I understand that a virtual machine is easy and is good practice for installing Linux, but when you really want to use Linux, you should move on to a real dual boot.
Does anyone else here feel like a virtual machine is just a cute toy?
To me, a Linux virtual machine defeats many of the reasons for having Linux, unless you are just experimenting or making a server or testing something on a virtual network.
Let's look at some reasons for having Linux and how a virtual machine defeats them:
1. Linux is free, and you are running it in an operating system that costs money. I know that most purchased assembled computers come with an OS that costs money so this is mostly a moot point, but it is still good to have in mind.
2. Linux boots fast. If you are running it in a virtual machine, you have to wait for the host OS to boot, then for VirtualBox to load, then for the virtual machine to boot into Linux.
3. Linux is very stable. If the host operating system crashes, then this reason for having Linux is defeated.
4. Linux is very fast (as in actual operation, aside from boot-up time). It will be significantly slowed down because you only give it at most half of your RAM and processing power in a virtual machine, not to mention that the hardware is already very preoccupied by running the host operating system.
5. You can still boot your computer into something if the other operating system gets corrupt.
If you really get into Linux, please "invest" in a dual boot.
I know that there is the argument in the case of a Mac OS X host and Windows guest that there is a benefit to not doing a dual boot, but rather a virtual machine so that both operating systems can be ran at the same time. So if you want to run a Windows program while in Mac OS X, you just open Windows and do so.
But with Linux, usually all the programs you use with it (at least the ones that run natively in Linux without WINE) are open source which usually means that they can be compiled for any operating system. Meaning it would be a rare day for you to say "I need to go into Linux to run a Linux program," because you can have that program compiled for Mac OS X or Windows or whatever.
You can just have a FAT32 partition, a filesystem that both Mac OS X and Linux are very good at writing to and reading from, as a medium between the two. When you are in Linux and want to put a file where Mac can use it, just put it on that partition, and visa versa. You can use that file with the same open source program in both Mac and Linux.
I'm not saying that virtual machines are bad, I just want people to have the best experience. Part of that is getting the full Linux experience, which requires a "real" installation of it.
Cheers,
Jake