Subj : Coming back to Linux To : hyjinx From : Accession Date : Fri Sep 26 2025 06:46 pm Hey hyjinx! On Sat, 27 Sep 2025 09:49:50 +1200, you wrote: > The specific use case is actually first and foremost a business one Ok, I understand a bit better now. > Next and finally, I would *like* to have a Windows VM to do Windowsy > stuff if needs be. However, since I would buy 2x M2 drives, I was > wondering if it was better to have a dual boot situation and keep it as > a bare metal system. My main thought around Windowsy stuff was games, > but to be honest, the status of Steam on Linux is so good these days, I > might not need that at all, so the only remaining need for Windows vs > Linux would be Video Editing. As I say, Davinci Resolve on Linux is > crippled (unnecessarily IMO) and last time I played with KDEnlive it was > still horrid despite a major version upgrade. Bear in mind, if you run a Linux host OS with something like VMWare Fusion, rebooting will shut down VMWare and all of your VMs. So if you want to do more of a 'bare metal' Windows OS, so you can do your video editing and whatever else, your VMs will be down during that time, until you boot back into your Linux OS. > with something new like Omarchy. I love i3, and Omarchy looks really > nice, but it's built on Arch, and Arch is a pain in the keester for > doing everyday work. As I say, I just want to do email, browse the web, As a strictly Arch user for the last probably 15 years now, I love it. I use it for all of my servers, and usually update once a week (rolling distro). Now, while Omarchy already has a window manager/desktop environment installed, that saves you from building it all yourself with Arch (which is definitely Arch's philosophy). > run Teams/Zoom/Google Meet for calls and run my various calendars (I > have 6 calendars across clients that use MS365, Google Workspaces and > such). Google is fine, MS... well... Sure, if you're looking for something that already offers a desktop environment and doesn't put you at a command prompt after you install, stick with what you like. Otherwise, there are many others out there that you might fancy, too. In this case, I'd pick a base that you know well. Whether you're more comfortable with Debian, Archlinux, Slackware, etc, then look for some fully setup distros based on the core. Debian has Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and many others. Archlinux has Manjaro, EndeavourOS, and more. You get the point. > I'm happy to run VMWare Fusion, Virtualbox or even QEMU/KVM. I might > check out VMWare Fusion since it is now free and apparently a lot more > stable and performant than Virtualbox. I've used it within the last 2-3 > years and it was pretty decent. I guess the only question I'd have then would be how often would you be dual booting, if you were to do so? I'd wonder if it would become a pain in the butt having to reboot to get to Windows, all while your VMs are down the entire time you're doing your video editing or gaming. Would an option be to do the video editing on the Mac so you don't need a Windows OS installed on bare metal? > What do you think about my decision to go 2 drives rather than 1? Not sure it matters much these days, as you could easily partition a larger drive. However, if you're doing any critical stuff, or don't want to lose anything, you may want to consider using a second drive for a (probably mirrored) RAID configuration. But if you /need/ 2 TB, then you would have to get 4 TB. See?! It can be a never ending money pit, if you allow it to be! ;) > Well, since these are still 'new' cards, the warranty will be the same > as all the other stuff. I dare say 12 months RTB. They don't sell 2nd > hand stuff. Right. Then, that's ultimately up to you, and what you need the GPU for. While I don't know how much intense GPU usage video editing actually requires, maybe the 3xxx series is enough for what you need? That's definitely a question I can't comfortably answer, though. > I have seen some other comments on other areas saying these days, GPU > passthru is pretty decent and works well, so I will take them at their > word :) I'm not sure I read anyone stating they themselves had actual experience. Sounded like hearsay, to be honest. I would do some homework/research on the matter, if I were you, before commiting to a purchase like that while not knowing if it will be able to do what you want it to do. > Again, 100 thanks for your advice! Of course! Hopefully that keeps me on my toes for a couple more years, as I'll probably be needing an upgrade or two here at some point, also! Probably just a GPU, as I hope the rest lasts awhile longer than that... Regards, Nick .... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal. --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409 * Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/200) .