That’s not been quite true in a long time.
When it used to happen, there were a couple of issues involved.
It used to be that Linux identified partitions (“slices” of hard drive) by number, and when Windows changed its own layout in a way that caused that number to change, Linux could fail to boot. But these days partitions have a unique identifier that doesn’t change even when the layout of the hard drive does, and Linux uses these identifiers to keep track of its partitions. So this issue is gone.
It used to be that installing a boot loader involved taking over the first sector of the hard drive and OSes would fight over that sector on install and during updates. But these days there is a mechanism where OSes can put their individual loaders side by side in a special partition and the PC BIOS lets you choose which loader to use. At worst Windows can only update the default choice. It’s been known to do that, but it’s easy enough to change back. There are tools that let you do so right from inside Windows.
So yes, dual-booting Linux and Windows is safe and easy these days. Keeping them on separate drives isn’t even necessary anymore.








That’s a very, very short time for such a major change. Makes me wonder what currently green ecosystems we take for granted a bit too easily.
But it also makes me wonder whether a reversal is within human reach. To start with, cheap solar potentially enables desalinization and irrigation at unprecedented scales… What a nice thing to feel optimistic about, if nothing else.