Run Linux Apps Natively on Windows

Ever wanted to use Linux? Linux is a great Operating System indeed. But many Windows users like to stick with Windows. May be because they don't want to go into the hassle of partitioning the Hard Disk and install a Linux Distro. Surely, there are many other options like install with Wubi, or install Linux in a virtual machine with VMWare or Virtualbox. But both options have their ups and downs. You cannot use the Hibernate mode in Wubi. Users have reported that Wubi installations get corrupted after frequent updates. If you install Linux with Virtualbox, you can run both Windows and Linux side by side without restarting. But this process utilises more processing power and resources. Fortunately, now you can install Ubuntu inside Windows and use the Linux apps as native Windows apps with full processing power.

There is a project named andLinux which enables you run Linux apps natively with Windows. It even enables you to set file associations with Linux apps.

According to the andLinux site,

andLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux system running seamlessly in Windows 2000 based systems (2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7; 32-bit versions only). This project was started for Dynamism for the GP2X community, but its userbase far exceeds its original design. andLinux is free and will remain so, but donations are greatly needed.

andLinux uses coLinux as its core which is confusing for many people. coLinux is a port of the Linux kernel to Windows. Although this technology is a bit like running Linux in a virtual machine, coLinux differs itself by being more of a merger of Windows and the Linux kernel and not an emulated PC, making it more efficient. Xming is used as X server and PulseAudio as sound server.

andLinux is not just for development and runs almost all Linux applications without modification.

andLinux is available in two flavours, a lightweight XFCE version and a full KDE version. Download andLinux below. We will give a tutorial on installation in future.

KDE version, 537 MB
minimal / XFCE version, 200 MB