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Are you aware of ‘WUBI‘ yet? Though it sounds very much like an Android application, it is not. It’s all about Linux. Wubi is an official Microsoft Windows based free software installer for Ubuntu operating system. It installs the Ubuntu on a Microsoft Windows machine just like installing an application and is a safe and convenient way for Microsoft users to try out Linux operating system. The main advantage of using Wubi is that you wouldn’t have to manually partition your machine. The Ubuntu machine will be installed as a separate stand alone operating system and not as a virtual machine.

It has to be clearly understood that Wubi is not a Linux distribution. It is just an installer for Ubuntu which you can download freely from the internet. Wubi adds an entry to the Windows boot menu which allows the user to run Linux. Ubuntu is installed within a file in the Windows file system (c:\ubuntu\disks\root.disk), as opposed to being installed within its own partition.

With this method, the process of installing a Linux system as a dual-boot setup is just like installing any Windows application, namely running an executable. Thus the Wubi installation will give you a real Linux system, and not an emulation.

What many of us face while uninstalling a Linux partition is that the boot loader of Microsoft Windows gets corrupted and we have to repair it before we can use Windows again. However, with Wubi this is simple. Uninstall your Ubuntu OS just like uninstalling any program in Windows by accessing the ‘Add/remove programs’ menu from the control panel of Windows. This will successfully uninstall your Ubuntu machines without affecting the existing Windows OS.

The file system is implemented as a single file and hence compromises on performance. The project’s aim is to enable existing Microsoft Windows users, unacquainted with Linux, to try Ubuntu without risking any data loss. A related project, ‘Lubi’, uses Linux as the host system instead of Microsoft Windows.