Ubuntu live CD or virtualize it?

[thebigdintx]

i want to try out ubuntu 8.10 on my dell inspiron 8100, pent 3 @ 1 GHz laptop with 512MB RAM to see if it runs quicker than xp, but want to make sure all my hardware works ok with ubuntu. i'm mainly concerned about my belkin wireless G PCMCIA card working alright. would you recommend trying ubuntu from running a Live CD, or should I try to load in inside a virtual setting? (i have no experience running a virtual program, but have been reading a little about it).

also, i'm not sure if running it either of these ways will give me an accurate picture of whether it will run faster than xp does because it's not actually installed as the main OS.

 

[eyeCpc]

Ubuntu live or some other distro will be onhand here in case of a need for rescuing files off of a drive/partition Windows can't see onto for some reason. The live to install option will still run as a second OS but you still would need a good search if Belkin doesn't provide Linux drivers ar this time.

Most will automatically run a live version to see if they will prefer one distro or another first since you can them without seeing any changes made to the current system configuration. Manually installing a distro after first downloading files to the hard drive first takes familiarity while the live versions still see an easier to install option if you have the drive space available to simply create a small root partition(Linux system files) since that is small enough not to need a second swap partition for virtual memory.

 

[Istonian]

Yeah, go ahead and burn the live CD. Then just pop it in and choose try Ubuntu without installing. If you like the live CD then you can install it. There will be an install icon on the desktop. If you are not savvy with partitions the guide can really help you. If you resize it will stay at 50 percent for a while so dont worry.

 

[eyeCpc]

One thing you will find out fast once the disk is made up with the 8.10 release is that the option to install will be seen while booted in Windows! That's a first since previous releases required booting up live first from the disk you burn and then using the install option there.

For dual booting with ease however Mandriva another larger enterprise type distro uses an automatic boot loader that detects every OS on the system and makes that the default loader adding them all into the boot menu. I'm setting up a dual boot of Mandriva with the latest 64bit version of 8.10 on a separate drive to see how the latest version of both works out.