People who listen to me rant know that I’m a big fan of minimalism. Not just because I’m a hippy who doesn’t like accumulating possessions (Bluetooth gadgets excepted), but because I want to live my life in a way that’s sustainable to both myself and my environment. I usually refer to this as reducing entropy, which I think is an apt analogy. Well, it had recently been bugging me how reliant I was on Windows, which has an annoyingly high entropy level; even a simple task can almost never be done without extra time, processing, and complexity. The fact that I’ve been using it since I was 4 is a reasonable excuse, but it’s not cutting it any more.

So, I recently decided that I want to spend more time immersed in the Linux/Unix world. Not too long ago, I saw my usage of OSX go up dramatically, and I’ve been surprised at how much I dislike it. I really wanted to like it, I swear, but I just found it awkward and bulky in totally different ways than Windows (which is awkward and bulky in ways I’m slightly more accustomed to). So I decided to install Ubuntu on a machine at home, since that’s the Linux distro that everyone is always raving about. I was very quickly amazed. Before I even downloaded Ubuntu and started setting up a CD/USB installer, I came across something called Wubi that piqued my interest: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/windows-installer

I’m sorry, did I hear that right? I don’t even need an install disc/drive? I can set up my new OS using a package installer that runs in my current OS? And it configures dual boot for me? Even if I don’t have any unpartitioned drive space? *face melt*

The only thing I really remember being daunting about Linux is setting it up, and this just made the first chapter of that story completely disappear. However, the other chapters (drivers, apps, plugins, etc.) were even easier than I had hoped too. Drivers were pretty much a non-issue as well, seeing that everything worked upon initial boot (I just needed a custom driver to enable 3D hardware acceleration on my video card, but that was a piece of cake). Apps were where I was really pleased though, since I didn’t have to open terminal one single time to get all my software installed and configured. I honestly found Synergy (a great tool, if you haven’t used it) much easier to set up on Linux than on Windows or OSX. Chrome was a little difficult to find in the universal package installer, but going to the Chrome web site found me a .deb installer that was just as easy anyways.

So what did I dislike? Well, the Wubi installer definitely has some less than ideal behavior. It’s a Python app, and has trouble with removable media, so it will bring up error messages when you run it saying the drive couldn’t be loaded. Don’t think it’s broken, fiddle with it, and kill the task (like I did). All you need to do is continue clicking OK until all the error messages are done; the program still runs as designed. After setup, getting Flash to work was harder than I would have liked. I think most of my difficulties stemmed from wanting to download installers and run them instead of using the universal package installer utility, so your mileage may vary, but I had to fiddle with it before getting it to work. What seemed to make it work right was installing browsers first, then installing the main Flash package. Don’t even try to download a Flash installer from the web; it will make you want to punch a baby in the face.

I was really pleased with this, and immediately set it up on my laptop too! So my laptop is now dual booting, and I used the System > Advanced system settings > Startup and Recovery dialog in Windows to make Ubuntu the primary boot option instead of Windows. Now I just need to format the drive on that home machine and reinstall with Ubuntu alone — I can’t believe how much better it’s gotten in the past few years!

Also, one last sidenote: Ubuntu One is a cloud drive solution that’s tightly integrated with the OS and gives you 5GB of storage for free! It also has native sync apps for Android, iOS, and Windows!