I have seen the new Linux videos showing up on the Linux channel on YouTube and I have been watching this with enthusiasm. You guys have made me want to try out Ubuntu Gnome on my main desktop computer at home, which I use for everything; gaming, surfing, writing etc.
I have Windows 8.1 installed on one SSD and I have a free SSD about 120GB of space that I am thinking about installing Ubuntu Gnome on. How will it work with dual boot both systems? I hear that Logan is using both Windows and Ubuntu Gnome, how has he solved this and how is he switching between those two?
Just want the best solution and I will give Ubuntu Gnome a try :) It surely looks sexy on Logan's PC.
Write the Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 disc image and then click 'Install Ubuntu' once you have booted it up. Once you reach the partitioning step click 'Install Ubuntu alongside Windows" and select how much space you want Ubuntu Gnome to take.
When your computer boots up you will be able to choose either Windows 8 or Ubuntu Gnome from a list.
Of course, you could run another desktop enviroment. Just beacuse @Logan is using Gnome doesn't mean it'll be the best one for you. Other desktop enviroment that work on Ubuntu are Unity, KDE, Mate, XFCE, LXDE, Cinnamon among others. Play around.
I recommend you to use a virtual machine first. VMWare workstation works really well with linux and provides you with responsiveness of a natively running system. You can try different distributions without interrupting your usual work or risking breaking your Windows installation.
A really great method is the VM version first then once your are comfy try a USB stick. USB 3.0 will be MUCH better but Linux can easiler fit on a USB drive and then be your portable PC.
I want the full feeling of having Ubuntu Gnome installed as natively system. I am not a noob when it comes to partition and dual boot :) , I just wanted to hear peoples experience with having both Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu Gnome running, and if there was another easy way switching between those OS'es without having to reboot all the time. I guess VM is a good solution for this then.
How about using VeraCrypt on both Windows and Ubuntu Gnome installation? Will this work without conflict?
If you have it installed to the bare metal there is sadly no way for fast switching the OS without rebooting the system, i think (pls correct me if i'm wrong) But you can also install a pure virtual envirement what allows you to switch from Win to Linux fast but for most consumer grade equip it will kill your performance.
for VeraCrypt it's very easy like for all "locked" things, as long you have the key for the lock you can just go on.
Really easy to do dualboot with Linux. Most distros even have it as an automated option during install. I usually do it manually to separate / (root) and /home partitions.
Is it possible too dedicate 1 ssd and 1 hdd too the Linux os and having 1 ssd and 1 hdd dedicated too windows os with dual boot? Last time i used dual boot with Mint, the hardrives was a bit difficult too understand.
after getting each installed on separate drives, all you have to do is update GRUB (The bootloader for linux) to include an option for windows, and you will be able to select which OS to boot into when you start your machine
i would be aiming to get it working the way you want it first before looking at that.. or looking at there support for both OS's
last time i dual booted ubuntu and win 8.1 i had a blank drive installed (not touched by windows) and the ubuntu installer gave me the option to install alongside windows and just used the blank drive.
i did have an issue with grub not working after a reboot but a boot back to the usb installer and a grub repair utility fixed that issue (hail google!! :P )
when it comes to this i gave up on the dual booting a while ago.. to many headaches for me. i now have a dedicated linux box that i run separately.
If you are running a Dualboot with Windows 8.1 the Ubuntu (any Linix for that matter) will need a /boot/efi partition formatted in fat32 with about 250MB in size. Then it will play nicely with secure boot.
Also. Make sure you are running 12.10 or higher for compatibility with UEFI. Someone in another thread downloaded 12.04 for some reason, so I am just mentioning it here.
Thank you guys for all the feedback :) I think I will go for installing Ubuntu Gnome (on its own ssd) in dual boot with Windows 8.1 and I'll try to use VeraCrypt on both OS-drives.