Ubuntu

[mrt273nva]

I've heard some wonderful things about ubuntu from a friend of mine and thought I'd give it a chance. I may be here often in the next few days if i come across some bumps.

In the mean time does anyone have any suggestions for a first time user?

[slackula]

In the mean time does anyone have any suggestions for a first time user?

a) Change your avatar to something more mature, the lamp is stupid and old

2) learn how to use Google

VI) hit up the Ubuntu forums

bullet > ) get a proper distro

8) open a terminal session and login as root before doing anything

You are welcome.

/do not do anything that I said here, except a)

[OxfordWill]

Just out of interest- what were the things he told you which convinced you to try it?

[mrt273nva]

Just out of interest- what were the things he told you which convinced you to try it?

he said it was more user friendly than other linux platforms. he also said that it has much better driver support.

I am installing now onto a second hard drive. my bios supports dual booting so I won't need to have a dual boot software. I am going to keep windows as my main operating system because my wife also uses the computer and she is just now getting the hang of windows. a sudden jump to straight linux would really confuse her.

he praised linux for it's security against spyware and virus's which I think is the main reason why I am going to try it out for myself. he also had a lot to say for its customization. i'm running a dual core 2.66Ghz with a gig of ram. XP is slow on my system. I'm also hoping that benchmarks will improve with the operating system.

[mrt273nva]

a) Change your avatar to something more mature, the lamp is stupid and old

i don't recall asking you about my avatar. i actually was thinking about changing it, but now i think i will keep it a little longer because you enjoy it so much.

[dave_boo]

Actually do everything that Slackula said; except for VI (speaking of which what's with the fsck'd up ordering slack?).

I just had to help someone install the latest nVidia driver last night on their laptop. Why in schweet baby Jesus' name does Ubuntu decide that you really don't want to kill X or gdm stop, but ohhhh so helpfully restarts it for you? Granted after a bit of head scratching I was able to boot up the 'Recovery' mode (I suppose that if Noobuntu didn't think so poorly of the intelligence of their (l)users they'd let you have a real root) and got it in.

If you're dead set on trying Noobuntu, give Kubuntu a go. Gnome is quite frustrating IMHO, and if you're planning on connecting to the internet via GPRS/EDGE you'll commit seppuku trying to get it runing using the gnome-ppp dialer.

Buy a new hdd for your Linux drive so you don't hose your Windows crap.

[mrt273nva]

If you're dead set on trying Noobuntu, give Kubuntu a go. Gnome is quite frustrating IMHO, and if you're planning on connecting to the internet via GPRS/EDGE you'll commit seppuku trying to get it runing using the gnome-ppp dialer.

Buy a new hdd for your Linux drive so you don't hose your Windows crap.

i'm installing it on a second hard drive for that very reason. i'm not using gprs, but i do have a wireless connection to my network. i'm hoping that it won't be a problem. i guess i'll see how it goes. it is still downloading right now. i get horrible connection during this time at night.

[guava]

- If you don't have time/patience/extreme pain tolerance - cut your losses now. Allegedly better security (if you know what you are doing), and smaller target profile for hacking, malware, viruses etc is a tick in the right box sure, but alone reason enough for change - nup. I can't even think of a analogy to describe how "not-even-close enough” of a reason this is.

- Do not waste time with wine, or other emulators trying to run windows apps under Linux Sole destroying is an understatement.

- Dual boot of course, OR

- Seriously consider running a virtual session from windows using VMware or similar - some argue doing it the other way around is better - never tried it, never need to, never wanted to. Any semi decent machine with 2GB RAM running XP and one or more virtual machine running Linux or whatever – gives everything I need, stable, dependable, functional, flexible.

- take everything the Linux zealots, ubergeeks, and other assorted MS bashers preach with a massive grain of salt. IMO, any flavour of Linux is still years away from possibly (likely never) ever being an operating system friendly or usable enough for the masses. Add to that the still miserable range, and painfully slow release of native cutting-edge industry-leading apps, drivers, top end games etc. In many cases slow means never.

