Having used Ubuntu as
my primary Operating System without a glitch for over a week,
I’m beginning to make preparations for establishing it as my
primary OS on my laptop, alongside with a small
clean install of Windows XP.
While Ubuntu
may not work for everybody, it works for me. Over the
years, I have installed numerous versions of Windows and numerous
versions of Linux, and Ubuntu has been the easiest OS to install that
I have ever come across. These
screenshots are very representative of the experience I
had.
While apparent registry corruption is the immediate cause for my
switch from WindowsXP, the real root cause is much deeper.
For starters, I don’t like being frisked by things like
GenuineCheck and legitcheck whenever I
simply want to install a new package. Second, the trade-off of
being the same as everybody else — which affords me the ability to run a
few more applications at the expense of being increasingly
subjected to a wider range of viruses, spyware, and anti-viruses
and anti-spyware — has become increasingly lopsided over the past few
years. Finally, my perception is that the center of
innovation, in particular in terms of Internet based applications,
has moved away from Windows.
Simply put, I like being able to say things like
apt-get install subversion
Accordingly, my primary development will now be on an Ubuntu based
laptop, connected to my Debian server, my
service provider's RedHat server, and the
ASF's machines, mostly running
FreeBSD.
Typically once the OS is installed (and all the fixes applied),
the installation is only just beginning. There are additional
products to install, many from third parties. With Ubuntu,
one starts out with a minimal but workable system, complete with
graphics, Internet, office,
and media applications. And with
Synaptic Package
Manager, literally thousands of additional packages can be
installed with of a few clicks.
While point and click installation on top of a distribution that
is refreshed twice a year solves a number of
Debian issues, it doesn’t replace the command line.
The command line has a role for both the most experienced user and
the least experience user. The latter class of users can view
the command line much like they view the address bar in their
browser: as the target of a cut and paste operation. A quick
search on
Ubuntu turns up
a pretty
comprehensive starter guide for most things you might
need. Each instruction amounts to a series of cut and paste
tasks.
Those tasks don’t cover corporate specific
requirements. In my case, this reduces to three items: I need
a VPN. I need access to SameTime. And I need access to
Notes. For those within IBM, I placed my experiences
here.
The size of the starter guide mentioned above is quite
surprising. One would have thought that this list would
shrink with every release. In many cases, the reason why this
is not done is not technical, it is because of policy. I
believe that this is the true limiting factor in ease of use, in
both Windows and Linux.
The use case that drives this point home most is DRM.
Variations of Cory’s
bad for society scenario, but this time involving software
– particularly software that involves viewing media.
As I mentioned above, the last time I tried to install something on
Windows, I first had to prove that I wasn’t a common criminal.
This involved a GenuineCheck, followed by a
legitcheck. The latter involved me turning my
laptop upside down and copying and correctly typing twenty five
random characters.
The comparable experience on Linux occurs when you want to try
to install something that is “non-free”.
Typically this requires finding instructions on the Internet that
require you to directly edit a configuration file, and then issue a
series of commands on the command line. And the results may
or may not be
stable. Nor can you file a
bug
report on such matters. Essentially, non-free is the
darknet
equivalent for GNU based software distributions.
Within the domain of restricted formats, things vary. For
example, Macromedia made Flash very simple: if Flash is not
installed, when you browse a page that requires Flash, you see an
icon that directs you a page that downloads the software. For
Java Applets, you are directed to a similar page, but after you
press Next to install this plugin, you are told that it is not
available, and that a manual install is required. This
appears to be more than a simple technical issue, i.e., it is a
policy issue.
I fully realize that each of these policies are based on sound
moral principles. And that in the fullness of time,
everything will be subsumed into the one true operating system, or
become truly Free, and all these problems will go away.
Meanwhile (i.e., for the foreseeable future), these
policies place an upper limit on simplicity and ease of use.
For some, this is a necessary trade-off. Other users may not
even realize that their concerns were involved in a trade-off made
on their behalf.
