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Windows as my host machine and run Linux in the WSL. :) I do it the other way around. Linux as my host machine and run Windows in virtualbox. I look at Windo

Windows as my host machine and run Linux in the WSL. :) I do it the other way around. Linux as my host machine and run Windows in virtualbox. I look at Windows every now and then, but I always abandon the idea because it's so clunky. So it all boils down to what you're used to. I always feel claustrophobic when I use Windows. You're obviously the other way around. I have never used Windows as my 'daily driver'. I went from MSDOS to UNIX Desktop in 1991, then from UNIX to Linux Desktop in 2001. I consider Windows 7 to be 'peak Windows'. It's what I use in my virtualbox, and have done for probably about ten years. 'Second best Windows', IMO, is Windows XP. Since Windows 7 it's all been downhill for Windows. I did suggest to the Microsofties around 2003 that they 'do an Apple' by taking Linux and using that as the main operating system (like Apple's MacOS being BSD under the hood) and slap the Windows Desktop on top of that, which would greatly reduce the workload on the Microsoft development team.

im3w1l 3y ago
It's lowkey flabbargasting me that I can't do both. Like install the OS's on one disk/partition each, and VM whichever one I'm not currently booted into. It feels like something that should be possible in current year. Edit: Actually maybe it is possible and I'm just not keepign up ig?
- lproven 3y ago
  You can with FOSS OSes, but it's fragile. If an OS thinks it's got sole control of the boot sector, say -- because sometimes it does -- and it tries to modify it when it's in a VM, at best the VM breaks and at worst the whole system breaks. Summary: possible, but not recommended. But Windows fingerprints the hardware and a copy activated against the host isn't activated when in a VM, and vice versa. So this doesn't work.
  - simonblack 3y ago
    But Windows fingerprints the hardware and a copy activated against the host isn't activated when in a VM, and vice versa. So this doesn't work. FWIW, I took a raw image of a 'real' Win 7 system after I had reduced the size of the C: drive down to about 50 gig. I then converted it to a virtualbox .VDI and that worked very well. I later just installed a copy of my version of Windows 7 on a standard virtualbox system and used my own serial. That worked even better. It complains that it's not a validated system, but otherwise works normally. I suppose I have to get some return for those unused Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems I own. (Every month or two, I boot them up just to run the Windows updates. I don't know why I bother to do this. It's really just a waste of time.)
- simonblack 3y ago
  You can do that. But I've never bothered. It would add an extra layer or two of cruft where it's not necessary. As well as use disk space unnecessarily when you could better allocate 90% or more of your disk space to your main OS. Just pick one (Linux or Windows) and use that one as your base system. Make your guest disk as small as practical. My guest Win 7's C: drive is only about 40 gigs, which in a 12 TB system is pretty much just loose change.

im3w1l 3y ago

It's lowkey flabbargasting me that I can't do both. Like install the OS's on one disk/partition each, and VM whichever one I'm not currently booted into. It feels like something that should be possible in current year. Edit: Actually maybe it is possible and I'm just not keepign up ig?

lproven 3y ago
You can with FOSS OSes, but it's fragile. If an OS thinks it's got sole control of the boot sector, say -- because sometimes it does -- and it tries to modify it when it's in a VM, at best the VM breaks and at worst the whole system breaks. Summary: possible, but not recommended. But Windows fingerprints the hardware and a copy activated against the host isn't activated when in a VM, and vice versa. So this doesn't work.
- simonblack 3y ago
  But Windows fingerprints the hardware and a copy activated against the host isn't activated when in a VM, and vice versa. So this doesn't work. FWIW, I took a raw image of a 'real' Win 7 system after I had reduced the size of the C: drive down to about 50 gig. I then converted it to a virtualbox .VDI and that worked very well. I later just installed a copy of my version of Windows 7 on a standard virtualbox system and used my own serial. That worked even better. It complains that it's not a validated system, but otherwise works normally. I suppose I have to get some return for those unused Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems I own. (Every month or two, I boot them up just to run the Windows updates. I don't know why I bother to do this. It's really just a waste of time.)
simonblack 3y ago
You can do that. But I've never bothered. It would add an extra layer or two of cruft where it's not necessary. As well as use disk space unnecessarily when you could better allocate 90% or more of your disk space to your main OS. Just pick one (Linux or Windows) and use that one as your base system. Make your guest disk as small as practical. My guest Win 7's C: drive is only about 40 gigs, which in a 12 TB system is pretty much just loose change.