Trying Out Ubuntu

For some time I have been interested in finding out more about Ubuntu.

With the latest release, 8.04 (Hardy Heron), getting rave reviews, I thought I’d give it a whirl!

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Ubuntu or Linux in general, it is an open-source operating system for your computer that can replace Windows or Mac’s OSX. Open-source means that it’s completely free to use!! It has all of the standard features that you would expect from Windows such as Open Office (a suite that gives you the equivalent of Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, Powerpoint etc), Rythmbox Music Player, Firefox Browser, Evolution Email Client and loads more besides!

Sounds too good to be true I hear you say! Possibly…

To install Ubuntu, you first need to download it from here. Its nearly 700mb in size and can take quite a while depending on your connection speed. Once downloaded, you need to burn it to a disc as an ISO image. After that, in theory, you boot up your computer from the disc, set up some basic configurations (you can run it as a dual boot with Windows if you like) and away you go!

However, the reality for me was less than straightforward. It took me seven downloads/burning of Ubuntu before I finally managed to have a successful install. It seems very easy for the ISO to become corrupted during download or burning to disc. Seven separate downloads can equate to a couple of days out of your life and to be honest, if I hadn’t been determined to try Ubuntu out, I would have given up (I wonder how many others give up after failed installation attempts).

Once installed, the configuration was very easy to do. I chose to go for a full install (not a dual boot) as the laptop I was putting it on was quite old and didn’t have a lot of memory and hard disk space. Within minutes I was running Ubuntu and very nice it was too! It feels very slick and looks a lot better than Windows (in my opinion). Then came my next problem; I wanted to connect to the internet.

I use a standard Speedtouch330 ADSL USB Modem for my broadband (lots of people use these as they are supplied by their ISP). The problem centered around getting the right modem drivers to install on Ubuntu. It took me a further 2 weeks before I finally found a solution! (as usual the solution was very simple in the end). Just contact me if you ever have this problem yourself!!

There are a few things to consider before you go ahead and install Ubuntu on your own computer. A lot of commercial software doesn’t run on Ubuntu: Photoshop, Adobe CS3 to name a few but there are open-source alternatives for nearly every software you can think of. Gimp and Inkscape are popular replacements for Photoshop and Illustrator respectively.

Also, if you’re used to Windows Installers which install software with one click, things work slightly differently on Ubuntu. You will use the command line to install most software on Ubuntu. If you’re not used to this, don’t worry, it’s not particularly difficult but it is different.

The end result is a very easy to use operating system that appears slick, is less demanding on your computer, is less susceptible to security issues and is packed full of great software and applications. If you’ve got an old pc lying around that has slowed to a crawl and you fancy a change, I would definitely recommend Ubuntu to you. Just don’t expect to be up and running within a couple of hours!!!

With a little experience behind you, there should be no reason why you can’t use Ubuntu as your main business computer. And think of the pennies you’ll save too!!

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