Blown Away by Ubuntu!
I’ve been working on Windows computers for nearly two decades and have never been compelled to use anything else. But a recent experience with something called Linux Ubuntu has turned my computer world view on its head!
You’ve probably heard of Linux, and you may have even heard that Dell sells computers loaded with Ubuntu. But what could be so earth shattering that it’s got some geek going bananas over it!?
Let me start at the beginning.. About a week ago I started working on someone’s computer with Windows XP Professional. From what I understood, Windows prompted the user to do an update and as soon as it was installed, their computer no longer worked.
I’ve seen that happen before and normally don’t have any problems fixing it but this computer was really bad. After a few hours of trying different things I called my customer and explained that they’d be better off buying a new PC than paying me for several hours of labor. So I gave them a backup of their hard drive files and didn’t charge them anything. To my surprise, they graciously gave me the computer.
If you’re getting bored, hold on, this is where it starts getting good! You see, I couldn’t look at that computer sitting on my bench every day and not do anything about it. A couple people at work had been talking to me about Linux but part of my job is working with a UNIX server and running command lines just isn’t that exciting to me, so I put it off. But now, low and behold, I had an older computer with a mishmash of hardware and no operating system.
It was the longest wait of my life (not really, I went to sleep) downloading the 700MB Ubuntu to burn to a CD. The rest of the setup was so simple it made loading Windows look like brain surgery.
I have to give one word of caution here. A while back I got a call from a lady I know from church. Her son tried to make their Windows PC into a dual boot computer so they could boot into either Windows or Ubuntu. Unfortunately all of their files were wiped out during the installation. So the lesson is, don’t try this unless you’ve backed up all your important files! And I’m not even going to talk about making your computer dual boot since the computer I was working on didn’t have a working copy of Windows anyway. OK, enough of the disclaimer!
After about 15 minutes, I had Ubuntu loaded and was prepared for the worst. But to my astonishment all the hardware was detected and worked and I was looking at a very nice desktop! And that’s just the beginning. At work I design applications and occasionally they even let me build them. What caught me off guard was how intuitive they made the Ubuntu operating system. I couldn’t help thinking, if I were to design an operating system, it would be just like this one…
Click the pics to enlarge them
I’ve only been playing around with Ubuntu for about a week but here’s what I like best:
1. It’s FREE! Yes that means I didn’t have to pay Microsoft or anyone else hundreds of dollars for the ability to make this hunk of metal into a functional PC.
2. It’s FAST! The install was very fast compared to Windows, the boot-up is fairly quick and the shutdown is fast. What’s most impressive though is working with multiple documents and browsers open. In fact, right now I have a several browsers open and a few different versions of this document and I’m only using half of my 512MB of RAM.
3. It’s EASY! Here’s where I was really amazed. This OS comes pre-loaded with everything most people use a computer for. It comes with Firefox for Internet browsing, which worked perfectly from the moment I booted the computer. It also comes with OpenOffice which is just like Microsoft Office, without the Bill Gates price tag attached. You can even create or edit Microsoft Office documents. It comes with Evolution Mail, which is a full blown email program like Outlook that includes contacts, calendars and everything else you need.
Need another application? Simply go into Add/Remove programs and pick from a long list of other free programs to install.
Aside from the pre-installed programs I really like how the desktop is set up. There’s a top and a bottom toolbar that are very simple and well organized so things are easy to find. One of the things I like best though is something called “Big Desktop” that allows you to move back and forth between two separate desktop views. It’s like a dual monitor setup but with only one monitor.
I could go on and on about this amazing Operating System but instead I’ll just leave you with the fact that a few days ago, the computer I’m now using to write this was virtually worthless. Microsoft had crashed it with one of their own updates.. Given no money and not much time I now have a fully functional computer and couldn’t be happier :)
If you’ve got an old computer just lying around it’s time to dig it out of the closet and put Ubuntu on it!
-Bert
November 18th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Glad you’ve found Linux
If you have a fairly recent graphics card, you should give Compiz a try
It’s a 3D window manager (it’s already installed by default in Ubuntu, just not enabled by default)
See this youtube demonstration
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EpCLrC0tiPA
You can turn Compiz on in System > Preferences > Appearance
under the Visual Effects tab
There’s a full settings manager for it
(install “ccsm” from Add/remove programs)
November 18th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Just a little side note here.
The only reason I can think of why the ladies documents were gone when her son tried to install Ubuntu to dual boot, is that he screwed up either during the partition or the install. He either formatted the wrong partition (with windows on) or install Ubuntu on the Windows partition, thus removing Windows.
Creating a dual boot will not do any harm to the files on the other parition, well that is if you choose the right partition to install Ubuntu on. :p
–
Ubuntu is great, I suggest you read my customisation guide on my website to spice things up a bit, the desktop looks kind of boring.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Hope you continue to have fun exploring Linux. It is the only OS installed on my computers at home. One of the things I like best about it is how it can really extend the life of hardware. One of my computers is a 7 year old emachines, with less than 200 megs of ram and a 766 mhz processor. Currently it is running Antix. It works great for word processing, web surfing and checking email.
