Windows and Linux converge

Mehacomp_91

The alternative, open-source operating system Linux has been makingnews recently. Last week, Dell began shipping PCs with the Linuxdistribution Ubuntu pre-installed, and on Friday I  took a look at Wubi,free Windows software that lets you install and run Ubuntu on yourWindows machine without creating a boot CD or partitioning your harddrive.
According to recent stats from W3Counter,Linux still holds only a tiny fraction of the personal-computing marketshare (slightly less than Windows 98!), but there's definitely aconvergence going on within Windows, Mac, and Linux softwaredevelopment. The excellent personal-finance software GnuCash was recently ported from Linux to Windows, and the Lina project plans to soon release software that will let Windows and Mac users run Linux software on the OS of their choice.

WUBI
http://cutlersoftware.com/ubuntusetup/wubi/en-US/index.html

[ Last edited by  Mehacomp_91 at 30-5-2007 09:32 AM ]

Mehacomp_91

Wubi makes Linux on Windows simple

Computer giant Dell made big news yesterday when it began shipping desktops and laptops pre-installed with Ubuntu,a popular Linux distribution. I'm not sure who the heck is going to buya Linux Dell, but it certainly marks a sea change in retail computing.In terms of prepackaged operating systems, users have basically beenstuck for a long time with the solitary choice of Windows vs. Mac. Thefact that consumers can now purchase a Linux machine with support fromthe distributor certainly validates the open-source movement and Ubuntuin particular.
Yet if you're curious about Linux or Ubuntu, it hasn't been verysimple to install it on your Windows machine. Up until recently, theprocess has usually involved partitioning your hard drive for the Linuxinstall and creating a boot CD from a downloaded ISO file.
Luckily, for those of us who are Linux-curious and either too lazyor too inexperienced to install a distro on our own, beta softwarecalled Wubiliterally takes all of the hassle out of running Ubuntu on your Windowsmachine, and it can be removed from your system as easily as any otherWindows application. All it takes to run Wubi is a recommended 1GHzCPU, 128MB RAM, and 3GB of disk space for the initial Ubuntuinstallation.
Wubi is a front-end installer for the loop installer Lupin.Without getting too technical (and over my head), Lupin is back-endsoftware for installing Debian-based Linux distributions inside of aspecific file, without affecting any existing partitions on the harddrive. In conjunction with Wubi, it installs Ubuntu into a file in yourWindows system.
Getting started with Ubuntu using the Wubi front-end interface is assimple as running any other self-extracting Windows installer.Double-click the "Wubi-7.04-test2.exe" file and you'll be presentedwith only a few options. Enter your language of choice, your new Ubuntuusername and password (twice), and hit "Install." That's literally allyou have to do to install Ubuntu, but there are a few options that youshould consider.
The Advanced Settings dialog lets you specify the location and type of your Ubuntu install.
(Credit: Wubi)
Hitting the Settings button from the Ubuntu Setup dialog willprovide you with a few more choices. You can tweak your system size,home size, or swap size, as well as select the local drive where you'dlike to install Ubuntu. The default selections are 6GB, 1GB, 1GB, andthe C drive. If you have a foreign keyboard, you can specific that inthe Advanced Settings as well. You can also decide to install Kubuntu,Xubuntu, or UbuntuStudio, three Ubuntu derivatives. If you don't knowwhat any of those are, I'd recommend sticking with the vanilla Ubuntuinstallation.
Now, before you hit Install, a quick warning: you may want todownload the Ubuntu ISO file from a different source than the one thatthe Wubi installer uses. Right now, Wubi downloads theubuntu-7.04-alternate-i386.iso file from releases.ubuntu.com, anddepending on your connection, it can be very slow. When I installed iton my laptop computer, the 698MB ISO file took over nine hours (!!) todownload at an average of 25Kbps on a 300Kbps Wi-Fi connection.
From the CNET corporate network (a fat pipe), I'm still seeingthat file downloading at 100Kbps, which isn't horrible, but it willstill take a few hours to download. If you can acquire the Ubuntu ISOfile separately, you can skip the Wubi downloading process by placingthe Ubuntu ISO file in the same directory as the Wubi installer beforeyou run it.
Once the long download process completed, installation was extremelyquick. I accessed my bootup menu during startup and immediately noticedan "Ubuntu" selection under the usual Windows XP. I selected Ubuntu,and a blue screen quickly ran through a series of steps such asformatting the virtual disk, detecting system hardware, configuring theDHCP connections, installing the base system, and installing theapplication suite. Ubuntu comes prebundled with a variety of software,including Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice.org.
The final stage of the installation process only took about 15 to 20minutes. As the developers say on their Web site, go grab a cup ofcoffee and come back to Ubuntu. After that, I was off and running,using Firefox to cruise the Web for cool software for Ubuntu andsetting up my e-mail and document preferences.
Replacing Windows with Ubuntu is a major step, and I'm not going toget into the pros and cons here. Suffice it to say that my experiencestrying to install Java to run the CNET corporate VPN software on Ubuntuhave convinced me that I'm probably going to need Windows for a littlewhile longer. However, it's wonderful to have a dual-boot system, and Ididn't even have to partition my hard drive to do it. Thanks, Wubi!