-iceblade^

like, can i run say rhythmbox in Windows 7 natively without having to install that ubuntu-on-windows-without-rebooting program, and be able to update, etc?

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Coma

If it's on Linux and it's open source, you can compile it for Windows. Natively and all.

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When asking for help: state the goal, not the step.

Prolog

Er, not necesarily true. Certain programs have dependencies that can't easily be ported to Windows. (vaguely worded, I know) Furthermore, anyone who has used the Amarok version for Windows knows the kind of quality and usablity of these ports. (well, it probably has improved quite a bit since I last used it, but it was unstable to the point of unusability when I tried it out)

Anyways, iceblade, I'm guessing that this is what you want: http://cygwin.com/

-iceblade^

thanks for the link. i was asking for specifics on using MS's SUA, but your link should bypass that... still, is it possible to use SUA?

and Coma, Prolog has it right... some programs are not very good when run in windows... i can think of the KDE DE as an example, and that has a Windows port...

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NETio

If you want Linux just install Linux on another partition and move to open-source software and run any irreblacable applications with WINE or a virtual machine (VMware or VirtualBox, I like the latter's seamless mode). If you just want to try Linux, use a virtual machine in Windows (VMware or VirtualBox once again).

I run Gentoo linux and I haven't booted into Windows in over a month. I am very pleased with Gentoo and I do not plan on ever going back to Windows. I will however get Win 7 just to game on (The cheapest x64 option available).

As far as Linux distros Ubuntu isn't the only one. Kubuntu (KDE rather than GNOME) is far more configurable and can be made to look very much like even Windows 7 (lots of eye candy if you want it). Then there are the non-*buntus like Fedora (not really home-user oriented and not good with proprietary drivers); openSUSE which is a bit bloated in my opinion but I haven't tried it in over a year; Mandriva which is about $50 for the latest and greatest if I am not mistaken. Then come the more advanced distros which hide nothing from the user and allow for highly customized configuration like Slackware, which is very stable yet modern and highly confiigurable and it even comes with a nice little installer; Gentoo Linux which is the fastest distro around as every app is compiled from source with command line package management, it supports almost any architecture you could imagine and makes a 100% 64-bit enviorment achievable (this is my distro of chice and what I'm running now); Arch Linux, which is as configurable as Gentoo but uses binary packages so installs are so much faster but you don't get the optimizations that compiling from source offers, Arch also has a installer. Then there is Sabayon, which is as easy as a *buntu and is a complete distro out of the box (multimedia aps, office apps, and everything else already installed) and uses a binary package system yet has Gentoo's package management as well. Sabayon is very user friendly and comes with either a GNOME or KDE desktop enviorment.

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PhenomIsts

-iceblade^

Thanks, but i am trying to avoid the dualboot issue... it is useful yes, but gets annoying after several hundred times of booting. and i really really like rhythmbox, but i'll have to use WMP..

not to mention this netbook (Toshiba NB205) doesn't play well with linux... hence this workaround. if the netbook played well with Linux i'd have stuck with Ubuntu 9.04 and then moved onto Arch... alas, it's easier to just stick with Windows.

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Redmist

Foobar2000. Best Windows audio player. It's one of the only programs I miss when I use Linux.

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Jimi

Never understood why people liked foobar. I always used winamp. Foobar seemed to always crash when I put all my music in it. The interface isn't very visually pleasing either, no matter how you customize it.

All in all, MPD destroys them both

On Topic: Cygwin worked great for me on win 7 RC, but rhythmbox is not the reason to bother.

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