The Free Ubuntu Operating System

By Carl Broady

My Compaq Presario XP recently got infected with a particularly malicious virus. This is the second time that this PC had been infected. The first time I used the system restore disks and completely restored the PC to its original day one configuration. What a pain that was.

When I hooked the restored PC up to the Internet it seemed to take the best part of a week downloading and configuring updates. After the second infection I was unable to find the system restore disks which was almost a relief. I disconnected the computer and was even considering throwing it away.

I had heard about the free open source Linux operating system: Ubuntu, and so using another computer I Googled Ubuntu and went to their site.

I read the download and installation instructions on the page. It all seemed pretty straightforward so I went ahead and downloaded the latest version: Ubuntu 9.10 and then transferred the downloaded program to a CD-R as per the instructions.

My infected Compaq Presario would boot up to the desktop but none of the icons would load. I could access some of the programs using the control alt delete command but it gave stripped down versions of the programs with limited functionality.

I put the Ubuntu CD-R into my infected Compaq Presario’s CD drive and booted it as per the instructions on the Ubuntu website. The on-screen instructions asked if I wanted to have both operating systems on my machine or just Ubuntu. I decided to completely erase XP which of course was infected and replace it with Ubuntu. I clicked 100% Ubuntu. It warmed me one last time that windows XP would be completely erased from my computer. I click okay and the installation began.

The installation was pretty straightforward and it took just a few minutes before I had the fully functional Ubuntu operating system on my PC and within a very short space of time I had my PC up and running.

Ubuntu is different than Windows but has many of the same features and is pretty intuitive.

Ubuntu comes with a whole bundle of great preinstalled programs. The Open Office suite, which rivals Microsoft office. A web browser: Mozilla Firefox, which has most of the same controls as Explorer but in different places. It has a preinstalled games package with several popular card games: Blackjack, Solitaire etc. Ubuntu has it’s own media player for MP3s and videos etc which works very well.

Ubuntu also has a built-in software link where you can access approximately 2700 free Ubuntu programs.

My first impression of Ubuntu is that I like it, a lot. It seems very stable seems to be very user-friendly and easy-to-use.

The installation process for software and applications is slightly different from Windows, but not very difficult. I downloaded and easily installed Skype for Linux and made a few International phone calls. It worked just fine.

Ubuntu has a several advantages over Windows. One of the major advantages of Ubuntu is that it is almost immune from viruses. Ubuntu is free of charge. Ubuntu seems to take up far less room on the hard drive and because it is almost immune from viruses it does not require an antivirus program gobbling up resources. My PC now seems to run four times faster with Ubuntu than it did with Microsoft XP but admittedly when I installed Ubuntu it got rid of a lot of junk: old unused software, probably a few orphaned files and a lot of old e-mails.

Most popular Windows program seem to have an Ubuntu/Linux version or counterpart. Windows programs will not run on Ubuntu unless you install a program called wine to run them. I haven’t had the need to do this as of yet.

I have another Desktop PC running Vista. I bought a switch which allows me to use two computers with just one mouse, one keyboard and one monitor. This has worked out very well for me because now I don’t have Ubuntu instead of but as well as Microsoft Windows.

If you have just upgraded and have an old PC or laptop lying around then I strongly recommend before you get rid of your old machine that you install Ubuntu and give it a try. I think you will be very pleased and very impressed. I know I was.

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Recently my nephew came to visit and brought his computer. It was running WinXP and he said the CD drives were broken, and it needed a new motherboard! Well, since he’s only 12 his diagnosis was understandably quite a bit off. There’s no need to pay a technician huge sums of money to “fix” this broken system, with my trusty case full of live Linux discs I was ready to start.

First, we booted into Windows– It did not recognize the CD drives in the computer, Device Manager reported a problem with the drivers, indicated by yellow exclamation points.

Now, normally a casual Windows user would have to start jumping through hoops trying to figure out how to fix the drivers problem, but in this case he was done with Windows, what with all the spyware and general instability problems, and he was ready to give Linux a try. So, we turned off the PC, let it sit for 10 seconds, then turned it on, inserted the Linux Live disc (Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala), and booted up into Linux.

