Atomic setups don’t support dual boot on the same disk (so we can’t either). You could manually set it up by resizing partitions but we don’t recommend it.
I use a separate disk entirely for my setup and just give the OS the entire disk with automatic partitioning.
I figured that it isn’t “recommended” yet manual partition configuration is my only option on a single ssd thinkpad. Has anyone done this successfully?
It is possible to make Fedora Silverblue work for both dual boot and manual partitioning, and some guidance is provided on manual partitioning below. However, there are hazards involved in both cases, and you should only attempt to use these features if you have done the necessary research, and are confident that you can overcome any issues that you might encounter.
I have my MSI laptop, originally with Windows 11, booting three OSes: Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04, and Fedora Silverblue Bluefin-DX, all from one physical 2 TB Nvme SSD.
Before I installed Silverblue, I read the documentation which specifically recommends to install it in a different disk. But it did not explain why. So, I decided to install Silverblue anyway. With UEFI is much easier because during the manual installation (manual partitioning) you are given the choice to create the EFI partition (350 MB), as well as boot (1024 MB). Additionally, I created separate Btrfs partitions for /root (40 GB), /home, and /var.
The only difference with my previous Ubuntu 22.04 installation is that Fedora Silverblue required to be selected as the boot manager in the UEFI setup, which is fine with me. I still have the boot options for Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04.
Another OS that I tried in the same MSI laptop, and also requires to be the boot manager, is Manjaro. After some tests I removed the OS.
My Bluefin-DX is very stable. It was the third try at installing and testing the Fedora Silverblue installer until I got it right, partition size-wise and type (Btrfs). The installer is very friendly.
I’d recommend getting separate machine just for Windows. There are a lot of cheap renewed, used or even new machines out there. However, make sure Windows 11 is supported when buying.