A virtual machine, for those who do not know it, is a program that is responsible for virtualizing the hardware of a real PC and allows us to install an operating system on it. There is an intermediate point with which we can use other operating systems without having to resort to this type of configuration: virtual machines. Virtual machines: alternative to Dual Boot for everyone In addition, unless we use some type of encryption, all operating systems will be able to access the data of the other systems.
HOW TO DUAL BOOT LINUX ON A MAC DOWNLOAD
We can even download a virus from Linux, and this, although it does not affect this OS, will be configured to run the next time we start Windows. For example, we can unintentionally download a virus from Windows, and this virus will affect all operating systems. Security (or rather, the lack of it) is another of the drawbacks of this type of configuration. The Apple operating system requires specific changes in the BIOS / UEFI of our computer, changes that can make other systems not work, or do not work correctly.
If the boot is damaged, we will lose access to all operating systems, and reconfiguring a boot without installing an OS is not exactly easy.Īnd if we think about installing a Dual-Boot with macOS (what we can call Hackintosh), things get much more complicated. In that case, we will have to reconfigure it. An update, from either system, is very likely to overwrite the bootloader and load yours. When we start the PC we will see the GRUB boot loader of this system, and we can choose which one we want to load.Īlthough the theory is simple, in practice we will run into problems. The last system, which should be a Linux, will detect all other operating systems, and add their entry in GRUB. In normal conditions, what we would have to do is install the operating systems, one after the other, until we have them all. In addition, the configuration of the Dual Boot is anything but practical and simple. This can take between 2 and 5 minutes, a time that we can save if we use a single operating system. And be aware of the boot loader to choose the system we want to boot. Every time we want to change the operating system we will have to save the changes, close the open programs and restart. But the first thing to keep in mind is that they are not going to run at the same time. Having two operating systems on the same computer is very useful, yes. And when we finish working, we can try to repair the first one.Īlso, if we like to test different operating systems (such as Windows, Linux, and even macOS), the best way to know how they work and enjoy all their features is to do it through a real installation, not in a virtual machine. This is useful if our work depends on the computer, since with a dual boot we can always have an alternative operating system with which to work if the main one fails. For example, if one of the systems fails, we can start any of the others and access its partition to repair it, or, at least, recover the data. Real access to hardware is undoubtedly the best advantage of this type of setup.