Some argue that Windows is inherently easier to use than Linux, while that may have been true 15 years ago before the Graphical User Interface became increasingly popular for Linux distros, nowadays there are new advantages to the less-savvy computer to really like about Linux.

For instance, look at this example about problems with drivers for CD-ROM drives. Most Linux distros come complete with CD-ROM drivers, video drivers, USB device drivers (Like my Linksys Wireless-G stick) which has never been the case with Microsoft’s Windows. When you first install Windows on a PC you aren’t done yet–Oh no, it will probably a couple hours for you to track down all the proper drivers for your system. Linux- put your Live CD in the drive, boot up and go!

And, if you want to add more software to your Linux system, you have the convenience of Package Managers.  All the biggest Linux distros have thousands of all different types of applications available from games, to business, to development specifically put together for that particular distro. For instance, Ubuntu has over 20,000 different programs known as “packages” that are each uniquely tailored to your particular ditribution. Package managers resolve dependency problems which have historically plagued operating systems like Linux because there were specific versions of individual files required by some programs that weren’t already installed on the system, resulting in problems.

Getting out of the “Windows mindset” gives one the freedom to expand his horizons when it comes to getting the most out of one’s computer system with the least cost.

#1 Families with kids who use the computer

Those of us who have kids know that they aren’t so savvy about what not to click on especially when surfing the Internet. Without a mindful grownup watching everything his child does online, problems are soon to crop up. Leave a 10 year old alone for an hour by himself on the family PC and I will say with almost 100% certainty that their will be spyware and viruses on that computer! Besides the obvious danger involved in letting kids surf the web without proper filters, the great chance of them clicking on those fancy “animated cursor ads”, or any of a vast number of fancy Flash attention grabbers will absolutely fill your Windows PC with security threats.

So what’s the solution, you ask

The solution to this problem is to use a Linux Live CD on that computer! Simply put a Live CD in the CD-ROM drive, shutdown your Windows machine, and when you turn it back on, you will have a menu appear that will allow you to boot into one of many Linux Operating Systems, and they can click and surf with abandon since the Linux Live environment will not touch your installed Windows system.

The image above shows what you see when you put in the Linux disc, in this case we use Ubuntu, it’s the most popular but there are surely scores of other Linux distros that will work very well.

Using Linux as a Live CD is certainly a fun endeavor, but it does have a few drawbacks–namely, the most important difference for most of them is that anything you do in Linux while in the Live environment will not be save once you’re done and restart the computer. Anything you change, like adding programs, changing system settings, etc., will all be gone for next time. But this shouldn’t be a problem for the casual Linux dabbler.

#2 People who use many different computers

What do you do when find yourself with several different computers at home, and you like to go to your friends’ houses and use their computers? Maybe you want to show them what your doing on your computer, but you don’t really want to drag an entire desktop computer to someone’s house, do you?

So what’s the solution, you ask

The answer is, you can install your entire system onto one of those small USB memory sticks. As long as the computer you stick it into supports booting from USB (and most modern computer do), then you can simply take your PC with you in your pocket!

And Ubuntu makes this very simple to do since they have a command to create a “USB Startup Disk”:

It’s really that simple- Once you have your “Startup Disk”, you really have a full Ubuntu installation on a Flash drive that ’s only limited by the capacity of the drive.

As you can see, these are just two examples of how people who wouldn’t normally think that they would have a good use for that “other” operating system, there really are some great “out-of-the-box” uses for Linux besides the everyday use some may find intimidating.

Check back here for more great uses of Linux and thanks for reading!

Convert Your Old Computer to a Linux Server

By Jan Pascal

Linux is a very popular platform. Not just because it is free but also because it is reliable and supports anything you can imagine. A popular setup is a Linux server without any graphical user interface. It can be used for web hosting, as a file server, as a database server, or for anything you need. Most people comfortable with Windows operating system are afraid to start thinking in a different way. In fact, installing and using Linux is pretty simple.

