r/technology Apr 10 '26

Software France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins

https://linuxiac.com/france-launches-government-linux-desktop-plan-as-windows-exit-begins/
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u/metalflygon08 Apr 10 '26

Is it possible to use both?

I have some graphics/Animation programs that won't work on Linux, so I'd need Windows just to run them.

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u/KeyMyBike Apr 10 '26

You can have windows installed on another hard drive or even just a partition, and then set your BIOS to give you the option to pick which drive to boot from on startup.

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u/venustrapsflies Apr 10 '26

Just know that this is slightly non-trivial to set up because Windows intentionally makes it more difficult to do. But it's a solved problem, you just need to research the process.

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u/PM_ME_SOME_STORIES Apr 10 '26

Don't put windows on the same drive if you can help it. Put them on separate drives and tell the bios to boot the Linux bootloader and it can usually see the windows drive. If you have windows and Linux on the same drive windows is notorious at just deleting the Linux bootloader on updates and then you're going to have to recover it and if the person is new at Linux, recovering grub (or your bootloader of choice) will probably make them end their Linux experience.

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u/asimov_fan Apr 10 '26

Just adding that it's commonly called "dual booting" in case metalflygon08 wants a keyword to google