.Keys: • What Linux distro you use the most and why?
I use only Ubuntu for now but just because I don't have spare computers to test my
ideas (aka "somewhat accidental stress tests"). When I get the chance, I'll be testing other OS's.
.Keys: • If you use Linux alongside Windows or other OSs, do you use Virtual Boxes or Dual Boot? Why?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using two OSs in the same PC?
I use both dual boot and virtual machines (and a Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10).
Virtual machines are good to me because some times I want to use something that works better in a clean install of an OS, such as
testing if a game runs without Steam (in fact, I have both an Ubuntu and a Windows 10 virtual machines).
But having dual boot is also good because:
- driver compatibility is usually better (for example, apparently, how a virtual machine processes graphics is different from how a full Windows install does)
- it tends to be faster (for example, if I want a guest virtual machine running with 8 GB of RAM, I'd need at least 10 GB of RAM in a full Ubuntu install, and 11 in a full Windows install, while a native/full install could use pretty much every byte of RAM)
The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is good if a tool works better on Linux but you need to use specifically Windows, or in cases like the one I described in the end of the last reply in this message.
.Keys: • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using ONLY Linux (any distro / comparison of distros, if you want to explain)?
The same disadvantage of using pretty much any OS alone: Compatibility.
Some programs only work well on Windows. Some just on Linux. Some just on Mac. Some are exclusive to a specific OS. Some run better in specific OS's, even though they work in multiple ones.
.Keys: • Does WINE really works well with Windows exclusive games?
Depends. Like any form of emulation, it isn't perfect.
Some programs run right off the bat, some times even better than running directly on Windows.
Some have minor issues, like games that require Japanese locale (in game text may appear with some tweaks, but if the window has option menus, such as File, Options, etc., the texts there tend to appear broken).
Some, well, I still need to figure out if they can be really run on Linux (and I'm not eager to text things like RPG Maker XP games again).
.Keys: • Is it true that Linux have compatibility issues with some hardware (GPU, specially)? What's your experience with this?
I never could confirm that (again, I don't have spare computers), so I only know rumors and mentions from other users.
.Keys: (edit - full WSL name) • Windows Subsystem for Linux 1 and 2, are they really usefull for learning Linux in a Windows environment? Do they really have compatibility issues with some more advanced Linux commands?
Depends. It would be a learning curve, that's for sure. It'd be interesting to understand at least a bit of how the OS works, such as commands, folder structures, etc., before testing a version of it with the UI stripped from it inside an OS that tries to hide the technical part.
And as far as I know, everything that WSL can run must happen inside the command terminal.
If you try to run anything that requires execution of graphics or opening new windows, such as playing Linux games, you'll just get an error and the program won't open.
Also, running things that modify local files may cause some issues. In fact, that one I learned the hard way when I wanted to run gogrepo on Windows, but Windows' Python 3 wasn't working properly, so I had to resort to WSL. Took me around 1 hour to figure out why it wasn't working, and whe I got it working, it still had some bugs (like reseting my gog manifest file)
Edit: forgot a detail in the last answer.