Sam Ruby on Ubuntu
Sam Ruby: "Having used Ubuntu as my primary Operating System without a glitch for over a week, I’m beginning to make preparations for establishing it as my primary OS on my laptop, alongside with a small clean install of Windows......
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Sam Ruby: "Having used Ubuntu as my primary Operating System without a glitch for over a week, I’m beginning to make preparations for establishing it as my primary OS on my laptop, alongside with a small clean install of Windows......
DeanG, that link is intended “For those within IBM”. I apologize for that, and there really aren’t any deep dark secrets there, merely links to where you can get the specific packages that do things like VPN and how to configure them. I thought about not including that link, but I really wanted to reach out to those within IBM who might be contemplating something similar, and provide a pointer to a place where they could contribute.
Please, for those of us who use IBM software but work for other organizations, try to post (a potentially scrubbed version) of your Sametime and Notes instructions somewhere where we can see them.
I agree that Ubuntu is the easiest Linux desktop to use so far. But there’s one last hurdle for laptops: no suspend/hibernate, at least not on my Compaq n610c. This is showstopper. My Windows box can easily suspend or hibernate.
I just erased XP and installed Ubuntu. Unfortunately it did not recognize my built-in Ethernet adaptor, nor did it recognize my PC Card Ethernet adapter, nor my 802.11g wireless PC card. Then I spent $70 for a new adapter that it also would not recognize. Thus I erased Ubuntu and am back on XP. A computer without network connectivity is pretty much worthless. Everything else looked great and I’m deeply disappointed that I cannot use it on my old laptop...but not so disappointed that I’m willing to keep dropping $70 for new hardware until I find something that works.
Sam Ruby likes/uses Ubuntu too. I’ve been using Ubuntu as my main OS for a few weeks now, and I’m not going back to Windows. I haven’t even booted Windows up in a few weeks. For a bunch of people Ubuntu seems to be the first Linux distribution that...
For those not quite so adventurous, I’d recommend sandboxing everything in VMware. The new version has some great capabilities for incremental sandboxes - equivalent to version control for VMs...
Sam,
I also switched over one of my PCs to Ubuntu last week. I definitely agree that apt-get is very cool, but in all fairness not everything is so easy to get working. Trying to get a fairly recent version of Mono with XSP running on Apache2 is tough, for example. If you add the back-ports and breezy cvs to sources.list you may get all kinds of library problems with all sorts of common things (like aspell). Linux is truly still a tinkerer’s OS. IMO, most run-of-the-mill users are better off staying on Windows for the foreseeable future as is anyone needing to work on the same project as people who use Visual Studio for .NET development - despite the ubiquity of spyware and the unfortunate but understandable legitcheck.
Eric: It certainly sounds like trying the live CD first is prudent.
Christian: Is trying to get a fairly recent version of Mono with XSP running on Apache2 something that most run-of-the-mill users are likely to do? What impresses me about Ubunto is that, modulo the non-free library issue, what you get with the standard sources is access to a fairly recent, complete, and coherent system. On the other hand, I would agree that this is value statement, i.e., one where different people will place different weights on different aspects of the equation.
Anne van Kesteren : Ubuntu Update - With all this positive noise around Ubuntu I?m thinking about giving it a try. After all, Windows is not everything?...
I have been using Ubuntu for almost a year now on a second desktop at home and I share your experience and enthusiasm about it. The only thing that concerns a bit is the amount of memory some of the simplest GNOME apps take (Yes, not much to do with Unbuntu itself, but it is a Ubuntu choice). Not sure if the GNOME platform is to blame here or the bad design/implementation of some of these apps. So I recently decided to install Kubuntu even though I had to give up Firefox and Thunderbird for a much buggier Konqueror. My experience so far is that is feels lighter and more responsive.
I have been using Beatrix for quite a while now and i really like it. It’s an linux based on ubuntu, but way smaller. I did run ubuntu and its all good. It’s just too packed with apps and goodies for me. I like to have it plain and decide myself what to run on it.
Nonetheless, once you get the hang of Linux, the fun really starts.
