Linux Ubuntu - isn't it wonderful!

I'd just like to say that so far, Ubuntu is possibly the most amazing piece of software I've ever, ever seen.

It's just... wonderful.

Even small things like how the media player stays in full screen on a play list.

And I'm searching through all the apps, there is a whole SECTION dedicated to chemistry based apps, and biology, and engineering and EVERYTHING.

I'm a bit excited, sorry. But this genuinely is awesome.

Although the close/minimise buttons are on the left like a mac, but I'll get used to it.

Thank you to Glider for his epic guide

 

Latest PC Pro has a good article comparing Ubuntu (which is one of the cover disc's) and Windows 7. Well worth a read.

 

Welcome to the world of Ubuntu, I've been using it since v8.10. For beginners, there is a very good manual that is recommended.

 

It's pretty amazing considering it's free


My mom even likes it

 

^ THIS is what will make it even more popular, not the geek vote.

 

If you want you can change the position of the buttons. I'm not sure how as I dislike gnome and as such don't use it but I'm sure there will be someone along shortly with the info.

 

I tried Ubuntu 10.04 for a couple of weeks but went back to Debian Lenny on my main machine.

Using Fedora 13 on my lappy and prefer it over Ubuntu (although after using Debian it's a bit different).

 

I'll try out Kubuntu which I believe uses a different "window" system. I'm new to it all so I'm sure I'll get there.

The "Science and Engineering" bit of the Software Centre is genuinely amazing.

 

I'll pick a copy up when I'm next at le shops, cheers for the heads up.

Thanks very much. I shall search away .

 

Ubuntu uses Gnome, Kubuntu uses KDE.

However, KDE is "simply" an application which sits on top of a Linux distro.

You can just use Synaptic to install KDE, and have that start instead of Gnome, to try it.

From the command line:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

If you decide you prefer Gnome:

sudo apt-get remove kubuntu-desktop

More here: http://www.debianadmin.com/install-kde-desktop-in-ubuntu.html

 

Thanks for that. I've read a few bits about these command line things. Hopefully there will be more in this manual I'm reading but I don't know anything about them yet.

And I started using PCs when they ran on DOS

In other news, I downloaded a new theme that has the minimise/close options on the right hand side... Awesome.

 

One of the reasons Microsoft software is so successful is not because it's good (it isn't) but because they have excellent installation routines - you stick the disk in, answer a few questions, and just let it install and it just works.

Up until recently you couldn't say that about Linux/Ubuntu but now you finally can. And it'free!

 

I use Mint (based on Ubuntu) on a virtual host server and a few laptops I have at home. I love it, although Flash based websites can run badly and some things still have to resort to terminal commands.

 

Is this the best flavour of Linux for a novice user, and what are the HW requirements?

Thanks

 

From personal experience, yes.

It has lots of features aimed at windows users, and a really good forum for getting answers to problems.

I remember running it on a whitebox laptop from a live CD, and it managed to get all the hardware working straight away without having to install drivers etc, where it took me the best part of a day to get the windows drivers for it

 

Thanks for that

 

Sys req are tiny. 700mhz PSU (Which I read is quite high for some Linux stuff but still very low) 256 ram, 3gb HD.

 

might give this a try in the next week or 2

 

Excellent

 

Same here I have an old Athlon 1200 machine with 40 &80GB Hdds one drive with XP so may have a go at installing Ubuntu on the second drive. The machine has 1GB ram so this should be fine!