Want to install Ubuntu or other Linux distributions on your Netbook or Macbook Air? UNetbootin is the CD/DVD-less solution and it is super easy and fast! It helps you to create a live and bootable USB/flash drive for a variety of Linux distributions from Windows or Linux (too bad Mac is not supported).

The great thing about UNetbootin is it is really, really easy to use. It supports many Linux distributions out-of-the-box like Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora and many others. You even can supply your own image file (ISO) if you already have one. It can also convert almost any bootable ISO to a bootable USB drive.

Let’s Get Cracking!

Note: Tested on Windows 7 using Diskimage option.

Go ahead and download the latest UNetbootin here. Run the program after you have downloaded it. There are three options to create a Linux bootable live SUB drive using UNetbootin.

• Distribution
• Diskimage
• Custom

I will only cover the top two methods. The other option gives you the freedom to manually specify the kernal and initrd files but we will skip it this time.

Distribution

If you have not download the ISO file of the Linux distro you wanted, this is the perfect option to choose. Just select the distribution and the version and UNetbootin will do the rest for you. Please note that this might take some time, depending on the selected distribution image file size.

Diskimage

If you already have the image file of the distribution you want, you should choose this option. Just browse for the ISO file and you are good to go.

Select the proper drive of your USB/flash drive and click OK.

Everything will be on autopilot now. Go and take a walk and your bootable Linux USB drive will be ready in no time.

Now, you can install Ubuntu or other Linux distros by using the just created bootable USB drive. Just select boot from USB drive option from the BIOS menu.

Note: You don’t need to have an empty USB/flash drive to make it bootable. Just make sure you have enough space to store the files.