Ubuntu

[ToddMacCulloch11]

So to make a long story short...I've been considering getting a laptop recently, and in the process of looking around I noticed tell has started offering Ubuntu for their operating system.

Anyone out there use it? If so, what do you think?

What I've read/seen seems good, but I was just wondering if anyone out there has some first hand experience with it. I've only used a linux operating system a handful of times

 

[#1_War_Poet_ForLife]

It's pretty good. I was helping a friend fix a laptop, and we installed ubuntu on an external.
I'm pretty limited on it though.
There might be better Linux's out there, depending on what you want to do.

 

[JCB]

My computer science teacher uses it. And that's about all I know. I think my cousin uses some form of Linux as well, but I'm not sure.

 

[#1_War_Poet_ForLife]

Oh, and if you're thinking about playing games on it, forget it.

 

[ToddMacCulloch11]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MyNetsForLife @ Mar 13 2008, 05:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Oh, and if you're thinking about playing games on it, forget it.</div>

See, I'm not really planning on that. It isn't going to really be my main computer, just sort of one to use for going on the internet and watching dvds while in bed or sitting on the couch, stuff like that.

 

[#1_War_Poet_ForLife]

Oh, if it's just for that, you should be good.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Good video player.

 

[ToddMacCulloch11]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MyNetsForLife @ Mar 13 2008, 05:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Oh, if it's just for that, you should be good.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Good video player.</div>

VLC is nice, I've been using that for a while now.

 

[Denny Crane]

I used Ubuntu to develop much of S2, FWIW.

I like it. I wouldn't want it to be my only OS, but I had no problem sitting in front of it and using it for several months.

Linux' problem is the lack of top notch applications. It has a lot of applications, but they're amateurish, IMO. People will say open office is as good as MS Office, but it really isn't. It's good enough, just not as great as can be.

If you like to tinker with your system, Ubuntu will make you happy. It's not going to be 100% right after you install it - at the minimum you're going to want to add programs to make it more useful for what you want to do.

Firefox runs on it and is great. There's 3rd party hacks to make IE6 run on it - not sure about IE7.

Wine is supposed to let you run Windows Apps, but it's flaky and not ready for prime time. Some things work, some don't. You'll spend time looking at WWW pages full of compatibility lists and that kind of thing.

The desktop proper is roughly equivalent to windows XP.

 

[ToddMacCulloch11]

Thanks for the info. I'm really thinking about giving it a try.

Like I said, it would mostly be used for going on the internet out of convenience. Not much of a gamer at all (on the computer atleast), and if I really needed to do something else, I always have my other computer to fall back on.

And I'm usually tinkering with my system now as it is...so one that is sort of designed (for lack of a better term) for it...makes it pretty tempting.

 

[Denny Crane]

It'll be a great learning experience for you. I already had tons of experience with Unix type systems, and have used Linux off and on since the early 1990s, so I know my way around pretty good.

In any case, google will be your friend. There are a number of active Ubuntu message boards where just about anything you'd ask as a question has already been asked and answered.

A lot of it is truly arcane knowledge. "How do I do X?" "Why, at the command line, type the following command, of course."

The command to type isn't obvious, and the documentation isn't all that great (compared, say, to FreeBSD).

A low end Mac laptop is about $1K, you might consider that. It's running a flavor of FreeBSD so you will still get the great learning experience. The desktop is professional and there are at least some professional apps for it. The documentation is solid, too.

 

[Denny Crane]

BTW

S2 runs on a quad core 64 bit system and runs Ubuntu server edition.

 

[ToddMacCulloch11]

Are the commands at the prompts all run with unix (or some variation of it)? I work with that on a pretty regular basis at work, so I'm familar with it, if thats what it is.

 

[Denny Crane]

When I use Ubuntu, I have a dozen shell windows/prompts open at the same time. There is no other real way to get stuff done fast

Knowing the command shell and knowing what to do as root are two different animals.

 

[ToddMacCulloch11]

that is true. I don't know, I'm going to think about it for awhile. First I should decided if I really need to get a laptop to begin with

 

[Denny Crane]

They're advertising $400 or $500 ish laptops for dell on TV recently

 

[ToddMacCulloch11]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Mar 13 2008, 09:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>They're advertising $400 or $500 ish laptops for dell on TV recently</div>

Yeah, thats what they start at with all the bare minimum stuff...which in reality is probably more then I need. but still, it's hard to resist customizing it up.

 

[Denny Crane]

maybe you need a little more memory, but it's probably just fine at bare minimum. Bigger screen might be nice for the desktop...

 

[Denny Crane]

I've made the switch. I still have a laptop with XP on it, but everything else is running Ubuntu.

I have a 64-bit desktop machine that was running Vista. Vista simply doesn't work very well. Ubuntu not only is 64 bits (or 32 if you want that), but it simply works and most everything I've needed to use, software wise, is available for it.

I choose to run KDE desktop, but have both installed so I can switch back/forth. KDE 3 is quite robust, if lacking just a few of the glitzier graphics of Vista's AERO desktop. KDE4 is not ready for full-time prime time for me yet.

It's so good, I went out and bought another 4G of RAM so I have 8G in the machine. I couldn't do that with 32-bit vista and get any benefit from the extra memory.