Free Software Programs Running on Free Linux Desktop – Ubuntu

August 6, 2008

This past long weekend (Canada’s Civic Day) I have been playing with a free linux-based desktop operating system on all the PCs in our house. It has a strange name: Ubuntu. I must say that I like it a lot – it is much better than Lindows/Linspire which I tried and abandoned years ago because it was very slow. But this is not the case for Ubuntu – although it takes some time to install it, once installed it runs faster than Windows.

And it is lighter too. It even runs on a 2GB thumb drive (USB flash or pen drive, whatever you may call it) within or without Windows.

Most importantly, it is total free! Not only you can install this linux operating system on your PC without any cost, you can run all those open-source linux script programs free as well. And it is much more secure than Windows. Having problems with Windows Vista – it is such a big monster – switch to Ubuntu then.

I did have some problem getting it installed on our newest HP computer (HP a6457c-b that comes with HP w2207h monitor). But eventually I got it worked and posted the experience on Ubuntu’s forum. Basically it was a monitor display issue. To be safe, always pick the safe graphic mode to install Ubuntu – after the installation is finished, you can play with the display and screen resolution.

I spent much time figuring out the best way to get it run on two of my USB thumb drives: one is 2GB DATA and the other is 8GB SanDisk Cruzer. After trying all kinds of tutorials for Windows and Linux environments, I have settled on these two approaches: (1) running Ubuntu from USB drive within Windows without rebooting and (2) running Ubuntu from USB drive with rebooting.

Running Ubuntu from USB Drive within Windows without Rebooting:

For this approach, I followed these instructions given here and installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my 2GB DATA USB drive (4GB is better). The nice thing is, I could run Ubuntu from this USB drive on almost any computer without rebooting the computer. It does ask you if you want to install a tiny QEMU accelerator program on the host computer in C:\Program Files\Kqemu – you can uninstall it easily by opening that folder and click the uninst.exe file in that folder. This approach is the best for demo – showing to your friends how Ubuntu works on their computers from within Windows XP or Vista.

Running Ubuntu from USB Drive with Rebooting:

For this approach, I followed these easy-to-understand instructions given here to install Ubuntu 8.04.1 (the most updated at the moment) on my 8GB SanDisk Cruzer USB drive. The advantage of this approach is that running Ubuntu from this USB does not alter anything on a host computer – leaving not even a trace on it. I can easily boot from it if the host computer allows for USB booting. All settings and changes stay there on the drive. Cool!

Good News – Install Ubuntu as a Regular Windows Program on Your Hard Drive

The latest build of Ubuntu (8.04.1 Hardy Heron) offers a new and optional installation utility called Wubi, an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Once the Ubuntu is installed using Wubi, you have a Windows/Ubuntu dual boot. To learn more about Wubi and download this Windows installer for Ubuntu, please go to http://wubi-installer.org

Update January 3, 2009: New version of Ubuntu (8.10) is now available. I have installed it and upgraded from 8.04 on several of our computers. It was a smooth process. If you are already running Ubuntu, please click here to learn how to upgrade from within your existing Ubuntu.

Update April 8, 2009: The most expected version of Ubuntu (9.04) is now on beta test before its official release on April 23, 2009. This version fixes many issues related to display, unsupported drives, boot performance etc. These changes should make testing and eventually installing Ubuntu on any PC even easier than before. If you are already running Ubuntu 8.10, please click here to learn how to upgrade from within your existing Ubuntu.

Note that if you still want to keep Windows on your PC, I now suggest you install it INSIDE Ubuntu like I said in this post. I do not recommend dual boot or installing Ubuntu as a Windows program any more. Install Ubuntu first and then install Windows inside Ubuntu through VirtualBox will make your Windows run the safest – you do not need to install any anti-virus or anti-worm program if you do it this way.

Update (April 24, 2009): Now the most recent version of Ubuntu, 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), has been released and I have successfully upgraded. The process was smooth with some glitches: (1) I needed to rebuild VirtualBox to run Windows inside this upgraded version of Ubuntu and (2) I need to MANUALLY install FileZilla, my favorite FTP client for Ubuntu, to make it work after the upgrade. All other things are fine.

Update (April 25, 2009): OK, more good news! Just learned from this Ubuntu forum post that FileZilla can be installed via “Synaptic Package Manager” if “Applications > Add/Remove” does not work. If you want to manually install the most updated version of FileZilla, make sure you download and install the filezilla-common file first before the actual installation, otherwise you will get a dependacy error. Another good news is that I find that VirtualBox works fine after Ubuntu upgrade without rebuilding if I install the VirtualBox from the Ubuntu packed version rather than a manually installed VirtualBox. This is what I learned after upgrading Ubuntu on another computer. Nice! So unless you are an experienced Linux user, install everything either using either the “Applications > Add/Remove” or “System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager” route. Try to stay away from manual installation as much as possible.

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