Looking for a specialty flavor Linux

[Larryrl]

I seek a distro that can run inside windows 10, in a directory on the windows 10 hard drive which does not need a special partition. Co Linux did it way back there around the windows 95/98 period, but I do not know of any now that might. I use Puppy Linux and I like the look and feel of it, so I can usually find my way around in a distro. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Larry

 

[Bayou Bengal]

Hi Larry! Welcome to Linux.org! I don't know if what you are looking for exists today, but if it does you'll probably find it on DistroWatch.
Here is the link: https://distrowatch.com/

 

[JasKinasis]

I can't think of anything offhand... At least not Linux that will run inside Windows.

I know that Windows10 supposedly has a Linux subsystem built in that allows bash to be ran natively along with various other Linux applications. But I don't know much about it. Work haven't "upgraded" us to Windows 10 yet!

I'm not sure if it's any help, but on my windows 7 pc at work (where I have to use Windows - and not by choice!), I have installed cygwin and added X11. Plus tons of other additional free software, to make my work day a bit more productive and make the experience more linux-like.

There are a few different desktops that can run in X11 on Cygwin too: KDE, Gnome, Mate etc. But I prefer tiling wm's over traditional desktops, so I manually built and installed dwm (which works brilliantly) with a few other suckless.org tools. So I haven't tried gnome, KDE or mate on Windows yet!

So if windows 10's native Linux sub-system isn't quite what you want, you could perhaps try Cygwin. Running X11 on top of Cygwin on Windows is almost exactly like running Linux. I mean, you have bash (and an assortment of other shells), plus an extensive toolkit that renders CMD and powershell useless in comparison.

On Windows, Cygwin is an indispensable asset. For me at least!

 

[atanere]

Linux did it way back there around the windows 95/98 period, but I do not know of any now that might.

Hi Larry, and welcome! I think what you're describing here was called Wubi which was used to make Ubuntu Linux run like a Windows program. It has been discontinued for some time now, but there is another project that is still making Wubi work, now with Windows 10. Personally, this is not the way I would go, but maybe you will like to pursue this method.

My advice is to install VirtualBox in Windows (a free program) and to use it to create Linux "virtual machines" for your needs. No special partitions are needed, as you request. But each Linux you install will need to be contained in a .vdi file... it can be fixed size (about 20 GB for each distro) or it can be set to grow in size as needed, but it is somewhat faster or more responsive if you set a fixed size. If you want to use a virtual machine long term, you should probably make the fixed size larger so you can install other programs, etc.

You can create each Linux virtual machine directly from the Linux .iso file that you will download so that you do not need to burn the .iso to a DVD or USB stick first. The Linux virtual machines can sometimes (not always) be run in full screen, if you want, or otherwise they appear just about like any other window. You will also have to allocate a fixed amount of RAM to each virtual machine... enough for the VM to run comfortably, but not to short Windows 10 too much so that it suffers in performance. You sometimes have to experiment a bit to find reasonable values for RAM and .vdi fixed disk sizes. If you have a lot of RAM, you can actually run 2 or 3 or more Linux distros at the same time, each like it is just another Windows app.

Most Linux distros will install and run fairly well in VirtualBox, but not all. I'm not sure which would be troublesome offhand, but Google might answer that question with each one that you plan to install. When you get tired of any distro, you just delete it with VirtualBox and also tell it to remove all files so you recover the hard disk space. It's not a perfect solution, so you may encounter issues, but it is a fairly good method to achieve your goal, I think, without causing any permanent changes to your computer hardware or settings.

Besides VirtualBox, there are other similar programs, like VMWare, but I have only tinkered with VirtualBox myself. Good luck!

Cheers

 

[wizardfromoz]

WUBI might be worth a shot.

(Wizard appears in a puff of smoke, trips over Puppy, curses, then sees how small & cute it is, relents)

Hi @Larryrl and welcome to linux.org

WIZARD'S RECOMMENDED READING

https://www.howtogeek.com/170870/5-ways-to-run-linux-software-on-windows/

The above is nearly 5 years old, Larry, but includes references to your coLinux, WUBI, Cygwin and VMs. Current articles from HowToGeek are always worth a look.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(software)

Even Wikipedia can make mistakes, and although it says Wubi was discontinued with Ubuntu 13.04, it was certainly back with 14.04 (still supported until April 2019), and was included with 14.10 and 15.04, I used them.

Wubi was developed by Agostino Russo and later Geza Kovacs (who develops Unetbootin, a burning solution) came onboard.

The above, I started writing 10 hours ago and saved it as a draft.

Newer stuff commences here, still with Reading.

https://www.lifewire.com/wubi-linux-installation-program-2201175

The above is 4th May just passed, and so refers to the re-established, WUBIuefi.

