Dual Booting

[-Ninjex-]

Backtrack 5 R3 Gnome x86_64 and Windows 7 Professional

Backtrack 5 R3:

The good:

Completely amazing over all and is a "Hackers Paradise" in my opinion.
Linux adds more security (I probably ruin this by running as root all day, yes I know it's bad to do this)
Comes with tons hacking tools pre-installed, giving you the ability to know you are using malware free tools.
It is completely free
Always being updated and expanded on, improving at a rapid pace and staying on top of the latest security threats.
Linux is not as populated as other OS types (meaning if a hacker wants to target millions of people they will more than likely not target Linux operating systems, and would create it to affect a much more populated OS)
Customization to any file /*
Light weight and small
Open source
Supports GUI and CLI interfaces, allowing you to repair files that could be corrupted by using the CLI

The bad:
Not very user friendly
Support for errors / bugs may be hard to find at times
Could easily destroy and/or manipulate important files, if you are not familiar with Linux, and are running as root.
Some files not supported, and can not be configured to run through wine

Windows 7 Professional:

The good:

User friendly
Better public support for bugs / errors / issues
Better for gaming
Supports most, if not all file types

The bad:

Less secure, if precautions are not met (Patches, updates, open ports, etc)
Customization limited
Easier target for viruses / exploits
Not light weight
Only has GUI accessibility and can not run without it
Not free to the public $$$

I think it is always nice to be dual booting, even if the other os is only going to be a 1GB partition, just so you can go grab files, research, etc in the case of a error.

[LoGiCaL__]

I think it is always nice to be dual booting...

I agree, especially because it's another os, it puts you in a position where you're just that much more versatile than a good percentage of people who use computers. My old pc I dual booted and it was a fucking great time. Sine I got my last one I ended up buying a shit old dell ( > 8 years old ) and just run debian (text mode only) and ssh into it every time I log into windows. The funny thing is I use linux more than windows. I feel like you have way more control and responsibility with linux however. Which makes it worth it.

[pretentious]

i'm dual booting windows 7 because i payed for it and it's good do be able to jump between my technical and some times unforgiving nerd set up and a fairly minimal and stable windows system, linux mint because i think it looks sexy. I also have back track on my flash drive because i think it's more versatile that way. The thing about back track is it's specialized. While your critisizms are fare, it's not necessaraly designed for people who aren't familiar. that's why root is default. It's not a toy.

[-Ninjex-]

i'm dual booting windows 7 because i payed for it and it's good do be able to jump between my technical and some times unforgiving nerd set up and a fairly minimal and stable windows system, linux mint because i think it looks sexy. I also have back track on my flash drive because i think it's more versatile that way. The thing about back track is it's specialized. While your critisizms are fare, it's not necessaraly designed for people who aren't familiar. that's why root is default. It's not a toy.

I know and I agree with your last statement.
It's designed for penetration testers.
I myself am a fast learner and I used Ubuntu for maybe 5 days max and made the switch to Backtrack 5 and still have never ran into any errors or problems I couldn't fix, which is surprising as I have been running as root through the entirety of my time having it.
If someone wants to get familiar with linux, I recommend using Ubuntu.