I have found my true love - Ubuntu Linux

Linux has been around for a long time now and I was first introduced to the concept about 8 years ago (Red Hat). It was a very interesting operating system how everything is bundled and you rarely need the original program such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office. The only downside which I still find to this day is its lack of support. It is a rapidly growing operating system but unless Mac OS's and Windows, its a very competitive market.

Now I fiddled about with previous versions such as SuSE which was my most favourite for some reason. I am not 100% Terminal savvy but it was very interesting to learn but Ubuntu has always caught my eye.

I have tried out previous versions and alongside SuSE, Red Hat and Xandros and encuntered the same problems each time, drivers and installation of components. Whilst I got these things working, I never understood how or why. Or if I really mess it up, the only way I found was to reinstall the OS. It does sound very newbish and it is, Linux is easy once you get your head around it, if not it will drive you insane.

Now in my case, I have a little Asus EeePC 701 which I like to have in my camera bag, coupled with a 320gb HDD so I can backup while I am away from home. Xandros didnt give me much in terms of what I could do with it and Windows XP was fine but since I couldnt run Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop well, I couldnt see the need.

I recently heard about Ubuntu's Notebook Remix (v9.04) and though to give it a go. After boot, I ran the demo and found everything worked ranging from my webcam to my wireless adaptor. Felt it was too goodto be true but proceeded through the installation, low and behold, it all still works again.

So my main worry has gone, I have a version of Ubuntu I can use without tearing my hair out. It seems very light on its feet and have yet to see it hiccup. The Desktop mode is a bit laggy and there seem to be different variations on fixing it but I prefer the Classic layout.

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I used to work on Ubuntu, and I have to say I liked it.
Used open office with lots of cloud based processes and google apps, docs and gmail.

It work quite well on a Dell laptop, but the wireless and blue tooth didn't work, and wireless USB dongle was to unreliable.

I also had a hard time adding software, and it had issues with resolving an IP adress, all of which needed a trip to IT for some work in Terminal.

Moppie wrote in post #8384385
I used to work on Ubuntu, and I have to say I liked it.
Used open office with lots of cloud based processes and google apps, docs and gmail.

It work quite well on a Dell laptop, but the wireless and blue tooth didn't work, and wireless USB dongle was to unreliable.

I also had a hard time adding software, and it had issues with resolving an IP adress, all of which needed a trip to IT for some work in Terminal.

Sounds like you had the same issues I had with previous versions. I am going to try 9.04 on my larger Compaq which had trouble last time around,if it all works straight out of the box, I shall report back. Most common culprit was a Broadcom wireless chipset.

I too have Ubuntu on my HP laptop but the previous version still (8.10)..

I can honestly say that I probably won't be using windows again, as I really love the simple and clean interface.

I have 9.10 Beta 3 on my Dell laptop ATM and its working fine and wonderfully.
keep windows XP on this machine just for Adobe CS4 stuff :P
On my 9.10 machine I used the Mac4Lin package to make it look like a mac... and a lot of people fall for it XD

I'm edging my friend to install the UNR into his netbook... i'll see how that goes...

elysium wrote in post #8384263
Linux has been around for a long time now and I was first introduced to the concept about 8 years ago (Red Hat). It was a very interesting operating system how everything is bundled and you rarely need the original program such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office. The only downside which I still find to this day is its lack of support. It is a rapidly growing operating system but unless Mac OS's and Windows, its a very competitive market.

Now I fiddled about with previous versions such as SuSE which was my most favourite for some reason. I am not 100% Terminal savvy but it was very interesting to learn but Ubuntu has always caught my eye.

I have tried out previous versions and alongside SuSE, Red Hat and Xandros and encuntered the same problems each time, drivers and installation of components. Whilst I got these things working, I never understood how or why. Or if I really mess it up, the only way I found was to reinstall the OS. It does sound very newbish and it is, Linux is easy once you get your head around it, if not it will drive you insane.

Now in my case, I have a little Asus EeePC 701 which I like to have in my camera bag, coupled with a 320gb HDD so I can backup while I am away from home. Xandros didnt give me much in terms of what I could do with it and Windows XP was fine but since I couldnt run Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop well, I couldnt see the need.

I recently heard about Ubuntu's Notebook Remix (v9.04) and though to give it a go. After boot, I ran the demo and found everything worked ranging from my webcam to my wireless adaptor. Felt it was too goodto be true but proceeded through the installation, low and behold, it all still works again.

So my main worry has gone, I have a version of Ubuntu I can use without tearing my hair out. It seems very light on its feet and have yet to see it hiccup. The Desktop mode is a bit laggy and there seem to be different variations on fixing it but I prefer the Classic layout.

