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never obsolete

Wubi (2008-2012) - a tool that installs Ubuntu from inside Windows

screenshot of the Wubi installer on Windows XP
6 January at 17:56 | Open on mastodon.social
19 comments
Successive Approximation Register
mmcm

@256 i used wubi a couple of times! I don't need it anymore after ditching windows right about 2012,but it's weird it'd be considered deprecated since it seems so practical...

6 January at 18:02 | Open on mastodon.social
Improving People NOT only Tech

@mmcm @256 - Where can I get this (I'm considering trying it)

- Deprecated in what sense? (probably according to makers but maybe you meant there is better?)

6 January at 18:23 | Open on qoto.org
mmcm

@freeschool @256 I don't think you can still get it, or rather, I don't think the last release will still work as intended, given that it is 13 years old. They seem to have stopped developing it, but like I said, I found it very clever and useful at the time since it made installing Ubuntu much less scary. I have no idea if something similar exists today though. *sigh*

6 January at 18:43 | Open on mastodon.social
Improving People NOT only Tech

@mmcm @256
Must be something around :¬)

One of the reasons I haven't done something about older machines is because they need a CD or USB to install which takes ages or material to install on older systems... but from inside is genius... Maybe I missed something here about that... seems genius...

6 January at 18:48 | Open on qoto.org
Improving People NOT only Tech

@mmcm @256
Seems a good fork exists:

github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi/

and general chat about it

askubuntu.com/questions/654990

(especially liked the 'it's not supported' being repeated but people saying it works fine (yes pinch of salt there also but a lot seems like there is a difference between 'we don't support / encourage it' and "it's more possible than not, do a backup first".)

6 January at 19:11 | Open on qoto.org
Zyro

@256 We need this back before October 14, 2025

6 January at 18:12 | Open on wolfdo.gg
Snep :floofBlep:

@256 Actually a pretty neat tool, it worked quite well the couple times I used it early in my computering days. Did it partition the C: drive to make space for an ext* partition or did it create a file-backed virtual root file system?

6 January at 19:08 | Open on y.diskcat.com
dzwdz
Pangolin Gerasim
grawity

@snep From what I remember, neither – it created a large loop image containing the ext3 root filesystem in C:\. (The initramfs did a dance to mount the NTFS partition using ntfs-3g, then loop-mount the Ubuntu rootfs at /, then move the NTFS mount to /host.)

(It also booted using Grub4dos chained *from* NTLDR, rather than the commonly done opposite, so users only saw the familiar Windows boot menu and it was much less likely to break.)

6 January at 20:15 | Open on social.treehouse.systems
sadmac356

@snep @256 it made a file-backed system from what I remember using it in 2013

6 January at 21:32 | Open on social.restless.systems
Mary
Full Queue Developer

@256 Wubi is an integral part of the wubisubi art movement. Wubsubi celebrates imperfect circumstances regarding virtualized operating systems and containerization💜

6 January at 22:36 | Open on mastodon.online
Petra

@256 a pretty great intro to Linux - until it broke, but by then i was convinced enough to do a proper install

6 January at 23:33 | Open on cloudisland.nz
LeRoy Miller

@PetraOleum @256 I used it a couple of times to save old Win XP tablets that didn't have CDRoms, and couldn't boot off USB.

7 January at 0:40 | Open on mastodon.radio
Hawlucha

@256 The only software I know of that lets me boot into a Linux on my Toshiba Windows Tablet since its own bootloader is limited to booting into Windows. As far as I can tell, it doesn't let me choose where to boot from, so Wubi helps with that

7 January at 8:30 | Open on donphan.social
Iaη

@256
Wubi is what freed me! Changing OS is always a step into the unknown. Wubi made it easy to peek behind the curtain.

It's important to realise how big a barrier there is. Users are very familiar with installing programs. So installing Wubi was much the same. Something easy to try out ,with no commitment.

7 January at 10:06 | Open on mastodon.cloud
Ozzelot :anarchy: :linux:

@256
That was my first Ubuntu experience.

7 January at 12:07 | Open on mstdn.social
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