Portable Ubuntu - best of both worlds

In my day by day work I use Windows. Sometimes though, would be great to have also linux.

There are different solutions to achieve this.

• install as a second operating system and choose one at boot
• use some virtualization technique (VMware, Vbox, ... others) and run both 
• use xwindow client or putty to connect to standalone machine with linux
• use cygwin
• use MinGW + Msys
• run Linux under Windows

Depends on whatever you need.



I need to compile some c programs which use sockets and forks. Best would be also to have to build it within Eclipse or at least Code::Blocks. While it is possible to use Eclipse + cygwin to do so I would rather to have complete linux. As I did not plan to use it very often I did not want to make a room for it on my hdd, install etc. I did not want to bother me with any virtualization solutions as I do not have time to choose, get familiar, install...
So best would be to have possibility to run Linux right under Windows. Quick search Internet gave me one very interesting result: Portable Ubuntu.

I have downloaded it, I have installed it, wait no! It does not have to be installed, it is portable. I run it and ... it is awesome. I have both systems at a time on the same pulpit. I can copy & paste from one to another, I can access to the same data on discs. Network was found automagically.
While it is not as stable as standalone installation, it is also significantly slower, it has not drivers acceleration but it is very fast and easy to start. You can run it, do some tasks and close it as any other application under Windows. I also added both Code::Blocks and Eclipse through add/remove programs and both works (although eclipse is a bit slow). I think it is definitely worth to give it a chance.