD will make a huge difference.


[*] I keep on having this strange experience that even if I tend to use 
the same PC for several years once I buy a new one I don't feel that 
much speed up.

One thing that I really noticed was moving from traditional HD to SSD, 
but once the PC is up and running it feels mostly the same as the 
previous one.

That surely depends on how I use the PC and still every time I buy a PC 
it's a well thought process and that's one of the reasons I make my PC 
last several years. Every time I plan to buy a new one it never seems 
the right moment because there is that new piece of technology that 
sounds interesting that's going to be on the shelves next quarter, so it 
will stabilize and reach a reasonable price next year... and I really 
don't need a new PC because this is running fine unless I'm going to buy 
something that really satisfy me...

And when I'm forced to switch because I feel the risk some piece of 
hardware is going to fail, even after years of technology improvements I 
don't really appreciate too much the speed up.

With a 10 year CPU uploading a firmware to a MCU takes more than 
compiling the firmware and most IDE makes static analysis on the fly 
that makes checking if everything compile mostly superfluous.

Nowadays the most demanding application I run are probably Firefox and 
Eclipse and I suspect it shouldn't be that way.

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
https://www.webthatworks.it https://www.borgonovo.net