Hopefully, this gives you an idea of how Linux runs and you can be more confident in installing in on the bare metal laptop soon. However, performance in VirtualBox isn’t great and isn’t representative of how Linux may run if install directly on your laptop. It is also a good way to learn how to install Linux. You can now use VirtualBox to spawn several virtual machines, each running the different distributions you want to use. Hereon, you can use the Live CD feature of some of the distributions we suggested earlier, but you can also go ahead with the installation without worry about affecting your Windows installation. At any point want to step out of it, to your regular desktop, tap the right Ctrl button on the keyboard. The virtual machine window will take focus after this point and all key and mouse clicks will occur within the virtual machine. Click the button to the right, then the Add button to choose the Linux installation image we downloaded earlier. You will be prompted to choose a start-up disk. This step will appear when we start our newly created virtual machine. In our case, we will choose to install the Linux distribution of our choice from the disc image. VirtualBox lets you install operating systems using disc images, and you can even install OS’ from a DVD or USB if needed. Choose the virtual machine you just created and click Start. You may be able to run a few of them simultaneously depending on how fast your machine is. VirtualBox lets you create many more virtual machines in the same manner. Virtual machines can be started by clicking them, then on the Start button at the top menu. You can choose where the virtual hard disk is stored. When you have completed these steps, the virtual machine will be created. Most modern Linux distributions use anywhere between 8 to 15 GB of space. You can choose ‘Fixed image’ if you want to allot some space for the virtual machine, or you can choose ‘Dynamically allocated’ if you want the disk size to increase as you install more software on your Linux distribution running in the virtual machine. You can click the ‘Create a virtual hard disk now’ option, then choose the ‘VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) option in the next step. The next step will ask you to assign disk space to the virtual machine. If you are only trying out Linux, it’s recommended to choose at least 2GB (2048) of RAM. You will be asked to assign some memory to your virtual machine. You will be asked to name your virtual machine and choose the kind of operating system you are installing. ![]() Simply click the New button on the VirtualBox toolbar. Creating the virtual machineĬreating the virtual machine is simple. In our case, we can use VirtualBox to go through the entire installation process, without making any changes to the actual drive. Most of them have a Live CD feature that lets you use the operating system even before installing it. Some you could try would be Ubuntu, Fedora, Manjaro, among others. At this point, you can download a bunch of Linux distributions from their web sites. The idea behind this exercise is to try out Linux distributions before we dedicate a part of our laptop or PC resources to it. Download the Linux distribution of your choice This can help a bit with the performance, but it may not necessary. It may differ from one machine to another, and you might need to search a little bit. The Virtualization Technology option should be available under the System settings. The BIOS can be access when the laptop first boots, by pressing the F1, F2 or Del key, in most cases. If your processor supports virtualization, you can turn it on from your laptop or PC’s BIOS. Download and install VirtualBoxįirst, download and install VirtualBox from the official web site. The idea is that you boot off an installation disc for any operating system, then install it and run a complete operating system within the virtual machine. You can assign storage, memory, networking resources, even graphics performance to it. VirtualBox lets you create virtual machines, that behave like any other physical computer. VirtualBox is available for free, for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. ![]() It can be used to try out any operating system, even Windows or FreeBSD and others. Installing Linux has never been simpler, and you can now try out the entire installation process, using a free software called VirtualBox. If you have been following our series on Linux, and want to know why you should install it and how to pick a good Linux distribution, you’re at the right place. If you have been considering installing Linux on your laptop but are a little nervous, there are ways to go about it, without tamping with your Windows installation.
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