New Ubuntu User :)

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chevboy_0

Newbie
So I sold my Mac a few days ago and I picked up a very nice used IBM Thinkpad T23 for a song in great shape. 14.1' screen, P3 1.13ghz, 40gb HD, 512mb, running XP SP3.

After I rooted my Droid I have become very interested in learning Linux code and programming. So just for fun I downloaded Ubuntu 10.10 and burned a Bootable disc and tried it out as a trial run. after playing around with it for a bit I decided to install it on my computer in addition to XP so I have a chance to get used to how Ubuntu runs and works. So far I'm loving it. Its so smooth and quite fast compared to XP. Hopefully one of these days when I learn enough I can build my own ROM ;)

Now I pose a question for the experienced Linux users is there anything I should be prepared for in Ubuntu or Linux in general? I know its not going to be easy to learn but I'm always up for a challenge :D
 
mikedt

mikedt

你好
chevboy_0 said:
Now I pose a question for the experienced Linux users is there anything I should be prepared for in Ubuntu or Linux in general? I know its not going to be easy to learn but I'm always up for a challenge :D
Click to expand...

I've been using Ubuntu for about 3 years now, I'm happy with it. My only possible criticism of this OS, is that updates seem to come rather frequently. I've found it pays to hold off applying the updates for a few days, check the Ubuntu and other Linux forums for anything which may get broken by the updates. It sometimes happens that an update may break something with a particular hardware configuration, it's nearly always fixed pretty promptly though.

BTW I've helped a few friends and students by introducing them to Ubuntu and sometimes Linux Mint. Saving them from the perils of Windows (especially in China). Showing them the light, if you will.
 
T

Toon

Lurker
Welcome to the Ubuntu club! :)

Sorry, I can't answer your question. I've been using Ubuntu almost exclusively for around 2 years. But because 99.9% of the time it just works, I still feel a total noob.

It's great. Much better than any Microsnot offering - in my humble opinion.
 
H

Hangdog42

Well-Known Member
Now I pose a question for the experienced Linux users is there anything I should be prepared for in Ubuntu or Linux in general? I know its not going to be easy to learn but I'm always up for a challenge :D
Click to expand...

If you're up for a challenge, learning your way around the command line is a good way to spend some time. It certainly isn't required for Linux by any means, but once you've learned a bit you'll find it can be a tremendous tool. Fortunately, PCLinuxOS magazine just published a nice command-line summary.
 
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MortalSynz

Newbie
Congrats on switching to Linux. I just loaded Ubuntu on a spare desktop at work to play with. I'm familiar with Linux, I use CentOS on my web servers but haven't tried a new distro in a long time.

Biggest thing, like Hangdog said, if you really want to learn linux, is use command line often to get a much better understanding of how *nix works. A good source I used and actually still reference on a rare occasion: bash commands - Linux MAN Pages
 
Isthmus

Isthmus

Android Expert
Welcome to the bright side of the road. There is a learning curve involved, but once you get it, you'll ask yourself why you ever ran anything but linux. Personally I run Linux Mint as my default distro. It is a noticeably more polished and easier to use version of Ubuntu. The latest version of Mint Usually comes out a couple of weeks after the latest version of ubuntu is released. the release Candidate for linux Mint 10 is already out and the stable version should be out shortly. Consider trying that, you might like it even better than Ubuntu itself.

For a system as old as yours, since you have the sreen real estate, consider running one of the lighter desktop environments, such as XFCE or LXDE. Neither is as configurable or as full of bells, whistles and Eye-candy as Gnome or KDE, but both are rock solid and run very light.

Once you get a little more knowledge, you can also try Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). This is an edition of Mint that gets rid of it's Ubuntu underpinings (and it's 6 month update cycle), in favor of running directly from Debian (what Ubuntu is based on). The advantage is that it is generally much more stable than Ubuntu and uses a rolling release approach. This means that once installed, future the system will continue to update periodically as things change, thus not breaking your hardware configurations.

Sadly, IMHO your system might be a little too old to take full advantage of some of the best features modern linux distros have to offer - composite graphical effects (ie. major eye candy). Most require a solid dedicated graphics card to handle the effects, and the effects will run badly or not at all without them. Some highly graphic intensive environments such as KDE 4.5 (and KDE's plasma desktop) can really turn to crap without graphics acceleration.
 
C

chevboy_0

Newbie
Thread starter
Wow thanks for the replies and links guys :) So far I am really enjoying Ubuntu. I looked at the PCLinuxOS article and it is very very informative. I just worked my way through the first two chapters and will continue working with it after work tonight.

I now have another couple questions for you guys. Since I decided to Dual boot my laptop(just in case, I love Ubuntu but I was born and raised on Windows) is there a way I can get rid of windows and just run Ubuntu as my sole OS?

Also are there any programs for Unbuntu that you guys would recommend? In either to increase performance, or increase the enjoyment I can get out of my Ubuntu Experience?

