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[ArchimedesWojak]

boot manager?

does that come with Arch or is it a separate download

if it's the latter where can i get a boot manager?

Yes, Arch provides multiple to choose from during installation.

nice

also what are the advantages of Linux over Windows

[Starver]

Stickin' it to Bill Gates Steve Balmer Satya Nadella?

Right now I think you have it the wrong way round to decide to go for Linux and then wonder what good reasons there are to do so, but you should find you have a good platform almost infinitely reconfigurable according to your needs, you can take advantage of a strong community support system that can avoid the problems of a proprietarily-authored 'hermetic' OS, any security issues that exist that you don't get fixed immediately are unlikely to be at the very top of an attacker's list (when they can profit more from trying to exploit anything Windows/its user has not properly patched), code-bloat should be easier to avoid[1] because (relative) experts like going through things like this without the pressures of management-deliverables being priority for maintaining their salaried position...

Disadvantages: 'Mainstream' software may not be written to work off of the MS/Mac/both-if-you're-lucky platform, making it at least a bit awkward, and you get all kinds of things you can do wrong that you've never known you can do wrong before...


Your experience (and list of pros and cons) will probably be different, but the above probably relates most of my experience in the matter.


[1] Though not going into your respective Package Manager and selecting hundreds and hundreds of things that "you think you might want to try, some time", which is always a risk I seem to succumb to on first install of a new system with that philosphy. It takes months to decide I have too many 'gravity/physics-based arcade games', or whatever the whim was I fell for at the time...


ETA: Question of my own for those familiar, after glancing at the Wiki pages on Boot Loaders... Is GRUB and GRUB Legacy essentially GRUB2 and GRUB(1)?  Last time I set up anything, GRUB2 was coming in but not yet inbuilt as an option for the distro I was actually setting up, and... you know... there's been no reason to change what works since.

[ArchimedesWojak]

Stickin' it to Bill Gates Steve Balmer Satya Nadella?

nah

im mostly in it for security

im always paranoid about malware

i wanna download stuff and visit random websites in peace knowing that the shady porn site i get sent to by accidentally typing 4chan.com instead of 4chan.org wont give me malware

[Ziusudra]

im mostly in it for security

im always paranoid about malware

i wanna download stuff and visit random websites in peace knowing that the shady porn site i get sent to by accidentally typing 4chan.com instead of 4chan.org wont give me malware

Well, for that you're gonna have to put in work no matter what OS you use. Your best bet is to use some sort of sandboxxing or virtualization as the first line of defense and properly configured and maintained anti-malware on the host. Which you can do on either OS.

[ArchimedesWojak]

-

[feelotraveller]

ETA: Question of my own for those familiar, after glancing at the Wiki pages on Boot Loaders... Is GRUB and GRUB Legacy essentially GRUB2 and GRUB(1)?  Last time I set up anything, GRUB2 was coming in but not yet inbuilt as an option for the distro I was actually setting up, and... you know... there's been no reason to change what works since.

Yes.

[Reelya]

If it's just for security, running a browser inside a virtual machine will in fact add a layer of security. Anything that uses the browser as the attack vector will be running inside the VM.

[wierd]

RE: OSX on PC hardware

Kinda sorta...  Others are correct that it is an instant EULA TOS violation. It is meant to be used on apple branded hardware only.  However, there are ways to make it work on non-mac hardware, with varying levels of annoyance, pain and suffering.

See also, Hackintosh. (Clover boot manager, and various other projects as well.)


You would need a UEFI flavored laptop that is in the "known to be supportable" list.  See the r/hackintosh reddit for more details.

[ArchimedesWojak]

If it's just for security, running a browser inside a virtual machine will in fact add a layer of security. Anything that uses the browser as the attack vector will be running inside the VM.

my shitty laptopcant run a VM

Oracle VM cant run a Arch Linux VM

Apparently i need to disable "Hardware Visualization" but when i do the error still shows and i cant leave the settings menu

Not in a hypervisor partition (HVP=0) (VERR_NEM_NOT_AVAILABLE).
VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes (VERR_VMX_MSR_ALL_VMX_DISABLED).


Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

[Reelya]

You mean Hardware Virtualization.

I've run Archlinux inside Oracle, it definitely works. My machine is an intel i3 circa 2011 so it's not exactly cutting edge either.

As for that error message, have you actually looked in your BIOS? It might take some doing for an old laptop, they can have an unusual keypress needed to enter the BIOS. There will be VT-x settings in the BIOS.

Usually just googling the error message helps, so you can get third-party corroboration of what I wrote:
https://techsupportwhale.com/not-in-a-hypervisor-partition/

The error “VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes” appears if virtualization is not enabled in your Windows computer. Many Windows computers have the virtualization disabled by default at the BIOS level and it needs to be enabled to set up a new virtual machine.

This would be especially true for laptops or bundled builds rather than self-built systems.

One nice thing once you have a VM running is Seamless Mode in Virtualbox or Unity Mode in VMWare. These allow you to treat programs running in the VM as if they're applications running in your main PC, so they can be sized as windows, moved, minimized etc, but they're still technically running in the VM sandbox.

[ArchimedesWojak]

You mean Hardware Virtualization.

I've run Archlinux inside Oracle, it definitely works. My machine is an intel i3 circa 2011 so it's not exactly cutting edge either.

As for that error message, have you actually looked in your BIOS? It might take some doing for an old laptop, they can have an unusual keypress needed to enter the BIOS. There will be VT-x settings in the BIOS.

Usually just googling the error message helps, so you can get third-party corroboration of what I wrote:
https://techsupportwhale.com/not-in-a-hypervisor-partition/

The error “VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes” appears if virtualization is not enabled in your Windows computer. Many Windows computers have the virtualization disabled by default at the BIOS level and it needs to be enabled to set up a new virtual machine.

This would be especially true for laptops or bundled builds rather than self-built systems.

where do i go to find the virtualization and BIOS settings

i presume settings

[Reelya]

Have you played with the BIOS in the past? You reboot your PC and you have to hit a specific key or key-combo early on to get into the BIOS / hardware settings. This is not part of Windows or any OS.

Usually, it's the 'del' key. some use F1 or F2 instead. The window to hit the key can be short, i recommend tapping the key about 4 times a second after turning the machine turn on. If it gets to Windows loading then you missed the time to hit the key, or you hit the wrong key. Your PC may show a "hit del to enter settings" message at the start, or similar.

if you haven't played with the BIOS before, the main things I recommend avoiding are memory / RAM timings, clock speed. Screwing with RAM timing or speeding up the clock can theoretically brick the PC and require a physical reset (there's a backup battery on the board somewhere and removing this erases the tiny bit of memory with the BIOS setting in it). So this is unlikely to damage your machine but having to physically erase the BIOS is a pain in the ass, and more so if it's a laptop and not a desktop PC.

[ArchimedesWojak]

please explain further

i know jack-shit about BIOS

[ArchimedesWojak]

can you walk me through on how to access the BIOS of a Windows 10 laptop

google is keeping the secrets from me

[ArchimedesWojak]

ok ok i got the VM running but now it's saying when i start it

FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted