Printable View
are there any Linux versions out there that run on top of windows i really want to try out linux but it's kinda hard to give up my windows even though it's very unstable, i've grown on it! i've also heard of a program called WinLinux is that any good?
so please any suggestions? Thanks.
I'd reccomend dual booting linux with windows rather than running linux on top of windows, you won't get the true linux experience when you're sharing memory space with windows - here's an article with some pointers - http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue38/veselosky.html
If you absolutely must use linux on top of windows then, yes, there is a program called winlinux, its at winlinux.net i believe - can't say i've ever used it though.
If you have Mandrake linux then there's a folder called lnx4win on the cd, read the instructions and you should figure it out. I tried using it but it does get messed up when run over windows.
You can run Linux on your computer without repartitioning or dual booting!
Slackware Linux has an interesting distribution called Zip Slack. It's a small zip file, around 40 megs I think, that you can download. Then you can very simply start and run a stripped down version of linux from windows. The best part is if you screw it up you can always delete the directory in windows, unzip and start over.
If you'd like a more full featured Linux you can get Big Slack. There are a lot more zip files, but it includes the Gnome desktop and many more features.
This is not the answer to your question, but it can maybe be a solution for you.
With WMware workstation you can run virtual computers under your Windows OS. You can find a evaluation and more information about WMware workstation here.
Remember that it's always best to run a native OS instead of virtual computers. But this can be a good solution for you during the time you consider to give up Windows for a better OS :-).
Mandrake 7 and later,
Corel Linux
and ZipSlack
All have options to install and run inside Windows
Though as everyone else has stated it's far better tyo give linux either its own partition or even a whole computer all to itself!!!
Last year I downloaded a 184 mb version of linux called winlinux 2000. It booted from windows. Problem was that it didnt have many drivers in comparison to a full featured version like mandrake. Also the third party programs it came with were limited, and programs you downloaded for linux did not work with it. Overall it sucked pretty bad. I still have it on cd rom, but I dont use it. If you are interested check out
http://www.winlinux.net
IMHO, don't use linux on top of windows. It'll give you false idea on linux. You're likely to crash often (which doesn't really happen with linux), be running slow cause you won't be able to use all the resources, and not have a proper environment (networking, multitasking...). If you're really small on disk space, try to get a 800 Meg partition and install RedHat 6.0. A full install takes ~550 Megs. At worse, some linux versions allow you to boot of a floppy without having to do any kind of partitioning.
For even smaller linux versions, try 'Peanut Linux'. It's linux optimized for 486 internet browsing. Pretty good.
Hope that helps...