Tired of Breaking Your Windows? Maybe It’s Time For Ubuntu – “Linux For Human Beings”!
By Frank Okos
Windows is by far the most widely-used operating system (OS) in the world, but for many it isn’t an easy choice – it’s the only option. If Apple sold Mac OS for installation on machines other than their own, then perhaps that would be another matter. But for most of us, who buy cheaper PCs from small local businesses, or build our own, we just have to keep putting up with whatever Microsoft dishes out.
If you remember the debacle of Vista, with swarms of users scrambling for old copies of XP, you must be dreading the release of Windows 7. But there is another option, one which has already attracted millions of devotees: Ubuntu – “Linux for Human Beings“. Besides the fact it is free, with around 28,000 pieces of free software, it is much more secure than Windows, and one dreaded word doesn’t exist there: VIRUS!
You may have already used it at an internet cafe and didn’t even know it. You might have seen a YouTube clip of the crazy desktop effects you can enable. Chances are, one of your portable devices has a mini version of Ubuntu running it. If you’ve thought about getting a cheap netbook like the Asus Eee PC, don’t be surprised if the OS is Ubuntu. Every where you look, Ubuntu is now starting to play a part, yet most people haven’t even heard of it, let alone know how to pronounce it.
“Ubuntu”, pronounced “oo-boon-too“, is African for “humanity to others“, and this is the underlying principle behind this distro (Linux distribution) that has started becoming a serious player in the computing world. It promises to always be free, with free updates, and the option to upgrade to a new version every six months (for free, of course). All the open source software costs nothing, and the best part is that any programs you’ve installed get updated/upgraded for free along with your system updates.
The wondrous concept of package management makes system updates and software installation a quick and simple matter. Just fire up the default package manager, Synaptic, and you can pick software from categories, or search for terms like “DVD burner” or “RPG game“. Click on any packages that interest you, and from the menu that appears, just mark them for installation. Once you’ve added a bunch of new apps and games, simply click the Apply button, and everything is downloaded and installed for you! I ask you – does it get much simpler than that?
And while we are on the subject of programs, it’s worth mentioning that a standard Ubuntu install comes with a trove of great apps, including OpenOffice.org – a full office suite. Instead of basic(ally useless) Paint, you get Gimp, which is more like an open source version of Adobe PhotoShop. And of course there are programs for multimedia and the internet, as well as a few games. Basically, for most of us, Ubuntu ships with enough varied software to get us started, and you can quickly and easily install more via Synaptic.
What’s more, if you really can’t live without some of your Windows programs, chances are you can run them under Wine, which is like an invisible emulator (the developers prefer the term “compatibility layer“). And don’t worry about all those files you’ve got on your Windows partition, as you can access them in Ubuntu no problems. In fact, you can do anything you now do in Windows, but without all the issues that drive you to distraction.
In Ubuntu, you won’t need an antivirus or anti-spyware software, and the very structure of Linux makes security much 
less of a worry. All those video clips you downloaded that only seem to have sound will play fine in Ubuntu (once you install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package, which takes care of all proprietary codecs). Instead of limited customisablility, you can tailor your Ubuntu system to just how you want it. And you won’t be constantly plagued by Microsoft and other software companies continually trying to wring money out of you.
So Linux in general is no longer a domain for geeks, and is well and truly “desktop ready“, possibly more than Windows. For those wanting to explore the alternatives to their commercial OS, Ubuntu is a great place to start, with its out-of-box simplicity, massive software library, and huge online community. If you think you might be ready to take the plunge, you can read more on their web site, and Googling for “Ubuntu” will certainly give you some reading material to peruse. Just remember that with an Ubuntu “Live CD“, you can actually boot into a “live” desktop running off the disc, so you can try it out (even surf the web) without touching your hard drive whatsoever! I ask you again: does it get any simpler?
Frank Okos
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you’d like to see some more of my writing, you can check out my blog. It has a casual approach, is often a bit whacky, but more often than not, quite informative as well:
http://ozzyfrank.wordpress.com/
My Ubuntu (“Linux for Human Beings”) technical blog:
