This is probably of very limited interest, given that most people here either aren’t too interested in Linux, or if they are, they’re much more advanced at it than me. Nevertheless, I thought I’ve share my experiences so far since I’ve just shifted from Fedora Core (FC) to Ubuntu.
Here’s just a few things I’ve discovered so far (I may add more later).
Ubuntu’s CD can be used live or installed. This is superb, as you can try it out, then if you like it, go on to install it (I was so impressed I installed it over my FC, which I had no intention of doing originally).
The installation itself was very easy and straightforward, except for making sure I installed it over FC, but not my other partitions. Really in this respect, it was not idiot proof. Had I installed it on a blank hard drive, it would have been dead easy though.
Unlike in FC, many things seem to just work without any extra configuration. For example, all my other partitions show up immediately on my desktop, This is extremely useful, and crucial for persuading people to switch from, say, Windows.
Media files are easy now. Whereas I had to find out how to get all the right codecs for mp3, dvd, avi, etc in FC (although it is getting easier and easier), it was SO simple in Ubuntu. The first time you click on a file that needs extra codecs, you get a message saying the codecs aren’t installed and would you like Ubuntu to find them, download them and install them. Only takes seconds to do this and it’s all automatic. Very, very nice indeed.
Azureus appears to work much better in Ubuntu than in FC, though that might just be my experience.
Only thing so far that I’ve had problems with in Ubuntu is the nvidia drivers, but give me a few days on that. Even without them, even DVDs play fine. Just no 3d support for games.
Anyway, so far I’m extremely impressed. This is the sort of distro my dad could use. I couldn’t say the same about FC.
I can totally see why Dell have decided to go with Ubuntu.
I agree with everything Irishstu has said about Ubuntu. It was so weird to put the cd in and just have everything work without even installing the O/S!!
One cautionary word. In my install (and others it’s well documented) Ubuntu did not like the wireless connection to the internet. Here is my question and here is the bug report
There were work arounds for the bug but being a Linux newbie I just switched to a wired connection (I was having other issues with the wireless anyway).
Give Ubuntu a try…it’s easy to use and looks way better than m/s vista…it’s securer…it also has desktops like vista aero(where else do you think microsquishy got the idea!).
[quote=“Blackrobe”]I agree with everything Irishstu has said about Ubuntu. It was so weird to put the cd in and just have everything work without even installing the O/S!!
One cautionary word. In my install (and others it’s well documented) Ubuntu did not like the wireless connection to the internet. Here is my question and here is the bug report
There were work arounds for the bug but being a Linux newbie I just switched to a wired connection (I was having other issues with the wireless anyway).
Give Ubuntu a try…it’s easy to use and looks way better than m/s vista…it’s securer…it also has desktops like vista aero(where else do you think microsquishy got the idea!).
and IT’S FREE![/quote]
That’s funny. i was just reading about that bug before you posted that.
(I found what looks like an excellent solution for the nvidia thing there. Will try it out and report back. I had been trying “Envy”, but it doesn’t seem to work with this version of Ubuntu yet.)
I am interested in your experience with Azureus in Ubuntu. What version are you running and how is better?
The drivers (or lack thereof) for the ATI cards are also a bit of a draw back however Ubuntu is slowly becoming the O/S I am booting to more often. When the games come online and finally the imaging and video editing software industry (re Adobe) chimes in it might be the end of winblows for me (tho I might keep an install around just for the BSOD’s when I want to reminisce).
Azureus was giving me many NAT problems in FC (of yeah, and every time I started it up it said it had closed badly). Apparently it’s a common problem in FC, and I ended up having to switch to another torrent software.
[quote=“irishstu”]
(I found what looks like an excellent solution for the nvidia thing there. Will try it out and report back. I had been trying “Envy”, but it doesn’t seem to work with this version of Ubuntu yet.)[/quote]
I played around with Ubuntu last year (Breezy). Liked it, but unfortunately it didn’t provide 3D support for my graphics card, and of course I couldn’t install Photoshop. Networking with the Windows machines in the house was a total pain in the neck, and never really worked.
