I have Windows XP, and want to install Ubuntu from a bootable CD. Do I need to partition my operating system, or can I just run off the CD?
Thanks, Ed

Hi,

There are a variety of possibilities, one of them is Wubi and if your new to dual boot environments probably you'd like to go with this one since it changes nothing to your Windows environment, just runs Ubuntu 'in' Windows.

If you want to install Ubuntu in a dual boot option, just boot from the CD and the installer will detect Windows installation and provide you with the options to install it along the existing Windows, creating a separate partition that hosts Ubuntu.

Kind regards,

Eric

I have tried to install Wubi 9.04 from the Wubi installer site, and it is very slow, with an estimated install time of over 10 hours. I have Windows XP with 1 GB RAM.
How long should this take? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,
Ed

No, it shouldn't take that long....

If you decide not to use Wubi
and you do HD install
make sure you Defrag XP first, then reboot and back up your data
then reboot into ubuntu cd and install

you can run ubuntu persistent offf usb too

Wubi install is definitely not that slow. It should be complete by 20 mins and your system should be up. But yes you should first defrag your Xp before that. Also remember that wubi installed Ubuntu will perform slower than Ubuntu installed on its own partition.
If you have doubts of losing data you can always use wubi install but then do not compare the performance.
There is no need to worry about losing the data though if you can release some space from xp itself and delete it from disk management so that you can see it as free space while installing Ubuntu.