I ran across Wubi last night. Wubi is a utility that installs a full version of Ubuntu on a PC running Windows. It’s nice for several reasons:
- It’s much easier to use that the usual way of installing Ubuntu. You don’t have to repartition your drive, you don’t have to fiddle with a bootloader, you don’t have to know how to set up a Linux filesystem. Basically it’s a one-click operation. You download and run it; it downloads Ubuntu and installs it for you.
- It installs a really-truly installation of Ubuntu. It’s not a form of virtualization (which is slow) nor is it a live boot CD (which is slower).
- Once it installs Ubuntu, you can uninstall it like you’d uninstall any other Windows application.
I just used it to install Ubuntu on my Thinkpad X60 tablet. I’m a Linux neophyte but am interested in having a Linux system around for doing some development that appears to be simpler under Linux than under Windows. (Why, oh why is it so difficult to access the RS-232 ports from software running under XP?) Much of what I’ve seen of Linux strikes me as still not quite ready for prime time, but I’m betting that the development tools are quite good, given that the only people that used Linux up until recently were developers.
UPDATE: On my nth googling session, I finally found a good code example here for doing serial I/O under Windows XP. I think I’ll give it a shot rather than fiddling around with Linux.
Thanks, Adam. This is new to me, and looks like the only way at this point that I’m going to begin getting my feet wet with Linux. I’m not sure why other than as web developer it seems like something I shouldn’t be completely ignorant of.
Wubi is certainly the easiest way to give Linux a try. Note that the installation takes quite awhile because the installer downloads the entire ~700MB distribution before installing it. The installation itself takes awhile also; how long exactly I didn’t pay attention to because I was doing other things at the same time. But it is completely self-running once you start it, although you kind of have to keep an eye on it because it reboots the machine twice and the XP bootloader will boot with XP by default. I’ve installed several distributions of Linux on several machines, and there’s really no comparison between using Wubi and not using it.
Once I had the X60 running Ubuntu I configured the wireless network interface fairly easily (i.e. with no more fiddling around than XP usually requires), updated the Linux installation itself (which took awhile since there was over 250MB in accumulated updates, but again it was no more fiddly than updating either XP or OS X), and installed some developer tools. One pleasant surprise is that accessing my local Windows network Just Works.
I booted my X60 back into XP this morning to verify that everything was intact. (It was; that’s what I’m using now.) All of the Ubuntu stuff gets put in a folder at the root level of C: and is appropriately named “Ubuntu”. Ubuntu also shows up in the Add/Remove Programs list just like advertised. It’s really quite slick.
Now, whether Ubuntu is of any actual use to you if you already have a machine running XP is another question entirely, but if you’re curious about Linux, Wubi is the way to start. (This reminds me faintly of the ads you see in the Personals sections of alternative newspapers with headers like “BI CURIOUS?” Wubi’s ad would read something like “LINUX CURIOUS? Gentle, non-threatening introductions in your home. Call Wubi, 555-1234”)
I agree that the installation of Ubuntu is very difficult and requires a lot of time and knowledge, and a simple person can not do it without the help, I tried to install Ubuntu, but I failed. I think that with the help of Wubi it becomes much easier.
That’s a great solution for giving Ubuntu a try. I actually have a installs of Ubuntu and Kubuntu running on my Macbook in VMware right now. It was pretty much one click as well, and if i ever need to run Ubuntu it takes under a minute for it to start up and run right alongside OSX.
Another good way to try out Ubuntu would be to get one of their free CDs (or download it and burn a copy)
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu
You can run it right off the CD and give it a try without bothering to install it or partition a drive, etc. and then if you like it, they’ve made the installation process right from the CD about as easy as OSX, just click, go get a coffee and come back when it’s done. very nice.
Yes, but as I mentioned in my original post, booting from a live CD results in a system that doesn’t run as fast as an actual install. I’ve done it both ways. Wubi is faster and easier than downloading a disc image, burning the CD, and rebooting from the CD. If you like it, you’re already done. If you don’t like it, you can delete it from the standard Add/Remove Programs control panel. No CD needed, less time spent. Seems better to me.