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If I wanted to make ubuntu apps could I download ubuntu into a vm and use ubuntu exactly the same way I use it on my computer, and what is a vm, what are it's pro's and con's?

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closed as not a real question by Rafał Cieślak, Uri Herrera, fossfreedom♦ Jan 4 at 21:34

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

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A Virtual Machine (VM) is what it says. It is a computer that is virtualized. Meaning there is no hardware directly associated with it. It uses the host computer's hardware resources to run. See this link for more information on what a VM is.

To answer what I think is the main question, yes. Once you install Ubuntu inside a virtual machine, you will be able to use Ubuntu apps and anything else Ubuntu has to offer. It will be very similar to using a physical machine.

As far as pros and cons go, I can think of a few. Mainly, the con would be that you will not get the full computing power of the host machine since you have to share resources between the two "computers". This will not be an issue if you have adequate hardware. A pro would be that you can do backups and restores of your VMs very easily.

Let me know if you would like more information on this topic.

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Yes I would love more information. – user116943 Jan 4 at 19:35
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@user116943, depending on your host OS there will be different instructions on installing vmware or virtualbox (I recommend the latter since it is free). But once you get one installed, the process of creating the VM will be the same on both host OSs. Here's a how-to for installing Ubuntu in virtualbox on Windows. There are also pros and cons on this page. psychocats.net/ubuntu/virtualbox – ionyx Jan 4 at 21:05

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