Comments on: An Ubuntu Linux question

By: Chip Bennett

Chip Bennett — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:29:59 +0000

The latest version of Ubuntu (8.04 – Hardy Heron) comes with another option that would probably be perfect for you: Wubi.

Wubi allows for installation of Ubuntu from Windows – it is installed/uninstalled as any other Windows application. The difference is that using Wubi, Ubuntu is installed essentially as a virtual drive. Ubuntu is selected as the OS at boot, which means that, at the front end, it works much like a traditional, dual-boot scenario – only, no disk partitioning is required.

By the way, I prefer Kubuntu (Ubuntu, with the KDE rather than GNOME interface). I’ve heard them compared as KDE being closer to Windows GUI and GNOME being closer to Mac GUI.

As I’m relatively new (about one year) to Linux use, I’m also new to the KDE-GNOME issue – so this comparison may be overly simplistic. That said, KDE was an easier transition for me from Windows.

Good luck!

By: The Poster

The Poster — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:08:02 +0000

I believe I have a great answer to this. First, if you do not have one already, purchase a 2-gigabyte flash drive. Download slax from slax.org – click on “download slax for usb”. Uncompress the files onto your flash drive (if you do not know how to do this look for a tutorial – use google). Now move into the boot folder in the slax folder, and double click on bootinst. Follow the instructions to make your flash drive bootable. Now restart your computer, enter the boot menu, and boot from the flash drive. Nothing installs on your computer and you will have a complete operating system!

By: misha

misha — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:53:25 +0000

Oh, and I agree with virusdoc, the LiveCD system will be very slow, even with a very good CR-ROM drive, but, if you install it on a hard drive, it will fly.

By: misha

misha — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:45:45 +0000

I suggest you do the dual boot and teach your kids how to pick the system they want to run. If they don’t get it, as they should if they are old enough to play with a computer, they will get it booted to the default system every time they run the computer, and you can pick the default system when you configure the booting program. In fact you can set it up as a game for them to play when the computer is starting to boot: are they fast enough to pick the system they want to run? To make the installation easier and avoid repartitioning the hard disk, you can get an extra hard disk and stick it in, they are very cheap nowadays. I hope it helps.

By: virusdoc

virusdoc — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:27:09 +0000

@ignorante: I wasn’t implying that the LiveCD version of Ubuntu was different content-wise, but merely that because it runs from the CD-ROM it tends to be rather clunky performance wise. It will give you a definite answer as to hardware compatibility, but you won’t get a sense for how responsive it will be until it’s running from the hard disk.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:24:08 +0000

@ignorante: I didn’t realize the desktop CD was a liveCD. That makes it easy.

By: ignorante

ignorante — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:20:42 +0000

The only difference between the LiveCD and the alternate CD is the installer. The later is text-based and uses less memory while installing, but both install the same thing
The live version has the gparted tool. If you want to install, shrink the NTFS partition and when installing choose “use free space”.

By: virusdoc

virusdoc — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:31:30 +0000

You can also resize the primary partition the hard disk with various utilities, and then create a small bootable partition for Ubuntu that will run the full version (not the live CD version, which will be functional but slow and clunky).

Partition resize utils I’ve seen used before include qtparted and NTFSresize. Both can be found free online.

(I had posted links earlier, but I suspect the spam filter flagged my comment for that reason. Let’s see if this one gets through)

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:36:07 +0000

I second the live CD suggestion. Also note that Ubuntu comes in an ‘alternate desktop’ version, that is less resource hungry than the default version. I’m running the 8.04 release of the alt version on a number of slow, old lab PCs and they are plenty fast.

By: ignorante

ignorante — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:26:30 +0000

Yes, burn the desktop CD and boot with it. It is a live CD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD)