Topic: Ubuntu (Linux distro) plug

[shock]

Just finished setting up my Dell XPS M1210 entirely now.

My main partition is Ubuntu 7.04, which has proven to be an incredible operating system.  I haven't used Linux(Gentoo and Ubuntu) since about a year and a half ago or so.  The "Linux for Human Beings" motto really has proven accurate.  This OS is WAY ahead of where it was a year ago in terms of ease of use and out of the box functionality.  It's really exciting, because I believe that there is actually a future for Linux in the homes of average computer users, not just nerds, something that I didn't see 1.5 years ago.  Straight out of the box, all of my hardware was detected correctly and had full functionality (unlike last time, when I spent weeks toying with ndiswrapper, trying to get my wireless card to work and an additional few weeks trying to get my integrated video drivers from Intel to install because I wanted to change the resolution).

I installed a few simple Packages from the Synaptics Package Manager (which lets you click and install things, no terminal commands) and I was rolling.  Additionally, I found a WONDERFUL tool for getting applications in Linux.  Automatix2.  It's a nice GUI program that allows you install all kinds of stuff, such as codecs for media (even w32 codecs.. and they all work!), drivers (got my Geforce 7400 driver from it), and common applications such as Azureus, Google Earth, etc.

From there, I was set out to get my iPod working.  Easy stuff.  Installed the iPod software from Automatix and it put on Banshee Music Player (which I was going to do anyway).  From there, I was able to pull all the songs off my iPod and put them on the hard drive, then syncronize the two.  It's now all synced up and fully functional, despite all of the propriety bullshit.

I then installed Samba (prompted to when I tried to use my network and installed via GUI), entered my Workgroup name for my network, restarted,and I was able to access files on my Windows XP desktop. I pulled off some Divx and Xvid movies and was pleased when they all worked in Mplayer.  Even Quicktime movies work on one easy to use player.

Since I have a legal copy of Vista and my Student Technology Services at my school is rather stupid and doesn't support Linux with some necessary programs, I figured I should dual boot with Vista.  Resized a partition very easily with Gparted, a linux app, then installed Vista.  However, refuses to install if any partition on the drive is labeled boot and is unrecognized (can't recognize ext3).  So I had to unflag it as the boot drive to get it to install.  After that, Vista's bootloader overwrote GRUB entirely, so there was no way to boot into Ubuntu.  LiveCD + reinstall GRUB + Easy BCD = I now get a lovely prompt when I start up the computer, asking if I want to boot into Vista or Ubuntu.

Just wanted to let you all know how incredibly easy it was to get the OS installed and get everything working properly.  All in all, I only had to use terminal commands on a couple of occasions.  The vast majority of stuff can be done in GUI, and very simply at that.  So if you are on the fence... give it a shot!  Try out the Live CD or just install it on a separate partition.  It's really incredible, and hopefully the way of the future.

[idolminds]

I've got the previous versions CDs (they only ship every other release). I'll have to check it out again, and will definitely get the discs for the next version.

[Cobra951]

Resized a partition very easily with Gparted, a linux app, then installed Vista.  However, refuses to install if any partition on the drive is labeled boot and is unrecognized (can't recognize ext3).  So I had to unflag it as the boot drive to get it to install.  After that, Vista's bootloader overwrote GRUB entirely, so there was no way to boot into Ubuntu.  LiveCD + reinstall GRUB + Easy BCD = I now get a lovely prompt when I start up the computer, asking if I want to boot into Vista or Ubuntu.

Just wanted to let you all know how incredibly easy it was to get the OS installed and get everything working properly.

I don't know, it seems to me that a lot of people are going to give up right at that last step.  Is Vista intentionally trying to prevent dual booting?  Because if it is, it will only get better at it in the future.

I'm all for this, and I hope Linux continues to get closer to Windows in terms of cake installation and usage.  If Linux gets really good just as Windows gets intolerably restrictive, we might get to see that needed shift in power.

[shock]

It's hard to say if Microsoft is intentionally trying to make it more difficult to use open source software with their OS, but I think it can be plainly stated that they aren't going out of their way to make it any easier.

If my school wasn't unsupportive of Linux, I would have no reason to have that partition on there at all.  Beyond those little programs, Linux can do it all for me.

[scottws]

I used Ubuntu exclusively for about 2 weeks before I went back to Windows.  I think it was Breezy Badger.  It was decent, but I couldn't find any kind of good HTML editor (I later found that Dreamweaver works w/ wine.

I still don't know if it's anywhere close.  Some stuff is real nice, but other things suck.

[scottws]

So, an update on me with Linux land.  Some of you may know that I had an older Dell laptop running Kubuntu.  I ran version 7.04 through 8.04 on there.  I believe 8.10 is when they switched to KDE4; I didn't upgrade beyond 8.04 because I was concerned with performance.  Since then, Jennie dropped the laptop and it died and for the most part that was the end of me regularly using Linux as a desktop.

At work I have a VM running the last LTS release of Kubuntu and it seems so ugly and overly complicated.  On more than one occasion I've accidentally deleted the taskbar.  Yes, you can do that.  It's basically just a widget (or a "desktop activity", as they call it).  Anyway, yeah it's ugly and a PITA to use.

But today I saw a review of Ubuntu 11.10 on Ars Technica.  I've always hated the GNOME interface, hence why I always went with Kubuntu.  But since 11.04 Ubuntu has used a new GUI that Canonical developed named Unity.  Most Linux diehards really hate it, but it seems like Canonical are still working on making "Linux for human beings" and simplifying the interface quite a bit and making it pretty nice looking.

So today I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 11.10 in VMware Fusion on my Mac.  Wow, it has come a long way.  It looks really slick and things are much easier now.  Software that requires various components will ask you if you want to install them rather than relying on you to try to figure out what is needed.  The package manager is replaced with another Canonical-developed product and it's nice because it makes suggestions.  I am really, really impressed and love it.  If anyone is interested I suggest checking it out.

Oh yeah, and there is a really good open source HTML editor now named Aptana (available for all major operating systems).  Doesn't look like it can be installed through the package manager on Ubuntu 11.10 though, but there is a Linux version that can be installed manually if you know what you are doing.

Edit:  I just tried Aptana and it's sort of like a Mac OS X application.  You just make sure you have Java and git installed and then run the studio3 executable in the downloaded ZIP after extracting the contents.  No installation.  http://socrateos.blogspot.com/2011/10/installing-aptana-studio-3-on-ubuntu.html

[idolminds]

I had 10.whatever on my netbook for a while. Only reason I switched to XP was to run itunes to download apps at the library. But I really liked running Linux on the thing. Being a netbook it was slow so Im tempted to dual boot sometime on my desktop.

[scottws]

I'd love to get a new PC laptop and run Ubuntu 11.10 on there, but other would be really difficult to justify right now.  Trying to save for a Florida house, probably need to start thinking about upgrading my desktop, already have a MacBook Pro running Lion, Fusion 4, and Windows 7, and am probably going to be dropping 300 coins on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in a few weeks.

All of that combined with the fact that I would get a business-class laptop (~$1000+) means I probably should entertain this thought too much.