Once you decide to go for it you have already made the first step. The next step is to get some basic information about installing Linux. There are many Linux distributions. One that is very popular is Ubuntu. Simply Google for “ubuntu server” and learn about what do you need to install Linux. In general, things are pretty simple. You can install Linux on almost any machine. Your old computer that was replaced some time ago is a perfect choice for Linux. You only need some space on the hard drive, a CD or DVD drive, a network card and a lot of patience.

The first step is to make a bootable CD with the latest Ubuntu server image. Download the image file and burn it on a CD. Then you boot your computer with this CD and start installing Linux. It is a good idea to do this installation next to your main computer with internet accesses. This way you will be able to browse for any problem you may encounter. The most important thing you should know is that for every question you may have, there is an answer on some web page waiting for you. You only have to find it.

The installation process is pretty straight-forward. If you don’t understand what the installer is asking you then simply select the default option. Of course, you can also ask Google for it and then choose appropriate option. You should understand that the Linux principle is very different from the Windows one. But once you become familiar with Linux shell and basic commands it will be very easy to work with Linux and to install and configure new software.

Having a Linux server is a great upgrade to your home network. This server will be your reliable storage for large peer-to-peer files, web server for website development or a computer to play with. And remember, sooner or later you will encounter a problem. Something will not work or you will not know how to change some setting. All you have to do is to search for the answer on the web. Web pages offer a giant encyclopedia on Linux.

The author is a big Linux fan and all his websites were developed on a home Linux server. One such project is http://hydronicfloorheating.org/ which offers some basic information on Hydronic Floor Heating.

What Is Ubuntu?

By Roharme D

Ubuntu is an easy version of Linux. It is not windows,but it is almost user friendly like windows. No all applications have graphical interface. Many applications force users to use commands to run them.Commands are mandatory to work with Linux and Ubuntu is not an exception.

Useful Commands:

* apt-get – Call Advanced Packaging Tool.

* clear – Clears terminal screen

* cat [filename] – Opens the file in terminal

* cat > [filename] – Createsa file with name mentioned

* chmod – Change the mode of a file to read, write, execute, extract etc.

* gedit – Opens gnome editor

* gksudo [program name] – Open graphic interface of an application with administrator

* install – Install a package or a component

* pon – Trigger a dsl-connection

* poff – Turn of a dsl-connection

* plog -PPPOE Log file.

* sudo -To become an administration for that particular transaction / terminal session alone.

* privileges.

* synaptic – Open package installer

* vi – Opens VI editor

Installing a software:

Ubuntu does not support direct executable files. You will either be provided with a compiled object that can be installed as such or the complete source code itself. In case of source code, it must be compiled first to proceed with the installation. There is no fixed way to compile the code. It depends upon the language in which the software has been written.

Fully compiled software will have standard extensions which Ubuntu understands by their extension.Some standard file type are

*.run – These files types must be executed with shell command as

* sh.run

*.deb – Deb is the abbreviated form of Debian packages. These packages can be installed right away by double clicking.It opens itself in package installer.

*.bin – These are standard binary files. They might be locked sometimes. They must be provided privileges before executing. The privileges can be changed by the command chmod with the switch +x.To install the software, use the command./[FILENAME].bin (note the dot in the beginning)

There are many other ways of installing a software.

Synaptic Manager:

This is a built-in Ubuntu installer. Ubuntu, keeps track of many useful and popular packages. They are indexed in the synaptic manager. You can install the software using the synaptic manager, if the software is listed in it.

To start synaptic manager, use the command sudo synaptic

Application Package Tool:

APT is one of the typical features of Ubuntu. There are plenty of software and utilities that can directly be installed in your system without having a downloaded soft copy. Just naming the package would suffice. Some famous package that can be installed with APT are

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-sdk sudo apt-get install xmms sudo apt-get install vlc sudo apt-get install mvn sudo apt-get install ant sudo apt-get install svn

Almost all applications can be opened using a command line. Command line version of software are faster than graphic interface as they occupy less memory.This could be a handy guide for beginners. But this is just a piece of Ubuntu. There are many things are there to be learnt to play with Ubuntu.

