After hearing lots of folks talking up Ubuntu, and how cool it is, and how much better Linux is than Windows, I figured that maybe I should give it a shot. Yet I didn’t want to go through all the trouble of setting up a different partition, configuring the software, and generally mucking about with yet another operating system install. So I hesitated, and played around with my buddies linux box a bit, and mostly just hemmed and hawed about it. Then, a friend of mine suggested Wubi, a windows based installer for Ubuntu. What did I have to loose, right?

It turns out, I had nothing to use, and everything to gain.

So I downloaded the installer, which proceeded to download the newest version of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. It took a long while, but I played on the internet until it was done. So, install done, I restarted as prompted and Ubuntu did its thing. The install was utterly painless – no problems finding drivers for my hardware, and it even auto-detected my Wi-Fi card. About an hour later, I was tinkering around with my first Linux install.

I had a bit of trouble getting my wireless network configured, but i would guess I didn’t spend more than three or four hours in total solving the problem (turns out I had the WEP key wrong, silly me!). Once the internet was up, I went about trying out all the fun little programs, updating my software, and generally having a grand old time.

My first impresison of Ubuntu is excellent. Part of me wonders where this operating system (and the gazillion free programs that run on it) has been all my life. So, here I am, typing up this post in Ubuntu, a scant day after installing the operating system. I gotta say, Linux might not be for everyone, but it’s sure for me! I think the best part was plugging in my graphics tablet and not even needing to install the driver – it just worked! I had a bear of a time trying to get it to work in windows, but oddly enough, it just worked out of the box with Ubuntu.

None of this would have been possible without Wubi. It was that simple program that made installing Ubunutu for a windows user as easy as any other program. Wubi’s genius is that it holds all the linux files in one folder in your windows installation, which it tricks the OS into thinking is a mounted hard drive. So if I had decided that linux wasn’t for me, all I had to do was uninstall the program in windows. For this reason, Wubi is the perfect tool for checking out Linux in a safe and easy manner. If you’ve ever even thought about checking out Ubuntu, give it a try! You might decide that an open source operating system is actually darn cool!

As for what’s next? I like Ubunutu so much that I’m thinking about ditching windows completely if it’s possible. There are still a few workarounds for getting Adobe Creative Suite to work in Linux, but if the hack I found works as intended, I might be saying goodbye to windows for good. I do know one thing. I really like this operating system, and I’m going to be uninstalling the Wubi version (or moving it) and making a real partition on my hard drive. If nothing else, I’m dead set on at least running a dual boot system from now on. Viva la Linux!

If you liked that, try...

1. Ubuntu 8.04 Released
2. Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Hits Final Release
3. Review of Ubuntu 7.10
4. Ubuntu 7.10 Is Here
5. Feisty Fawn Impressions

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