installing ubuntu on windows (feisty fawn)

I have wanted a dual-boot Windows/Linux system for a while. I know nothing about Linux and being in IT I probably should. I tried to install Ubuntu manually, but it was a nightmare for me. Being a Windows guy, all the commands I am familiar with are useless in Linux.

I found a cool tool that will do much of the install work for you. Wubi is a Linux installer that installs like any Windows application. All you need to do is download the installer and run it. Easy. Your PC will reboot and walk you through the Ubuntu install process, including helpful tips along the way. Anyone can do this.

Now I have my dual-boot system with Windows XP and Ubuntu. I had to warn Steven about it though, because I know he will freak out if he sits down at the desk and their is an unfamiliar desktop staring back at him!

Once the install was complete, Ubuntu promptly booted up and even found all of my devices, except for the network printer. I am working on that. It has the drivers for the printer and can even see the printer, but it is having a problem authenticating to my Windows 2003 server. It was getting late so I'll tackle that another day.

I also need to find a way to connect to our Exchange 2003 server. If I can have my Exchange email without using a browser, this might actually replace the Windows XP installation.

Last night was a big technology night for me. I also found an affordable way to remotely back up my email. iBackup is the first cost-effective resource I have found that supports Windows Server 2003 for networked backups. Ideally I'd like to be able to remotely backup all of our iTunes music, but we have around 50GB of the stuff, and it was always going to be hundreds of dollars to do that. I've tried tape backup (I forget to change the tapes), SANs (they die after a while), even mirroring directories to other PCs (problematic)...I knew that an online backup was the best way. iBackup gives me 5GB of online storage space for $10/mo. While its not enough to back up our music, it will back up the Exchange databases and I'd like it to grab the registry as well. You can schedule backups, and while the tool is a little limited, it is better than what I have been doing to backup my data: nothing.