Linux Operating System – Things I’ve Learned About This System Over the Years
By Richard S. Corbin

The Linux operating system is being talked about more and more these days. The current financial crisis has had large corporations as well as governments rethinking what it costs to be online and just how much is being spent on computing technology.

A recent BBC news feed reported that a portion of the government dealing with the public could save millions of pounds yearly by switching to Open Source for it’s computer needs and indeed would be switching this year.

Here are some things I’ve learned in the last 5 years of using Linux( Ubuntu and Kubuntu versions):

• Easy to acquire this technology. Linux is everywhere on the internet. You simply download it or send for a CD copy of it. I think the cds cost about $5.00. Not bad for a complete operating system.
• The system includes a full office suite, e-mail program, web browser, audio and video programs, graphics programs, photo software, CD/DVD software etc. Also, there are many different types of the software mentioned to pick and choose from. I’ve seen lists of over 20,000 different software packages to choose from. It’s simply amazing. However, I must mention, just because this software is free does not mean it is cheap or poorly made. An example is the Open Office Suite that comes with the operating system. This suite is made by Sun Microsystems and is equal to and better than Microsoft Office in many ways. (Have you priced Microsoft Office lately?)
• Very user friendly software. You can run it from the CD and try it out before you even load it on your computer. Also, you can install it along side your existing software so that you can compare them and decide for yourself which one is better.
• I have learned how to set it up and simply use it or with the help of support from around the world I have tweaked it and changed it to suit how I wanted it to operate. Don’t get me wrong, I have totally messed up my system also. However, with all of the free support I have fixed the problems I have created too.
• I have tried different distributions of Linux also. Sometimes having three versions on my computer at one time, just to see how they compare!
• It was surprisingly liberating to get out from under the restrictions of Windows. I could do whatever I wanted. Upgrade, downgrade, tweak, and even mess up, knowing that I could just download a new version if I totally screwed up my computer. No registration, always supported, no costly upgrades. Freedom with my computer. And if I chose to set it up and not mess with it but use it continually I could do that. I actually have a second computer to try different stuff on.

I would have to say that my experience with Linux over the years has been a blast. I feel like I am in control. I have never had to take my computer in to have it serviced. Which I might add was why I switched from Windows. I was in service a lot and paying big bucks to have someone fix it because I couldn’t afford to call support and get them to try on the phone to fix it. I was very frustrated to say the least.

Now you can try the Linux operating system for yourself and have some fun and freedom.

At the following site you can see a comparison of Windows software to Linux software. There is also a free gift. http://www.linuxez.info

My 14 Days With Ubuntu
By Rick Castellini

I can’t believe it has been two weeks already that I’ve used Ubuntu Linux exclusively. If I had to sum up the experience in one word, that word would be “satisfying.” And my regular readers/listeners know that I can’t sum anything up in one word, so I will use this format to provide a complete synopsis of my Ubuntu thoughts.
Minimum Requirements

Ubuntu and its derivatives can run on extremely modest computers. Ubuntu works best on a system with at least a 500mhz processor and 192 mb of RAM…specs that even the six year old Windows XP would choke on and Vista needs triple those specifications to even get close to running at any appreciable speed. Xubuntu is a very basic operating system capable of doing all the major computer functions, but only requires a 166mhz processor and 48mb of RAM! That’s a computer that was sold in the early 90’s!!

These modest system requirements are what first drew me to Ubuntu. Compared with the monster hardware required to run Vista, Ubuntu gives new life to computers previously thought ready for the scrap pile. The fact that Ubuntu is FREE on top of all this is just a bonus.
Available Applications

A fresh install of Ubuntu (typically less than 30 minutes) gives any computer user the ability to:

* Browse the Internet

* Send and receive email

* Download digital photos from a camera

* Edit digital photos

* Create word processing documents

* Create spreadsheets

* Create slide presentations

* Play games like Sudoku, solitaire, blackjack, Mahjongg and more

All of the above are full version programs…not time limited or crippled versions and they are all free.
Who can use Ubuntu?