BTW I note, only now that two of Stan's (@atanere 's) links are the same as mine, he's a smart sod

I haven't tried cygwin, but if Jas says it's good, it's good.

With WUBI and VMs, they only take up a folder, which you can blow away (& perhaps clean up some peripheral stuff with housekeeping later).

So plenty of choices.

Enjoy

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Larryrl]

Thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate it. I am currently downloading virtual box and will try to install it and set up my chaletos there as well as several other distros I've been wanting to play with. Well so far I have got chaletos up and running in virtual box. It always comes up with a menu and if nothing is done it boots the live os. It has an option to install the os, but I am not sure where it would go. would it go in the virtual file, or would it install messing up the windows 10. For now I will just play with it unntil I get more familiar with both the chaletos and the virtual box.

Larry

 

[atanere]

If you have any trouble with VirtualBox, we have covered some ground with it before about installing Linux from .iso files. Take a look at this post for a step-by-step description. It was written to install Linux Mint, but you can adapt to any distro I think. You may need to adjust the RAM and hard disk sizes from what was described.

After you complete a Linux install into VirtualBox, you may need to go back into the setting where you told it where the .iso was and then delete that. Otherwise I think it will continue to try to boot in "live mode" unless you arrow down on the boot menu to tell it to boot on hard disk each time. By "hard disk" it means the installed distro now. Good luck!

Cheers

 

[Larryrl]

If you have any trouble with VirtualBox, we have covered some ground with it before about installing Linux from .iso files. Take a look at this post for a step-by-step description. It was written to install Linux Mint, but you can adapt to any distro I think. You may need to adjust the RAM and hard disk sizes from what was described.

After you complete a Linux install into VirtualBox, you may need to go back into the setting where you told it where the .iso was and then delete that. Otherwise I think it will continue to try to boot in "live mode" unless you arrow down on the boot menu to tell it to boot on hard disk each time. By "hard disk" it means the installed distro now. Good luck!

Cheers

Ok, so got the virtual box installed and have about 6 different distros installed. Then I installed some odd os' just because they looked or sounded cool. Linux mint was by far the easiest to setup, but it does not recognize any accelleration so it runs in software rendering mode. Zavenos runs and I can use the browser to go anywhere I wish, but try to install a package from the ubuntu repository or whatever it's called and it returns an error message asking me to check my connection. I'm like you let me go to google.com, and youtube using the web browser, how do I have a bad connection? Heh. Anyway just messing around with them and seeing what I can do and which I like most and will eventually weed out the rest. Chaletos runs and does nicely. elememtary is so elementaryt I just cannot use it because I never find what I need.

 

[Larryrl]

I can't think of anything offhand... At least not Linux that will run inside Windows.

I know that Windows10 supposedly has a Linux subsystem built in that allows bash to be ran natively along with various other Linux applications. But I don't know much about it. Work haven't "upgraded" us to Windows 10 yet!

I'm not sure if it's any help, but on my windows 7 pc at work (where I have to use Windows - and not by choice!), I have installed cygwin and added X11. Plus tons of other additional free software, to make my work day a bit more productive and make the experience more linux-like.

There are a few different desktops that can run in X11 on Cygwin too: KDE, Gnome, Mate etc. But I prefer tiling wm's over traditional desktops, so I manually built and installed dwm (which works brilliantly) with a few other suckless.org tools. So I haven't tried gnome, KDE or mate on Windows yet!

So if windows 10's native Linux sub-system isn't quite what you want, you could perhaps try Cygwin. Running X11 on top of Cygwin on Windows is almost exactly like running Linux. I mean, you have bash (and an assortment of other shells), plus an extensive toolkit that renders CMD and powershell useless in comparison.

On Windows, Cygwin is an indispensable asset. For me at least!

Ok, so a little about me I love linux don't get me wrong, but bash makes me just want to bash to computer to bits. Seriously, can they make anything more cryptic? It is nice though how if I get close to a correct keyword, it shows me the proper syntax. I found out you have to install a file to a specific place you can't just say install revenline.ttf. I am sure it will get easier with time.

 

[Larryrl]

WUBI might be worth a shot.

(Wizard appears in a puff of smoke, trips over Puppy, curses, then sees how small & cute it is, relents)

Hi @Larryrl and welcome to linux.org

WIZARD'S RECOMMENDED READING

https://www.howtogeek.com/170870/5-ways-to-run-linux-software-on-windows/

The above is nearly 5 years old, Larry, but includes references to your coLinux, WUBI, Cygwin and VMs. Current articles from HowToGeek are always worth a look.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(software)

Even Wikipedia can make mistakes, and although it says Wubi was discontinued with Ubuntu 13.04, it was certainly back with 14.04 (still supported until April 2019), and was included with 14.10 and 15.04, I used them.

Wubi was developed by Agostino Russo and later Geza Kovacs (who develops Unetbootin, a burning solution) came onboard.

