A lot of people wonder why I would use Ubuntu, when ‘…everything is so difficult and complicated with it…’. I beg to differ. To me, a lot of reasons why people love Apple and their Macs will work for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions just fine. Ubuntu is stable, fast, has no viruses to be afraid of and moreover, it’s not only customizable without limitations, but it’s also free! It’s getting some time to get used to the installation process of software and the folder-system, but are you still wondering why I’m using it? Bringing a conversation to this point will ultimately lead to this: ‘…but you can’t use MSOffice, Itunes or play games…’. While the gaming part might be right to some extend (DirectX 10 is available only on Windows Vista and Windows 7, but CodeWeavers are working on Linux and Mac support), I smile about the software part.

To use Windows programmes, a few virtualization-tools are available; VmWare and VirtualBox for example, to name just two. VmWare does cost money but might have features you’d like to have or need. A while ago, that was USB 2.0 and DirectX 9.0 for example. I didn’t use VirtualBox because of this for quite some time now, but checking the newest version, these features have long been added. I won’t go into details which one might be better, but will show you how to install VirtualBox simply for the fact that it’s free. VirtualBox is available from Ubuntu Sources but since I prefer having new software installed (no need for direct updates), I’ll show another way to get it up and running.

Installation

- download VirtualBox and install it directly using your package installer

- enter your password

- you’re basically done now – basically…

- create a user group:

# General

sudo adduser <name> vboxusers

# Yourself

sudo adduser $<name> vboxusers

Instead of <name> type your login name and/or the name of the user(s) you would like to add.

- start VirtualBox (found in the System Tools)

- click New to configure the system you would like to virtualize by following the provided steps

Done.

Tips

I encountered a problem after I tried to start my virtualized system. A failure message told me that I didn’t have my kernel driver installed. Shocker!, I really didn’t know that I haven’t done that – but nothing to worry about really, as it will be solved after entering this into your console:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install dkms

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

For further information or questions please leave a comment.