this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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My primary OS is Windows (I use it for work) and I have Linux as my second OS. If I upgrade my linux distro to the paid version so I can have more features, will Windows be okay? Thanks I'm a newb

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[–] kellenoffdagrid@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 10 hours ago

I'm pretty sure you should be fine. Seeing as you mentioned you're running Zorin in another comment, there's a page from their support site that tells how to update. From my reading of it, it shouldn't risk messing up your dual-boot situation unless you're doing a fresh install (in which case, even that should be fine assuming you make sure to overwrite the correct partitions). You're miles more likely to experience issues dual-booting after a Windows update than any Linux updates.

Side-note, while I understand that people are trying to help by saying you can run some other Linux distro for free, that's neither helpful nor answers the question. I paid for a copy of elementaryOS once because I wanted to support the project, and their very fair pay-what-you-want scheme allowed me to use what was my first Linux distro for free.

I get that some people might be turned off by Zorin keeping some cosmetic features "locked" behind a pawyall, but they really aren't -- you can make all those changes manually with other apps/editing config files manually, it just isn't as easy or seamless. But that's the point of their business model, they save non-essential features for the paid version as an extra incentive to support their work on a solid distro, knowing that some people might either value the convenience enough, or simply want to support the development monetarily.