John Kemp

Wubi makes Ubuntu a snap for Windows users (Download Squad)

Jun 13th 2007 4:59AM I have been watching the Linux scene for years, waiting for the right time to jump out of Windows! That time is now, and I've happily had Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) installed for a month now. What pushed me? A determination never to go to VISTA (due to its bloat, and Microsoft's paranoia over piracy); an appreciation of the ethos of the Ubuntu project, and the reviews of the latest release, Feisty Fawn (7.04) for a start (and, I have to say, the VISTA reviews!) I am NOT a geek and regard my computer as a tool, not a toy, but I DO take an interest in this protean bit of kit, and have certainly reached the stage where the fascination outweighs the annoyances.

There were TWO advances in Feisty that encouraged me. Firstly, read AND WRITE ability with the NTFS file system, which means I have access to ALL my Windows files. Secondly, I came accross wubi.exe - beta software that puts Ubuntu into a FOLDER on the C drive without any repartitioning! I bought "The official Ubuntu book" and downloaded wubi.exe. It was a doddle to use, but I have to say that maybe I was lucky: being unsupported beta software I'd have been on my own and out of my depth if I had encountered any problems or inscrutable error messages.

So, I now have a splendid dual boot system. It really came of age for me when Outlook Express was playing up on XP and I had to reboot into Ubuntu. I have about 1/5 the error messages and crashes on XP that I had on the infamous Windows Me, and on Ubuntu I've only ever had one error message and one reboot needed on a month of usage. It won't take much more of this for me to regard Ubuntu as my default OS, and it'll be for the best of reasons – it does the job better. HOWEVER, I do have quite a few Windows programs which I will need to get up and running on Ubuntu – using WINE if necessary: Registax 4 (an astronomy imaging package); and Rosetta Stone language software are important to me, but perhaps the most critical is VueScan – I have not yet sorted out how to install it from a tgz package – and cannot use either of my ancient scanners satisfactorily at present on Linux. I also need to be able to switch between English and Cyrillic keyboards, mid-document sometimes. I guess this can be done, but haven't yet done the research.

I would hope and expect that the next Ubuntu release will incorporate the wubi.exe option officially – indeed as the recommended default - otherwise there are three more changes needed: firstly, the software installation tool need to incorporate tar.gz and tgz, and also rpm packages, and updated documentation for this. The first of these would makes sharing a Windows partition as easy as in Mandriva, and the second could make software installation almost as neat as Linspire's “Click 'n' Run”, and with much more scope. By the way, I'm NOT wanting or waiting for the currently optional non-default desktop enhancements, and hope that even when these are sorted out to have the required improved reliability, that the present 'classic' Gnome desktop will still be the default, but I guess this will be a marketting call! The third change is better printer support. At present I'm using Turboprint on my Epson R200, but it seems not to support all the maintenance tools and currently I have to reboot into Windows to do nozzle checks and cleaning cycles etc. and to change inks.

This is a crossroads for FOSS. So many people are hanging on to Windows XP (indeed I only upgraded from Me in January to avoid being forced to buy VISTA) and only then came across wubi.exe. I cannot emphasise too strongly how this was the clincher for me - together with the write-to-NTFS facility - non-geeks such as myself are very nervous about repartitioning and losing data.

My next computer I expect to buy without an OS installed, or with Ubuntu pre-installed. If I have to, I'll buy Microsoft and not accede to their licence, forcing a refund on the OS component of my purchase.

(By the way, I have to say that I will NOT use unlicensed software. My concern over MS's piracy measures in VISTA is chiefly that they are grossly OTT, and that one is guilty until proven innocent, if what I have read is true: that one can be locked out of the OS due to faults and glitches in the anti-piracy software even when one has properly acquired it).

John Kemp