O.K. Now I’m lost. I may have misunderstood what you were saying when I made that reply. I’ll stop now and simply read the posts until I get a better understanding. Sorry for any confusion I may have introduced,
Ernie
3 Likes
That’s where I land. No desire to fiddle with it.
You are way above my knowledge level on this one!!!
I understand!!!
You want to make Linux easy to install for Windows users, well here it is. Q4OS Aquarius installed in W7 64bit via the wubi install, and it is installed as another program in Windows.
1 Like
I tried the Q4OS Windows installer on my Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming laptop PC. The initial install seemed to work O.K. but when my Nvidia video adapter was detected and I chose to install the proprietary driver, following a reboot loadup stopped at systemd configuration. Since I had no way of getting into the system to revert the ‘update’, I uninstalled Q4OS. This installer was about as good and easy as any I’ve seen, but there is still room for improvement. I may try it out again, bypassing the proprietary Nvidia driver just to see how it runs. I may have an update in a few days.
Ernie
Just go with the neuveau nvidia driver if you get an option.
q4os is about the only distro I know that still offer the wubi install, it is not perfect but does away with the headache of trying to resize and make and mount Linux partitions.
The best distro for nvidia graphics I have found has been antix, it sure helped me out with my GT430 and GT620 graphics card.
Interesting, but I wonder how good a Linux exerience you get running it as a windows program.
I also wonder how it sets up a linux filesystem. Linux cant run on ntfs.
Antix is possibly the best ever Linux distro for older computers.
Afterthought:
A live linux on a USB flash drive would probably provide a better ‘newbie Linux experience’.
If setup with something like Ventoy, it can provide ‘permanence’ which means the new user can do some real work and save files, rather than just look at it.
Or how about this. Provide an SSD with preinstalled Linux, say Mint fully configured. The new user just pulls out the Windows disk and puts in the Linux ssd. It will just boot and run. Hardware solutions are sometimes best.
3 Likes
Regarding my Nvidia video adapter, I’ve been getting very excellent results using Solus 4.4. It has the proprietary Nvidia driver in the repository, and it installs and works as expected with no issues. I’ve only been using Solus for a few weeks but I like it a lot. For me, one of it’s best features is how well it gets along with Secure Boot. Beyond that, the distribution feels very solid and stable. Everything just seems to work. There are a few things that keep it off my list of newbie-friendly distributions, but if a newbie has someone who is familiar with GNU/Linux for help, the distro could be great for new users. I’m hoping that it improves/fixes those few issues in the next few releases.
Ernie
1 Like
used to run q4os back in my XP days but XP and Vista no longer supports wubi. q4os aquarious is built around Debian 12 bookworm with a KDE DE, as for me it runs just as well as a hard install. After the wubi install of q4os one reboots and is greeted with a boot menu option for q4os and you wil then have a program entry.
Hmm, that means it could be a good way to get someone to try Linux, but what about if they want to go to the next step (e.g. dual boot or just install Linux). I do wonder if it runs well on your computer because it is especially powerful (you mentioned doing a Win 11 build recently).
I,m giving Q4OS a try right now. I used the Windows installer on my Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop. Admittedly my laptop is a powerful PC but Q4OS’s performance when installed in a directory as a set of files in Windows 11 is indistinguishable from a bare-metal installation AFAICT. While I like the idea, Q4OS does have a few shortcomings. Firefox is not available in the distribution’s repository. I was able to use the Chromium browser to download (then extract) the compressed (tar.gz) package under my home directory in its own directory (firefox), although I had to manually add it to the KDE Applications Menu using the menu editor. A newbie would not know how to accomplish that task although I suppose the Chromium browser would work O.K. for him/her. Q4OS uses the wubby installer. I know very little about it so far. There is documentation about it and Q4OS as a whole on the website. I think I’ll be spending some time reading all about it. I don’t think I like Q4OS as much as I do Solus, but I do like the idea of being able to introduce newbies to GNU/Linux using it. There are a few very interesting possibilities there,
Ernie
1 Like
That is what Windows 12 is going to be, Maybe? The problem with Windows, is they still use the same Kernel and just keep patching it to run the latest software and past software, possibly creating more back doors for hackers to get in. With their cloud based OS, they’ll have even more control over the user. They always wanted world domination. When will Microsoft ever learn to listen to their customers? Setting hardware rules down for it to run on is just ludicrous.
1 Like
wubi is nothing new for Linux, it used to be on the install cd from Ubuntu, years ago. wubi is not perfect and is easy to break, but it is an alternative for trying Linux.
I did this install, not too promote one Linux versus the other, it is not about what Q4OS and or Solus will or will not do, I could care less and most Windows users would care less.
We are talking about an official LInux OS that can be installled without pain and any undue changes to their Windows environment. So the big ? why was not wubi more widely accepted by other Linux distros? Would it be because there are way too many Distros already, and each one stakes the claim of being the best Windows alternative.
2 Likes
I thought there was some other setup in W10 or W11 that would run Linux inside Win? I dont mean Vbox… some MS thing?
Not sure if this is still part of W11.
Yes that is it.
Also why not Vbox? You know that works really well.
I do run Gentoo in VirtualBox with W11 and it runs well, but VirtualBox is not real. It is like running Gentoo in a confined space, and in reality it is.
1 Like
There is. It’s called Windows Subsystem for Linux. The trouble with it is that it has a command line interface. The only progress I’ve seen going toward a GUI DE has been to enable running GUI apps such as gedit, etc. Its primary objective is to provide developers a GNU/Linux based development platform. I don’t think they want to help Windows users get introduced to GNU/Linux 
Ernie
1 Like
It is. I use it here when I’m in my Windows 11 system to follow various terminal based tutorials such as the Bash Basics series, etc.