Win7 & Win8 Dual Boot - What is the real purpose?

[fourthofjuly]

I really don't understand why some people do this. What is the main purpose of having 2 OS on one PC? Do you really use the 2 OS? Maybe XP and Win8 is ok..or Win8 and Lion OS (Hackintosh as they call it). But Win7 and Win8? Why???? More often than not, a lot of people are only having problems booting up and making it work flawlessly. I think it is more of a headache than fun. Only to find out afterwards that some people think Win8 sucks.

I have nothing against those who have a dual boot system. I just probably need to be enlightened a little bit.

 

[Ztruker]

The main reason is many people don't like Win 8 initially so prefer to continue using Win 7 while they modify Win 8 to their liking and learn to use it. At least that is why I had Win 7/8 dual boot for a month or so. I eventually removed Win 7 and use only Win 8 now.

 

[davehc]

Many users of forums, like to participate in helping and discussions, where they feel competent. For the foreseeable future, this includes Windows 7, and even Vista. This can be one reason to keep both OSs running?

 

[fourthofjuly]

You see, a lot of discussions about Win 7 and Win 8 dual boot is about problems on making them work together. Sometimes it's just messing up their smoothly running Win 7. Some maybe just doing it out of curiosity. But IMO, if you have a Win 8, you can tweak it up to make it like having both Win 7 & 8 RUNNING AT THE SAME time and not two separate boots. So I think, an upgrade is enough instead of having to separate OSs.
Good answers so far. :thumb:

 

[znod]

I really don't understand why some people do this. What is the main purpose of having 2 OS on one PC? Do you really use the 2 OS? Maybe XP and Win8 is ok..or Win8 and Lion OS (Hackintosh as they call it). But Win7 and Win8? Why???? More often than not, a lot of people are only having problems booting up and making it work flawlessly. I think it is more of a headache than fun. Only to find out afterwards that some people think Win8 sucks.
I have nothing against those who have a dual boot system. I just probably need to be enlightened a little bit.

My dual boot with Win8 is on my HP Win laptop. I like Win7 better than Win8. But, I like to play with Win8, experimenting, posting, helping friends, etc. I don't use my laptop installations for anything serious at this point. The dual boot was a breeze to do and works flawlessly. The key to a good dual boot simply is using a good procedure for setting it up. This is just one of the ways I have installed for playing with Win8.

The combo of, for example, Win8 and Mt. Lion is not necessarily a Hackintosh. On my Mt. Lion MacBook Pro (MBP), I run Win7 via Boot Camp. Not wanting to disturb this installation of my preferred Win product, I also run Win8 virtually via Parallels 8 on my MBP. I use this approach because, when referring to Win8, I often want a more convenient source that the old HP lappy.

On my Win desktop (see machine specs), I run two different copies of Win7--because I wanted, initially, to use different drive setups for experimentation. I'm more of a computer tinkerer than a serious software user at this time. But, when producing, my Macs are the machines I use.

I know how to use Win8. And, I still think it is inferior to Win 7 in a variety of ways. Plus, the OEM preinstalled Win8's are a pain in the everything for obvious reasons. In this regard, I have pledged to myself never to purchase another OEM preinstalled Win machine until MS/the OEM's have made provisions for consumers to reinstall, for example, Win8 cleanly and costlessly, with no bloatware, and still fall within their OEM's warranty/support periods whatever the agreed terms. Since I don't particularly care for Win8, even though it is usable, I have no reason to rebuild my desktop machine. So, MS/the OEM's have lost a customer with bucks to spend when the offering is right. Until then, I'll only do upgrade installs on the cheap (e.g., the $40 upgrade deal).

 

[fourthofjuly]

...I like to play with Win8.

You got that right. I also find Win 8 more for entertainment than for seriuos productivity tasks. I mean, Win 8 is also capable, but the interface is designed more for multimedia purposes. Well suited for my HTPC.

As for the Hackintosh, I meant it the other way.. Windows PC installed with Lion OS not Macbook with Win OS.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Some stuff just doesn't work yet on W8 -- For example here's a SAP test application -- SAP is used by literally 1000's of companies. The connection (SAPGUI) works fine in W7 but not in W8.

Before companies -- or even individuals -- can change an OS they have to ensure that their software works -- and believe me upgrading a SAP system is a HUGE undertaking that can take YEARS.

So some people Dual boot --to test the new OS without destroying the OLD (working) OS.

IMO most of this testing is done better using Virtual Machines - but sometimes you DO need to test on real physical hardware.

Here's the screenshot of a tiny test SAP application -- it calls a Web service ("Web Dynpro") to display some Airline flight info-- just a test application from a small SAP version ("MiniSAP") you can download (FREE) and install on a laptop for testing / developing this type of stuff.

SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP 7.02 SP6 64-bit Developer Edition

(Warning - if you haven't done this before or have no experience with SAP this is NOT easy -- you need a LOT of patience but it's worth it and some of these SAP consultants get paid a lot of money. This is a GREAT learning tool - but it's probably totally unlike any other piece of software you've ever installed).

