Ubuntu

a simple linux exe.....

Asked by krisply

So many times I have been in a situation where I needed the swiss army knife of a linux system,
and then I am faced with the obtaining of and burning of a CD or the fraught process of making a bootable usb stick.
This morning is such a time and I have no access to either.

Does anyone remember a linux distro that came in an exe, you downloaded into a windows box and just ran it and up popped
a running linux system?!!!!!
This was the ultimate installation-free, try-before-you-buy live linux.
Why oh why has that method not been adopted?
I find it staggering that an opportunity to reduce the impedance to adoption isn't so obvious that no-one would think not
to include it as an option!

yours in despair - K

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Why not use Virtualnbox.....

You can run the live CD desktop in Virtualbox and it will pop straight up. You can even install to a virtual harddrive.

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Thomas Krüger (thkrueger) said : 		#2

Just to answer your question:

You can not simply run a Linux distribution as an exe. It's not an application, it's an operating system.
There are of cause some options that might help you with your problem:

a) you can run it in an virtual machine simulating a computer (as Andrew pointed out).
b) there are some of the most commonn tools for Linux available for Windows in the cygwin environment: https://www.cygwin.com/
c) there are numerious option to access an installed Linux on an other machine from Windows.
d) you can install Ubuntu in parallel
e) you can make a bootable media, on USB stick even with persistance.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask krisply for more information if necessary.

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