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June 28, 2008
Giving Ubuntu a spin (with less risk)
Updated: 28th June 2008
I've noticed several forum members who are primarily Windows XP, wanting to try out Ubuntu. Nice to hear about your initiatives and get up and go, but please, consider less risky ventures than the classic dual boot. Sometimes you may find your keyboard does not respond to the GRUB menu, or that you have accidentally let Ubuntu wipe out your Windows System Volume.
When you dual boot, you intend to install a boot choice when the PC starts. This is what you intend but a slip of reasoning or of the finger could cause Linux to hijack your Windows PC. Here are some alternative options to test driving Linux.
- Run a Live CD. Ubuntu, Knoppix, SUSE, Puppy, all have Live CD functionality. You can boot the CD (make sure your optical drive is first in boot sequence in your BIOS), play for ages without tampering your Windows partitions or system. The downside is that performance is sluggish and many things won't "save". With some of them, like Puppy, you can save your session activity to a USB Flash storage stick. Or if you really play a bit, you could run these Linuxes off a USB Flash storage stick in the first place.
- Run Linux in a Virtual Machine. The two most known free brands are VMWare Player (free), VMWare Server (free) and Microsoft Virtual PC (free) and Microsoft Virtual Server (free). There are also other established brands like Virtual Iron. You'll need a modern fast PC (multi-core preferably, 2Gb of RAM, lots of hard disk space - AUD 100 buys you a lot of SATA space nowadays). With virtual machines, you could even have undoability - you could make sure that is on, run your Linux, do something stupid, stop and say fergedaboutit. The risk with a Virtual Machine is the initial installation of the infrastructure for the VM - if your luck is bad, you may notice slight slow downs since Virtual Machine add some Windows services and network drivers to your PC. You could uninstall the Virtual Machine infrastructure and in most cases, your Windows PC is back to before you started. The gotcha is of course, your Linux is not running at full machine speed and can't access the full machine resources like the 3D video card etc... Also, the Microsoft flavour has initial driver problems with the video and the mouse of Linux.
- Have more than one hard disk and use BIOS to switch between them, making at times, the Windows one as the primary boot disk and at other times, the Linux one the primary boot disk. I still have removable hard disk trays on my machine - they were all the rage during the PATA days but long term rattling of the AUD 5 little cooling fans caused many people to avoid them. You do have to keep alert. Thread at UbuntuForums on eliminating the need to change BIOS settings and also avoiding tampering of the Windows hard disk.
- For Ubuntu, there is the WUBI feature - the Windows UBuntu Installer. This is a small .exe you download and run while in Windows. It displays one interview screen, you respond, it runs, reboots, inserts a menu item in the Windows Boot Loader menu, installs Ubuntu in a folder called \UBUNTU, and you soon have UBUNTU running. There is no GRUB fight with Windows NT Loader, Ubuntu in theory just works. If you decide to get rid of Ubuntu, reboot back to Windows, reach for the Add/Remove feature in Windows Control Panel. See what WUBI appears to do.
Lastly, if you really, really want to install Ubuntu on the same hard disk as Windows XP, then watch the allegedly outdated movie (below) and read the official notes and the unofficial walkthrough.
Comments? Suggestions? Tips?
Posted by Anandasim at June 28, 2008 01:02 AM
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Comments
I run Xp via Sun VirtualBox (free as in beer). It works flawlessly. I can access Xubuntu from within XP and vice versa. Attached drives and devices though can only be accessed by one OS at a time but a quick tick box solves that. Keyboard and mouse of course can be used in both.
Posted by: flotoonie at June 21, 2008 08:45 PM
Although I really appreciate the effort in producing an HowTo movie (which is done very well), it should be also noted that a much more recent version of Ubuntu should have been considered thatn the one used in the movie itself (6.06). Installation has changed dramatically in the newer releases (7.04, 7.10 and notably 8.04), specifically for Windows user. Thus the current movie appears to to be outdated and thus fairly misleading for the new users looking for installing Ubuntu on their PCs
Posted by: NickF at June 22, 2008 06:30 AM
I was a Windows user at home for years. In the past, I installed, both full installations & dual boot installations, of many many distributions of Linux and BSD. I currently use only Ubuntu 8.04. It has by far, exceeded all my expectations. It recognized all the hardware on my Toshiba laptop from the beginning, including my Netgear wireless card. It just works and works very very well. I take it with me to the office also and it recognizes the wireless router there too. I use OpenOffice for everything, including on my office computer, which is loaded with XP Pro and Office 2007 Ultimate as well.
Just my thoughts.
Posted by: Dennis Bolay at June 22, 2008 10:43 AM
Last year I won a Dell laptop which came with Vista Home Basic which on this machine runs like a dog, taking ages to start up and shut down and generally very sluggish.
I found a Ubuntu disc on a computer mag and decided to give it a go - with a little help from an IT chap at work. After a little glitch with the wifi not working, all now works very well.
I installed it as a double-boot system which has so far caused me no problem. I rarely boot into Vista these days.
Posted by: Frank at June 22, 2008 08:49 PM