People can save hundreds of dollars and help the environment if they would follow your advice. Don’t buy another computer if the only problem is the OS. Put Linux on it.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I like your attitude. You are willing to take risks and to see the good, even though your past history would dictate that you would be partial to Windows. Most Windows users miss opportunities because they are not willing to take a risk. Congratulations on your positive review and your success!
There are things that need to be said. There is always risk in switching OSes, partitioning and even in installing from scratch. You need to make sure that you are prepared for possible problems and delays. If you are impatient, not willing to spend time to troubleshoot or require a working system, you need to take some precautions. Back up as you said, but don’t throw out the old until the new is working to your satisfaction.
Ubuntu has some added features that makes it good for Windows users to explore and try.
1. It has Live CD in which you can run the OS from the CD before you install.
2. It has Wubi which enables you to install Ubuntu without partitioning from inside Windows as any other Windows program. Just insert you Ubuntu CD while in windows and Wubi pops up. It works just like a full version with a couple of exceptions and runs at native speed. You need to reboot to finish the installation or use Wubi installed Ubuntu, but it runs from a Windows directory on your C: drive.
3. It has an alternative CD that allows users with special requirements to take full control.
4. The installer has default choices that work for most people. Just make sure that you understand what they all mean,
5. Ubuntu can be installed to a usb key so that you can take it with you anywhere.
Thanks again for the review. I add these things only to encourage other Windows users to take the step that you have taken.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Glad you joined the club. What took you so long?
Now you want a mind blowing experience that is almost Microsoft-like in the UI without being Microsoft? Load up Kubuntu on that box and prepare to be amazed. Kubuntu has the attritubes of Ubuntu with KDE. Want an integrated Outlook like system? KDE desktop has the mail, contacts, calendar all integrated for an almost Outlook-Exchange metaphor.
Oh one other item. Fire up Synaptic and do a search and install on a package called Basket. Its Microsoft OneNote in usage.
Have fun.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I, too, am a 20-year Windows user (originally starting w/ MS-DOS 2.0) and found Ubuntu, too. I set up Ubuntu Ultimate Edition (http://ultimateedition.info/) dual boot w/ Windows XP and had very high first impressions. The honeymoon quickly faded when I found out my 2-year-old USB scanner isn’t supported by SANE (and most likely won’t be in the future), and there’s no way for me to sync/update DataViz DocumentsToGo and SheetToGo documents on my Palm Pilot. I use iTunes for Windows, which is VERY picky about file names and folder paths, so I wasn’t going to muck around with my existing iTunes’ library with Amarok, Songbird, Banshee, etc. I tried to install iTunes in Ubuntu w/ WINE, but it didn’t work. It’s not practical to copy my music library from Windows into Linux and manage 2 separate libraries. So I can’t use my scanner, Palm Pilot, or listen to music in Linux. But other than that, I was impressed.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I installed Ubuntu about 2-3 weeks ago and I love it. I installed it on my old HP ZV6000 laptop and it runs like a champ. I only had issues getting the wireless networking working, because of the Broadcom card I have. Though it only took me a little bit of working and reading the forums to get it working properly. Working great so far!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:46 am
Awesome..Finally peeps are stepping towards bright light…
Welcome aboard.
—–
Ever tried Zen Computing?
http://www.zenwalk.org
December 1st, 2008 at 11:42 am
DUAL BOOT WITH TWO DISK DRIVES.
Ten years ago, I would dual boot with two external SCSI disk drives
sitting on the floor behind my computer.
I would kick one’s switch to on and the other’s switch to off,
using my shoe of course — dual boot.
The other, more common approach,
dual booting off the same disk drive,
I always found precarious.
You can boot in peculiar ways, like booting off the master boot record into another area on disk that does the final boot.
I found such techniques obscure and learning unuseful for other endeavors, and I ruined a couple laborious installs by fiddling with dual boot on the same disk drive.
Today, you can buy a 500GB disk drive for $70,
so dual boot off two disk drives.
The MOST ELEGANT approach, one I adopted from
http://thesataswitch.com
drills and inserts a rotary switch into a 5″ bay cover.
I now turn a knob between 3 operating systems
Debian Linux
Ubuntu Linux
Windows XP
The knob decides which of 3 disk drives gets power,
while each SATA disk drive is separately directly attached to the motherboard’s SATA connector.
These 3 disk drives can never see each other,
since the rotary switch powers only one of the 3 disk drives.
The above website tells how to make this with a rotary SATA switch ($7 for switch) where he buys his, or buy one premade by him for about $34.
THIS APPROACH IS UBER, as is Ubuntu.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Hello!!! The info which you are providing about Linux and windows is good.I like your attitude. You are willing to take risks and to see the good, even though your past history would dictate that you would be partial to Windows. Most Windows users miss opportunities because they are not willing to take a risk. Congratulations on your positive review and your success!
December 4th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
cool, this almost seems to good to be true! who’s hiding this secret?
April 26th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Ubuntu is good choice for office user, easy to install,fast and it’s free. some hardware may not support this os as windows does,they work hard to do this. but for gamers windows is right choice.