Ubuntu us a good choice. A point on the side, update your sources list. It’ll give you access to more packages.
Sam Ruby likes Ubuntu. I like Ubuntu too: it’s been my primary server and desktop OS now for a couple of months. It’s one of the easiest distros to install and is (apart from Red Hat’s commercial offerings) the least user-hostile Linux to date that...
While installing (k)ubuntu I came across this gem of a page ...
UBUBTU does NOT provide DEB access to non-free products
I followed the how-to and got a surprisingly complete, usable installation.
FYI: Firefox + mplayer was flaky - I installed VLC and everything works great; except no sound under Firefox! Ah! As this http stated - install win32codecs.
Ubuntu,this debian based distro works great,took about a week to configure all I needed for work and all windows based games for the gnomes ,in the house, work great. I previously used red hat,mandrake,knoppix,mandriva and I find ubuntu the easiest to configure,the windows based games were actually ,the ones that took the longest to set up.
Boughs, Oranges, and Switching: Considering OS X and Linux
“One of the things I’d like to do is to show people how to start "positive” epidemics of their own. The virtue of an epidemic, after all, is that just a little input is enough to get it started, and......
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After a while of experimenting, I made Ubuntu my primary OS. First I used Kubuntu, but because KDE is a real memory hog, I switched to the Gnome version.
There really isn’t anything to dislike, except maybe the lack of certain windows software that I was used to. Offcourse everything is replaceable.
- Outlook changed to thunderbird, and now I even use thunderbird on my small Windows system :-)
- Fireworks changed to Xara XL (Xara is FREAKING fast)
~ I do miss dreamweaver... Haven’t got it to work with wine... yet...
OK, The first time you start an application, it is slow. But there are things you can do to speed up your system. The information you find on wiki.ubuntu.com is limitless.
I also have to configure my wifi card, but again the information is available on the wiki.
The restricted media formats (MP3, Flash, AAC,...) are easy to install. Just follow the instructions on the wiki. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes, and anybody can copy/paste commands, no?
Other things I use are
- Adblock Plus (extention for Firefox) // @Yuri De Wit : Firefox is also available in Kubuntu, you just have to install it
- IPCop as a firewall / proxy / ... It is a dedicated machine that you configure through a webinterface, so you don’t need a screen, keyboard or mouse for that machine. // It is realy nice if you have to do the updates of ubuntu on multiple machines. IPCop caches the updates so they only have to be downloaded once. The other machines get the updates at networkspeed.
- Tidy-based HTML verifier (extention for firefox) // Yes, I’m a webdeveloper. :-)
- Amarok
I also add a new repository: archive.czessi.net/ubuntu
It has many newer updates, and it fully compatible with everything.
More installation info can be found in the following url : [link]
I have been impressed with Ubuntu and I have been using it at home for over a year. (I have been using linux for the last 3 years) I still have windows installed for 1 game I play, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. Since I don’t really have time for games, I don’t ever turn on windows. Ubuntu all the way! I’m looking forward to the next release, 6.10 “edgy”, because it will include a flash, java, wmf, and other proprietary stuff installer.
Some nice comments here - I particularly like the point about having to turn the laptop upside down to read off a squillion-digit license key and all the levels of checks the user gets taken through. In fact my girlfriends proper legitimate installation of windows went bad just a few weeks ago and started reporting that it was not genuine and that she would no longer receive updates from Microsoft.. followed by non-stop bubbles from the system tray and complaints at startup. She swears she paid for her windows licence, but who knows if the guy in the pc shop down the road was actually ripping her off with a duff copy - And why should it run just fine for years and then just start complaining out of the blue?
Well anyway, I dual-booted the machine with ubuntu and her experience so far has been great. We can share desktops so easily and everything just works.
As for your comments on VPN, I recently threw together this howto on: setting up vpn on ubuntu . Hopefully that’ll help anybody else trying to get VPN working with ubuntu. The Cisco VPN in my eyes is just plain bad, so this fix with vpnc was just what I needed.