[12:33] <OscarWine> Considering a dual boo Windows 10/Lubuntu, If I want the Home folders (Documents, Downloads, Music, Videos) to be the same as those same user folders in the Windows repartition, can I do that by just using a symlink? So if the user makes a Download in Linux, he could also see that same download in the Windows' Download folder?
[12:35] <OscarWine> Note: Windows partition is already mounted when booting, as I added it to the /etc/fstab file.
[12:56] <eyeoh> um..
[12:56] <eyeoh> I'm not sure if symlink is being used correctly here
[12:56] <eyeoh> but I suppose you could?
[12:57] <eyeoh> in linux, the directories under ~ aren't anything special
[12:57] <eyeoh> so I guess you could symlink that ntfs partition's directories from linux ~
[12:57] <eyeoh> ok, in that case, symlinks could make sense
[12:58] <eyeoh> my preference would be to keep it separate and symlink to the entire windows partition instead
[12:59] <eyeoh> it doesn't feel right to boot into linux, but then have no files of its own there and still depend on windows
[12:59] <eyeoh> dual booting is a bit of an odd concept really - you can't truly divide attention between both OSs fairly
[13:00] <eyeoh> I do have win11 available to dual boot on my thinkpad, but hardly use it or access its partitions
[13:08] <OscarWine> I found this: https://superuser.com/questions/1741710/shared-partition-to-be-symlinked-by-both-dual-boot-oss
[13:10] <OscarWine> It recommends using FAT32, which I won't... But the other 2 steps are already implemented (Disabled Windows Fast Startup and having the NTFS partitions permanently mounted via fstab).
[13:11] <OscarWine> By the way, maybe I forgot to mention that I have a c:\ partition just for Windows updates and programs while keep the personal files (Documents, Downloads, Videos, etc) in a different partition, d:\
[13:12] <OscarWine> The idea is to give each OS enough space for it's updates and softwares while keeping personal files in a separate partition, accessible by both OS.
[13:12] <OscarWine> So if one OS breaks badly, I just need to reinstall the OS again, while the personal files will be left in a separate partition
[13:15] <eyeoh> exfat might be an ok filesystem for both OSs
[13:15] <eyeoh> btrfs and winbtrfs - *maybe*; but I don't know how good it is on the windows side
[13:18] <OscarWine> I was considering exfat as well
[13:18] <OscarWine> Someone said in the #ubuntu channel: there's also the issue of software patents which affects exfat
[13:19] <OscarWine> I guess I won't overthink about this... I will just create the symlink between the folders and see what happen
[13:25] <eyeoh> trying it and seeing is the best way to find out; especially for your own unique setups/requirements
[13:25] <eyeoh> for myself, I've always found it difficult to divide time between windows and linux and only really properly "got into linux" when I didn't touch the windows stuff
[13:26] <eyeoh> trying to cater to both at the same time is a fair bit of extra effort
[13:26] <eyeoh> also, if the real issue is that you're short of storage space, perhaps consider getting more
[13:26] <eyeoh> either way, have plenty of backup drive space available
[13:27] <eyeoh> you can do whatever you want when there's a good backup to restore to
[13:38] <OscarWine> It's just an old PC that I'm doing what I can to give it a new life. And it's not I who will be it's user.
[13:39] <OscarWine> I will leave Windows installed just for the case where the user needs to install some Windows only software in the future. So I will advise him to use Linux for web browsing, watching movies listen to music and other light and simple activities.