The SAP application gets the data from the SAP databases and then calls the SAP web dynpro web service to display it in the IE web browser.

The application runs fine on even a W7 virtual machine (although IE9 not IE10 which also fails) but won't even INSTALL on W8.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[znod]

...I like to play with Win8.

You got that right. I also find Win 8 more for entertainment than for seriuos productivity tasks. I mean, Win 8 is also capable, but the interface is designed more for multimedia purposes. Well suited for my HTPC.

As for the Hackintosh, I meant it the other way. Windows PC installed with Lion OS not Macbook with Win OS.

I added some more to my original post; you might be interested. Had to get to an appointment in a hurry.

By playing with Win8, I didn't mean using it for multimedia, etc. I just meant fiddling with the OS, different installs, seeing how it works, posting, helping friends, etc. I like to keep up in both the Mac and Win worlds.

 

[webtax]

had dual boot for years now, i think i started with win98/win2k, main purpose: troubleshooting and problem solving.

also mentioned in this thread is to setup win8 while you use win7, this is very true for me. I bought win8 in october, installed on dual boot but it was unusable as my main os at that time, so keepeing win7 while i could still boot on win8 trying things and testing out stuff was/is very helpful. About 3 weeks ago i had solved my main issues with win8 so i started using it as main os.

I don't have to mess with bootloaders as i just install every OS in a different disk drive, and just use the motherboard boot-menu key.

 

[fourthofjuly]

...I like to play with Win8.

You got that right. I also find Win 8 more for entertainment than for seriuos productivity tasks. I mean, Win 8 is also capable, but the interface is designed more for multimedia purposes. Well suited for my HTPC.

As for the Hackintosh, I meant it the other way. Windows PC installed with Lion OS not Macbook with Win OS.

I added some more to my original post; you might be interested. Had to get to an appointment in a hurry.

By playing with Win8, I didn't mean using it for multimedia, etc. I just meant fiddling with the OS, different installs, seeing how it works, posting, helping friends, etc. I like to keep up in both the Mac and Win worlds.

Oh yeah... me too. I just added also the multimedia part because of the Metro UI where I can immediately launch the XBMC and other multimedia tiles I have on it.
I also like "playing" with it by exploring it's potentials, finding out what extras it can do, etc. while sitting on my favorite couch using a Win 8 wireless keyboard with heatpad by Logitech.

 

[fourthofjuly]

Hi there
Some stuff just doesn't work yet on W8 -- For example here's a SAP test application -- SAP is used by literally 1000's of companies. The connection (SAPGUI) works fine in W7 but not in W8.

Before companies -- or even individuals -- can change an OS they have to ensure that their software works -- and believe me upgrading a SAP system is a HUGE undertaking that can take YEARS.

So some people Dual boot --to test the new OS without destroying the OLD (working) OS.

IMO most of this testing is done better using Virtual Machines - but sometimes you DO need to test on real physical hardware.

Here's the screenshot of a tiny test SAP application -- it calls a Web service ("Web Dynpro") to display some Airline flight info-- just a test application from a small SAP version ("MiniSAP") you can download (FREE) and install on a laptop for testing / developing this type of stuff.

SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP 7.02 SP6 64-bit Developer Edition

(Warning - if you haven't done this before or have no experience with SAP this is NOT easy -- you need a LOT of patience but it's worth it and some of these SAP consultants get paid a lot of money. This is a GREAT learning tool - but it's probably totally unlike any other piece of software you've ever installed).

The SAP application gets the data from the SAP databases and then calls the SAP web dynpro web service to display it in the IE web browser.

The application runs fine on even a W7 virtual machine (although IE9 not IE10 which also fails) but won't even INSTALL on W8.

Cheers
jimbo

So, it seems that MS did not only overhauled the UI for Win 8 but also limited the application to home/personal use? For Win 8 tablets I could understand that. But for desktop PCs? This is just like the Vista which was never adapted for big company utilization.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I'd imagine that since companies were just starting to roll out W7 Ms decided that they wouldn't be interested in yet ANOTHER OS upgrade before even finishing the W7 roll out. As such Ms probably only tested typical "Consumer" type applications as well as their own Office / Mssql server stuff.

They certainly wouldn't at this time have dedicated resources to testing complex back end ERP type of applications such as SAP. They'd have to spend a LOT of time working with companies like SAP / ORACLE etc - and these types of applications are about as far away from a mobile phone as you can get -- although it IS possible via scanning software (Bar code readers etc) to INPUT data into these types of applications. In general you'd need specific hardware for this type of software -- same as Automated Warehouse Management systems using RF devices etc.

I doubt whether SAP will be W8 enabled anytime soon. Ms won't care as they still have the W7 licenses from these organisations.
This is probably why even though W8 is out that W7 has a guaranteed life cycle to at least 2020.

W7 will probably still be around even when Windows 12 appears !!!. There's no way on this planet (or any other one) that ANY of this ERP type of software could conceivable be run in "Metro mode".

Cheers
jimbo