1st post might be wrong forum, I have some knowledge of linux but 73 bit forgetfull. I want to run a small linux distro inside win7. I just need it to run scripts not keen on win scripting. Don't want virtual(don't understand it) and as small linux doubt if I need it. Any help much appreciated.

You need to define more closely what you really need. Some possible options:
- cygwin
- Windows Powershell - much better (native) Win scripting environment, though I find it awkward because I don't use it every day.
- run a full Linux in VirtualBox as a virtual guest. Free and pretty straight-forward to set up. I use Arch in VBox with no GUI when I have to use Windoze and I want to quickly run some Linux (bash/awk/perl) code.

Hi...

When you say "small," I'm thinking of lightweight, not much in terms of size (either on the install CD or hard drive,) or footprint. If that's what you meant, one distribution I've used in the past that might fit this criteria would be Puppy Linux, one or more of it's many varieties.

Just keep in mind that it requires more skill in setting up than other distributions.

EDIT: I forgot you wanted to run this within Windows 7. As far as I know, WUBI for Ubuntu and derivitives is no longer being supported so for Puppy Linux, probably the best way would be to run it live and not install it to the hard drive.

Hope this helps...

Sounds like you're after something like cygwin. You can install hundreds of packages, most notably for what you're wanting, a bash environment. You can get Python, Perl, PHP and many more installed with that too. You can even have text editors with it such as vim and nano so that you can do it all via the terminal, if that's what you wish.

Wubi will run under Win7, though I'm not sure how much support the legacy versions of Wubi have. Ubuntu is no longer developing Wubi; Windows Secure Market Shar--er, Secure Boot--effectively killed it.

Ways to run linux.

One is colinux. It is linux that can run at the same time as windows.

MKStoolkit is a somewhat unique way to run linux.

As you pointed out a virtual machine running a linux version.

Might be possible to run dosbox even on some very old linux.

Use a web page to access a remote linux. SuseStudio or a JPC linux. JPC can run locally.

Try netboot.me to run remotely.

Windows has services for unix still in different name maybe.

Boot from a usb or live cd.