Linux - was it a challenge?

[VP959]

Well folks,

I'm scribbling this from a very newly setup Linux box, following the excellent advice from bods on here.

It took all of 15 minutes to get Ubuntu up and running, with no manual intervention of any kind. Much quicker and simpler than XP, with all hardware, network connections, external hard drives, even the broadband connection, all being found and set up automatically.

So far I'm mightily impressed, as it's all worked right out of the box.

I now need to go and play with Open Office and some of the other apps to see how it all works, but things look pretty intuitive to me.

As some will have gathered from questions asked on here, I'm no computer geek. If I can get Linux up and running this easily then anyone can.

VP

[ORAC]

Congratulations! I'd just like to congratulate you by saying *&&$£"~@><...

[VP959]

Come now, no need to get your keyboard all confused...............

One of the real surprises was that Ubuntu seems to have just set all the irritating default things, like language, keyboard layout etc up properly as well. It asked the usual "UK or US English" questions then just went off and made everything work.

Maybe I'll find some flaws with it, but so far it seems to do exactly what it says. Open Office seems pretty intuitive as well, not much different from Office XP (apart from being free).

It is certainly very, very fast. I'm currently working on a 300MHz AMD machine of about 1998 vintage. Everything appears to work at about the same speed as it does on my 2.53GHz Windoze XP machine. Pretty impressive.

The only snag is that I will have to keep the Windoze machine to run AutoCad and Solidworks, as these won't port to Linux (as far as I know). Still, with a KVM switch to simply switch between the Linux box and the Windoze machine this shouldn;t be a problem.

Hope this dispels some of the worries for others contemplating such a move.

VP

[Richard Spandit]

My next computer will not have Windows on it - I'm currently dual booting because I couldn't get my PalmPilot to sync with Linux (SuSE 9.3) and a good thing too - performed an online update and now I get a kernel panic every time I try to boot into Linux - without my XP partition, I'd have no computer at all (I'm away on detachment at the moment and have left my bootable DVD drive at home... doh!)

[batninth]

VP595,

I'm glad to see someone else having the same experience with Ubuntu. Having tried Slackware til my hair turned grey, it is so much easier with Ubuntu and to get a working desktop with email/calendar/office on it is a doddle. I also like it's autoupdate mechanism to ship you any fixes.

Maybe I'll find some flaws with it

Having used it for a few months now, the biggest "flaw" is that to use that really smart Ubuntu installer you have to wait for the Ubuntu guys to port software, or to go back to the Debian underpinnings and push code into place using Debian installers.

Given that Ubuntu is free the wait for Ubuntu ported software usually isn't too onerous (I did have to go and get a Debian update for Firefox to get the security release, and to get RealPlayer). However using it for software testing - I pulled over DB2 and had to push that into place - was a little more testing. Also using some software requires you to delve into Unix commands - setting up an FTP server for example needs a little thought compared to putting FileZilla on an XP box.

It really comes down to how you want to use it - use it as a straight Windows XP desktop replacement and I think it cuts the mustard as it is. Like you, I would recommend it to anyone looking to move to Linux

[ORAC]

Got a PC with SuSe 9.1, can I get it to mount a wi-fi card? Can I &%$. Loaded the recommended shell, installed drivers. Nada.... :{

[slim_slag]

Ubuntu is definitely impressive stuff.

However, I have a laptop on my desk on which I can install Windows and it works, install Ubuntu and it won't. I'm guessing there is some hardware that is messing things up but I really don't have the time or inclination to find out. That means I would not use it yet on any machine I need to have working just incase I plug some hardware in that I want to use. If Ubuntu works it works very very well, but it's not quite there yet for me to put it on my mother's laptop.

[batninth]

Slim Slag,

Good point and that's probably a plus of sorts for Ubuntu again - the live CD that boots & runs off the CD. Can't recall the exact wording, but if you try the live CD and get two or more errors then they say don't install it as it'll take too much hacking to get it to work.

The reason Windows tends to work so well is dur to the money invested by the PC manufacturers to set up facilities to work closely with Microsoft.

[Busta Level]

Thought I'd give Ubuntu a try as well (purely on the basis of this thread :8 ) and have to say that I am impressed. All up and running on my wireless home laptop with no major issues...typing this from it!

The only thing I am finding a wee problem is trying to install new programs. I want to use Thunderbird for my e-mail, and Skype as well. I have found Linux versions, but when I download anything the files just sit on the desktop, and no amount of clicking can get them to do anything :uhoh: I have tried using the 'New Program' installer, but Thunderbird is greyed out, and clicking on it just brings up a series of errors. The Skype program downloads, and then disappears completely....

I think I'm missing something simple, but can't think what :confused:

Help? Please? ;)

[Richard Spandit]

Are you running the installer as someone with root privileges? I think I installed Thunderbird/Firefox as root and it gave me the option to migrate to non-root users... can't remember off hand and as I can't currently access my Linux partitions, not of much help...

[maxell]

Busta Level
same here with thunderbird downloaded it and nothing then tried the Add Applications icon, typed thunderbird in the search and hit search. Thunderbird was located on the net downloaded and installed.
Only problem I now have is the address bar on firefox when using firefox in winxp if I click in the address box it goes blue ready to type new address in. When using ubuntu I seem to have to delete the old address before I type a new one in, I must be missing something simple
Max:sad:

[Busta Level]

Thanks for the help - all working a treat now :D

maxell - double click in the address box and the whole address will be highlighted, then you can just type over it :)

[maxell]

Doh! never thought of that. Cheers Busta Level
Max :ok: