Installing ubuntu with Windows XP Professional

So, I have a shiny (err...bit faded now) HCL leaptop (AMD Turion 64x2, 512MB RAM) with me preloaded with Windows XP SP2 (I was planning to upgrade to SP3, though) Someone adviced me to upgrade to Vista rather. Now I had a real painful experiance with installing and using Vista in the past for few of my friends. So, I googled for some alternative OS, and then I stumbled upon ubuntu

Getting ubuntu is easy - just log on to http://www.ubuntu.com and select your flavor. Just reach for http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ to get the latest release till this article.

I selected the Desktop version for AMD 64 (http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso)

For speed considerations in India, I downloaded it via Torrent system (http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-amd64.iso.torrent). I use uTorrent (http://www.utorrent.com) for all my torrent needs and I believe it is just perfect!

As the ISO file is downloading, get hold of a few handy tools in the meanwhile -

1) Download DaemonTools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php). This is a virtual CD/DVD drive emulator and we require this as I did not want to burn a CD for the ISO image. If you want to burn an ISO image, use Nero instead.

2) Download WUBI (http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/wubi.exe) a windows based ubuntu installer.


3) In case you have not spared a separate partition for ubuntu, do it now (this is not essential but is definetly adviced - this does not mean that Windows - Ubuntu cannot run together from the same partition) Use Partition Magic or Acronis Tools (www.acronis.com) to resize the partition without losing data. I chose Acronis.

.....

The ubuntu has now downloaded into an ISO image file.

Create/Resize a hard disk partition (in case you want a separate partition for ubuntu). (I had created F:\)

Install Daemon Tools and create a drive letter (I had H:\) and mount the image by browsing to the ISO image. This should create a natural looking CD drive - just like original!

Fire up WUBI. Select the installation drive to the newly created partition, keep the size to 10GB, create a login name and a good password (this shall be root administrator)...Then GO!

Wait...wait...for approximately 10 minutes (for my laptop) till it copies image to the mentioned drive. The machine reboots itself and for the first time you see Dual boot menu with you. Choose ubuntu and let the setup continue...

Another 20 minutes and ubuntu is smart enough to find and update itself with correct hardware configuration and drivers.

Tada....ubuntu ready at your service within 30 minutes of install. Up and running. Try using tools such as Open Office etc and see the resemblance to windows based MS office tools.

There was a lot of fun in tweaking various parts of this wonderful OS to make it look like Sci-Fi eye candy!! I am sure you would love every moment of it...