New dual-boot build contemplated. New software/hardware issues (since 2019) to worry about?

I am ordering hardware for a new dual-boot (Windows 11, 15.6) computer. Are there any new hardware/software issues I should be aware of (since 2019, the last time I built). I have completely lost track of hardware in the last 6 years. I always put the two OS on different disks. Specific questions:

  1. I always used to install Windows first, then SuSE. Now?
  2. Are there install issues related to TPM and Bitlocker?
  3. Should I be making /boot/efi 4 GB in anticipation of systemd-boot?
  4. What size for swap is recommended now? And where should I be putting it on the disk? My last build had 32 GB RAM and I gave it 3 GB of swap. I located it as /sdb2, where /boot/efi was /sdb1. This time I will have 128GB of RAM, and I have a 4TB NVMe for the Linux install (a 2TB for the Windows). I saw a recommendation that swap be moved to the “end” of the NVMe drive, and that some amount of extra space (not in the partition table?) be left beyond swap for some sort of system activity (snapshots?).
  5. Any issues of where the NVMe drives are located on PCI bus? Windows always seemed to expect to install on the first hard disk in SATA days…

Thanks,

@laurencek Why not run windows in a virtual machine?

  1. I use TPM on Aeon only with measured boot, no idea about bitlocker.
  2. Yes, make it 4GB :wink:
  3. I have 128GB on no swap, suspend works fine on my test systems with no swap. If you need anything, run zram…
  4. Not seen any, I always pre configure devices, not sure how Windows would handle 4GB for /boot/efi, but I don’t dual boot and windows is in a virtual machine, I can use pci-vfio to pass through a graphics card if needed to a virtual machine. My development system runs a NVMe x4 card in a x4 PCI slot.

Inertia, force of habit, and a certain press of time to get a functioning machine back. This is the paradigm I am familiar with. Until 3 weeks ago I had never even heard of virtualbox. Xen yes, though that always struck me as a server application, rather than something an individual would employ. And before that, all I knew of was wine, and that never seemed quite ready for primetime. I expect I will experiment with virtualbox once I have an otherwise running machine. A young colleague swears by it.

Thanks for the information. If there is some uncertainty about Windows and a 4 GB
/boot/efi currently, it appears I can return to my existing 1GB /boot/efi followed by my 3 GB swap, and then when systemd-boot becomes the norm, just combine the two partitions for the new /boot/efi and add swap(if needed) on at the end of the partition table.