yup, I did the “linux running metal” and using the same partition with a VM in Windows and it worked fine. It was years ago, certainly Ubuntu or MX Linux. IIRC the linux partition cannot be on the same drive than the linux partition, it needs to be a different drive.

Install MX Linux (not the AHS version) it is Debian based and pretty nice

autoconf and stuff like this? Not anymore. Since ~5 years here it’s cmake everywhere, Conan, ninja.

I have tested multiple distro, in the beginning was mostly hack of multiple things and almost LFS, downloading floppies images from usenet… I then started to use Debian early 00, then used Ubuntu for years, but I don’t like snap/flatpak and lots of changes Ubuntu made so I switched to Mint Cinnamon, but hated it, often broken, glitches, etc, so I switched to MX because it is Debian based, always up to date (like latest FF and latest Xserver with last night CVE fix etc and always native .deb, no snap/flat). I also always loved minimal DE so Xfce is perfect and light. Also I mainly develop in Linux, no games.

I’m old, I come from old X11R4 time, motif, mwm, twm, fvwm, things from previous century. In modern Linux I used mostly gnome, and Cinnamon for a few years and tried to love it but cannot, I finally went back to Xfce because it works, it’s simple, neat, nice, I have no icon on my desktop, I have a kind of windows 3 setup: a startup menu (and some quick launches), the window bar, the notification area with time etc

I’m using MX Linux for maybe 8 years now with Xfce

updated screenshot:

I had a Samsung colour laser printer, they provided driver for linux, I installed them, everything works, full support for settings etc

on most new laptops, you cannot remove the battery that easily, you have to disassemble the back cover ☹️

Omg I forgot Corel Linux ! I installed it 25 years ago, wow!

Btrfs may have compression on by default so take it with a grain of salt