The above, I started writing 10 hours ago and saved it as a draft.

Newer stuff commences here, still with Reading.

https://www.lifewire.com/wubi-linux-installation-program-2201175

The above is 4th May just passed, and so refers to the re-established, WUBIuefi.

BTW I note, only now that two of Stan's (@atanere 's) links are the same as mine, he's a smart sod

I haven't tried cygwin, but if Jas says it's good, it's good.

With WUBI and VMs, they only take up a folder, which you can blow away (& perhaps clean up some peripheral stuff with housekeeping later).

So plenty of choices.

Enjoy

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

You bring up a good point. However, I went with virtual box. Still though I wonder why a version of a distro is only good untill a certain date, and then it's no longer supported. That was what was wrong with windows, only with windows they did not always continue make the newer versions backwards compatible.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Got a little bit of light reading for you if you are interested?

but bash makes me just want to bash to computer to bits. Seriously, can they make anything more cryptic? It is nice though how if I get close to a correct keyword, it shows me the proper syntax. I found out you have to install a file to a specific place you can't just say install revenline.ttf. I am sure it will get easier with time.

https://www.tecmint.com/different-types-of-linux-shells/

If you are a point and click devotee, you may well be able to get around in Linux without noticing a problem. Brian (@Condobloke , whom you'll meet) and I know a bloke from my old forum, name of MadmanRB, Manjaro user, who used to say he had not used Terminal in 7 years, lol. But there are cases where a Distro will head south for the winter, and you are dropped to a prompt saying "grub>" or "grub rescue>", when you will need the CLI (command line interface).

You can learn it yourself, or just ask around here

Zavenos runs and I can use the browser to go anywhere I wish, but try to install a package from the ubuntu repository or whatever it's called and it returns an error message asking me to check my connection.

BTW it is Zevenos. Start a new thread if you wish to pursue it. It is Debian-based (on Ubuntu, I believe) so likely we can assist.

Linux mint was by far the easiest to setup, but it does not recognize any accelleration so it runs in software rendering mode.

Likewise to above. Also include which Mint, eg 18.3, and DE (Desktop Environment) eg MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce, KDE.

Still though I wonder why a version of a distro is only good untill a certain date, and then it's no longer supported. That was what was wrong with windows, only with windows they did not always continue make the newer versions backwards compatible.

Likely to do with Kernel EOL (end of life).

https://news.softpedia.com/news/lin...ed-to-move-to-linux-4-14-lts-now-518722.shtml

The Linux Kernel is a monolithic kernel, as opposed to micro kernels and modular kernels. Windows and OSX use non-monolithic kernels.

The approach taken by the kernel developers is to have an LTS (long term support) kernel, interspersed with a number of point releases.

A number of the Linux Distro developers use a similar model, for example with Ubuntu, they had 16.04 LTS, followed by 16.10, 17.04, and 17.10, each with a shelf life of 9 months, and now they are on 18.04, whch again is LTS (5 years software support, first 2 and a half years hardware support).

An alternative to this model is the "Rolling Release", as exemplified by OpenSUSE "Tumbleweed" and Manjaro, to name only 2.

You can Google up or use DuckDuckGo (DuckDuckGo-fu, one of our chums calls it ) to learn more if you wish. However, I would advise the following:

1. Tie a piece of string to your finger
2. To the other end of that, tie a cord
3. To the other end of that, tie a rope and
4. To the other end of that, tie a steel cable

Then if you go down the rabbit hole, or into Jumanji, we might be able to haul your arse out

However, I went with virtual box.

Horses for courses. VB is great for the multitude of Distros you can "try before you buy", full install gives you the best idea on performance. Whatever suits, it sounds like you are having fun.

Enjoy your Linux

Wiz

 

[atanere]

Zavenos runs and I can use the browser to go anywhere I wish, but try to install a package from the ubuntu repository or whatever it's called and it returns an error message asking me to check my connection.

A quick look on DistroWatch shows that ZevenOS is now dormant, last released over 3 years ago. So without digging deeper, I would guess that it used Ubuntu repositories that are now out-of-date and no longer maintained... and therefore unreachable.

 

[atanere]

Still though I wonder why a version of a distro is only good untill a certain date, and then it's no longer supported.

There are probably many reasons explaining this, but I think that a big reason is because of limited time and resources. Many distros are created by just one person or a very small team. It is more important to stay current and move forward than to spend so much effort keeping older systems afloat. We are finally reaching the stage where many of the Linux distros are abandoning 32-bit support. I'm sad to see this because Linux has always been an excellent tool to give new life to older computers with 32-bit CPU's and low RAM.

But programmers have to keep programming, and there is always the need to innovate and bring new things to people. It helps to sell new computers. If Microsoft didn't keep moving forward, everyone would still be using Windows XP.

Cheers