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I just upgraded my factory-installed Windows 8.1 PC to Windows 10 and it's running smooth; I'd like to have Ubuntu available for coding/development (a VM is too slow for my purpose), but a lot of my work still relies on Windows and I'm not ready for all the potential troubles of a dualboot (heard all about the UEFI/SecureBoot/hibernation problems).

I'd like a comparison between running Ubuntu from a USB drive (flash drive or external hard drive) vs. on native hardware alongside Windows (esp. in terms of performance and stability)--thanks!

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Running through USB (flashdisk,External HDD, etc) is not as faster as running through HDD. So the best one should be running through HDD because the link is more faster using SATA. You may refer for the speed on this link Speed comparison.

For the trouble about UEFI you may refer to your motherboard BIOS firmware update. Most of major motherboard company have an firmware Upgrade for their BIOS to comply with Windows 10 Upgrade. Once your motherboard upgraded and support UEFI, there shouldn't be problem using Ubuntu and Windows 10 alongside. Hope my answer can help you.

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  • So the main difference is simply in terms of file IO? Hopefully there won't be any issues accessing/mounting internal Windows partitions.
    – Yibo Yang
    Aug 15, 2015 at 5:51
  • There should be no any problem mounting windows. But you should install the linux partition after windows. If not the grub selector will be overwritten by windows boot loader, so simply your system will always boot to windows without ask you anything about other OS (ubuntu).
    – Tri Hartanto
    Aug 17, 2015 at 0:57
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In my experience, depending on the laptop, booting from a USB is actually very fast. Fast enough that on pretty mediocre hardware, simple tasks like browsing and doing system administrative things are smooth and without hiccups.

If you want to use Linux for the purposes of coding, I'd say that whether or not a USB will suit your needs depends on what you are using to code (IDE? Text editor?) and how much you are coding. If you're working on a huge program and using an enormous IDE like Eclipse, I'd say a USB is probably not the best choice. If you're working on a program confined to a few files that you're editing in Sublime or some light text editor, you should probably be fine.

Like the other responder to this question, I recommend you just dual boot because Ubuntu is extremely hassle-free/installs cleanly. The only problem I've had on modern computers with regards to installing Ubuntu is when Windows' partition scheme is weird. I literally have no idea what you mean by "UEFI/SecureBoot/hibernation problems" because I have never had these kinds of issues.

So in summary, USB should be fine for smaller stuff/less intensive projects. Dual booting is ideal because Ubuntu is a great operating system worth investing in.

Good luck!

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