You can install Photoshop using Wine (depending on the version), or use GIMP.[/quote]
I was using a 128MB nVidia card. I found out that Breezy just didn’t have complete 3D support. Even the 2D environment was staggeringly slow. I couldn’t believe how sluggish actions were on the desktop, opening and moving windows, etc.
I could have installed Wine, but I thought there wasn’t much point in installing Linux if I was just going to use it as a Windows clone. The GIMP is nice, but it’s not Photoshop.
It should be. Everything should be easy-peasy on Linux, but somehow it never quite is.
I was using a 128MB nVidia card. I found out that Breezy just didn’t have complete 3D support. Even the 2D environment was staggeringly slow. I couldn’t believe how sluggish actions were on the desktop, opening and moving windows, etc.
I could have installed Wine, but I thought there wasn’t much point in installing Linux if I was just going to use it as a Windows clone. The GIMP is nice, but it’s not Photoshop.
It should be. Everything should be easy-peasy on Linux, but somehow it never quite is.[/quote]
Well, I got my 128MB nvidia card working in 2 minutes last night (full 3D support), using the menu option I mentioned above. I think you will find that this version of Ubuntu is miles ahead of previous versions. All the codec stuff is totally automatic now too.
I’m totally in agreement with your “Everything should be easy-peasy on Linux, but somehow it never quite is.”, which is why I’m so totally blown away with this particular version of Ubuntu. It really is streets ahead of anything I have previously seen in Linux as far as simply-working-out-of-the-box-ness.
Seriously, try the Live CD. Nothing to lose.
EDIT: Oh yeah, as for Photoshop, I hear you. That put me off for a long time too. Now I don’t really need Photoshop at home, though, and I’ve also spent a bit more time with the GIMP. I still have the Windows partition if I really need it too.
The nvidia drivers are closed source, which is why historically they haven’t been installed with linux distros. Installing them has never been very difficult though, except on FC where they conflict with SELinux and ridiculous things happen.
Ubuntu (which I use exclusively, though I always lag a couple releases behind) take a pretty pragmatic approach to the whole Open Source thing, which is maybe why they actually added easy support for the nvidia drivers instead of lampooning them for not being Free (as in speech).
I’m a little drunk and all kinds of nicotine-deprived, so there is no particular point to this post. Did you know what their first bug is?
OK, so here I am now running on an installed version of Ubuntu.
After half an hour of shagging around, I still haven’t figured out how to install a couple of basic firefox plugins such as Java and Flash. I found some info the web about this, but all this talk about repositories etc before I can install Java has got me scratching my head a bit.
Truant,
Go to the System tab, administration,synaptic package manager and open it up.
Click on the search tab and type java, Pick the sun jre and plugins , and it will do it for you.
For flash, are you on a 64 bit computer?
Adobe won’t release flash for 64 bit, they say to run a 32 bit version of firefox.
Bullshit answer on their part, but there are a few workarounds, http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux-amd64.html
[quote]Flash Player 9.0 (nspluginwrapper)
Version: 7.0r68
SeaMonkey 1.1a, Firefox 2.0: Works Well
FAQ: Flash Player FAQ
After installing nspluginwrapper, install Flash Player to a location of your choice (/usr/lib/browser-plugins/ is suggested), then run the following command:
No matter what OS one uses, it always pays to read some documentation. For Ubuntu, there is the Unofficial Ubuntu Guide which contains quite a bit of useful information. Pick the version you need, Feisty probably still needs some time before the docs are out.
Btw, in case you want to run a Windows game (for applications there should be plenty of equivalents), just try wine or look up their supported applications first. I had Day of Defeat running on Cedega a while ago on Gentoo, but now it runs just fine on wine.