I wouldn't really recommend dual booting. Despite all the FUD here, Linux is a fully usable OS without such onerous maintenance overhead. Your environment is a

I wouldn't really recommend dual booting. Despite all the FUD here, Linux is a fully usable OS without such onerous maintenance overhead. Your environment is a lot more amenable to customization and a lot of Linux users like to spend time getting their experience right for their personal needs. (Not everyone thinks Apple UI is the pinnacle one-size fits all UI solution ) I've put Linux on a lot of random laptops over the years without problem... BUT when I buy a brand new laptop specifically to run Linux on it I do like to do a little research just to make sure I won't run into problems. The reason I would not recommend dual booting is mainly that I think in terms of workflow and maintaining context/continuity of software enviroment.. You should choose one OS to be -your- OS and run any other OSes in VMs as needed. If you really want the option to dual boot you can run an OS that's installed to disk in virtual box without too much hassle. But in terms of workflow, having to reboot your machine and juggle files and incompatible FSes around will be a nightmare and you'll pay a high switching cost if, as you're working, you should need a tool from the other OS. Among the people I know and from my own experience over the years dualbooting.. Eventually you're going to pick one OS and spend 95% of your time in it and it will be your primary gateway to computing. In my case I run Linux as my main OS and if I absolutely need a windows application(like IE or Photoshop).. I just bring up a Windows VM. You seem interested in Linux and the web does run on Linux but honestly, while installing a bunch of server software directly on your workstation OS is a great way to learn, I can't imagine that anyone works that way longterm. So even though you can do it in Linux(and OSX but I would never do this there, it's too much hassle and worse for a newbie).. Once you know what you're doing you probably won't install anything outside of a container or VM that doesn't address a personal or overarching need you have--which might very well include development tools you're working with or interested in. So.. you're probably going to spend some time in Linux. Decide if you want to live there or commute. If you decide to commute, pick where you want to live.