Online security and Win 10/Linux

Online security and Win 10/Linux

Author
Discussion

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

46,908 posts

260 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
My laptop won't run Windows 11. I intend to keep Win10 on it and dual boot with Linux, probably Mint, only using Windows when not connected to the internet. I've used various distros before and will use Linux for the vast majority of the time, but I have programmes on Win10 which have no Linux equivalent or would require purchasing again.

If I connect to the internet via Linux, will I still be vulnerable via Win10 despite not booting to it?

dcb

5,964 posts

277 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
If I connect to the internet via Linux, will I still be vulnerable via Win10 despite not booting to it?
No. Linux and Win10 are exclusive.

You run one or the other at any one time, not both.

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

46,908 posts

260 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
dcb said:
No. Linux and Win10 are exclusive.

You run one or the other at any one time, not both.
Thanks for that.

camel_landy

5,182 posts

195 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
I wouldn't even bother dual booting, you might as well just run up a VM instead.

FWIW - I use a combination of KVM, VMM and remote-viewer.

M

Joseph Ducreux

5,731 posts

232 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Worth checking to see if any of the windows applications will run on Linux via Wine as well.

https://www.winehq.org/

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

46,908 posts

260 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Thanks for the advice, guys.

I used Ubuntu for a while, a few years before Covid. I had an old laptop I used to take to coffee shops to write with. And then, during Covid, I loaned my newer laptop, to go out of date this year it seems, to one of my grandkids and went back to my old one. I changed to Mint and rather liked it. I know there are some emulators, but when I used them, they were clunky. As long as it's safe to do so, I think dual boot is the better option for me.

In the main, I use my laptop for word processing and browsing, only occasionally using photo editing/design software with Affinity, which hasn't got a Linux option. I use Blender a bit, but that's free and supports Linux. I tried GIMP a few years ago but found the UI too different from what I was used to.

Thanks again.

the-norseman

13,995 posts

183 months

Wednesday 8th January
quotequote all
If you want to check out a different distro, try Debian. Second oldest distro these days, very stable, can run either KDE or Gnome.

I use it daily.

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

46,908 posts

260 months

Wednesday 8th January
quotequote all
A friend, who follows PH but I thought only on the F1 forums, sent an email to me last night. He uses Linux Mint, and has it exclusively on his laptop.

He reckoned I was showing my age to limit myself to GIMP for graphics. He uses Digicam mainly, but also has Inkscape for vector graphics. He's a born-again Linux user, although uses Mac desktop.

I stand corrected and cowed.

Monsterlime

1,306 posts

178 months

Wednesday 8th January
quotequote all
Mint is a good beginner distro, but if you want something a bit more recent and with much more up to date software, Fedora is a good option.

I personally use Arch (btw) and EndeavourOS (based on Arch), but I would not recommend that for a beginner/newer user. While I have not had any major issues, it can happen being a bleeding edge distro.

Although it should be noted, SteamOS is based on Arch as well.