Wubi is something I should’ve posted about a long time ago, but I just saw that a new version was out, so here we go. Problem: You’ve always wanted to try Linux out, but were afraid to mess around with partitioning a hard drive or otherwise hacking up your system. Solution: Wubi. Wubi is a Windows application that installs Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (Hardy Heron) to your Windows hard disk, and adds a boot record to the Windows Master Boot Record. It installs the OS on a file that Windows treats as a separate hard disk, thereby negating the need to partition your own hard disk. Awesome.

Ubuntu Linux is, in my opinion, the most accessible and usable version of Linux out there. I’ve been dual-booting with Ubuntu for about a year now, and I started out by trying the previous version of Wubi. I had so much fun with Ubuntu that I decided to go ahead and get another hard drive and install the OS the proper way. Not that Wubi is a lesser version of the OS – it isn’t – but since it installs to your Windows hard disk, it’s not a “real” install. There have been some minor bugs with Wubi (it is a beta product), but I’ve encountered none of them personally.

Moral of the story, if you’ve wanted to try Linux but were afraid to, there’s no longer a reason to be afraid. A nice bonus to using Linux: It’s uber-secure, and worrying about viruses and spyware is a thing of the past. I don’t even have any anti-virus or anti-spyware installed on my installation of Linux.

Enjoy.

Update: I should’ve mentioned that Wubi is a Windows only app. Not sure if there are any alternatives for OS X or not.

In Windows XP, there was a set of “PowerToys” provided by Microsft which were geared towards more advanced “power-user” features.  One of these was a nifty little tool called “Open Command Window here”.  All you did was right-click on a directory and you could open a command prompt with the current path being active.  Turns out that in Vista, this is built-in, although it requires an extra keypress.  Hold down Shift as you right-click and you’ll get a beefed up context menu that has an “Open Command Window here” option.  That is all.

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system, had a few choice words to say about Windows and OS X the other day.

“I don’t think they’re equally flawed – I think Leopard is a much better system, (but) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary.”

Yowza. Having never really investigated the OS X filesystem, I can’t really say I have an opinion one way or the other. From a user’s standpoint, though, I definitely agree with him that OS X is the superior operating system. Now I don’t want to start any fierce debates here, since my blog is all of two posts old, but I’ve come around to the philosophy that Macs are the ultimate consumer PC, while Windows PCs are the best for enterprises. Linux is on its way up, and is getting more and more user-friendly with every release – but for now it’s still best-suited for tinkerers and more technically savvy users.

But I digress. I haven’t heard too much in the news about Torvalds recently, but man did he catch people’s attention with his statements at the linux.conf.au conference.

via the Sydney Morning Herald.