I dont think I can switch back to Windows XP on this notebook after running this. The only grip is that using the Desktop mode, its laggy (whilst I dont use it, I know it is there) and also that due to my res, some full screen res programs/menus jump about making it impossible to use my mouse.

All in all, I am finally happy and can start praising Ubuntu again. Just thought I would share.

Mitesh

Ditto, but with Lenovo S10 and Windows XP.

I have had Ubuntu on an old Dell laptop for the last two years and rather than using the thing for a boat anchor, it's used a speedy netbook.

My daughter just installed Ubuntu on her formerly Windows XP Pro Toshiba laptop and this thing now puts many MBPs to shame.

Wow, im amazed at the amount of members actually coming forward. It seems Ubuntu has really pushed the boundaries and bringing forth many former XP members.

@ EiTheL
Ill have to give that a look into later tonight.

Ubuntu + virtualbox == Best of both worlds.

It's interesting to read people's experiences. I'm very much a techie (software engineer), and when I bought a netbook with Ubuntu installed I had no intention of putting Windows on there. Unfortunately it was a bit of a nightmare getting the wireless networking to auto-connect (it involved installing an alternative network manager). I had major lag problems in Firefox and Opera (apparently a DNS/IPv6 issue), which again were a real headache to fix. It seemed a bit sluggish and slow to boot, so I followed plenty of advice to get a 'streamlined' super-efficient system, which was significantly better than the pre-installed version.

I finally got it running how I wanted and, as I like to play with these things, thought I'd compare it to Windows XP just to prove how much more bloated and sluggish that was. (Perhaps I could be free of Microsoft at last!) So I cloned the hard disk then installed Windows XP. Again, I went for a 'streamlined' system without all the bloat (there's a marvellous tool called nLite that makes this easy). I was rather surprised to find that the Windows system absolutely trounced the Ubuntu one in terms of responsiveness - I was no longer aware, as I had been on Ubuntu, that the netbook had a weak processor. It also booted more quickly, was much easier to configure, and I had none of the wireless or internet issues that had been so much trouble on Ubuntu. Every application I tried worked at least as well, and sometimes better, on XP. So, much to my surprise and disappointment, it was an easy decision to stick with Windows.

Now, the system had 2GB of RAM and perhaps Ubuntu would have performed better than XP on only 512M, but RAM is cheap The techie in me really wanted to believe the 'received wisdom' about Ubuntu, but I never accept these things until I've done the comparison myself.

I've never been a fan of gnome. Granted, they've come along way since 1999. Back when I was running FreeBSD as my primary desktop OS, I preferred KDE. There's a distro of Ubuntu called KUbuntu that ships with KDE as default instead of gnome.

But after OS X hit 10.2, I started using OS X as my primary OS.

My Linux history is basically: Slackware to Redhat to SuSE to RedHat.

I am currently on ubuntu (9.04) and run it 90% of the time except when I need to run Lightroom. One thing I hate? Firefox on Ubuntu.

Elysium - Ubuntu is a very interesting Distro - not least because it's issued and run by a very large Corporation - "Africa's Microsoft" - Canonical.

It does have some issues with the User / Root permissions setup, but those can be sorted if you create separately passworded Root and User1 when setting it up.

If you - or anyone - like the concept of a very User-friendly Linux O/S, you might just take a look at PCLOS (PCLinuxOS) - which I've been using fulltime for 4 versions and over 3 years.

You can D/L the ISO (696MB) and from that make a bootable LiveCD to try it out. Change the BIOS to boot first from CD. When you get to Desktop, you can try the hundreds of Applications, Tools, Utilities and Games that come automatically with the install.

You can also try the Internet - an easy "Wizard Selection" in Control Centre. Dialup, ADSL, Cable, or Wi-Fi.

When or if you want to install the System - there's an Install Icon on the LiveCD Desktop - just click that, and the Wizard takes you right through the procedure with very easy instructions. The install will take about 8-12 minutes on a fairly modern PC - from 2GHz and 512MB RAM up.

Once installed, immediately "Update" the System from full-GUI Synaptic (easier than apt-get) - and choose from the 10,000+ Applications, Tools, Utilities, Games, etc, to enhance the System with. You can change or update the System Kernel, too - that requires a reboot - no other installs, even a dozen at a time, do.

Once you've done that, you can use MkLiveCD to create a bootable Live CD or DVD of the freshly set up and enhanced System. Put it in safe place - and you can use that in a few minutes to totally reinstall your set up, enhanced, and User-configured System - in case of Hard-Drive failure, etc. Just connect a new Hard-Drive - and you'll have your complete configured System up and running "as usual" on it in 10-15 minutes.

