Dual Booting?

[GregM]

Because I am getting close to getting my observatory close to being operational (it's only been 17 years) I started exploring the new software that is very popular now for post processing images called Pixinsight. Imagine my surprise when they recommended Kubuntu 20.04 as the operating system.
I currently have Photoshop and another piece of processing software running under Win 7 but I would be thrilled to set up my processing computer to dual boot so I can run both Win7 software and Linux software.
But I've never set up a dual boot system and it worries me that I might screw up my Photoshop computer trying to do something I have never done before.

Should I be nervous?

[Snowhog]

A quick Google search finds https://www.tecmint.com/install-ubun...ows-dual-boot/

Look it over throughly, and if you have any questions, ask.

[GregM]

OTOH since I use 20.04 for everything, and have a good computer to run it on, I suppose I could just transport the image to be processed all the way in to the house ( 90') on a thumb drive and process it on my happy Kubuntu computer.

[jlittle]

Should I be nervous?

IMO... hell, no. Careful, of course. Good backups a very good idea, though it can be hard work with Windows to have a restore from scratch backup.

Win 7 sounds old, maybe that's BIOS/MBR. The Kubuntu 20.04 install media still support BIOS/MBR IIRC, but there's talk of making *buntus UEFI only.

Shrinking Win 7 might be difficult. A clean up there (deleting junk and a defrag) might help. With later Windows it's often recommended to use the Windows "disk management" to shrink the Windows partitions; I don't know if that applies to Win 7.

I suppose I could just transport the image to be processed all the way in to the house ( 90') on a thumb drive.

Assuming the computers are on the same LAN, and are both on at the same time, setting up a "share" using samba would be another approach.

[GregM]

The reason for Win7 is because the version of Photoshop that I have is the last version they actually sold. After that you had to pay rent and I don't like that idea.
Not sure if you can install that software on more modern versions of Win or not, but I'm drifting away from my original thought/question.
Maybe I should think more about a separate newer faster computer for image processing using Kubuntu?

[GreyGeek]

The reason for Win7 is because the version of Photoshop that I have is the last version they actually sold. After that you had to pay rent and I don't like that idea.
Not sure if you can install that software on more modern versions of Win or not, but I'm drifting away from my original thought/question.
Maybe I should think more about a separate newer faster computer for image processing using Kubuntu?

Win7 support was dropped on Jan 14, 2020, but it has been dead for a long time. It was introduced in 2009 and Win8 replaced it in 2012. "It's dead, Jim!" So is that version of Photoshop.

About stepping up to GIMP or Blender or InkScape or Krita or even Photpea. A list of alternatives is here.

Photpea is a browser-based tool that utilizes the resources of your local PC, Photopea runs on any desktop platform. With its Photoshop-like user interface (sidebar, menu, toolbar, history, etc.) and support for standard image formats, it's an ideal substitute. You'll get the best results from a Chromium-based browser, such as Google Chrome.

Don't worry about losing files either. All the editing you do with Photopea is stored on your computer, rather than in the cloud. This app can even handle Photoshop PSD files, Adobe XD files, as well as RAW photo files, XCF, and SKETCH.

Photopea is ad-supported. However, you can pay $20 to hide the ads for three months. While you might experience some performance hits during intensive image editing, Photopea is a great alternative to Photoshop.