wubi: Best Thing Since LiveCD
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Wubi (Windows-based Ubuntu Installer) is amazing. It’s one of those tools that should make 100s if not 1000s of people to try out Linux right away. But I am not sure if this tool is making as much noise as it should. If last time you tried to install Linux was 5 years ago and the thought of installing Linux on a separate partition along side your existing windows installation gives you nightmares, this tool is for you.
We are not asking you to abandon windows OS; we are encouraging you to try Linux without any risk.
How to install?
- Download wubi.
- Select your choice of Desktop Environment. Choices are Gnome, KDE and Xfce.
- Select Installation size, Language, Username & Password.
- Reboot. Install. Done.
No terminal commands, disk partitioning or disk formatting is needed. The best part is that the installation itself takes about one hour (it took me 30 minutes on avg).
How does it work?
wubi is not a virtual machine, which means there is no hardware limitation. You get to use the same hardware available to a window installation without having to share them, since you are not running two OS simultaneously. wubi creates a standalone installation within a disk image, without disrupting the host windows installation. wubi also adds an entry to the windows boot configuration, so when you boot up your computer you get to choose which OS you want to boot into. If you already have a Ubuntu ISO on the same folder as wubi, wubi will try to install it from there, if not, wubi will download the ISO and install it.
Negatives?
Nothing. But there are two known user-generated problems. One is that if you don’t shutdown your computer properly, like just pulling the plug from the socket or turn off the power (why would you?), your computer won’t boot to Linux next time you try it. You have to properly boot in to windows and properly shutdown your computer in order to boot in to Linux. This is not a problem with the system, but a problem with the user. :) The second thing is that on some occasions your Linux installation will have performance issues due to disk fragmentation on your windows installation drive, since wubi install over NTFS, the more fragmented your windows disk drive is the more performance issues you will have on your Linux installation. To solve this issue, which is inherited from Widows disk fragmentation, I install wubi on a separate partition. Again, you don’t have to do this, just make sure your windows install is regularly defragmented.
wubi, as of now, only installs Ubuntu line of distros (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu). I am sure there are ways to make this work with other distros, but it hasn’t been done yet (AFAIK), and shouldn’t be much of an issue since wubi is just an installer, not a Linux distro by itself.
Ok, I have tried it. But I want to Uninstall it. How?
Very easy, you would uninstall wubi the same way you would uninstall any program in windows. Just go to add/remove and uninstall. Wallah! voila!
Give Linux a shot, I am confident, you won’t regret it. :)
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One ‘negative’ is that their tool to transfer Wubi to a real Ubuntu isn’t yet finished :\
Wubi and Ubuntu are simply phenomenal!!
Linux will dual-boot its way to success!
Can you still access your Windows installation from within wubi’s “install”? Like, can I still get at my documents?
it is a great tool, and in fact turned me over to linux about a year ago.
would be nice to have a tool to turn it into a native installation, but after trying everything possible for a month it was not a bad idea to do a fresh install. by then i had figured otu the uses of partitions and mountpoints, and completely redesigned my partitioning.
@shamess Yes you can. Check out FAQ here: http://wubi-installer.org/faq.php
*cough* “wallah” isn’t a word, “voila” is what you’re looking for *cough*
*sneeze* the sound ‘wallah’ in at least one living human language is a word that means ‘worker’ as in ‘computer-wallah’ *blow & wipe*
It’s “voila”, not “wallah”… It’s French.
*barf* It was a phonetic English version of a French word. It was properly used in the author’s context but misspelled. In this case, using the true English word “wallah” makes absolutely no sense. The End.
I tried out Ubuntu via wubi about three months ago. Within two weeks, I had completely switched to Ubuntu, purging Windows and all its bloat from my desktop hard drive. I’ve now gone to Ubuntu (Ubuntu Studio, to be exact) on all my laptops as well, and I even have my mom using it on her desktop.
Sweet! I’ve been meaning to install Ubuntu on my laptop, and this will completely simplify the process!
I’d switch over completely, but my Zune software only runs on Windows.
*Shakes fist at Microsoft*
maybe sell the zune… it’s silly to let a drm-ridden mp3 player dictate which operating system you use.
Wubi also comes with the desktop version of Ubuntu.
No need to download WUBI separately. Just put the desktop cd in while windows is running.
Another drawback is the largest space you can add is 30GB. If you need more you’re back to partition land.
This is not a new idea. One of my first experiences with Linux was Mandrake 7, circa 1999. It could build an image file on a windows machine and boot to that file. I didn’t have the skill to put lilo on the boot sector of the HD so I had to boot to a floppy and choose Mandrake from there. I got some experience with Linux and Norton speed drive got to move that huge image file a few times. The kids loved the linux games and were vocally abusive when I finally deleted the image file. If you like Ubuntu the best way to dual boot is to install a second drive. Install Ubuntu there and let Grub be the boot manager. How to is tricky for a newbie but not impossible. After a while you may just scrap windows. I did.
The BeOS had this feature back in 98. This was something that really caught my attention, and gace me a why not approach to a new OS. Although BeOS was bought by Palm and later died out as an OS. This feature of an application like installation is something that will really boost Linux Adoption :)
I’ve been using wubi for 6 weeks now and it is great. It freezes sometimes, but i’ve read its due the partioning of my NTFS (vista) HD and the fact i did the 4GB install and have no more space for the swap.
still, i would recommend you to give Slax (www.slax.org) a try.
@shamess yes you can, the thing is im not sure if it comes built it or you have to install it through repositories. its called NTFS tool and gives you access to your regular C: fles
@craysh wubi comes on the latest version of ubuntu CD, but if you don have it you could just download wubi and it will do the rest for you without having to download the iso, burn it and boot as a liveCD. most people have lot of trouble wih this!
It reminders me the BEOS.
Wubi has worked great for me. I had been using a virtual machine on my work laptop, but with only 1GB of RAM it was too slow. Once Wubi was released I was able to set up a dual boot without having to partition the drive. Having Kubuntu installed gave my laptop new life and makes it a lot more fun.
Chad
“This is not a problem with the system, but a problem with the user.”
I disagree.
I’ve had hard lockups where no keyboard input is recognized and you have no choice but to do I hard shutdown. It’s painful, but on very rare occasions necessary.
And what about power failures?
I think we’ve had the same thing we can find in this web-site : http://goodbye-microsoft.com/
But still it allows to kick micro$oft ass it’s good stuff