I was planning to completely erase Windows from my system and embrace the Linux life but I run into some issues.
I have a Sound blasterX AE-5 sound card that has no Linux support. I also have RGB keyboards and mice and case RGB LED that will be hard or impossible to workaround in a Linux system from what I see.
So I came to the conclusion that the best way to do this is by installing a VM and run things from in there.
I want Ubuntu for coding in environments such as VS Code and Android Studio. I also want to learn and use Docker at some point.
Relevant PC Specs:
CPU: i7 9700K (stock)
RAM: 16GB 3200 MHz
I am thinking about splitting my system assets between Windows 11 and Ubuntu with 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM each. Will this suffice? Especially with Android Studio I've seen that it can get very heavy on the CPU usage, so I hope that 4 cores will be plenty.
Another thing, I want to encrypt my entire DISC using Veracrypt. This will encrypt Windows 11 but will also include the VM and its data of course, as they are part of the Windows 11 OS. Will I run into any trouble at all?
using Linux as virtual machine in Windows 11 (Ubuntu/mint on Hyper-v/VMware)
How to create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10 using Quick Create
Windows 11 with Linux VM, Linux with Windows VM, or dualboot for me?
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It seems that your Windows 11 laptop is a recent enough model that it has more than enough disk space to support a dual boot. Dual booting Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 11 is a much better option for the following reasons.
- Running Windows 11 in a virtual machine will always have performance limitations compared to the preinstalled Windows 11.
- ✅ Dual booting ensures that both operating systems run directly on the hardware, leading to better stability and reliability.
- Dual booting allows for more efficient resource allocation between the two operating systems.
- Applications that rely on specific hardware features or specific drivers might not function correctly in a virtualized environment.
- Some software licenses restrict usage in virtual environments.
The second reason is the most important one. Time after time I have seen the VirtualBox guest OS fail with no option left except to reinstall the OS. This isn't such a big deal if the guest OS is Ubuntu, but I don't consider this to be acceptable if the guest OS is Windows because it takes too long to fully rebuild the whole pre-existing system.
"What should you do?" see the dual boot answer. You can install a Windows 11 VM on Ubuntu 24.04, I did that, but don't use it for much other than patches;^). Here's what I did for Win 11 24h2:
Install the swtpm package. This will get the necessary software for the TPM check that Windows performs. In theory, you can run this manually, but the instructions I found didn't actually work -- virt-manger will automatically pick up and run this correctly (what it runs has many more parameters than the manual instructions).
Download and hashcheck your selected Windows ISO. 24h2 has not actually been officially released yet, but is available for download. Try it, but maybe 23h2 is the one to select. These "feature updates" expire after two years (no more patches), so get the latest. Don't expect the later feature updates to be offered, expect to have to reinstall.
The minimum VM is 50-55 GB, but the actual used space on a fresh install will take 25-30GB. The virt-manager install was straightforward, with the swtpm installed, it should just work.
The "activation" = license will not be picked up from your base machine. An unactivated machine still gets all the patches and runs. Supposedly, after a trial period, the background becomes blue with an activation nag displayed. I don't find this happening on my Win 11 VMs (23h2 and 24h2) after many months -- maybe since I use them so little.
The cheap "activation" keys (
30) you see online may or may not work. Supposedly the keys are "scraped" off old machines or are OEM keys, but by the time you find they don't work, your refund will be rejected because you downloaded the key. Calling Microsoft and begging to have them unblock the key is never a part of the advertisement.The official keys cost
200, so if you insist on activation, the dual boot approach comes with the machine license.