- keep the avatar - it reminds me of other lamps

Will Linux ever achieve critical mass in the home or corporate desktop market - I doubt it. Having set that, most corporate users could easily get by quite well with a standard Linux setup running office apps (OpenOffice), email and web browser.

Trying to find a rather lengthy post I wrote some years ago in which I expressed my less than favourable opinions about Unix/Linux etc, mentioned a few of the truck sized holes in the whole Linux is awesome dogma. I was silly enough to post on SlashDot (I think) using my real name, naively believing that calm rational reasonable debate was possible. I hope the fatwa has expired.

[endure]

Trying to find a rather lengthy post I wrote some years ago in which I expressed my less than favourable opinions about Unix/Linux etc, mentioned a few of the truck sized holes in the whole Linux is awesome dogma. I was silly enough to post on SlashDot (I think) using my real name, naively believing that calm rational reasonable debate was possible. I hope the fatwa has expired.

[Gary A]

I have tried at least six distros and Mandriva is the ONLY one that allowed to connect to the Internet via Bluetooth.

[dave_boo]

Allow me to translate what Senor guava is talking about.

- If you don't have time/patience/extreme pain tolerance - cut your losses now. Allegedly better security (if you know what you are doing), and smaller target profile for hacking, malware, viruses etc is a tick in the right box sure, but alone reason enough for change - nup. I can't even think of a analogy to describe how "not-even-close enough" of a reason this is.

If you're really stupid and can't unlearn Window's way of doing things, forget'a'bout'it. Windows has huge security holes in it, but if you want a resembelance of safety online, to include your banking information and not having your 'puter pwned into a bot net, be prepared to fork over BIG bucks for Vista and the assorted hardware to run it. Your stored photos, personal information, etc. really doesn't warrant going to a more safe O.S.

- Do not waste time with wine, or other emulators trying to run windows apps under Linux Sole destroying is an understatement.

Ignore the fact that there are other STANDARDS COMPLIANT programmes out there; Microsoft's way is the only way. And of course, if we can discourage change enough, even the gamers will not have a reason to switch since that is the only monopoly we have right now.

- Dual boot of course, OR

Don't really give up Windows!!! You may not give more money to Microsoft....

- Seriously consider running a virtual session from windows using VMware or similar - some argue doing it the other way around is better - never tried it, never need to, never wanted to. Any semi decent machine with 2GB RAM running XP and one or more virtual machine running Linux or whatever – gives everything I need, stable, dependable, functional, flexible.

Read previous translation.

- take everything the Linux zealots, ubergeeks, and other assorted MS bashers preach with a massive grain of salt. IMO, any flavour of Linux is still years away from possibly (likely never) ever being an operating system friendly or usable enough for the masses. Add to that the still miserable range, and painfully slow release of native cutting-edge industry-leading apps, drivers, top end games etc. In many cases slow means never.

We can not formulate an effective retort to those real reasons that someone could have a reason to switch so we'll start using childish attacks. Add in that we're still paying manufacturers off to ensure that there are no drivers for alternative operating systems and that there are no specs on the hardware being released for the F/OSS ecosystem to generate their own and we'll try and keep numero uno.

- keep the avatar - it reminds me of other lamps

Childish thoughts fit in with our plans; don't change.

Will Linux ever achieve critical mass in the home or corporate desktop market - I doubt it. Having set that, most corporate users could easily get by quite well with a standard Linux setup running office apps (OpenOffice), email and web browser.

Throw the F/OSS community a bone and ignore that a large segment of real operating systems (servers, set top devices, etc) run on GNU/Linux. Also try and gloss over the fact that if it's good enough for business (the original purchaser of mini-computers) it's good enough for the general population.

Trying to find a rather lengthy post I wrote some years ago in which I expressed my less than favourable opinions about Unix/Linux etc, mentioned a few of the truck sized holes in the whole Linux is awesome dogma. I was silly enough to post on SlashDot (I think) using my real name, naively believing that calm rational reasonable debate was possible. I hope the fatwa has expired.

[mrt273nva]

another reason, that i'm sure many in this forum can understand is curiosity. i use to be a techie about 7 years ago, however time has sinced passed me by in the world of technology. i think if i just screw around with ubuntu for a while then the nuts and bults will start coming back to me.