this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Interesting take. I definitely agree that the ease of “just do it in Windows” that comes with dual booting was a thing for me, in the years when I was dabbling and thinking about switching for good.
What finally motivated me was getting fed up enough with Windows and M$ to not care about possible collateral damage from switching full time to Linux. My switch was helped by the fact that I left a job with a lot of overtime work that needed to be done in Windows for corporate compatibility. Once I was free of that, my dependency on one or two critical Windows apps was gone, so it was easier to switch as well.
What I really enjoy is the freedom to keep exploring/learning/changing. I set up Home on a separate partition, so if I can distro-hop without too much downside,if and when I get bored.
I’ve toyed around with switching full time on my desktop and ended up buying an orange pi 5 plus and a raspberry pi 3. The pi 3 runs pihole and homebridge while I just use the orange pi to play around and daily drive as much as I can. Currently run Armbian off an m.2 and have it set to boot to batocera off an sd card if I want to retro game.
Half the time I just SSH in from my iPad and the other half of the time I use the desktop environment for Armbian.
Side note: I run some local AI projects on my PC and it was really fun getting some basic models running on the NPU in the orange pi 5. That’s why I ended up going with a specific version (can’t remember which off the top of my head) of armbian so I can run small local AI models.
I think a second machine is way better than dual booting. Dual booting is a pain in the ass. I try to avoid rebooting the machine for any reason, its disruptive.
Better get an old cheap thinkpad or small PC. And you dont have to take the risk of learning about partitioning on your primary machine as first baby step. Keep your important stuff where its safe until such time as you are comfortable switching over.