Cory Holt’s Weblog

wubi: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Posted in Software by Cory on October 29, 2008

Ever wanted to try Linux but were too afraid that you would mess something up? What if I told you that there was a simple way to run Linux, risk-free, and could guarantee that you would fall in love? No I’m not talking about a Live-CD, I’m talking about a full fledged version of Ubuntu, downloaded and installed all from within Windows!

I’m talking about this great, fully supported, installer called Wubi. When I first read about it on a thread at the How2Hack-Security group forums, I assumed it was just a thrown together version of Linux but no, this is Ubuntu!

No need to burn a CD. Just run the installer, enter a password for the new account, and click “Install”, go grab a coffee, and when you are back, Ubuntu will be ready for you.

Wubi not only installs Ubuntu for you, from Windows, it also creates a boot loader so that you can choose between Windows and Ubuntu at start-up. Find out that you don’t like Linux? Un-installing Ubuntu is as easy as un-installing any other application on your computer by using the Add/Remove Programs tab in the Control Panel. How sweet is that?

Even though I’m pretty good with messing around with Linux, I would probably use Wubi just for the simplicity of it. I’ve been meaning to throw a version of Ubuntu on my new laptop but just haven’t had the time to sit down and do it. I might use Wubi just for the heck of it and write a full review sometime soon.

Has anyone else tried this genius software yet? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

~Cory

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4 comments

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  1. probabilityzero said, on October 29, 2008 at 2:52 am

    I’ve been a Ubuntu user for years so I’ve never had a reason to try wubi, but it does look impressive. There are a few drawbacks to using it rather than having a dedicated partition, but it certainly makes it easier for newbies to try Linux without having to partition their hard drive.

  2. Cory said, on October 29, 2008 at 2:59 am

    what types of drawbacks?

  3. probabilityzero said, on October 29, 2008 at 6:23 am

    I hear there can be some performance hits (maybe due to read/write time, or increased tendency to fragmentation, not sure about the details), but the main problems I can think of are the lack of standby/hibernate and the fact that an improper shutdown does much more damage (one power outage might render the install unusable). Those are really minor complaints, though.

  4. Cory said, on October 29, 2008 at 1:14 pm

    i guess fragmentation could be an issue, but i would just make sure to run a fresh de-frag before installing.

    according to the official site, if you accidentally turn off your computer improperly, all you have to do is boot windows and shutdown normally to be able to run the ubuntu install again

    all in all, I still would love to try it and want to post a full review in which i test some of these cases for myself.


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