I'm using Ubuntu Linux...

D

Don_Luis

Joined
Aug 25, 2006
Messages
289
For a while I had been wondering about Linux and after reading the threads about Windows Vista I decided to take a look about what's available. I found Ubuntu LInux, now with a graphical installer and plenty of info on the Web, even some interesting sites in Spanish.

So I decided to try Ubuntu 6.06 which seems stable and is said to have "Long Term Support".

In Windows I installed a torrent client (utorrent) so that I could easily download the 700 MB ISO file, it took about 4.5 hours in my 512 Kbps connection, then I burned the Installation CD with CDBurnerXP (which I've had for a while for backup purposes).

The CD also works as a Live CD which allows for looking around a little before installing to the hard drive, the live use is much too slow to be usable but it can be started in "Safe Graphics Mode" which is OK. the hard disk installation can be done by double clicking the Install icon on the live CD desktop.

The installation itself is simple but it does required some knowledge, specially if you want to keep Windows and be able to choose operating system on startup. I looked around several Ubuntu sites, forums and Wikis to get things clear and to decide on such things as disk partition size, etc.

I wanted to use three disk partitions for Ubuntu (system, swap and one for files in FAT format to share with Windows) but my disk already had two and the installer only let me make primary partitions so since the maximum number of primary partitions on a disk drive seemes to be four I only made two, one for the system and files and one for the swap, I could probably make and extended partition through Windows but I felt it would be too much trouble, maybe some other day, for now I will just use a flash memory card to transfer files between Windows and Linux.

So I am up and running in Linux, using Firefox 1.5 to make this thread, I have installed my Epson C67 printer (with the C66 driver which was the closest I found and seems to work), I have an old HP parallel port scanner which I likely wont be able to use in Linux (Oh well you can't have everything).

I'm happy with Ubuntu, it initalizes much faster than Windows, it runs fast, it comes with good basic software (OpenOffice, Gimp, Firefox, etc.). I know that I cannot get rid of Windows, but this is cool.

Luis
 
EasyUbuntu is a great way to get all of your proprietary media codecs installed/configured.

I don't know why the installer would only let you make primary partitions... probably missing something (but I don't know a lot about it myself). You can always burn Knoppix and use qtparted to do the partitioning.

However, linux can deal with your windows NTFS partition just fine: you just need to install the NTFS driver. I *believe* it is called "ntfs-3g". So to install it you just do "apt-get install ntfs-3g" and there you go! (do "apt-get update" before to download the latest list of packages. if I'm wrong about the name, "apt-cache search ntfs" should tell you the right one. the NTFS drivers are probably in the "Universe repository" which I think the EasyUbuntu script will enable for you. You can do the same things through Synaptic if you don't like to mess with the commandline.)

Most anything can be installed in this way. For example, "apt-get install k3b"--voila! You know have a nifty CD burning application.

I wouldn't be surprised if your scanner is supported too. Have you looked into xsane?

I don't know what you're using it for else I would recommend good apps, but you can generally always find good programs by searching at freshmeat.net and browsing by "popularity." (Then go and install the programs you like with the package manager.) happypenguin.org is good for finding games also.
 
Gee, thanks very much for the info, I will definitly look around. I did find something on my scanner and xsane but I have to look more into it and play around a bit since I still have much to learn and understand, I did an installation in Terminal for the flash pluggin in Firefox and it worked fine, I just coppied instructions without understanding what I was doing, but I'll get to that.

Luis
 
Welcome to the revolution. Down with Microsoft, and all that jazz. :D

I'm not sure why you can't make an extended partition. The version on the LiveCD still uses gparted, right? It should be a snap (the machine I'm on now was partitioned with gparted). You can fix it later, anyhow.

As for mounting an NTFS partition in Linux, make sure you make it read only (-ro). Yes, you can read it just fine from Linux, but if you let it write to it, there could be problems. It's actually safer to access your Ext2/3 partitions from Windows. There's a program called Ext2IFS that will you let you do this. On my system, I only boot up XP when I absolutely have to, and there isn't much file-swapping back and forth, so it isn't really an issue. If you need to have write access from both OSes, a common FAT32 partition may be the best solution.

