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I have a laptop with Windows 10. I have to get Ubuntu for a project. I did some research and according to this, I can run it on Windows 10.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

Is it better to download Ubuntu from Ubuntu website and use it alongside the Windows operating system or go ahead and use it on Windows?

muru
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Jack
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    If you just need a "simple" Ubuntu setup for a singe / temporary project, consider running a VM on your windows installation. Virtualbox might be 1 possible virtual machine software. – dufte Jun 08 '16 at 18:21
  • You cannot physically (install and) use Ubuntu INSIDE Windows. Almost no linux can do such thing, with one exception: CoLinux (a.k.a. Cooperative Linux). But that's a very old linux. Not recommended for beginners. You could either install Ubuntu alongside Win, or erase Win and install Ubuntu instead. If you're absolute new to Ubuntu (or linux in general) it's better to keep Win installed for a while (just as a safe-net). – ipse lute Jun 08 '16 at 18:40
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    @Maryann Ethan Just install VirtualBox and download Ubuntu iso and install it as a virtual machine! You have a lot of tutorials on youtube! – lewis4u Jun 08 '16 at 19:11
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    It depends what the project is. If you are just doing programming on an Ubuntu terminal, then probably (but keep in mind Ubuntu Subsystem for Windows is still in beta). If you need any graphical programs, or any parts of the Linux kernel, then no. Anyway, the simplest solution is probably to set up a VM. – wjandrea Jun 08 '16 at 19:55
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    ipse lute, the questioner is more up to date than you are. The Windows NT Subsystem for Linux supports running Ubuntu binaries and Fedora binaries straight on top of Windows NT. Indeed, one does install them as packages, in the usual way, straight from a vanilla Ubuntu/Fedora repository. Welcome to 2016! There's an Ubuntu on Linux, an Ubuntu on Windows NT, and an Ubuntu on FreeBSD. – JdeBP Jun 10 '16 at 10:20

3 Answers3

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I have to get Ubuntu for a project.

You need to be more specific than that. What are the requirements? Running a Desktop environment? Some people achieved doing that with xming, but it's not recommended and not a setup we support here at AskUbuntu. If you just need Bash it might cover your needs, but you will need to switch your installation to receive Insider builds, because this feature hasn't been officially released yet. Insider builds are not ready for production, so you shouldn't use these unless your project is about evaluating this particular feature in its current state. Another downside is that new Insider builds are very similar to certain stages of (re-)installing Windows, they take a considerable amount of time complete and are heavy in disk utilization. (New builds land every few weeks but on occasions they can happen more than once in a week.) Clearly, it's not for production use on just one laptop you may have. (I have spare devices like a Windows Phone, an older Laptop and a VM in the fast ring, so I have some experience with Insider builds.)

Use a VM. Best of all, you can snapshot any time.

LiveWireBT
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  • I want to install GNU radio. I have installed the Ubunt live usb but it is sluggish. – Jack Jun 16 '16 at 15:07
  • If GNU radio still behaves sluggish after configuring the VM so that it can take advantage of the hosts hardware resources (Install the 64 Bit version if you have a 64 Bit CPU, add more RAM and CPU cores to the VM, ensure that VT-x/AMD-V and other technologies are active), then you should install Ubuntu alongside Windows. A new question about what you're trying to accomplish with GNU Radio and with which hardware resources would be a good idea. May be the folks at http://ham.stackexchange.com can help you out if your question is too complex for AskUbuntu. – LiveWireBT Jun 16 '16 at 21:28
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That does not say you can run Ubuntu on Windows 10, it says you can run a bash shell on Windows 10, that is nothing like running the Ubuntu OS on Windows.

While bash is a big part of Ubuntu it exists separately from Ubuntu and is the interface for most Linux based OS.

The point of bash for Windows is just to bring the functionality of the bash shell to Windows 10.

You would be looking for a full install, please see this question for instructions.

Community
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Mark Kirby
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  • "Ubuntu on Windows" is a bit of a misnomer, no? It's more like "Ubuntu Bash prompt and CLI programs on Windows" – wjandrea Jun 08 '16 at 19:44
  • I think it is called "bash on ubuntu on windows" officially but that is not much better IMO. It is a branding thing, canonical and microsoft developed it together and the name Ubuntu is a lot more mainstream than just bash, I guess. @wjandrea – Mark Kirby Jun 08 '16 at 19:49
  • I just watched the video here where they call it "Linux Subsystem for Windows" which makes even less sense, because there's no kernel in it. Oh well... – wjandrea Jun 08 '16 at 19:52
  • I saw that in windows when I activated it but that is the only place I see that name and I agree, that is a bad name too. @wjandrea – Mark Kirby Jun 08 '16 at 19:54
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    @wjandrea You're conflating 2 different things: "Linux Subsystem for Windows" is the basic component you install in Windows to add the functionality, the Ubuntu branded Bash application is what you install next, an image of the Ubuntu root filesystem. – LiveWireBT Jun 08 '16 at 23:15
  • Sorry - a lot of incorrect statements here - see my response for details. – Rich Turner Aug 30 '16 at 00:49
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Now that Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Win10AU) has been released, I wanted to clear up a few points:

Terminology:

  1. Yes, the naming of this stuff is far from optimal, but just be glad we didn't call this thing Windows Subsystem for Running POSIX, GNU and Linux Compatible Command Line Tools and Applications - WSRPGLCCLTA ;)
  2. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is the name of the (optional) Windows feature that provides a distro-agnostic, Linux kernel compatible, infrastructure that can load and run unmodified Linux ELF-64 binaries
  3. Bash.exe is the Windows executable that runs when you enter bash at the Windows Command-Prompt/PowerShell/etc. All it does is open a console Window and asks WSL to start-up the /bin/bash Linux binary.
  4. Bash on Ubuntu on Windows is the name of the Ubuntu instance you install when you run Bash.exe for the first time after enabling developer-mode and WSL
  5. I often refer to Bash/WSL as a shortcut to refer to the entire feature set.
  6. Bash/WSL is FAR more than just the Bash prompt - it allows you to run many/most GNU/Linux user-land command-line tools directly on Windows. Thus, it allows you to run and install/manage packages using apt-get and dpkg.
  7. Bash/WSL is a "Beta" feature in Win10AU as it's not yet complete. While it runs many tools very well, its networking stack and device support in particular need work. We're continuing to add additional capabilities for future releases as rapidly as possible

To answer @Maryann Ethan's original question:

You may be able to run what you need on Bash/WSL. If you cannot, you may want to use a VM instead as @LiveWireBT suggested

Why/when would you use Bash/WSL vs. a VM?

A Linux VM and the associated VM infrastructure (e.g. Hyper-V / VirtualBox / VMWare / etc.) consumes quite a lot of space and resources. However, a VM gives a full-fidelity Linux experience.

Bash/WSL requires FAR less resources/space and sits alongside the rest of your Windows tools, apps, etc. and can directly access files on your Windows filesystem if you wish, making it very productive, very quickly. However, Bash/WSL is very new and as yet incomplete, so you may well find incompatibilities or issues.

HTH.

Rich Turner
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