Thanks again guys I really appreciate it
 
Isthmus

Isthmus

Android Expert
chevboy_0 said:
Wow thanks for the replies and links guys :) So far I am really enjoying Ubuntu. I looked at the PCLinuxOS article and it is very very informative. I just worked my way through the first two chapters and will continue working with it after work tonight.
Click to expand...
PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) is a great piece of software and one of the best KDE based distros around, and one of the easiest to use. an even better one, is probably Opensuse, though that one requires a little more know-how. If you like PCLOS, Give Opensuse a look.

chevboy_0 said:
I now have another couple questions for you guys. Since I decided to Dual boot my laptop(just in case, I love Ubuntu but I was born and raised on Windows) is there a way I can get rid of windows and just run Ubuntu as my sole OS?
Click to expand...
Easily done. Just reinstall Ubuntu, and when you get to the partition screen, just pick a clean install of only ubuntu. The ISO will overwrite windows and leave only Ubuntu in your machine. Until you are comfortable with Linux and know your needs, unless you ave another windows rig (or a mac if that's what you prefer), I would hold on to that windows partition. It doesn't happen often, but every now and then you do run into a piece of software that you absolutely must run in windows.

chevboy_0 said:
Also are there any programs for Unbuntu that you guys would recommend? In either to increase performance, or increase the enjoyment I can get out of my Ubuntu Experience?
Click to expand...
I don't know about increasing enjoyment without knowing your tastes, but here is a good read that might help set you on your way:

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives | WHDb

If your rig can handle it, you might also want to enable COMPIZ composite effects. I believe it is preinstalled in the Main Gnome version of Ubuntu, but if it isn't, you can download it from the repositories. What is compiz you ask? Here are some videos to help answer that:

This first one also adds cairodock, which is an app dock at the bottom, not unlike the one MAC uses, but more flexible and with more elaborate animation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YDIs07LIO0

Here is Linux Mint 9 running with a similar set up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3pHSq76gO8

Just check out more youtube videos on compiz fusion and you'll see more of it's capabilities.

If you'd rather go with a KDE based distro, the newer ones have built in composite effects capabilities, but they are not as elaborate as compiz (they are also somewhat lighter on your system in this regard). Also, the upcoming Gnome 3 shell, from what I understand, is supposed to include much of what compiz does now, natively.

You might also want to check out some app docks (assuming you like them). There are several to choose from, but the two most popular are Cairodock and AWN. Here is a decent article about some of the more popular docks (there are more):

Linux Dock Roundup - Make Tech Easier

Something else that might help customize things to your liking are themes and icon packs. Icons you have to find and download, but the themes can be installed directly through Ubuntu (or you can make your own).
 
Isthmus

Isthmus

Android Expert
I almost forgot. Familiarize yourself with a package called WINE:

WineHQ - Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X

It allows you to run programs written for windows in a Linux desktop environment. It's not always the best solution, but it works. For example the version of Picasa that you find the the ubuntu repositories, is not Picasa re-written for linux, but rather the Windows version (not the latest version) wrapped in Wine.

IIRC you can also run android in a VM within Linux. I remember reading somewhere about how Ubuntu made this exceptionally easy to do. I've never looked into it though.
 
Chidori602

Chidori602

Well-Known Member
The only thing i dont like about Linux, is all the freakin updates. BTW one of those updates messed up my computer, and i had to reinstall xp and ubuntu. the update that messed things up was from Xubuntu btw.
 
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Hangdog42

Well-Known Member
Chidori602 said:
The only thing i dont like about Linux, is all the freakin updates. BTW one of those updates messed up my computer, and i had to reinstall xp and ubuntu. the update that messed things up was from Xubuntu btw.
Click to expand...


To be honest, if the updates are security updates, you want them no matter how many there are. If they aren't security updates, you might be better served by a more stable distro. Not all distro maintainers are created equal.
 
ElasticNinja

ElasticNinja

Android Expert
I've been using Ubuntu for a few minutes here and there (not much time due to exams :()
Few thoughts after coming from a crappy PC running XP SP3 to a GPU-less i5 lappie (I am triple booting W7 SP1 x64/Ubuntu 10.10 x64/XP SP3 x86):

Its beautiful compared to XP!
However W7 feels a lot nicer due to Aero (and I love W7's taskbar)

Its quite sluggish compared to W7, and in W7 I have every fancy effect activated (remember - no GPU)

10.10 feels buggy - I've seen a lot of complaints about this

But - Ubuntu gives me a terrifying yet exciting feeling of POWER(!!!!!!!!!) :D which I love!


Conclusion: Ubuntu is great - but I'm stickin with W7 as my main OS.
Ubuntu probably needs more tweaking, which I'll look forward to doing when I get time
And I certainly dont feel that Ubuntu is wasting any of my HDD space :)
 
ElasticNinja

ElasticNinja

Android Expert
Well I've since updated Ubuntu and now it is lightning fast
Still learning my way around linux but I've learnt about editing GRUB2 and am using it [GRUB] to boot Ubuntu, OpenSUSE & Linux Mint, as well as a Parted Magic ISO :D

Also edited W7 boot system (its default) to add Grub2, XP ISO and a Bios Extender
I have gone from being a computer noob a week ago to have a moderate idea of what I am doing now :)
 
conor.in

conor.in

Well-Known Member
I had Ubuntu on my old laptop before it fried. (Nothing to do with the OS.)

It was a great experience. Everything was simple, fast, and just nice. Good to see more people getting into it.

(I don't want to install it on my new computer because of the fact that I don't have dual-drives anymore.)
 
baillou2

baillou2

Well-Known Member
I started using Ubuntu about 9 month ago and haven't looked back. It took all of a week before I completely wiped Vista from my HD. Now I keep a copy of xp in a virtual machine where it can't do any harm. I only need it for one application.

My advice to any Noob would be to watch out for linux-fever! It'll get inside you and before you know it you're pouring through Terminal How-to manuals and installing every distro that you can squeeze into your computer.

It's Hell on toast! But yummy...
 
C

cjr72

Android Enthusiast
I have a netbook from work with XP on it and I'm running Ubuntu netbook remix from an sd card. Ubuntu is still much faster than XP even though it is not installed on the hard drive. If your computer can boot from the card reader or usb drive and you can't or don't want to install linux on the hard drive this is a great way to go.

Instructions on how to do this for Ubuntu and other distros can be found here:
Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory stick | USB Pen Drive Linux
 

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