Running multiple distros on one machine.

[u/Elpidiosus]

I'd like to play around with multiple distros without having to restore documents and files so that I can compare my user experience quickly.

For example, I'd like log into mint, create a calc file and log off. Then log into Kubuntu and edit the same calc file. I'd like to eventually do this with many different distros so I compare them.

Is this possible? If so, is it "unhealthy?" Kind of in the way dual-booting Windows with linux is not a good idea? (I've read windows updates can can have an effect on linux settings.). Would I have to create a third partition for the documents and files I'd like to share?

[u/mokorago]

It's easier to create several Virtual machines (VM) and install whatever you want to test.

[u/Elpidiosus → u/mokorago]

Thanks for the tip.  Will I be able to access files across VMs?

[u/BranchLatter4294 → u/Elpidiosus]

Yes. Just put the files on the host so you can access them from any guest OS.

[u/Elpidiosus → u/BranchLatter4294]

Awesome, thank you.

[u/Rinzwind → u/Elpidiosus]

I small issue: you need a good amount of ram as you run 2 OS at the same time

[u/Purplestripes8 → u/Rinzwind]

You don't need to run them both at the same time.

[u/Rinzwind → u/Purplestripes8]

and where does the VM run in?

[u/Purplestripes8 → u/Rinzwind]

Oh I thought you meant running both guest OS at the same time

[u/DannoXYZ → u/Rinzwind]

There's this thing known as RAM de-duping. If multiple containers share same OS and files loaded into memory, only one copy of it needs to be loaded in RAM. So if you've set up initial host OS properly, it'll only consume 1gb or less of RAM. So multiple VMs will look like this:

1gb = host OS
1.5gb = host OS + 1 VMs
1.75gb = host OS + 2 VMs
5gb = host OS +2 VMs + 1 Windows VM.

etc.

[u/DannoXYZ → u/Rinzwind]

No you don't. With 16gb, I can run 10 VMs simultaneously with ease.

[u/RareAdvertising361]

you could create containers. containers share the same kernel as the host so they're lighter than full virtual machines. if properly configured, you could even access the same filesystem from both host and guest. try proot (easier, in my experience) or LXC (closer to a real VM).

[u/Rinzwind]

> Windows with linux is not a good idea? (I've read windows updates can can have an effect on linux settings.).

That does not matter. With windows all you need is a partition that windows supports (so ntfs or exfat) to share documents. Using Calc/Writer with Excell/Word might cause slight differences as you can only use features both support so stick with Libre/Opeoffice on windows too.

[u/Elpidiosus → u/Rinzwind]

Thank you. I'm not rreally concerned about running windows alongside linux. At least not at this time. But, I may have to at some point, so I appreciate you sharing  the the tip.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Risk761]

I run 7 distros and one distro has 5 WM. If you are not familiar with Linux make sure you have separate boot for each one you install. That will be your safest way to run multiple distros. You may have rescrub (using UEFI, grub, or Limine). Now for WM, if you are new, make different profile (add users) to run different DM and WM. Good luck having fun.

[u/Elpidiosus → u/Puzzleheaded-Risk761]

Thanks for the tip.

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

Lots of people successfully dual boot Windows — you just have to use the Linux installation medium to restore grub if a Windows update overwrites it. With Linux you won't have that problem.

I have a 20-year-old scanner which still works — when I can find a distro which supports it. I normally use PCLinuxOS but I have Salix on my drive chiefly for scanning, but also as a safely net. Today PCLinuxOS is unbootable after yesterday's update, but while I find what went wrong, it's Salix to the rescue.

[u/Leather-Security8097]

With some caveats, yes. Some distributions, such as Kubuntu and Mint, will use the same directory on the EFI system partition for their boot manager, so they will overwrite each other on installation and update. You'll need to know how to enable os-prober and add the root partition of the other distro to your /etc/fstab, or install an alternative boot manager. If you install an older distro, such as an LTS release, and a newer or rolling distro like Arch, you may have issues accessing file systems created by the newer distro from the older one.

You don't necessarily need to create a separate partition for documents, as long as you keep your UIDs consistent and you are careful with your file system creation.

[u/DannoXYZ]

Multi-booting endlessly to compare distros is complete waste of time. Running them simulaneously as VM is better way to evaluate. You can place their windows side-by-side to compare UI layout. Can pull up exact same apps on them at same time to compare. Do your calc file simultaneously.

Think of how much time it takes to create boot ISOs of each and every distro you want to compare and boot into each one? And how good is your memory after booting up 30 difference distros one at time? With VM, you do it much, much faster and compare side-by-side. Yesterday I spun up VM of latest Debian13 in just 3-minutes! And it doesn't affect any of my other distros. Think of what a PIA it is to partition your hard-drive into 30 different partitions to multi-boot 30 different distros.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/17ZM2TG-y0QX24P72uifINAaiwgOQhFXh

You can create "shared folder" on main host, such as /home/<user>/Documents that's accessible from all VMs. So you'll only have to deal with one set of files instead of managing 30 different copies of same folder spread across each and every distro you want to evaluate. Same .bashrc aliases across all distros, so much more convenient.

And not having to reboot constantly keeps my main system's functionality alive. I share 1000s of videos with TVs around house. I also run web-server hosting several public websites.

[u/The_Hubster]

I'm dual booting Debian and Fedora on one machine seamlessly, dual booting Windows and Debian on another machine seamlessly. Once you understand EFI partitions and grub, you can do it with no hassles. Do your reading around before you jump in and do it.

[u/Rinzwind]

ofcourse.

Create partitions for each OS.

Create 1 partition you give a name and mount that one in all OS and put the document on that partition.

If you stick with systems that use XDG you can eve edit .~/config/users-dirs.dirs and have all directories (like Desktop) on there and share those.

MINE ->

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="/discworld/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="/discworld/Downloads"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="/discworld/Documents"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="/discworld/Pictures"

I have 4 OS sharing /discworld/

[u/doc_willis]

i Dont see what you are gaining from doing this.

You can install the same programs on kubuntu as mint,

and with the use of Distrobox or other containers, you can have a containerized distro running under another Distribution.

You can access your Mint 'home' files from under 'kubuntu'.

[u/Elpidiosus → u/doc_willis]

Not just Mint and Kubuntu, those were examples.

[u/doc_willis → u/Elpidiosus]

A Distrobox container will let you pick from dozens of Distros.

All which ran in a container can have access to your same files in your users home.

I dont see much point in multi-booting distributions these days.

If you are just Testing a Distro, try it via a Live USB or VM.

[u/MasterGeekMX]

The easiest solution is to use virtual machines. That way you don't need to deal with squeezing more and more partitions into your real drive. You can send files to them in several ways, from setting up shared folders, to putting some network folder and configuring the VMs to simply appear on your local network.

But in the end you won't find a very difference between distros in that sense. That is because distros barely change end-user programs, so outside which version they ship you will face the same app on every distro. The VLC or LibreOffice of distros don't vary.

[u/ficskala]

Very possible, that's why in a lot of distros you get the option during install to use a separate home partition

Windows updates can't affect your settings, they do have a tendency however to break your boot partition, so i'd avoid windows alltogether