Can Linux be dual booted on a computer with Windows?

shadowSprite@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 55 points –

I have a Lenovo Yoga running Windows 10 on a 1TB SSD and at some point will probably have to upgrade it to Windows 11. I use it for school and have to keep Windows on it for now because of what I'm currently doing. I want to start getting into Linux in hopes of making the switch sometime down the line. Is partitioning the disk and dual booting Windows/Linux a thing and is it possible/easy to do? If so, what distro would anyone recommend? (I've heard good things about Mint). Back in the day I had gotten bored one night, installed Ubuntu on an external drive and played around with it a very tiny bit before forgetting about it, but that's the extent of my Linux knowledge, so kindly keep explanations ELI5 :)

Edit: Thank you everyone! You've given me lots of good advice and knowledge, some terms to Google, and some good places to start. I appreciate it! Looking forward to joining the wonderful world of Linux!

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Thats a good solution only if you:

  1. Don't use BS software that refuses to run in a VM.
  2. Don't need proper graphical acceleration.

Depending on what OP need on windows this could be a problem.

From a graphics perspective it runs pretty smooth once you install the virtio drivers. Unless your trying to play games you are fine. As far as software that doesn't work in a VM that is a fairly limited edge case. Maybe test taking software won't work but that's pretty obscure.

Maybe someone somewhere has a edge case for for most people Linux is fine by itself and for the few people who need legacy software a Windows VM is also fine.