Best of Both Worlds: Linux & Windows Together

Windows and Linux are both mature operating systems, and they both have their advantages. If you’re like me, then you like having both. Windows for those high-performance commercial games such as the newly released Starcraft 2, and Linux for it’s multitude of awesome open-source tools.

Now usually, if you want to have both platforms running on your computer, you think of dual-booting. You install both operating systems onto the computer, and when you start up, you choose the one you want to boot into. Although that’s better than nothing, you still end up in a situation where you’re running one operating system and kind of wish you had access to software that only runs on the other.

This is where what I do comes in. I use a virtual machine (the free VirtualBox) so that I can run both at the same time. I have Windows 7 as my host OS, which allows me to keep that performance for my games. Meanwhile, I run Ubuntu 10.04 as my guest OS.

To create the illusion of a single seamless desktop, I have the virtual machine go full-screen and take up the whole right monitor. I download a dual-monitor wallpaper from mandolux, with one half of the image taking up the left (Windows-dominated) screen, and the other taking up the right (Linux-dominated) screen. Because the VM is an application within Windows, the Windows applications can be placed on either screen, as in the screenshot above. This further reinforces the idea of a single unified desktop when in reality two operating systems are running simultaneously.

Now I can run both my Windows and Linux applications together, at the same time. As for the speed of the Linux VM: not an issue. I have Compiz effects running, and on my two-year old Intel box, I’ve never hit a performance snag.