Ubuntu -- Linux Flavour

Hi all,

I am very new to Linux stuff, and just installed Ubuntu on my PC. Installation went smooth, but I need "Ubuntu for Dummies" ..

anyone here with Ubuntu ? It would be great to have some resources to learn from..

best regards,

zi

When I looked at a linux distro, I wanted to have a look at Ubuntu : also new to linux stuff, I wanted a distro that was not the ultra-geeky Debian-like distro.

In the end I never tested Ubuntu, for the SuSE 10.0 I had installed got every hardware configured@install on my laptop (including that external Audigy2 card I have...), and was pretty user friendly already.

I am curious to have your feedback on Ubuntu... and on "Linux switch". Personnally, even though I just loved SuSE 10.0 as a simple user, I found myself lacking skills to do more : even installing a new application without a RPM was not a breeze, took me a while to find and figure out how to do that (I am not the ultimate geek, but not afraid of computers and learning but Linux is another logic entirely...). I ended up using a dual boot, and still use Windows quite a bit even if I find Linux faster and more secure (no more virus or stupid spyware...).

Linux distros have made huge progress, when I tested Mandrake 6 a while ago it was way worst than it is now. I guess the dream OS for those who want both stability and user friendlyness is OS X, but Mac are way more expensive than PCs and I can’t afford it yet...

As for resources, I couldn’t help you but if I remember there are a lot of websites dedicated to Ubuntu out there...

Hello Zi,

It depends a bit on what you want to do with it

Now you installed Ubuntu, you can forget (almost) about the fact you installed _linux_ on and not the Microsoft operating system.

The thing you have to learn now is "which program does fit my need, and how do I use it?".

By installing Ubuntu, you get the "Gnome desktop system" installed by default. It has a lot of applications which are able to do the the daily job for you.

I myself don’t like Gnome, but like KDE. There’s also a Kubuntu, which is just Ubuntu but with the KDE desktop system installed by default.

(K)Ubuntu is their for the user, and I’m just happy using it. If you are no geek, it’s just perfectly fine to use the Graphical user interface which I do the whole day ;-)

If you want to install software which is not available in your distro, it mostly means few persons are using it, and it’s rather new or unstable....
This means you have to compile it yourself, I think this is what davidm mentions...
But did you ever try to install a softwarepackage from source on Windows .. :-P

Anyway, Ubuntu comes with a package installer, so it’s just clicking on the piece of software you need, and it’s downloaded and installed over the net automatically and quickly!
Hardware should work out of the box, if it doesn’t work it’s either Windows specific hardware (like winmodems) or rather obscure hardware so it’s likely then it will never work on Linux.
This is something to take a bit care of, though another modem is only a few dollars....

If you have any questions on what software to use, feel free to ask, but I’m not a Gnome user so I can’t help you there.....

Best of luck,

Remon

I have an install of Ubuntu on this PC and its great for testing MODx. No wait times for the upload to complete, instant unzipping, fast boot, etc. If you need a hand with BASIC Ubuntu stuff I can lend a hand. Otherwise Remon’s the real genuis with Ubuntu.

Hey Zi,

I too am a full-time Ubuntu user (except while I’m at work unfortunately) and a Gnome user too. So feel free shoot any questions my way.

Here’s a few suggestions.

www.ubuntuguide.org is a great resource. It’s a bit out of date but still very useful.

Use the Synaptic Package Manager and enable the universe repositories (instructions on ubuntuguide.org).

Don’t install anything that’s not in a repository unless you absolutely have to. Repositories are wonderful and I don’t know how so many windows user live without them.

Install a local webserver (using Synaptic of course) it’s unbelievably simple and it beats the heck out of FTPing.

Beagle is cool. Gaim + Beagle is even cooler.(beaglewiki.org ,gaim.sourceforge.net)

If you have a laptop with wireless, Network Manager Applet is a must (http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/)

The Deskbar Applet is cool too (http://browserbookapp.sourceforge.net/deskbar.html)

gnome-look.org and art.gnome.org are great for themes and such.

Media is probably the one thing that doesn’t really work out of the box mostly because of legal issues. There are instructions on ubuntuguide.org on how to get DVDs, streaming video, and such working.

I hope you enjoy the Ubuntu experience as much as I have.

Thank you for help ! MUCH appreciated !

Actually, I also want to setup a Linux on my separate drive, and not have a plan to completely switch at-once.

My next question is, how can I format my hdd, so my WINXP can recognize and able to read/write data on Ubuntu hdd, and vice versa ?

For now, one of my partition is Linux/Ext3 and another is swap.

I will slowly learn the whole thing, and mean while I hope I have to find alternatives of all softwares I use

Thanks again!

regards,

zi

Hello,

I’m a new Ubuntu user too. I just found out that there is a version of the Unofficial Starter Guide for 5.10: http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu. I’m not sure if this is "the official unofficial" guide, I’ve used the version aNoble mentioned.

Ubuntu can read Windows NTFS drives if you manage to get them mounted. It should refuse to write to them, though. I’m planning to resize one of my old NTFS partitions with QTParted and set up a FAT32 partition for both operation systems to use. This may be the easiest way. But backups are a pain and it may take a while for me to get around to do this.

All the best!
- Heikki

While we’re on user friendly linux distros, anyone has heard about GooOS?

Could this be the one distro that will burry M$ Windows ?