The New Dual Boot NUC7 – Sandbox II
Sandbox is a name I gave to my Linux computer years ago. It recently was disintegrated by a lighting strike. That’s speaking (writing) figuratively as it didn’t really turn into dust. But the end result is the same.
I now have my sandbox II operating. I still call it “sandbox” on my network. The roman II is not necessary.
This sandbox is a dual boot Intel NUC7. It will selectively run either LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) or Windows 10. That means they are both installed but only one (or the other) will operate at one time. There is a selection screen to select a choice of operating system when first starting.
The Intel NUC 7JYB is the cheapest version NUC (kit) available. It runs a dual core Celeron processor Max 2.4 GHz. Plenty of computer for office work, email, browsing, running 3D printers. My other NUC, a NUC10 with 12 cores and over 4GHz (burst) processor does the heavy lifting with a WIN10 OS.
I had 8GB of the original RAM from the MAC-mini upgrade to 32GB. Just the type I needed. So my memory was no cost. I only paid for the NUC7 and a $35 – 500GB hard drive.
Sandbox shares mouse, keyboard, and video monitor with my MAC Mini. There are three operating systems at one operating position.
Cool stuff for a computer nerd. I must switch between the three systems so it is not the same as having all three visible together. Someone may be thinking, why do this? The answer is because I can. That’s good enough for me.
My investment in the NUC7 is under $200 except for the WIN10 license. I already had that, as it was purchased when I rebuilt my first NUC10. The thought was the WIN10 OS license would not transfer to the new hardware. The reality was it transferred with no hesitation. A new license was not required. Uh-oh, a spare WIN10 license.
That made installing a dual OS boot on the new NUC7 a no-brainer. OS Options are always good to have.
There exists a lot of “fear stories” of trouble running Linux on a NUC. Also a quite a few success stories as well. There were some issues with Linux at one time and the urban legend compatibility issue is encouraged, as Intel/NUC likes to consider itself a partner with Microsoft.
So I had some trepidation of running Linux on my new NUC7. I created USB thumb drive boot ISO’s for both Ubuntu and LMDE. That let me run Linux without installing on the hard drive. Both Linux distributions ran fine with zero issues. That gave me the faith to do the dual boot.
This was not my first rodeo with WIN/Linux dual boot. I’ve done it perhaps a half dozen times before. I choose LMDE just because I like it. It was the last OS installed on the first sandbox.
The original sandbox earned it’s name because it had at least a dozen Operating systems on and off its hard drive through the years. Its purpose was for doing just that, trying different operating systems.
I am not so concerned with OS experimentation with three readily available. So future major OS swaps are unlikely. I am more about what I can do WITH a computer rather than what I can do TO a computer.
Let the good Computer OS times roll again! Who! Hoo! Sandbox works!