Ubuntu

[Midnight Marauder]

My DVD just arrived. I am about to load it on my Monster Computer which is one I built myself. Hey KittenKoder -- here we go, I am taking the first step away from the Windows operating system, hopefully forever.

My plan for now is to leave my XP intact, and have Ubuntu as a second OS.

 

[Againsheila]

What the heck is ubuntu?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

What the heck is ubuntu?

Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

It's a Linux operating system which is free of charge and boasts much better security, open source support, and more stable operation.

 

[Amanda]

Geek Alert!

 

[Diuretic]

It's an excellent OS, I used it for some years. Now on Debian Lenny (5.0). It's not as user-friendly as Ubuntu but at least on my old Pentium IV it seems to be a bit faster.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

It's an excellent OS, I used it for some years. Now on Debian Lenny (5.0). It's not as user-friendly as Ubuntu but at least on my old Pentium IV it seems to be a bit faster.

Yeah, I'm running P4 here too. 3.06 GHz. Believe it or not, haven't had the scroat to hit the "install" button yet on this Ubuntu.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Still exploring. Haven't hit the "install" button yet.

Will the world end if I do?

 

[KittenKoder]

Still exploring. Haven't hit the "install" button yet.

Will the world end if I do?

Do not fear the reaper!

But seriously, good for you. Stepping into new territory is fun if you don't let fear control you. If you love customizing the look and feel of your computer then you will love exploring all the neat little settings you can change, and all the decorations for applications.

Take a peek here to: GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project

There are many more, but Gnome and KDE themes will work on Ubuntu, also it's easy to make your own if you are that into it.

The app manager has a great list of thousands of free stuff to, don't be afraid to look into that, use Applications menu then Add/Remove for the easy to use one (just in case you don't know yet).

Also, once you get more into it you will find you can make a menu anywhere for anything.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Still exploring. Haven't hit the "install" button yet.

Will the world end if I do?

Do not fear the reaper!

But seriously, good for you. Stepping into new territory is fun if you don't let fear control you. If you love customizing the look and feel of your computer then you will love exploring all the neat little settings you can change, and all the decorations for applications.

Take a peek here to: GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project

There are many more, but Gnome and KDE themes will work on Ubuntu, also it's easy to make your own if you are that into it.

The app manager has a great list of thousands of free stuff to, don't be afraid to look into that, use Applications menu then Add/Remove for the easy to use one (just in case you don't know yet).

Also, once you get more into it you will find you can make a menu anywhere for anything.

I am hoping I can copy ALL my files to Ubuntu.

And yeah, the apps are great.

Gnome sayin?

 

[KittenKoder]

Still exploring. Haven't hit the "install" button yet.

Will the world end if I do?

Do not fear the reaper!

But seriously, good for you. Stepping into new territory is fun if you don't let fear control you. If you love customizing the look and feel of your computer then you will love exploring all the neat little settings you can change, and all the decorations for applications.

Take a peek here to: GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project

There are many more, but Gnome and KDE themes will work on Ubuntu, also it's easy to make your own if you are that into it.

The app manager has a great list of thousands of free stuff to, don't be afraid to look into that, use Applications menu then Add/Remove for the easy to use one (just in case you don't know yet).

Also, once you get more into it you will find you can make a menu anywhere for anything.

I am hoping I can copy ALL my files to Ubuntu.

And yeah, the apps are great.

Gnome sayin?

Gnome and KDE are the widget libraries used, though Gnome is more customizable the two will work within the desktop. Gnome can even be installed in Windoze oddly, but it's the one that Microsoft keeps trying to duplicate but they restrict what you can customize without spending more money. Gnome however is all free, they even tell you how to make your own widgets on the site, since it's all open source.

 

[Diuretic]

I reckon you can dual-boot if you use Wubi

Wubi - Ubuntu Installer for Windows

But if you have the cd then what the hell eh?

It's a super adventure for sure. My whole computing experience changed - but I admit for me (not geek type) - it was sometimes a struggle. But there is so much help available from other Ubuntu-ers that all I had to do was put the error message or even my query into Google and bingo!

This might help - it's an Ubuntu cheat sheet from FOSS Wire. I printed it out and laminated it (both the Ubuntu and the GNU/Linux versions) and I tell you it saved my arse when I stuffed something up and I had to recover Ubuntu from the wee little console after I totally blew up my xorg config. It wasn't the OS, it was my fault for stuffing it up.

FOSSwire: Ubuntu Cheat Sheet

If you get stuck and can still get online with Windows don't hesitate to ask for some help, as I said, not geeky but I've probably played around with Ubuntu (which is very forgiving) and made all the usual mistakes more than once.

