WUBI!! w00t!! Wait! What? WUBI?? Thats right, the Windows UBuntu Installer project installs an Ubuntu install right to your windows box with out repartitioning, or otherwise fscking up your partitions or harddisks. But wait you say, it can’t be a full Ubuntu install can it? Oh, but it can and it is.

I was a little skeptical at first myself, it sounded too good to be true, and I had used VMplayer to load Linux Distributions before and while they worked, there were things lacking (graphic support, sound and so on…). However, once I fired up the installer and I noticed that it downloaded what appeared to be the actual ISO for Feisty, I became a little more impressed. I let it run over night and when I came in in the morning, it was finished and ready for a reboot.

The installer actually creates a vitrual image of the OS that resides on your drive. Obviously, its size is a full size distribution and the more crap you download and add to the install, the more space it takes up, but in a world where you can buy 1tb harddrives these days, who cares? Anyway, it edits the NTboot loader and creates an option for ubuntu. I need to go in and change the timeout on it, but thats a minor thing (I believe that when there is an option on a non-mission critical machine, it should wait for you to select an OS no matter how long it waits….). I selected ubuntu and on first boot it took a bit of time and one reboot as it configured itself, after that though it was smooth sailing.

I did have to enable the closed source ATI drivers and add XGL support and beryl following some instructions I had found, but I would have had to do that on a regular install anyway (Thanks ATI!) and over all, I’d have to say, I’m pretty impressed. I have not tried the wireless connection yet, but the wired connection came right up and connected right away….

I’ll post some screenshots later today….