UBUNTU? Any good?

Steerpike_2

My Laptop has Windows XP and needs formatting to clear out all the crap. I dont have the original windows disks so am thhinking of giving Ubuntu a try.

Anyone have any experiences good or bad re: Ubuntu?

Thanks

ses6jwg

Was in exactly this position 2 months ago mate!

I am NOT a techie but I have successfully made the move to Linux and it is all cushy after some minor problems!

I would say if you only use the laptop for internet, email, music and watching video - go for it!

It runs SOOOOOOOOOOO quickly now and startup time is about a 1/4 of what it was before!

Absolutely fantastic.

gaming_guy

more good reasons than bad here.

the only bad one being that an old laptop of mine will not install anything newer than ubuntu 8.04/debian 5 (even those 2 needed a bit of hacking around to get a working GUI)

Steerpike_2

thanks guys - did you download to create an installation CD? or did you use one of their own CD's? Sorry, never formatted a PC before! a little scared.

Sparhawke

The only problem I ever had was getting the damn thing connected to the internet simply because all the major providers try to force windows onto anyone and woe betide them if they even dare think to go against the natural order of things, if you have a plan of action for getting this sorted before installation you will have no problems.

Ubuntu is one of the best known of all the Linux kernels and the most supported.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation#Standard installation

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GettingUbuntu

What I would recommend if you can do it is get an old hard drive if you have one lying around and install it on that for a month or two, linux is more awkward to use than windows because it is not geared towards a graphic user interface so much...if you delete your windows installation and cannot figure out what you are doing you will be sorry

ses6jwg

I downloaded it and then installed it to CD.

I went the whole hog and wiped windows completely as all I use it for is browsing and as a media server for my PS3.

The one niggle I had was getting the wireless card to work.

However all I had to do was connect the laptop physically to the wireless router, and then it downloaded all the neccessary firmware and bobs your mothers brothers!

gonzo127

well I was given a very old ultra portable dell laptop (1.4ghz processor 512mb ram 40gb HDD) 8 month ago which was not working any longer due to windows rot (just wouldn’t boot at all) and was told if i could fix it, it was mine, so downloaded ubuntu 9.04 and it installed without a hitch no clashes or problems and runs wonderfully on it

As most people will say who have used it, yes it will take some getting used to after being on windows so long, some little things are a little strange like the package manager/app store however after using it a little while you realise how much better some of the ideas are

Couple of things to remember
You WILL need to download the restricted extra's package (codec pack for media player)
Most windows programs you are used to WILL NOT work in Ubuntu although there is WINE which allows some programs to work - however 99.9% of the time there is an equivalent program around which has been designed to run on Ubuntu. – the programs most people want to start of with but can not get are Microsoft office and iTunes however open office is bundled with the OS which replaces Microsoft office and there are quite a few iTunes replacements around for you to choose from
The Ubuntu forums are really helpful most of the time BUT remember the same as any other forum there will be some people who are rude which you will need to ignore

downloading the disk and burning the image onto a CD is the quickest way of doing things (although does use 700mb of download limit which is something to keep in mind if you are on a low limit broadband) best thing to do is when you put the cd in and boot up first time it will give the option to run as live cd, I would always recommend doing this before formatting and installing it as this does not make any lasting changes to your computer

the reason for this is it loads the entire operating system from the CD (using your ram) this lets you test out the system for compatibility problems such as internet access and driver support – most of the time you will not have a problem but this is a fantastic way of finding out before you make any lasting changes to your hard drive,

if you do decide to go down this route remember to back up all of your document and files you want to keep, either with another hard drive or onto dvd/cd’s

tweeter

I left the laptop connected to the internet and installed ubuntu as a dual boot, until I found out how to get my old Lexmark Z640 printer to work - then I got rid of Windows.

turbobob

Of all of the free operating systems Ubuntu is probably the best supported and easiest to get to grips with. If you ever run into any problems with it, 9/10 you'll probably find the answer on the Ubuntu forums. You can actually run Ubuntu off the installation CD without installing it. You won't get the full experience as it runs a lot slower than if you install it but it allows you to try it initially.

Sparhawke

turbobob wrote: »

Of all of the free operating systems Ubuntu is probably the best supported and easiest to get to grips with. If you ever run into any problems with it, 9/10 you'll probably find the answer on the Ubuntu forums. You can actually run Ubuntu off the installation CD without installing it. You won't get the full experience as it runs a lot slower than if you install it but it allows you to try it initially.

Assuming you can actually figure out how to make your modem work with it in the first place, this is why it is best to figure out what modem you have and then before install try to find the ubuntu driver for it....

It is so much harder getting onto forums when you cannot explain to your modem that perhaps it should do some work sometime

gonzo127

Sparhawke wrote: »

Assuming you can actually figure out how to make your modem work with it in the first place, this is why it is best to figure out what modem you have and then before install try to find the ubuntu driver for it....

It is so much harder getting onto forums when you cannot explain to your modem that perhaps it should do some work sometime

thats why you run in live cd mode first to find out if there is a problem with your wireless and/or ethernet adaptor!:T


and anyway if you get 9.04 or 9.10 most of the drive issues that ubuntu had in earlier releases have been fixed so this is not 'as much' of a problem as it used to be