There’s this thing about Linux that says “Well, as a matter of fact, you can have it all.”
When I decided to try switching to Linux, I really didn’t want to lose all of my Windows stuff. I don’t hate Windows at all. I really like Windows 7 and I’m pretty excited to see Windows 8, especially running on a tablet. Besides, I’ve worked in Windows for years and I have a lot of stuff on the Windows side of my computer. So there’s an option you can try for giving Linux a spin and it’s called Wubi. I’ve spoken about it before, but there’s a bit that I left out that, on this final day of a week of Linux, I wanted to bring up.
All of my music, all of my art, all of my creative projects are on the Windows side of my computer. I got a message from a few people that I could just mount the Windows partition and I’d never have to boot into Windows again.
Oh look! There's all my Windows stuff!
Well sure, but why would I want to do that when Wubi doesn’t even really work that way? See, Wubi works like any other Windows programme. It just so happens that it boots you into Ubuntu whenever you care to have it. It doesn’t take anything away from your Windows install except the disk space you used to install it. And it’s the same disk space, no partitions or anything. So would you like to access your Windows files in Linux? Sure you would. So navigate your Gnome or Unity file browser to /host
To answer the next question, yes, you can pretty much launch and use any file on the Windows side in Ubuntu. I’ve already added my music library (Windows side) to Clementine (Linux side). I’ve been watching movies from the Windows side in SMplayer and the whole bit.
Now, you’re not going to be able to easily run Windows apps in Linux. It’s not impossible, but it’s far beyond the scope of this little series for me to get into how to do it. But really, at the end of the week, do you know what Windows app I miss the most?
There isn’t one.
No no no. The other Chromium.
Probably 80% of my computer life goes through a browser, Chrome being my preference. Yup, got Chromium in Linux, it was probably the third thing I installed after firing up Ubuntu via Wubi. I use Windows Media Player to watch videos, and SMPlayer does that too. I use Winamp for music, and I like Clementine so much that I’m going to install the Windows version of it and remove Winamp.
After seven days of not using Windows at all on my laptop, I can tell you this. I still enjoy and need Windows for certain things, especially work related items and stuff. But for almost everything else, I’ve made the switch. I’ve always been a fan of open source software and I’m now a solid fan and user of Linux.
