About two years ago, I wrote a blog about using Ubuntu. I was impressed and quite pleased at how solid the OS was out of the box, once installed. However, since that time, I just haven't dabbled in Linux that much. Once I got my current laptop, I read that Ubuntu didn't play to happy with Acer laptops. But, the bug to play around was too strong, and so, when I stumbled across Wubi, I couldn't resist.

Wubi is an installer for Ubuntu that runs in Windows. The beauty of it is that you don't need to mess around with partitions, setting up any swap file space, etc. You download a 10 meg program and run that. It will set up a folder on your current hard drive and install Ubuntu there. Want to uninstall? Just boot to Windows and run Wubi again, selecting the option to uninstall and *POOF*, Ubuntu is gone.

At least that is what they promise.

But does it deliver?

In my experience, it works beautifully.

I downloaded Wubi and double clicked on it. It gave me the option to install to my D drive (the partition that has my media, not my Windows installation). It gave me the option of how much space to allocate (I went with the default 10 gigs). I hit run and it was off.

Wubi downloaded the ISO for Ubuntu, checked the checksum and then asked me to reboot. I rebooted and got the bootloader to boot to either Windows of Ubuntu. To make sure everything was happy, I booted to Windows, found it behaving perfectly and all my data where it should be. Rebooted and this time selected Ubuntu. Ubuntu went through its installation process, which probably only took about 15 minutes.

The Ubuntu log in screen loaded, I logged in and withing seconds Ubuntu was up and running. My wireless was working out of the box. The only thing that was a bit off was the driver for my ATI card. Simple enough, I found an excellent walkthrough on the official Ubuntu forums to get my ATI driver running. Took probably all of 10 minutes, and that was mostly the time waiting while I updated Ubuntu, upgraded the kernel, etc. Restart, boot to Ubuntu and my ATI card was working perfectly, at the correct resolution.

Everything, with the exception of the built in webcam (which I never use) was working perfectly. I decided I would go for a little bit more fun, and installed Compiz-Fusion. Again, I followed the walkthrough from the forums and it worked flawlessly. Within minutes, I had beautiful transparent window frames, super smooth animations while dragging windows, a very cool 3D cube to switch virtual desktops, etc.

I have been able to get everything running well. I have Amarok, Rhythmbox and Songbird all playing my MP3 collection well, I have Office software, the internet, etc. everything working as I need to. In fact, I have spent the last three days using Ubuntu exclusively. I have to say, the effects from Compiz Fusion blow away anything Windows has to offer. It is so smooth, so fluid and so classy. This is seriously cool stuff.

Just to make sure it truly was easy, I booted to Windows, ran Wubi and uninstalled Ubuntu. Within seconds, it was gone, my system was completely stable, Windows is running without any evidence anything has happened. Wubi saved the ISO, so I went ahead and reinstalled Ubuntu. Probably 45 minutes later I had it running, Compiz Fusion installed, my MP3 library organized and everything ready to go. Much faster than trying to do a clean install of Windows XP and get it to a running, fully functional state that has everything I need.

I think I will be dual booting for a long time. This is just too easy, too fun, and too cool.