 probably about a year ago or so, we did a podcast asking whether or not dual booting is still something that should be popular. And in that year, a lot of things have changed. Gaming and Linux has gotten way better. Linux has gotten more popular or so it has seemed not a lot more popular, but at least more popular. And it's definitely gotten more attention than it has in the previous years. So I wanted to revisit this topic and I could have saved it for another podcast, but I just kind of wanted to talk about it, you know, in a rambly type video because I think that it's an important topic to talk about. Dual booting is something that a lot of us had to do when we first started out on Linux. I know I did. I know a lot of people who I talked to started out that way and mostly it's because they used Windows sort of as a safety blanket. I know that's what happened for me. I left my Windows partition there for a long time because when there was just something that I couldn't do on Linux, I could then, you know, shut my Linux boot down, boot into Windows and do what I've always done. And it took me a long time for that security blanket to be no longer necessary. And usually the thing that I needed to leave Linux to do was to record a podcast about Linux, which I find utterly entertaining because when I first started doing the podcast, I used Microsoft Skype to record it. Now, I know much better now, but at that time I had no clue how to record a podcast with OBS. I didn't even know what OBS was. You know, I never even had, I've never, at that point, I had never heard of OBS, let alone how to record from it or do anything, you know, approaching knowing how to use it. So I was using Microsoft Skype because, you know, you know, it was just, that's what I had to use. And that's what Ricky and I decided to use. So a lot of times Skype just doesn't work well on Linux, at least at that point, it didn't work well on Linux. So that's the reason why I kept my dual boot around, because a lot of times when the audio just decided not to work on Linux, I could shut down and boot back into Windows. And I think a lot of people, even to this day, are still kind of like that. There's that one piece of software that they need to use, whether it's a game or an office software or whatever. And that one piece of software is keeping them from being able to switch to Linux completely, like completely abandon their dual boot setup. So that kind of leads me back to the question, is dual boot still necessary? Is it still something that people should do? And over the last few months, we've been talking a lot on the channel about new users. And I think this question is mostly focused at new users, because like I said, as much as we hate Windows in this community, Windows for most people has been familiar to them for a long time. And it's their security blankets, it's their boo boo. It's their thing that they cuddle with close at night. It's not really all that woman cuddly, but it's something that they are very familiar with and that they can use without asking to ask a question every five and a half seconds. So I think for new users, the answer to the question is, yes, dual booting is still something that you should consider. And I think for most new users, they should highly consider it. Because it does give them that fallback option for when they do need to do something that can't be done on Linux in a way that is easy and quick, they can go back to Windows, do that thing and then come back to Linux. Now, that being said, it does give them an out. Like if they have that security blanket, they're more likely just to go use that than use Linux because they know that it's easier. People will always take the path of least resistance. So if that's there, they're more likely to use that instead of spending their time in Linux and learning how to do the stuff that they need to do. And altering their workflow to the way Linux works, then it, you know, so they will just avoid Linux because they have Windows still there as a security blanket. So that kind of complicates the answer. Another thing that complicates the answer is that dual booting actually increases the complexity of actually using your computer because as we talked about on the last podcast, Tyler and I were talking about how installing Linux isn't all that easy because you have to burn your device. So you have to choose a distro and all this stuff. But the hardest part we were talking about is that you have to figure out how to get into the boot menu of your computer. And there's not a single computer out there that's exactly the same as the other computer you just used. Like I know, for example, on this computer here, it's just F 12 on the computer behind me. It's delete real quick or no, it's escape. You know, I don't even know. I know it is. It's delete real quick and then F 12. Thinking about it. I think that's it. I don't know. That's the point is that you move a computer, move to a different computer. That sequence is different depending on what you use. Like it's gonna be a different on a laptop between laptop brands between motherboard brands. It's a mess. So that is a and to add to the complexity of using Linux for the first time, and then having to teach somebody to do that on their particular computer in order to switch back and forth between Windows and Linux partitions is it's damn near impossible for even technologically inclined people for normies. It's really something that you don't want to approach unless you absolutely have to. So I've kind of waffle between the actual answer for new users. I do think the access to Windows can still be important. But I think that it should be hard for them. Maybe I don't. It's it's a hard question to answer, right? Because if I guess that alright, so the answer is this. If you are dedicated to switching to Linux, and you really want to do it, and you want to put in the effort to learn everything you need to do and adapt your workflow to the Linux way of doing things, don't dual boot, because you're going to run back to Windows every single time something goes wrong with Linux. And then eventually you'll just say, well, Linux was a good experiment. I'm just going to continue to use what I know and love or at least know if you're just dabbling. If you're not actually committed to it, then maybe dual booting is more appropriate for you. I would suggest maybe looking into a virtual machine because it's actually going to be easier for you. And then you stay inside the Linux ecosystem and you just you can still use the Windows app that you need. And then you can shut the Windows the virtual machine down. I think that that's probably the best way to do it because then you can still maintain your your your usage of Linux instead of having to go back to the security blanket. So the answer to the question is hard because it differs for every single person, right? Which what's my experience is going to be different than your experience is going to be different than the guy next to experience. And that's just the way of computing. Everybody has different needs. Everyone has different expectations for their time with Linux. And everybody has different goals and things like that. They don't we're not all the same. So to answer the question for just me do booting right now is no longer something that I need because I'm fully entrenched in Linux. And I think that's the way for a lot of people. If you're just switching, the question is a lot more difficult because you have to entertain a lot of different variables of how you do your workflow. Is there something that you absolutely have to have on Windows that you just can't abandon? Then I would most likely question why you're switching to Linux because until you're ready to abandon that piece of software or find alternatives, you're still going to always flow back into Windows until that barrier is gone. So that's it for this video. I know it was a little rambly. What do you think? Do you think that dual booting is something people should still consider? Leave that in the comment section below. Make sure you hit that like button and subscribe button. I really do appreciate it. We're really close to 7000 now. I'm just I continue to be astonished by that. I think I will always be astonished every time that number just goes up. I don't I'm so grateful. So everybody who's gone through and hit the subscribe button. Thank you. 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