Thursday, October 12, 2006

using Linux

Okay... Everyone knows about Linux. A lot of people even like Linux. But who in 7 hells actually uses it?

Well, I do, now. And I can literally uninstall it in 5 seconds if I wanted to. How?

Take a look:

As you can see, I'm running it from inside Windows. I've dual-booted Linux in the past, and you know what that entailed? Partitioning my hard drive. I don't know about you, but I hate segregating. It's virtually racism.

... Applause for the pun? No? Okay, I'll continue.

So who would want to use Xubuntu? Here's what Xubuntu is:

"Xubuntu is a complete GNU/Linux based system with an Ubuntu base. It's lighter, and more efficient than Ubuntu with GNOME or KDE, since it uses the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, as well as thin-client networks."

No visual tricks or doohickeys or anything like that. I can even have Xubuntu running while I'm playing a game, while it only takes up 90 megabytes of RAM (not that I would, but I'm just saying...).

Here are the pros:
  • No partitioning of disks!
  • If you don't like it, delete it!
  • Boot time is faster than if you installed in natively!
  • You still have Windows!
  • Making Virtual PC full screen makes it feel as if you are on a Xubuntu machine.
  • If you aren't familiar with the benefits of the Ubuntu Linux, go here.
  • Browsing the web can't possibly be safer:
    1. It's Firefox
    2. It's Linux
    3. Even if a virus manages to screw all that up, your Windows can NOT be affected outside the Virtual Machine. 1337.

And the cons:
  • Does not include a source compiler unless you use alternate install CD.
  • A few of the games that ship with Ubuntu need to be installed... which is a really easy thing to do in Linux.
  • Takes up 128 MB of ram to run comfortably... OMGWTFBBQ!

If you've ever wanted to try Linux, but wanted to keep Windows, and didn't want to partition your disks (partitioning disks is potentially dangerous... it killed my sister), I definitely recommend Microsoft Virtual PC with Xubuntu. Both are free downloads. If you aren't that computer savvy, then this couldn't be any safer: You simply cannot mess up your computer while installing this. It's safe, secure, and fast.

Choosing amount of RAM for Xubuntu:


One way of deleting Xubuntu once you've screwed it up:


That, in the above picture, is a virtual hard drive, and I can install as many operating systems as I want to it. Buahaha.

Future post: Using Virtual PC with Ubuntu, since I haven't actually tried it yet (with Virtual PC) and probably should before I continue talking about how great Xubuntu runs on VPC.

3 comments:

Rasengan Zero said...

So THAT'S what Xubuntu is? Hmm hmm, looks like I'll have to look into this more.

Anonymous said...

jesse, you're too much of a geek.

Artem Kaznatcheev said...

Jesse, you are pretty awesome.