3 Reasons why you should dual-boot your computer
Most of computer users live their whole life using only a single operating system. Well, this seems to be fine for a "non-techie" users who only use word processing software and spreadsheets like MS Excel at home or office. But in my day-to-day experience using computers, I found that, whether you are tech savvy or not, you would like to consider to this and here are the reasons.
1. Troubleshooting
If you are Microsoft die hard fan, chances are your computer has been infected by a computer virus. And admit it, anti-virus software isn't enough to protect your computer. I encountered a virus that gets executed as the operating system starts. So what I did was to boot my computer to Linux (Linux can read other file system) to delete that virus since it hides in some folders and kept executing making it almost impossible to remove. You can locate and remove it manually using other OS different from the target without reformatting your computer. This process seems to be too arcane but this is how I do it if I can't remove it using my current operating system.
2. Flexibility
Having more than 1 operating system in a single machine makes your computer more usable. Especially if you want a software that is only available only on a proprietary OS like windows or mac. You can use more softwares on different platforms. Perhaps, you could use a software equivalent on Microsoft Office like LibreOffice though, same functionality but unlike MS Office, this one is not easy to use because you have to set yourself some of its shortcuts. Anyway, you can learn it too. VMWare or VirtualBox is somewhat good, however, here are some of the drawbacks:
Virtual OS
CONS:
- They consume lots of memory of your computer
- Heavy process
- It might slow down your computer (even the programs inside your virtual OS)
- if you want extra features, you have to pay for it.
- Sometimes its networking capabilities are not working
- Extra configuration
- It requires you to pre-allocate memory which is not good because if you were ran out of hard disk space, you won't be able to use the unconsumed space on your virtual hard drive inside the virtual machine
PROS:
- suitable for penetration testing and building a "hack lab"
- easy for testing different software for different platforms
While if you have a dual-boot operating system, you can chose 1 OS at a time during boot up and thus, you can use it at its max.
3. Improves your understanding on how computer works
This is true. In fact, this is my primary reason why I decided to dual-boot my computer with Linux. With Linux, most of your time you'll be using the command line interface when executing programs. You'll learn to do things manually like creating a shortcut on your X-windows (this is the "desktop" in Linux), setting file permissions, manipulating directories and so much more.
So if you are an aspiring "hacker", well then my friend, learn how to use Linux first. You can also use Mac OS but isn't the same process to dual- boot as would do with Linux and Windows. You can have Unix, anyway, the command line terminal and commands are likely the same Mac OS, but I would suggest you to use Linux because Linux is a Unix-like OS. However, there are many flavors of Linux. Just pick what it suits your taste.
Mmmmm.. these were the good things I found out myself wit dual-boot operating system. If you want to add other reasons, feel free to share it.. ;)
1. Troubleshooting
If you are Microsoft die hard fan, chances are your computer has been infected by a computer virus. And admit it, anti-virus software isn't enough to protect your computer. I encountered a virus that gets executed as the operating system starts. So what I did was to boot my computer to Linux (Linux can read other file system) to delete that virus since it hides in some folders and kept executing making it almost impossible to remove. You can locate and remove it manually using other OS different from the target without reformatting your computer. This process seems to be too arcane but this is how I do it if I can't remove it using my current operating system.
2. Flexibility
Having more than 1 operating system in a single machine makes your computer more usable. Especially if you want a software that is only available only on a proprietary OS like windows or mac. You can use more softwares on different platforms. Perhaps, you could use a software equivalent on Microsoft Office like LibreOffice though, same functionality but unlike MS Office, this one is not easy to use because you have to set yourself some of its shortcuts. Anyway, you can learn it too. VMWare or VirtualBox is somewhat good, however, here are some of the drawbacks:
Virtual OS
CONS:
- They consume lots of memory of your computer
- Heavy process
- It might slow down your computer (even the programs inside your virtual OS)
- if you want extra features, you have to pay for it.
- Sometimes its networking capabilities are not working
- Extra configuration
- It requires you to pre-allocate memory which is not good because if you were ran out of hard disk space, you won't be able to use the unconsumed space on your virtual hard drive inside the virtual machine
PROS:
- suitable for penetration testing and building a "hack lab"
- easy for testing different software for different platforms
While if you have a dual-boot operating system, you can chose 1 OS at a time during boot up and thus, you can use it at its max.
3. Improves your understanding on how computer works
This is true. In fact, this is my primary reason why I decided to dual-boot my computer with Linux. With Linux, most of your time you'll be using the command line interface when executing programs. You'll learn to do things manually like creating a shortcut on your X-windows (this is the "desktop" in Linux), setting file permissions, manipulating directories and so much more.
So if you are an aspiring "hacker", well then my friend, learn how to use Linux first. You can also use Mac OS but isn't the same process to dual- boot as would do with Linux and Windows. You can have Unix, anyway, the command line terminal and commands are likely the same Mac OS, but I would suggest you to use Linux because Linux is a Unix-like OS. However, there are many flavors of Linux. Just pick what it suits your taste.
Mmmmm.. these were the good things I found out myself wit dual-boot operating system. If you want to add other reasons, feel free to share it.. ;)
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