 

[KittenKoder]

Wubi isn't a dual boot, it's a shell within Windoze, to do a dual boot you have to partition the drive, but Ubuntu automates that and all you have to choose is what size to keep Windoze on and how big you want the Linux partition. All Linux distros can be dual booted though, but Windoze cannot, so in order to dual boot with Windoze it has to be installed before any other OS is added.

Wubi allows you to run as a shell, much like MS-DOS is now run in Windoze, but it doesn't technically install the OS, just Linux drivers really, and like all Windoze shells, it's a memory hog that way. You'd be better off just running the live CD when you want Ubuntu instead of Wubi. The only flaw with Ubuntu is it's not small to run live, but most people won't have to worry about that.

 

[Diuretic]

I had no idea because I just loaded Ubuntu up on a newly formatted hard drive, but thanks for the correction and MM sorry if I inadvertently misled you.

Dual boot. I tried DreamLinux with Ubuntu and DreamLinux wanted to take over the world. I found its installer very intrusive. I fiddled around with GParted and tried to kill it but the bloody thing had more lives than bloody Freddy Kruger. Eventually I managed to chase it off.

I've got Open Suse 11.1 and I'm toying with the idea of loading it to dual-boot with Lenny but I've read that sometimes Grub gets stuffed up so I might just let it languish. Frankly I found Open Suse's previous incarnations a bit restrictive with that YAST thing. I like Ubuntu'sA ptitude (and Debian's now of course) and Synaptic which allowed me a lot more leeway. But to each their own, I have read paens of praise for OpenSuse, I don't think it's for me though.

 

[KittenKoder]

I've heard Dream Linux is a bit intrusive. I am just happy with Ubuntu myself, though I may get Puppy Linux for my laptops soon, they need more RAM to install Ubuntu.

 

[Diuretic]

I read a recent review of Puppy, it was glowing. I had Puppy in an earlier incarnation a few years ago and I thought it was pretty good, not a hog.

 

[KittenKoder]

I read a recent review of Puppy, it was glowing. I had Puppy in an earlier incarnation a few years ago and I thought it was pretty good, not a hog.

It was written to use as little memory and disk space as possible, and my laptops have small amounts of RAM and I never bother upgrading them (I love my desktop and spend all my money on him instead). But I want Linux on them now, not just to break away from Windoze but mainly because XP is just trash. If 98 was still supported I'd switch to that instead, but meh. I'll go Linux. Just need to buy the one thing I never bothered with before, a CD burner ... as odd as it sounds I never needed one so I never bought one, being online pretty much eliminates the need for it, I just transfer everything through the net.

 

[Diuretic]

What about Damn Small Linux? I must admit I haven't taken it for a run but it's popular for low spec machines. Have you had a look through DistroWatch? Seems to be quite a few distros with xfce which might be handy.

 

[KittenKoder]

What about Damn Small Linux? I must admit I haven't taken it for a run but it's popular for low spec machines. Have you had a look through DistroWatch? Seems to be quite a few distros with xfce which might be handy.

First thing's first ... I need to get a CD burner before I can try any of them, no one packages anything for floppies anymore. Puppy will do nicely though, the primary laptop I want to install it on has a 20 gig HD, just less than 300 meg RAM and Ubuntu has a minimum of 360 to run live or install. Upgrading RAM for older laptops is hard these days, and I don't like buying something (especially tech) unless I can see it before I pay for it so it's like a needle in a haystack these days. That's why I loved Ubuntu in the first place, they send you the CD for free so you don't even have to burn it.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

I've got Open Suse 11.1 and I'm toying with the idea of loading it to dual-boot with Lenny but I've read that sometimes Grub gets stuffed up so I might just let it languish. Frankly I found Open Suse's previous incarnations a bit restrictive with that YAST thing. I like Ubuntu'sA ptitude (and Debian's now of course) and Synaptic which allowed me a lot more leeway. But to each their own, I have read paens of praise for OpenSuse, I don't think it's for me though.

Pshaw! Excellent dialogue for the little Rockford Files script I'm currently writing! He's gonna buffalo the pants off of 'em with this technogeekgarble!

"Open Suse" dual booting with "Lenny" sounds dirty for some reason. Suse's a hoe?

 

[Diuretic]

I've got Open Suse 11.1 and I'm toying with the idea of loading it to dual-boot with Lenny but I've read that sometimes Grub gets stuffed up so I might just let it languish. Frankly I found Open Suse's previous incarnations a bit restrictive with that YAST thing. I like Ubuntu'sA ptitude (and Debian's now of course) and Synaptic which allowed me a lot more leeway. But to each their own, I have read paens of praise for OpenSuse, I don't think it's for me though.

Pshaw! Excellent dialogue for the little Rockford Files script I'm currently writing! He's gonna buffalo the pants off of 'em with this technogeekgarble!

"Open Suse" dual booting with "Lenny" sounds dirty for some reason. Suse's a hoe?

OpenSuse is cheap