Ubuntu

[jazzytrav]

I thought I saw a thread on this awhile back, but couldn't find it. One of the IT guys at work suggested I switch to using Ubuntu.

 

Does anyone else use this? If so, is it worth it and why? And what do I need to know?

 

I'm somewhat computer literate, but often the technical terms go right over my head, and I don't want to switch to something from one person's suggestion without getting some more information. I've visited the site, but there isn't a whole lot of information there. Any suggestions or insight would be wonderful.

[Brian the Automator]

Ubuntu is probably the most user friendly distro of Linux to use. I've used it before, and it's great. I wouldn't use it if:

 

- You NEED any windows-specific programs

- You have screwy hardware which only windows drivers exist for

 

Other than that, you can do pretty much anything you can do in Windows (Word processing, spreadsheets, email, internet) on Linux. You can also use Wine to run windows programs, but of course, there may be some performance loss or incompatibility issues. Try running Ubuntu off a flash drive or a CDRom first to see if you like it. You don't have to completely kill Windows to take it for a test drive. (Google for instructions on how to do that, it should be pretty painless)

[jazzytrav]

Thanks Brian. Just one question. What kind of programs would be Windows-specific?

[Baldkin]

If you game at all, you probably want to stick with windows.

 

Also, if you use the latest versions of excel/acess or power point, you also would want to stick with Windows. There are Linux alternatives to those, but they usually have problems with file transfers.

 

To be honest, unless you need specific features of linux, and you're satisfied with windows, there isn't a real reason to switch.

[Brian the Automator]

Thanks Brian. Just one question. What kind of programs would be Windows-specific?

Games, mostly... but I know a fair amount of people play World of Warcraft using WINE on Linux, and don't have problems.

 

[Diskono]

If you game at all, you probably want to stick with windows.

 

Also, if you use the latest versions of excel/acess or power point, you also would want to stick with Windows. There are Linux alternatives to those, but they usually have problems with file transfers.

 

To be honest, unless you need specific features of linux, and you're satisfied with windows, there isn't a real reason to switch.

Free software vs expensive software, for one. I can do anything that I would normally do with a computer on linux (including many things I can't do on Windows), so why pay several hundred dollars for Windows?

[Brian the Automator]

Free software vs expensive software, for one. I can do anything that I would normally do with a computer on linux (including many things I can't do on Windows), so why pay several hundred dollars for Windows?

Now that they took Clippy out of MS-Office, I can't think of a single one.

 

[jazzytrav]

Speaking of MS Office, will I be able to use it yet? It's not that I can't get by without it, but I have some fairly significant papers (well, fairly significant to me) that I have in Word files and they are continuing projects that I need to edit. The only other files that I have that I really don't want to lose and that I want to be able to continue editing are on Finale (music writing software). Would there be any problem accessing and/or editing things like that?

[Brian the Automator]

Speaking of MS Office, will I be able to use it yet? It's not that I can't get by without it, but I have some fairly significant papers (well, fairly significant to me) that I have in Word files and they are continuing projects that I need to edit. The only other files that I have that I really don't want to lose and that I want to be able to continue editing are on Finale (music writing software). Would there be any problem accessing and/or editing things like that?

If you use OpenOffice, you can read-write MS Office files (or you can use Google Docs as well online), but I'm assuming you could run those under Wine. As far as Finale, here's a link to instructions.

 

If I didn't have to do so much .NET programming, I'd run Linux just so I could use

That's some sweet, sweet eye candy.

[jazzytrav]

Thanks for all the help everyone. Think I'll give it a test run this weekend and see what I think http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[bullox]

Brian, you could always dual-boot. That's what I do. Whenever I need to delve into my Windows-only programs (mostly games and rare proprietary software) I just reboot linux and boot into Windows.

 

I've been running Ubuntu for about 3 years, and linux for about 4. It is a very good option to those who would rather not spend money on an OS. Of course, new computers almost always come with Windows so that is not so much of an issue for the average Joe. But when you build computers for fun and hobby, you don't get that free OS. That's where Ubuntu and linux in general comes in.

[jazzytrav]

Forgive my lack of computer knowledge here, but which one is the operating system...Ubuntu or Linux? I'm assuming Linux, but then what exactly is Ubuntu? Is it just an application on Linux?

[bullox]

Don't take this as gospel as I am still a relative noob on the *nix stuff...

 

 

Linux is basically a kernel. It is just how the system runs on a very low level. Ubuntu is a distribution of linux, one of many. Heard of Red Hat? That's another distro. There are thousands. Ubuntu is actually based off of Debian, which is a good distro in its own right, just a bit less friendly to newer users of linux.

 

What you may look at as the Operating System in the linux model would be the window manager. Window managers are the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that you interact with when you boot. They run on top of the linux kernel and on top of the distro (Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, etc) as well. Two main window managers are Gnome (my choice) and KDE, which is a good choice as well. There are other lightweight window managers like XFCE that can help make an older computer fight off being obsolete for a little while. That said, any linux in general seems to run faster (when set up correctly) than any version of Windows.

 

So to sum up:

 

Kernel -> Distro -> Window Manager

 

example:

 

linux -> Ubuntu -> Gnome