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I know there has been similar posts here, but it did not make me feel that it is answering my question.

Background

I have done dual-boot installation previously with Debian. What I did was used an Ubuntu CD to install it as an application on Windows Vista. Therefore, when I start the PC the dual boot menu appeared normally. However, I did not have to go through all the usual hoops of partitioning etc. And the really "Good" bit of all is the facility to uninstall Ubuntu from Add/Remove program option from WIndows Control Panel. I really liked this.

SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Ubuntu is very poor when supporting third party drivers, especially for wireless. I could not connect to the internet as my wireless driver was not working. At that moment, I had a Dell Studio 1535 laptop with a Broadcom bc4312 wireless LAN card. Later on, I realised that my Broadcom bc4312 was in fact, a phenomenal nightmare in Linux community as nobody could actually fix the driver problem. Nevertheless, I changed my laptop last year to Lenovo Ideapad V470 and should have a better wireless card to be supported by bespoke Linux distrib. And the word is that Debian is the most robust distribution when comes to supporting third party hardware drivers.

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW

If I download ISO from Debian site and then create a CD, can I still do the similar installation as I did with the Ubuntu? If not, then its fine I won't bother anymore. Essentially, I don't want to do anything with partitioning. I just want to install it, try a few UNIX-y things myself and when I am satisfied, I will use Debian for my home server OS. In short, I want to try debian without having to jump through hoops.

UPDATE I forgot to mention that I would consider virtualisation e.g. using virtual box to run an image on Windows desktop. Nevertheless, it would be good for my purpose to do it in the way I installed Ubuntu.

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  • Is virtualization a possibility to reach your goals?
    – Uwe Plonus
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 11:59
  • @UwePlonus I would love to explore that yes. Do you mean using something like virtual box from Oracle?
    – ha9u63a7
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 12:01
  • @UwePlonus I would still prefer doing what I mentioned in my original question. However, if push comes to shove I might just use virtual box.
    – ha9u63a7
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 12:03

1 Answer 1

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The ability to install as a Windows program is achieved through a program called wubi which is Ubuntu specific, so no you will not be able to install Debian that way.

I don't see why you would want to however. In my experience, Ubuntu is better than Debian at recognizing wireless cards and Linux Mint is better than Ubuntu. Also, Debian, while it is my personal favorite distribution, is not the best place to start learning Linux. Ubuntu or Mint are much easier to install and set up for a Linux newcomer. Both distributions can be installed within Windows, use wubi (howto) for Ubuntu and mint4win (howto) for Mint.

If you really want to try Debian, the easiest way would be to simply boot from the CD and try it out without installing.

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  • Suprised that you find Ubuntu better than Debian for recognising wireless card. Ubuntu gave me a lot of headache until I stopped trying it. I am fairly confident using Linux and this is why I was going to change to Debian and see how good it is.
    – ha9u63a7
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 15:13
  • @hagubear I quite agree about Ubuntu, Mint was for me the best at hardware recognition. Especially for wireless. Debian is much stricter in the software it includes so it may lack proprietary drivers that Mint or Ubuntu would be willing to include. Personally I use Mint Debian which is a great compromise. It is a pure Debian install (not Ubuntu) but has some added tricks to make your life easier. You may want to give that a try.
    – terdon
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 15:15
  • Hmm...I actually checked the website and it seems they are still beta testing. Is it worth a try to install the Mintu Ubuntu then?
    – ha9u63a7
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 17:29
  • @hagubear what's still in beta? And I don't know if it is worth it, it depends on you. Mint is currently the most popular Linux distribution according to distrowatch.com, it is a great distro and a very good place to start. Seriously though, to try any distro just download and boot from the CD.
    – terdon
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 17:36
  • Thanks for this. I will give it a try anyway. Also, the version I was referring to was here.
    – ha9u63a7
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 17:40

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