Install Linux Sabily - Ubuntu with Islamic Applications

Sabily is a free, open source operating system designed by and for Muslims. It is based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution which is a free, efficient and secure operating system. Unlike Microsoft Windows and other proprietary systems, Linux is publicly open and extendible by contributors.


Because Sabily is free, already includes all software you need in your everyday tasks, and is customized specifically for Muslims. And even if you didn't buy Windows, you should not use pirated copies because then you are still supporting Microsoft by adding to the impression it's the only OS available.


Sabily includes a set of packages that customizes the Ubuntu distro; Ubuntu is easy to use for a novice user, with the most-used Office, Internet, Graphics and Video applications already installed. With Sabily, Muslim users have “out of the box” Islamic software and tools installed as well. Sabily includes Islamic software (prayer times tool, Quran study tool, Hijri calendar etc.) and has a custom design. Sabily comes with out of the box educational software, codecs for the most used media formats and has better support for Arabic language.

Install Sabily from DVD

 Follow these steps if you don’t have any operating system installed on your computer

Download and burn the DVD: Download Links

Learn how to verify that your DVD download is ok: HowToMD5SUM
Learn how to create a DVD from your newly downloaded file: BurningIsoHowTo

If you can’t download the DVD, you can buy it here.

Then install it as a standard Ubuntu CD (documentation).

See the support page if you need help.

Convert a standard Ubuntu installation

Follow these steps if you already have installed Ubuntu on your computer

If you have an old version of Ubuntu, less than 9.10, you should first upgrade your system:

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

Then, to convert Ubuntu to Sabily, follow these steps:

Open a terminal window (Applications→Accessories→Terminal), and execute the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sabily.team/ppa && sudo apt-get -q update
sudo apt-get install sabily

Answer ‘Yes’ when needed.

Finally, restart your computer to apply changes.

See the support page if you need help.

Run Sabily in Virtual Box

Follow these steps if you want to run Sabily on top of another operating system

Virtual Box is a virtualization software, that means you can execute a "guest" operating system on top of a "host" operating system. For example, if you have Windows installed on your computer, you can run Sabily like an application on Windows. No need to burn a DVD with Sabily, then to install it on your computer... So if you are afraid to lose data by installing Sabily on your computer, or if you just want to quickly test it, install Virtual Box, download the Sabily image and execute it!

Here are the detailed instructions:

• Download and install VirtualBox here
• Download the Sabily image here (download both files, .vmdk and .ovf)
• Launch virtualBox and select "import virtual appliance", then browse to the .ovf file you downloaded (the .ovf file and .vmdk must be in the same folder)
• Review the machine settings (especially memory, it is set to 512MB, but you can increase it if you have more memory) and launch it.
• Log in using:  username -> test, password -> S)bilY  (the keyboard is set to qwerty by default)

See the support page if you need help.