Keep playing with Ubuntu. The amount of software in the repositories is staggering. And take advantage of the wide support; it will make your journey that much smoother.
 
they just signed a licensing agreement with linspire....that means (in a month or two) that you will have click and run.....an app. that alows you to click install over 16,000 programs for it!

the hardware requirements are real low for ubunbtu......something like 600mhz and 128mb of memory. plus of course the OS itself is FREE!!

dont throw out that old laptop people....put ububntu on it and give it new life.

does it look like windows?? my friend who has a mac, says it looks like a Mac!:)
 
Hey gus,its good to hear positive feedback since I have been thinking about switching to Ubuntu Linux-I have one of those super duper computer nerd/genius buddies who has been trying to get me to switch for a while now-He says it is a better format and alot more stable than windows(wich isn't really saying much)So I think I will give it a go:thumbup:
 
I have found that I can read but not write files in the NTFS partition from Ubuntu but from Windows the Linux partitions are not visible, not that it is important since I've also found that a flash memory card or a usb flash disk work fine, probably because they are FAT formatted.

I don't know why I could not make an extended partition from the installer, it had a button for making a new partition but when clicked it said that it could not make another primary and I found no option for extended, I could probably have left some unclaimed space and then make the extended partition from Windows Administration Tools.

I guess I coud buy an external usb disk, I saw one 80 GB on sale at a local store nearby, I'm a bit short of cash now that I am retired though.

For anyone wanting to try it out I'll say that it was simple enough to install and does not affect my Windows at all, I made a 6GB partition for the Ubuntu system and 1 GB for the swap, that's less than 10% of my 80 GB drive which was about 40% empty. Now if I start using Ubuntu more and more I'll either try to make a large extended FAT partition or go for the external drive.

Luis
 
I've been using Debian (parent of Ubuntu for about 3 years now) on three PC's. One desktop, a laptop and my internet gateway. GNULinux rocks! My server and desktop have not been rebooted for 3 months, even after software upgrades. Try that with MS Win.

Good Luck.
 
Shawn fu said:
Hey gus,its good to hear positive feedback since I have been thinking about switching to Ubuntu Linux-I have one of those super duper computer nerd/genius buddies who has been trying to get me to switch for a while now-He says it is a better format and alot more stable than windows(wich isn't really saying much)So I think I will give it a go:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Definitely rope him into helping you if you go through with it. There are things that can pop up even if most installations seem to go smoothly.

If for no other reason, he'll make sure you use the right version of Ubuntu. All the comments you've seen on ease of use do not apply to Ubuntu server which I'm using for a school project :p
 
Update...

Well I got a FAT32 shared partition now, actually I decided to reinstall Ubuntu, I booted from the live CD and deleted my Ubuntu partitions, then resized the Windows primary partition and made a single 10 GB extended partition.

Then I ran the installer and when I got to partition the disk I made 3 logical partitions in the extended one: system, swap, shared. It worked just fine.

I also downloaded some applications and now I can listen to my music and watch my videos.

I edited the Grub file so that Windows will boot as default (just to make my wife and daughter happy).

Still cannot get my scanner to work, Xsane wont find it, I had trouble installing it in Windows XP originally because it is designed for Windows 95 but finally got it to work, maybe I need a new scanner.

I also tried my bluetooth and infrared usb dongles and they are not working.

So there are still things to do but I like it, it's fast, it's easy to use and it's easy to add applications.

Luis
 
I need to be able to run some Microsoft products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on my computers due to client requirements. At the very least I would need to run 100% seemlessly compatible products. Would these programs work on a Linux machine?

Thanks!

AJ
 
Yes OpenOffice is file compatible with MS Office, just specify the format type when saving a new file. OpenOffice 2.0 comes bundled with Ubuntu (at least in Ubuntu 6.06).

Luis
 
Dunhausen said:
EasyUbuntu is a great way to get all of your proprietary media codecs installed/configured.
Click to expand...

:thumbup:
Finally got my music working again, thanks.

Had em working before I killed my x11 interface (found out the ati radeon mobility 7500 *doesn't* have 3d support afterwards). Was forced to boot to winblows to listen to music
 
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