I learned yesterday that dual boot systems have unique issues.
I have both Windows 11 Pro and Linux Mint installed on my main PC. I have been using Linux Mint almost exclusively for the past week or so as my main machine. However, I had a problem that sometimes I would boot into Linux and it wouldn’t see the wireless card. This was a new issue and I couldn’t figure out what I had done differently.
Until I did some research and discovered that I had accidentally booted into Windows when I rebooted the machine. I reboot the machine because I turn it off at night. I didn’t think booting to the Windows login screen caused a problem, but after I did that and went into Linux my wireless was not available. I didn’t put those two things together until I read the forum post about this. I read on the LM forum that said that fast boot had to be disabled. Well, I thought, I disabled it in BIOS so I was ok. However I also had to disable it in Windows 11 Pro, and once I did the wireless issue didn’t return.
Here is apparently what happens with dual boot systems. The OS that it is booted turns on or off the card and then when you boot into the other Operating system, it may or may not see the card because it was already in use. Isn’t this interesting? You would think the hardware would recognize the different OS and default to working, but no.
I was wrong earlier when I said that Brave transparently updates itself. It doesn’t. The update manager asks if you want to update it and you say yes and then you close and reopen Brave. Brave looks exactly on Linux as it does on Mac/Windows so there was no adjustment for the interface there. I like that you don’t have to adjust to the interface. It’s a nice feature for the average person.
Has getting used to the slightly different way that Linux Mint does things caused me stress or anxiety? Not really. I think it is easier to remember and more intuitive for the average person. I like that they can add the interface elements they are used to if they want. For example, I can put a trash can/my computer on my desktop if I want. I don’t do that because I don’t need that. I can click on the “Windows Explorer” to get to the file system, and right-clicking allows me to delete things. I like that they thoughtfully considered the UI and didn’t put elements that their probably power user’s main customer doesn’t want/need.
This isn’t the first dual boot system I’ve had. I once had a computer that used a boot manager called “Boot Commander” and I had lots of different OS on it. It was fun and mostly an experiment to see what I could do. Of course, I had Windows and several Linux versions. Does that make me a nerd to have a boot manager? Probably but it’s neat to have choices in what OS you use. I do love trying out OS even if I find out they aren’t right for me.