[Tfug] Why Wubi is the stupidest idea in Linux history...

[Jim March]

Quoting:

---
Wubi is an Ubuntu installer for Windows that lets you install and
uninstall Ubuntu from a Windows desktop. Wubi adds an entry to the
Windows boot menu which allows you to run Linux. Ubuntu is installed
within a file in the Windows file system (a loopmounted partition),
this file is seen by Ubuntu as a real hard disk. That way the hard
drive does not have to be repartitioned before the Ubuntu
installation. The resulting Ubuntu installation is a "real" Linux
system, not just a virtual machine. Wubi makes it easy for Linux
newbies to play around with Ubuntu.
---

Source:

http://www.howtoforge.com/wubi_ubuntu_on_windows

The problem here is that if anything goes wrong with the Windows
bootloader process, both Ubuntu and Windows are toast.  And what do a
lot of virii infest?  Yeah.  The bootloader.

Basically, a real Ubuntu dual-boot setup will protect against many
forms of virus/malware that Wubi can fall victim to.  In the event
that you're running Windows when it gets infected, it's *possible* the
boot sector will get so fried that GRUB fails to load either Ubuntu or
Windows, but in practice this is vanishingly rare.  In most cases
Windows malware will choke on and be unable to affect the GRUB-based
Ubuntu-altered boot process.

An even better option from a malware-protection point of view is to
run a pure Linux system and then do a Windows virtual machine under
that.  Hardware needs aren't that bad - most P4s with a gig or more
can do it, and my $500-six-months-ago Best Buy special laptop (Dell
1525) with 2gigs RAM does great.  In this model it's Windows that sits
on a file in the Linux disk structure, rather than exactly opposite as
in Wubi.  If Windows gets itself hosed (again) just restore one file
off backups and you're up again.  And via the internal networking
between host Linux OS and guest Windows, you can store all your data
elsewhere on the Linux disk so that if Windows is toast, you can still
get to the same files within Linux.

Wubi is the worst possible implementation of Linux.  Period, end of
discussion.  It uses the Windows standard boot process, so if you
already have malware you're working off a portion of the system
*likely* affected by malware and hence unpredictable as a crack addict
with a bazooka.

Jim