The greatest obstacle to installing Linux has always been the need to carve up a hard disk to make space. Live CDs are a temporary alternative but are often very slow. The Wubi software installs Ubuntu from within Windows and without making any big changes to the hard disk.

Once downloaded, Wubi asks a few simple questions about which version of Ubuntu to install. Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop theme and Xubuntu the XFCE, which is better suited to older computers. It also sets the amount of hard disk space used and the default username and password.

One important point to note is that although the Wubi download is just 1.1MB, it still downloads all the files needed by Ubuntu, around 700MB worth. As this software is included on the Ubuntu Live CD, that is a better choice if you are going to install it on more than one computer.

Once the files have been downloaded and installed, a new menu appears when the computer reboots, offering a choice between Windows and Ubuntu.

There is a slight performance reduction in running Ubuntu in this way compared to a normal installation but we did not find this to be a problem.

There is also the opportunity to change the accessibility options of Ubuntu including a high contrast colour scheme, screen reader and an on-screen keyboard.