I used Linux several years ago and really enjoyed it. I want to try it again on my laptop but without partitioning and dual-booting. I have been researching andLinux and wubi. Are there major differences in how they operate? Which one would you recommend for using for actual work (word processing, genealogy, database)? Installing Ubuntu through wubi looks the most attractive, but I'd like feedback from actual users.
I tried it and installed Ubuntu from Windows a while back. It worked fine and was nice. But when I uninstalled it I was left with the boot menu with Ubuntu on it at Win boot time, and had to tweak a few things to get it back to normal. That's the only "issue" I had, if you wanna call it that.
The difference afaics is reboot to run Ubuntu in Windows: option for Ubuntu or Windows at Boot screen, but not a "dual boot" system as ubuntu is installed as file system on Windows root drive. andlinux runs simultaneously. wubi gives options of run at boot;andlinux can launch from Windows. Wubi is really quite mature and stable ( @Kerodo this problem has been reported quite frequently: easy to fix, but a bit annoying editing boot.ini file ) I have installed and uninstalled here several times with no issue (but I did keep a back-up of boot.ini: learnt about modifying it via Terabyte ) andlinux possibly not so stable and more complex.
Yep, that's basically what I did, except in Vista there is no boot.ini anymore so you have to use bcdedit to edit the boot entries. Worked out fine though.
hi i sugest you to try it via live cd or virtual box 1st you can use VirtualBox and run it via giving link of iso......if you have good ram you dont need to install it and you can use it like a live cd and check it then if you like you can install it via wubi or inside virtualbox when you install it create a virtual partition disk space inside your disk in a locked folder type without interfering your real partition or boot sector you delete the folder and partion any time you want...... and best thing is you can run both systems at once you can use VirtualBox and run it via giving link of iso......if you have good ram you dont need to install it and you can use it like a live cd ubuntu 9.04 or mint 7 (modified ubuntu much simpler) and open suse is best for day to day office use. tryit http://www.virtualbox.org/ virtualbox is same as vmware but i feel it more easy and powerful its same as running a applaction in sandboxie in windows if you dont like it you can delete the partitions and get your disk space back and also uninstall the software
Thanks for the replies! I tried Ubuntu 9.04 on a Live CD. All my hardware worked flawlessly out of the box, so I installed it on my hard drive and am now double-booting with XP. I'm seriously thinking about dumping M$ for good!!