Which desktop should I buy for dual booting Ubuntu and Windows? Or running Ubuntu in a virtual machine with windows? I understand that the Mac Pro is a very fast machine but I don't know about what software is available as it is a somewhat closed environment. I do development on Python and R on the Ubuntu platform and office stuff on the Windows. Now I use two computers, but have space for only one.
1 Answer
Go to a website like HP, Dell, or Slimbook and select these components:
- Mid-tier 4-6 core processor with integrated graphics
- 16GB Ram (32 if you want to future proof it)
- 250-500GB NVMe SSD for boot
- 1TB HDD for storage
This is about the best price to performance for developing on a virtualization platform right now.
I would recommend that you use Ubuntu as your main OS and put Windows in a VM. Any linux distro will need to reboot less than windows and will make a better host OS.
If you buy it from Slimbook, you can have them install Ubuntu and add the windows VM yourself later. They will also setup dual boot for you if you choose that option in the OS category. If you purchase from Dell or HP, they will come with Windows installed and you will need to setup the dual boot or VM of Ubuntu yourself.
At this link, you can configure these options for 784€ at the time of posting:
- Ryzen 5 3350G
- 16GB RAM
- 250GB NVMe SSD
- 1TB HDD
