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Hello everybody,
As far as the topic of Linux is concerned I have a question of a more general nature.
I´ve got two computers, a PC and a laptop.
The PC is a Lenovo H520e and the laptop is a medion Akoya E6222.
The PC has WIN8.1 Home (64bit) and the laptop has WIN7 (64bit) as operating system.
What I want to do is turn both the PC and the laptop into dual-boot systems.
The second OS should be Linux Ubuntu, preferably 14.04LTS (64bit).
My question now is:
Could there be any danger or risk for the respective hardware when using a Linux-driven
system on a PC/laptop that originally was sold with a pre-installed version of Microsoft´s operating-system?
I mean is Linux alright for existing motherboard,RAM, fans etc?
I just want to be on the safe side before applying any changes.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Greetings
Rosika 
Hi there,
thanks a lot for all of your answers.
@ Daniel:
Theoretically you´re right.
I already tried upgrading to WIN10. Yet it didn´t work out for either of the machines.
My laptop had the followig problem:
After the upgrade process everything displayed on the screen was terribly distorted. Obviously there were issues with the graphic card drivers. Trying to update the drivers didn´t work out either because there obviously are no WIN10-drivers for the graphic card.
[Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) HD Graphics.
On
https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/software/hd-gma/hd-graphics-driver-and-graphics-media-accelerator-driver-overview.html
there seems to be no hint for WIN10-drivers]
So I restored my laptop to WIN7 (luckily I had done a system-backup before).
And as far as my PC is concerned the WIN10 upgrade process itself worked well.
But I couldn´t get several programmes to run, like EMET and sandboxie. And I really couldn´t try out all installed programmes. So who knows what else was incompatible.
Here again I reverted to WIN8.1.
As far as Linux is concerned I´ll try out running ubuntu as a virtual machine first. Thank you.
@ Jim:
Linux is designed to run on the same hardware as Windows, so no problem there at all.
That´s good news!
I´ve got just one hard drive. So there´s the need to create new partitions.
I have a 500 GB hard drive and WIN8.1 at the present uses 125 GB.
So I think I´ve got enough free space left for ubuntu.
Thanks again
Greetings to you all.
Rosika
Hi Rosika
OK, it seems you have made your decision on running Ubuntu 14.04 in a VM. I personally am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with VMware Player on this machine and I am logged into the VM writing this reply. The beauty of a Linux VM is that if you do not like Ubuntu then delete it and try another Distro and believe me I have tried several.
If I were running W7, as you are on your laptop I would definitely be considering a move to a more secured OS through a VM.
Keep DCT posted on your progress.
Hello again,
@ Daniel and
@ Jim:
Thank you so much for your comments amd views on the subject of ubuntu and VMs.
O.K., you´re right. Obviously there was some misunderstanding.
Of course I have two hard disks, one residing in my laptop and one in my PC.
Both are 500 GB.
The 125 GB usage was referring to my PC. I just mentioned that as an example. On my laptop I have even more free space. So ubuntu as a second OS should be alright I think.
As far as running ubuntu as a virtual machine is concerned I have to admit that I´ve been running ubuntu in VMWarePlayer for quite a while now, but just on my PC.
I have yet to install it on my laptop.
But I´ve already had ample opportunity to test ubuntu and I´m really convinced it´s alright for me. Especially in view of the fact that WIN10 doesn´t really seem to be suited for either of my computers.
@ Daniel:
If I were running W7, as you are on your laptop I would definitely be considering a move to a more secured OS through a VM.
Sounds interesting. But what exactlty do you mean by that?
WIN7 will get extended support until January 14 2020. So I would have thought this OS would be safe to use until that point in time.
And simply using just a VM which is hosted by a system that doesn´t get security patches any more couldn´t be considered to be safe as the host would be prone to vulnerabilty attacks. Or am I wrong there?
Greetings to all of you
Rosika 
Hi Rosika
Let me try to explain. W7 is perfectly safe to use and will be until 2020.
It seems you have already made the first move for running Linux on your desktop PC with you Ubuntu VM. That is good and it gives you valuable experience with Linux.
Your concern for the host becoming unsupported should be a concern for a lot more W7 users and but at least you are willing to try a different approach to the issue, other than W10.
My main concern would be with the Linux guest and how it will have to evolve over time, especially when you consider how MS has pushed the W10 upgrade.
I have two machines at my disposal, one is running W8.1 with a Ubuntu VM and the other is running XP and W7 in dual boot with Linux Mint Mate 17.03 installed on a separate HD, the OS boot is controlled by the use of the F10 key.
Now, does it concern me that XP is unsupported, NO, and it will not concern me when W7 becomes unsupported, simply because I will use Windows for what it does best and use Linux for the rest of my computing needs.
A Linux VM on your W7 laptop, would be more efficient and more practical and less chance for error than a dual boot scenario. Your main concern would be the distro to use as your VM. I am not sure if Ubuntu would be my first choice but I would consider the Linux Mint Xfce version or even Lubuntu. These are light weight distros that should run well on a laptop, and with a VM one can always experiment.
I do hope this helps, I just wish their were more users willing to try Linux as a alternative OS for their PC's, I am using Linux for 95% of my computing needs.
Hi Daniel,
thanks again for your reply.
A Linux VM on your W7 laptop, would be more efficient and more practical and less chance for error than a dual boot scenario
So if I understand you correctly, you would be in favor of running ubuntu (or whatever linux distro) as a virtual machine.
That would suit me just fine but there´s just the thing about support end of WIN7.
I mean once there are no security patches for WIN7, which is the host system of course, what about my chances of running things smoothly - without security issues?
When WIN7 isn´t supported any more won´t it be risky to surf the internet even if I do that exclusively with my VM?
As long as there is support for WIN7 everything will be alright, but afterwards?
What I´m looking for is a secure solution after support-end. That´s why I was thinking of dual-boot (ubuntu as my main OS and WIN7 only when no internet connection is required).
Greetings
Rosika 
P.S.:
Now, does it concern me that XP is unsupported, NO, and it will not concern me when W7 becomes unsupported, simply because I will use Windows for what it does best and use Linux for the rest of my computing needs
Does that mean that you use XP ald later WIN7 only in offline-mode?
Wouldn´t that be problematic as there are so many programmes that simply need internet-connection?
"Does that mean that you use XP ald later WIN7 only in offline-mode?
Wouldn´t that be problematic as there are so many programmes that simply need internet-connection?"
That is basically how I use XP. I will take it online every now and then but only with a up to date browser like Firefox about the only thing I really need to run with W7 is Skype. I do not know what programs you need to run with W7 but Linux can and will do more than you think. I even run W10 and XP in VM's with Linux Mint as the host.
"That would suit me just fine but there´s just the thing about support end of WIN7.
I mean once there are no security patches for WIN7, which is the host system of course, what about my chances of running things smoothly - without security issues?"
Again, this will be an issue with every user running W7, with the decision to run W10 or switch to a Mac or just run Linux. XP users had to make that decision a couple of years ago and most just abandoned XP, but I did not, I found a way to run XP and all the software that I have accumulated for that OS, and it still runs well. For me I would delete W7 before I would delete XP, supported or not.
As for you I would be more concerned with the support for Linux than for Microsoft's support for W7, because you already know the answer to that issue. When the time comes, running a Linux VM in a unsupported W7 would be, especially on the internet, will be a lot safer than running W7 alone. Their is very little crossover from the guest machine to the host and that is why a lot of users set up VM's.
Hi Daniel,
thank you so much for finding time to answer my questions so patiently. I appreciate it very much.
As to your comment
I would be more concerned with the support for Linux than for Microsoft's support for W7
I might mention that linux ,and ubuntu for that matter, has a support strategy of its own, at least as far as I know:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu
As far as ubuntu 14.04.03LTS is concerned there will be support until April 2019. Afterwards one should upgrade to the next LTS-version.
So I hope support should´t be an issue with ubuntu. Let´s hope for the best.
Have a nice day and many greetings.
Rosika
"As far as ubuntu 14.04.03LTS is concerned there will be support until April 2019. Afterwards one should upgrade to the next LTS-version.
So I hope support should´t be an issue with ubuntu. Let´s hope for the best."
That is not the support I am referring to. One has to be concerned about the lack of interest in Linux as a whole and how much longer it can hold on, especially when one looks at the overall statistics of the OS's being used. I know Windows has very big edge here and it works really well with most software, but is it the best?
Hi Daniel,
thanks again for your response.
Now you got me really worried.
Up and until now I haven´t been thinking of ubuntu or linux in general as being jeopardized by the lack of potential users.
Especially in view of the variety of community-based web-sites. I would have thought that there´s backing by enough people, at least to an extent that its future might be secured.
Nevertheless I´ll see what I can find out concerning this new aspect.
That puts me in a quite difficult situation in view of the fact that WIN10 would´t work for me on either of my machines.
So Linux/ubuntu would seem to be a last resort to me.
In any case thank you so much for all the information you provided.
Have a nice day
Rosika 
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