Dual Boot Guide [Overview Edition]

Introduction

This is my first post. I recently bought a new laptop and set up dual boot to use Ubuntu. In this article, I'll compare the pros and cons of dual booting Ubuntu with other methods!

For the actual setup instructions, please check out Dual Boot Guide [Practical Edition]. Feel free to leave comments if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

Ways to Use Ubuntu on a Windows 10 PC

• Dual boot (main topic of this article)
• Install Ubuntu on a virtual environment like VirtualBox
• Install WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

These are the three main ways to use Ubuntu on a Windows 10 PC. (Let me know if there are others!) In this article, I'll answer your questions about dual booting!

*Note: This article is just an overview. The actual how-to article is currently being edited.

What the Heck is Dual Boot?

If you search for what dual boot means...

Multi-boot refers to installing multiple operating systems (OS) on a single computer and being able to select which one to boot. Installing two OSes, known as "dual boot," is the most common.

That's the gist of it. In my own words:

Installing two OSes (Windows, Linux, Mac) on a single PC and being able to choose which one to boot.

(Pretty much the same thing, haha...) Yeah, that's basically it.

Here's what it looks like in practice...

This is how it looks. This screen appears every time you boot your PC, letting you choose between Windows 10 and Ubuntu.

By the way, some people even do triple boot (Windows, Linux, Mac), apparently...

Pros and Cons of Each Method

Let's compare the methods of using Ubuntu on a Windows 10 PC.

Dual Boot

Pros

• Full access to memory (RAM)
• USB and other connected devices work normally (other methods sometimes have issues recognizing USB drives in Ubuntu)

Cons

• Storage (ROM) must be partitioned (reduces available storage)
• Failed dual boot setup could potentially erase data (more details in the Risks section)

Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox or Other Virtual Environments / Installing WSL

Pros

• Easy to add multiple OSes
• Maximum utilization of storage (ROM)

Cons

• Running Ubuntu on Windows means memory (RAM) can't be fully utilized

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The biggest advantage of dual boot is that while some software doesn't work well with other methods, dual boot runs anything that's compatible with Ubuntu.

While WSL has improved and bugs have decreased, there are still unsupported applications. You should research whether the software you want to use works on WSL or VirtualBox.

*Note: I'm not entirely clear on the pros and cons of "Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox" vs "Installing WSL" myself, so please enlighten me if you can... (Personally, I think the main difference is just the user experience)

Risks of Dual Booting

The most important risk to consider with dual boot is that a failed setup could potentially erase your data.

This apparently depends on PC compatibility issues... (It seems related to BIOS version, but I don't fully understand the details...) When I installed Ubuntu this time, there were no critical bugs. (Previously, when I set it up in my research lab, Windows got erased and only Ubuntu remained—oops)

Therefore, make sure to back up your data beforehand.

In my case, I performed the dual boot setup immediately after purchasing my new PC. It's better to do it right after purchase rather than after setting up your development environment—the damage from failure is much less that way...

Why I Chose Dual Boot

I initially wanted to install Ubuntu to work with ROS and tried running it on VirtualBox. Midway through, I realized how tedious it was to set up a Windows development environment and decided to just do all my development on Ubuntu.

In that case, I figured it'd be better to dual boot and use the full specs rather than running on a virtual environment or WSL.

That's why I chose dual boot. If I ever want to use other OSes, I plan to run those in virtual environments (since they'd only be used for specific purposes).

Prerequisites

• A PC with Windows 10 installed
• USB drive (8GB or larger) for Ubuntu installation
  • This will become a dedicated boot USB, so move any other data off beforehand (it will be formatted before creation)
  • You can format the USB after installation is complete
• Network connection (for Ubuntu installation)

For desktop PCs, you can separate OSes by SSD (or HDD), so purchasing additional storage and dedicating each storage device to a different OS would be best. (This is also technically called dual booting)

Dual Boot Process Overview

1. Create Boot USB - Put Ubuntu data on the USB to create dual boot installation media
2. Partition Storage (ROM) - Currently only Windows data is allocated on the PC (plus recovery partitions, etc.), so we need to secure space for Ubuntu data
3. Install Ubuntu to Designated Partition - Install Ubuntu to the secured space

Conclusion

In this article, I answered questions like "What is dual boot?" and "Why did I choose dual boot?"

The actual setup instructions are explained in Dual Boot Guide [Practical Edition]!

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out in the comments or on X!

References

https://qiita.com/satoru_takeuchi/items/a54812806bba0eb48f02