You can also use your MkLiveCD/DVD - or indeed the Install-CD - on any other PC with or without a Windows install on it. It won't, of course, interfere with or in any way harm the Windows install.

You can also use your Linux LiveCD (or your MkLiveCD/DVD) - on any Windows-only PC, to Rescue Data, etc, on the occasions when Windows refuses to boot at all. From any Windows Partition, you can Select and write the Data to DVDs, DVD+RWs, in the Burner Drive - or directly to reasonably large USB Flashdrives. You can also connect to a USB XHD (External Hard Drive) - if you have one available.

> It would be totally unethical to use a Linux LiveCD to "spy on" or copy data from, anyone's PC without their permission. As the Windows System doesn't run, it makes no record of such activities - and of course all Logon and Admin passwords are bypassed.

I was a Windows and NT Tech - US CompTIA A+ qualified twice - for 11 years. About 1999 I began investigating Linux, and did part-time use of Mandrake (now Mandriva), Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu / Kubuntu-KDE, and others, before arriving at PCLinuxOS a bit over 3 years ago.

The OpenSource software is now so good that Users will find Apps, Tools and Utilities for anything they want to do amongst the 10,000+ listed in Synaptic - or just "Search" in the box, say, "Audio", and it will list - currently - over 300 Audio Apps, Tools, Utilities, and their variants etc. "Video" will offer about as many. "Graphics", similar, so on.

Linux is not Windows, and doesn't "replace" Windows - nor is it intended to. Any more than the "related" BSD is in any way to "replace" Apple's Mac Systems. It's a different, alternative, and free, Operating System.

I still have Windows installs - this PC I'm on dual-boots Windows 2000, and my new PC dual-boots XP-Pro SP3. Both mainly, if not totally, because my ISP insists on Windows or Mac for online cable-etc checking.

There ARE still things Windows "does better" (DVD-RAM being one of them!) - but there are also things Linux does better. That includes speed and efficiency of Video and Audio processing and Encoding.

Some claim that "Linux can't get Viruses and other Windows Internet bugs!" Wrong - while Viruses and Trojans just can't run in the Linux O/S - Linux CAN get Worms and Rootkits. And while it's harder for Hackers to get into Linux - it isn't impossible!

You still have to run a good Firewall (Shorewall and GuardDog are very good) - and NEVER "run as Root" when on Internet. Nothing made by Humans is Perfect - and Linux isn't, either!

If anyone is interested in hearing more about Linux or PCLinuxOS - well, this is a Photography Forum, and most people here - as indeed anywhere - use Windows and Macs. I'm also Exwintech on the PCLinuxOS Forum - or they could PM me here.

It's hardly suitable on the Canon Forum to fill Pages with chatter about Linux! Yes, there are more of us than Mac Users - but not in the US, Canada, UK, or Australia.

PS:- Somebody did ask ask about Wi-Fi in Linux. I don't use it, but those who do say that the PCLOS setup is very easy. They could look at "Wi-Fi" on the PCLinuxOS Forum as a Guest, if they don't want to join. Or PM me - I could ask a Question for them there.

Regards, Dave.

monty28428 wrote in post #8386447
Ubuntu + virtualbox == Best of both worlds.

Yea I agree... Its better to run Virtualbox on ubuntu then on windows...
Window's RAM fluctuates to much while ubuntu's is more stable...
Currently running Windows 7 in virtual box in my ubuntu machine (which dual boots with XP) and it runs MUCH better on ubuntu then on XP

2.0 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, 256Mb Intel GMA as GPU
1 gb of ram dedicated to Windows 7 and 128 of GPU in both systems

and @ wifi thing:
ubuntu works with basically every wifi card now, if it doesn't theres a tool.. I forgot whats it called... but you install windows drivers to use it...
ndswrapper?

EDIT: Its ndiswrapper

EiTheL wrote in post #8388303
Yea I agree... Its better to run Virtualbox on ubuntu then on windows...
Window's RAM fluctuates to much while ubuntu's is more stable...
Currently running Windows 7 in virtual box in my ubuntu machine (which dual boots with XP) and it runs MUCH better on ubuntu then on XP

2.0 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, 256Mb Intel GMA as GPU
1 gb of ram dedicated to Windows 7 and 128 of GPU in both systems

and @ wifi thing:
ubuntu works with basically every wifi card now, if it doesn't theres a tool.. I forgot whats it called... but you install windows drivers to use it...
ndswrapper?

EDIT: Its ndiswrapper

Ergh I hated running through all of that. Im glad those days are now behind me, well for now.

What was said about slimming down Windows XP using nLite, yeah it was the best thing I also found.