Conclusion
Although it took us a while to find all the software we liked to replace what we used, and to discover things like Compiz existed, once we knew all this, it took us about 3-hours to install, download and configure a working Ubuntu 9.04 Linux computer with Compiz running a Windows Vista theme. You might not be as quick, and how fast you are able to do this depends on things like your broadband connection. Ubuntu is a 600MB+ CD image so it might take some time to download. And things like OpenOffice (300MB+), Gimp, Inkscape, etc. all add up. Regardless of the time it takes, you can do it in stages, and Ubuntu installs next to Windows so you can boot between each Operating system.
Tips for Installing Ubuntu next to Windows
- Make sure you allow at least 20GB of space for Ubuntu to function properly
- Use your Windows space for your Documents and other personal files. Linux can handle seeing a Windows hard disk, but Windows can’t handle a Linux hard disk (for you techies, Linux supports NTFS and FAT32 while Windows doesn’t support ext2 or ext3 unless you download some 3rd-party software, we tried that but couldn’t get it to work cleanly)
- Try to install/keep all your applications in your Windows disk space, that way both Linux and Windows versions of applications can access the program folders in case you are able to share settings.
- If you use VirtualBox to install a Windows virtual computer, don’t expect it to be as fast as your computer. A virtual computer runs much slower, and doesn’t use up all your memory, so check to see if it will run fast enough for what you want to do. It works great for running Microsoft Office, and decent for things like Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop, but it’s not great for high-end games.
- There is a program called Wine which allows you to run some Windows applications actually inside of Linux. But this is tricky to use so try the VirtualBox option first.
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