Wubi paranoid friendly?

[Doug]

On 12/07/2010 01:37 PM, David Fletcher wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-12-07 at 12:15 -0600, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> I date from the era of vacuum tubes and 026's.
>> Though I've programed, I'm a user not a programmer.
>> I am a Windows(tm) user who wishes to be a *nix user.
>>
>> I wish to try Ubuntu.
>>
>> Full install OBVIOUSLY *NOT* acceptable ;/
>>
>> Dual boot *NOT* acceptable as it requires repartitioning my hard
>> drive. I've had bad experiences with repartitioning.
>>
>> I've already gone the "live" CD/USB route which proves that my
>> hardware is minimally compliant
>>
>> !!! *BUT* !!!
>>
>> I'm looking for something indistinguishable from a full install,
>> think equivalent of "Turing Test" ;/
>>
>> Basic question is:
>> "How does Wubi mess with my hard drive?"
>>
>> I've searched multiple Wubi related pages without an adequate answer.
>>
> I've not tried the wubi installer at all but I successfully run Kubuntu
> Hardy and Windows XP as virtual machines with Virtualbox. You should be
> able to go the other way around I think and run Ubuntu Maverick as a
> virtual machine under Windows.
>
> Installing as a virtual machine is a little more technical than
> installing on a hard drive but easily doable. If you want guidance just
> ask. Loads of folks on here have done it.
>
> Another alternative is to take the hard drive out of the inside of the
> PC (assuming that it's a proper computer not a laptop) and put it into a
> caddy system that loads drives into a drawer on the front of the PC.
> Caddies cost several pounds per drawer and I find them invaluable,
> although the fans in the ones I got are rubbish and need to be replaced
> sometime. Hard drives are so cheap these days that the cost of having an
> extra one isn't worth worrying about.
>
> Dave
>
>
The second hard drive route is obviously foolproof, unless you want both 
in the
system at the same time.  That's doable, but perhaps with some booting 
difficulty for
one system or the other--there has been a thread on one of these lists 
for several
weeks now about doing just that.

I haven't had any trouble dual-booting with XP.  I have not done it with 
Win 7.  I have
3 computers--one dedicated to Win 7, one dedicated to PCLinuxOS, and one 
laptop,
on which I have XP, PCLOS, Debian, Ubuntu, and MINT, all multi-booted.  
The only
trouble I had was with the Grub booter on Ubuntu, which seems to be 
buggy, and I
fixed that by using the routine for setting up the booter in PCLOS.
No damage was done to XP anywhere along the way.  the trick is always to 
have
the Windows system installed first.  Then you can install a Linux distro 
from a
live boot disk and everything should go smoothly.

(If you're seriously worried, back up your data to CD or DVD before 
proceeding.)

I am taking a nite-school course in Unix/Linux, and the students were 
forced to use
a virtual machine on Windows XP, because the computer lab is primarily 
used for
Windows students, and the department chairman ordered that their minds not
be blown.  The virtual machine thing works, but it sucks. It's clumsy to 
go thru
a half-dozen steps to get from XP to Ubuntu, it takes a while, and I 
don't know
how (or even if) it would work with a printer or a network, since these 
are not
configured in this computer lab.

My recommendations, in order are, PCLinuxOs, and MINT.  Probably MINT is 
just a
little closer to Windows in it's operation.  (Please change the very 
dark desk-top
screen for something else. This is not difficult.)  Third in order would 
be Ubuntu,
very closely followed by Debian.  I don't like Debian's attitude towards 
non-
FOSS programs, even when they are open source and free from pay--if 
somebody
other than Debian has the copyright, they won't include it. Fanatics I 
don't need!
Stay away from Kubuntu and open-SUSE, or you'll be sorry! (When you get 
to be a
Linux mavin you can try them.)

Just my 2¢.  --doug

Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. 
--A. M. Greeley