This is why I encourage everybody who dual-boots to either use a separate device, or install bootloader on SDA and get it over with. Worse case, you can use ms-sys to install the Windows 7 MBR on SDA since 8 and 10 use it as well.
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Iāve only dual-booted a small amount of times. I simply found myself being able to do most things on GNU/Linux. I do keep a Windows laptop around (totally disconnected from everything) for porting programs but thatās it. But then since the RaspPi3 has become my default computer, itās not hard to choose sides.
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Yes I have daul booted (W7 & U-vanilla 14.04) in a W7 Enterprise environment.
As a non-technical user I can only say that I will avoid going down that path again. Bare metal or VM would be my choice.
I used to dual boot back in the ādark daysā but have not done so since 2005.
I still have an old machine that is configured to dual boot but that is just an old standby now.
I donāt dual boot, because for the sake of freedom I can do without a few special games or special programs. And of course Windows 10 is actually totally ridiculous.
I just run Ubuntu Mate without dual booting. I have a gaming PC and a MAC laptop, which I havenāt used in a very long time. I find Linux not only more fun but also a lot quicker and faster to get my work done with.
When I say āDual-bootā, I mean to say I run Linux from USB. I am so use to it, that one of these days I am going to disconnect my USB-connected disk drive without realizing Ubuntu is running, lol
Hi @tiox,
isnāt that cheating, I mean using a USB stick?, only joking of course, for anyone that doesnāt know all or anything about what āDual Bootingā is:
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Iām a dual booter and Iām proud of it LOL is it such a word BOOTER? I have 5 machines and only one Iām dual booting I removed all of Windows and keep Windows 10 for comparing and trouble shooting purposes only.
And I can see my self moving away from Windows altogether 
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I donāt dual-boot anymore since November last year. And I donāt plan to ever again do it. I think Iām clean now and I must thank Dual-boot Anonymous for their support. At first I was too ashamed to speak, but got a lot of support from them and when I finally got the courage, I let go all of my frustration accumulated during years of dual-booting. And when I wept like a child, ashamed of what I was doing to me and family and friends, they all got up from their chairs and cherished me, letting me know I was no monster, but a human being. I was just a dual-booter and the most important thing is to recognize myself as one. Thatās the first step to cure.
So, if you are a dual-booter, look for the closest Dual-booters Anonymous to your location and go to those meetings. I tried medical doctors, self-prescription, yoga, religion, psychologists, psychiatrists. I even signed myself in for detox twice. Nothing worked. But they help! toll-free number: 111-111-HELP.
ā¦
I know Microsoft since the mid 80s and I had been a customer since. But when the first reports of Window 10, still under development, were coming out, it started to become clear to me that this was no longer a company I could feel good as a customer. Their business practices and decisions, along with their planned goals, were alienating too much what I feel are my rights as a consumer and my own interests as a computer power user. This was confirmed a few months before WIndows 10 release with all the news on the upcoming operating system behavior. So, after whatās just short of 30 years, I finally pulled the plug, completely, on Microsoft. I had been a Linux user for the past couple of years, so the transition wasnāt difficult at all. Besides this would have been the second Microsoft OS I would be skipping in a row (I also skipped the Windows 8 nonsense entirely) and had skipped Vista, before 7 finally came up and allowed me to upgrade from XP. So, the writing was already in the wall.
It could have been career changing (I am a software engineer by profession). But luckily Iām nearing the end of my career and I donāt exercise my profession for the past 5 years, having chosen the path of teaching for the last stretch of my career.
So now, dual-boot is not necessary or even desirable. I plan to learn all I can about Linux and remain with it, doing all my pet projects in it and just leading a quiet and tranquil computing life.
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Good post @marfig, good luck with the teaching thing!. 
When DirectX 12 and on for Linux, a wrapper for DX12 and on or Vulkan is used more extensively, and when older games are ported to or use a wrapper for DX11 to use Vulkan then I can see myself completely dropping Windows.
But so long all the good stuff uses DirectX, I see no sense in completely abandoning Windows. Maybe the ReVive devs can make a Vulkan wrapper for DX and integrate their work into Wine 2.x?
(Also, I could build a rather killer Linux rig I can VM into Windows with, which would work for most use cases but thenā¦ why would I VM a Windows session where things might play up because of some software not being VM-friendly?)
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But only Windows can give you the thrills and excitement of automatic updates and unexpected app-installs. Windows 10 is living on the edge, not knowing what will happen next time you boot your computer. It's excitement in its purest form.
Don't be ashamed of your past. I have seen people from all walks of life staring at the cold blue Windows logo. It's a human weakness. We are not perfect but that is what makes life interesting. Sometimes it's necessary to stare into the darkness to appreciate the light. Then when you boot into Ubuntu MATE you experience the highest bliss possible.
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No, I can no more stand windows. Hopefully I donāt need an application that exists for windows and has no linux equivalent.
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Admit I do dual-boot, but only with linux, mostly openSuSE and Ubuntu.
BTW from time to time do try puppylinux and others.
Wondering IF dual booting with linux versions is considered normal ?
.
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I multiple boot - Win 7, UM 16.04, UM ??
Have not dual boot for over 10 years. And donāt regret it a bit 
I am trying to make Ubuntu Mate my main desktop OS. However, I am still a gamer 
. Linux is not well optimized for most video games that I play. I hope that changes in the future. So my Windows 10 installation is on another SSD for games only and other software I can not run on Linux.
Computer OSes are simply tools - choose the right one for you to get the job done!
Iāve decided that some form of dual booting will be in my computing for a long time. My dual boot solution is 2 internal hard drives (SSD for Win 7, and HDD for UM LTS) - since I experienced difficulty using GRUB and Win 7 updates I reverted to using BIOS to select my boot drive, of course GRUB is installed on my HDD only.
Iāve been dual-booting Windows and Linux since 1998. In that time Iāve developed a pretty good working knowledge of LILO, grub, grub2, and the Windows boot system 
I had to have Windows for my consulting gig, and more recently to support my partner in her work/academic work - she needs to be on Windows for a slew of reasons. A lot of the time, the software to support the equipment she uses in the field is only available in Windows. Now sheās working on her Ph.D., (and working fulltime), and she canāt really take on learning Linux on top of everything else. She also needs to run ArcGIS, which is Windows-only. Some people really do need Windows.
So I have Windows to be able to be her IT guy - I donāt particularly need it for anything myself, and spend most of my time in Linux. But once in a while, I need Windows for some oddball legacy reason. For the most part, though, my Windows partition is just a big data partition.
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