GPT you mean. Linux can boot in a non-EFI machine that has GPT disk partitions.. Windows can't because it's dumb.

Not in my experience... and apparently a lot of people that dual boot 🤷.

My main boot partitions are far from the 2TB threshold of MBR, I'm not that rich.

Not sure if serious.

systemd-boot is a reasonable compromise. i like it

Naah I just disable secure boot altogether, then you don't have to worry about all that TPM security theatre.

Exactly why old devices are so hard to break - they're incredibly simple.

To be honest, I see nothing wrong with MBR boot, it does the job, I'll use it till I can or till it doesn't do the job I want/need.

I work in IT for many years and I think your last sentence is very true. And is also why the industry is so lucrative haha

True, but… When MBR Grub drops to rescue or doesn’t appear at all, it’s not only difficult (at least for newbies) but somewhat random if you can actually boot a given OS. With EFI Grub, I’ve often managed to boot using BIOS boot override to launch a usable Grub configuration.

This was probably before you used BTRFS, right? RIGHT?!?

OK, how do we do that?

I have litelarly never broken MBR boot while dual booting and I have done it for at least a decade now. Windows updates and everything, not once has MBR boot been broken for me.

Unless you have two EFI partitions on different disks, the same breakage happens with EFI. I've had Windows wipe out Grub on multiple occasions.

Windows 7 used to thunderfuck grub at random every few updates just to keep everyone on their toes.

Chroot into the main Ubuntu partition from the live USB and update GRUB.

• Disable secureboot
• Things just work

And in the end you just remove the need for a physical attacker to use whatever vulnerability there is in your EFI implementation anyway.

Yep. Plus, the less the firmware knows what you're booting, the better.

If she called me to have sex... fuck the bootloader, there is always tomorrow.

PA dripping off this comment

You probably had it installed in MBR mode. UEFI boot is why there are so many problems of this kind nowadays. Switch to MBR, the problems go away.

My problems are usually during the installation, not necessarily related to Arch, but more so that EFI requires its own partition. I'll partition my disk, forget that I need a FAT32 partition and then have to destroy a partition so I can add in the EFS . The other problem I've had is that the bootloader entry sometimes doesn't get written after installation, so you reboot and then nothing, so you have to boot back into the ISO, remount everything, reinstall the bootloader (in my case, Grub), and reboot again.

For now, I have to go into the BIOS and mess with the boot order there to switch.

Why not just use the BIOS boot menu?

The second problem, not related, is there doesn't appear to be any fan control software that works for my MSI motherboard's CPU fan (lmsensors doesn't see any sensors related to it) so the fan constantly runs even when it's fine in silent mode on windows with regard to temperature. I have trouble with certain sounds (and trouble hearing over background sounds in general) so this is actually more of a dealbreaker than the bootloader.

Try setting that from the BIOS, let the BIOS control the fan's RPM, not the OS. You can even make a custom RPM curve on modern BIOSes.

That is good news actually.

I find the experience to be superior to Windows in every way, including driver support. And it gets more and more stark with every version of Windows.

Ten, you say? Is that still supported?.

Last time I tried I couldn’t get my Bluetooth headphones to work and I had to buy a new webcam because I didn’t know how to compile drivers.

When was that? 2002?

I would say convenience, my experience is that it just works, and then you get an OS you are fully in control of.

On Windows you sit down to do stuff and Windows needs to reboot and update, and you have already postponed it as long as you were allowed.

Yes there will always be some hardware that lacks Linux support, and the migration to Linux can be bumpy.

FOSS is a really big reason to run Linux. In ten years you can trust that your Linux install will be running and up to date. In ten years there's a non-zero chance Microsoft will have moved to a forced subscription model for Windows.

It also just runs faster, can fully update itself and all installed software with a few button clicks or one terminal command, and has tons of options for people who have more technical skill.

I cannot answer your question because it proceeds from an assumption I cannot related to. In my view, Linux is much easier to setup and I have immediate access to a huge software library and am immediately productive.

Installing Windows is much more of a hassle ( the licensing alone ) and, even once installed, you have a system that does nothing useful and needs much more time to install software on before accomplishing anything. Every time you turn around, it is throwing up arbitrary and artificial roadblocks.

Unless it is already installed, I personally cannot fathom why people would want to spend their time installing Windows.

Hardware support and no ads on your desktop.

why would anyone go through the trouble of installing and configuring a Linux box?

It doesn't cost any money and it doesn't spy on you. It tends to be "lighter" than Windows, so it generally runs better on older hardware. It is easier to tweak and customize.

If you get used to the terminal, to connect your bluetooth headphones you turn on your bluetooth and type bluetoothctl scan on it'll scan and return devices by mac address, find yours, type pair [the mac address] connect [mac address] exit exit done.

Hey, it works for you and that's fine ☺️ 😉.

I just switch my gaming rig to linux 3 or 4 months ago. First time daily driving linux. I haven't touched a driver or anything system config related. I don't think there is a single peice of hardware not working on my box. Im on pop_os! With an amd gpu. Can play any game thanks to steam proton or lutris. Playing wow and cyberpunk right now.

AFAIK games generally still run worse on Linux, there are cases that seem to beat Windows performance, but I'm not kidding myself about that - it's just not big enough of a difference to worry.

Aside from other reasons people are saying, I love my package manager. Having a centralized system where my stuff comes from and is installed, not having to deal with searching for websites, finding installers, and dealing with the bullshit they sometimes throw your way. And guess what, if something's not available in the repositories, perhaps because it offers no installers in the first place, I can usually easily make my own build script and install it in the system anyways.

And then when it comes to updating my stuff, I also don't have to deal with every program having its own updating/auto updating system, I just run a few commands and update everything I have installed.

When was that last time? In the last 5 years, except for brand new graphics cards, I've never had any hardware that didn't simply work out of the box.

And for the first question, it works much better and breaks less often (these memes exaggerate for comedic effect, usually it's rock solid), has much greater privacy, and it's free.

Principle. I'm not interested in abusive relationships.