Literally anyone that can click a mouse or type on a keyboard can you use Ubuntu. The real question is; Who is right for Ubuntu? Here are my thoughts:

* Any aged computer user who only needs a computer for Internet, email, and occasional word processing. This is probably my idea of the number one demographic for Ubuntu.

* Any aged computer user who wants to do the activities I listed above plus download and do light editing of photos and play basic games.

* Families who want a solid, inexpensive, worry free computer system that the kids can do homework on and play Internet games on as well.

About the only group of people who I think should not use Ubuntu are those who require specialized industry software or software only available for Windows.
Ubuntu Support

Dell started selling Ubuntu desktops earlier this year and if you buy a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed at Dell or other vendors you might find, you will have the option for phone support. However, the power of Ubuntu is its community. The Ubuntu forums are second to none in being able to find answers to many existing questions and the ability to ask questions that come up as you use the system. I have found the forums to be extremely well organized and frequented by cordial, knowledgeable individuals. Also, many states offer Ubuntu users groups called LoCo groups for even more localized support.
Ubuntu Weaknesses

As much enthusiasm as I have for Ubuntu, I am not so blinded by love that I don’t see the chinks in the armor. And like ANY software or operating system, Ubuntu has a few chinks. The most glaring, in my opinion, are:

Hardware support. The Ubuntu community continues to work hard at providing drivers and programs that will work with every printer on the market and off the market as well as scanners, digital cameras (use a card reader for no problems at all), web cams and other devices. However, the number of hardware devices that have been available over the past ten years is staggering and Ubuntu has a lot of catching up to to do.

Wireless Internet. Once I figured out wireless on this laptop, I have had few problems, but getting wireless up and running requires some patience, technical know-how, and willingness to research the web for answers. It is getting better, but not as easy as wireless with Windows…yet.

Database. I love working with desktop databases. My skills are unfortunately pretty weak with databases, but I recognize their power and possibility so I constantly dabble in them. I was sorely disappointed with OpenOffice’s database program. It was slow, couldn’t handle much data and hard to customize. This all surprised me since their word processing, spreadsheet and presentation manager program all work so well.
Summary

At the beginning of this article I summarized my Ubuntu two week trek as being satisfying. I was satisfied that Ubuntu handled almost everything I threw at it. I was satisfied that I think the interface is such that any computer user of any age or ability could quickly get up to speed with Ubuntu. I was satisfied to have found a robust operating system that doesn’t break the bank in terms of computer needs and actual costs. As a tech guy who helps other fix their computers, I was extremely satisfied to use an operating system that requires virtually no worries about computer Internet security.

Will I continue to use Ubuntu? Absolutely, as my primary laptop? Will I give up my Windows PC? Not until all the support that I give lies only in Linux, which unfortunately won’t be any time soon.

Rick Castellini hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, is an author and computer consultant in Colorado. He also is a freelance writer for newspapers around the country. Visit his web site at HelpMeRick.com for practical tips and computer information every week.

Buy Ubuntu today WITH Tech Support!

Linux Text Processing
By Levi Reiss

Damn Small Linux can be an excellent tool for learning Linux commands and running the Linux operating system. But what if you are not interested in becoming a computer nerd; can this software still be useful to regular people? The answer is a resounding yes; you can make use of this tiny operating system whether or not you want to learn the sometimes gruesome details of operating systems. This article introduces the text editors that come with your free Damn Small Linux that runs on even obsolete Windows computers. You can use these applications to compose simple text or programs of any level of complexity.

Once you have downloaded and installed Damn Small Linux there are several equivalent ways of launching its text editors. You can click on the DSL button in the lower-left hand corner or on the Apps/ icon toward the top of the screen. Then open the Editors: there are four, Beaver, Nano, Notepad, and vi (actually vim). We will look at these editors in order plus an additional one.

Beaver is my choice for creating and editing the text files used in my Damn Small Linux tutorials. The name Beaver stands for Beaver is an Early AdVanced EditoR which is the kind of joke that many Linux and Unix people find funny. This editor is particularly useful for programming and web page editing. Among Beaver’s special features are color coding and the ability to convert text to Upper Case, Lower Case or to capitalize the first letter of every word. You can convert text among the following formats: Unix, DOS, and Mac. Programmers will be happy to learn that Beaver formats code for the following programming languages: C/C++, HTML, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, and Bash. Unfortunately the Help function is not available. To learn more about this editor access their website at nongnu.org/beaver.

The nano program is especially used for email messages. It stems from the widely-used Pico email program that is not available for some versions of Linux. I have not had the pleasure of working with nano but am told that many Linux and Unix people like it.

What the Damn Small Linux people call Notepad is actually another text processor that is similar to the DOS/Windows Notepad. I haven’t used it because Beaver is more powerful, and just about as easy to use.

The final application in this group is VIM, vi IMproved. The original vi was a very-widely used text editor for Unix and Linux systems. Today most Unix and Linux people work with other, more sophisticated text editors. When I teach Linux on systems other than Damn Small Linux I teach a reduced version of vi. This editor is cumbersome, but you make like the improved version. Damn Small Linux offers you a choice.

The Office folder contains Ted, a word processor that is compatible with Microsoft Word. Ted saves documents in RTF (rich text format) that can be read by Microsoft Word and other word processors including Open Office. Ted and Beaver belong to different worlds; you can’t take documents back and forth between these two applications.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet. He loves the occasional glass of wine as exemplified by his wine websites including http://www.theworldwidewine.com. He teaches Linux and Windows operating systems plus other computer courses at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new website http://www.linux4windows.com which teaches you how to download and run Damn Small Linux on Windows computers, even if they are “obsolete.”

Are You Getting Sick Of Microsoft Windows? It’s Time To Give Ubuntu Linux A Whirl
By Alan Oliver

About 18 months ago, I had another disastrous crash on my PC that caused me to lose a host of photos, music and documents. Luckily I had a backup of most of my documents on an external disk. So I wasn’t too concerned by this. I had experienced many crashes on Windows before and usually I was able to recover most of my documents and restore the system back to normal without too much effort.

This time was different however and to my horror, I discovered that Windows had somehow corrupted my external disk as well. I had lost everything and was pretty angry about it.

I tried a number of data recovery programs but most of the files wore gone. Forever. What a disaster! At that point I decided that I would look for another alternative to windows and I thought I would give Linux another try.

A few years earlier I had experimented with RedHat Linux but had no real success with it as it had problems detecting my usb keyboard and mouse. Which was obviously a bit of a non-starter for me. I knew that big advances were being made in the Linux world so I decided to do a bit of research.

Linux is an operating system that is free. That is, it can be downloaded and copied and distributed without a fee. It is free in a deeper sense too. Most of the software is written under a license called the “GPL” which effectively means that source code is available to everyone for each and every component of the Linux Operating System. If you have access to the source code for a piece of software then you can change the program to fix bugs and make it better. Once you do this you are under obligation to make your new source code available to others.
This has worked extremely well and Linux is being developed by programmers all over the world to make it better and better. The progress is amazing!

In my research I discovered a website: distrowatch.com. This website keeps a list of the most popular distributions of Linux. A distribution is a collection of Linux software that together makes an operating system. Each distribution contains different software and has a different focus. There are so many to try… Fedora, Mandrake, Puppy, PCLinuxOS, Debian, Knoppix, and the most popular, Ubuntu Linux.

I downloaded the ISO of Ubuntu Linux from the Ubuntu website http://www.ubuntu.com/ and burned it to cd (an ISO file is cd image that can be recreated using a cd burning tool such as Nero). I placed the cd in my drive and booted up my computer.

I was astounded!

Within 10 minutes my computer was running Ubuntu Linux without even having to install it! This was a “Live-CD” and it can be used without installing to hard disk – it can be run from a cd without affecting your computer at all.

All my hardware was detected and within minutes I was surfing the web using Firefox and getting my email using Evolution, chatting to friends in messenger and yahoo chat using Gaim, writing documents and opening spreadsheets in Open Office and listening to Internet Radio with RythmBox.

I was delighted with the easy to use and gorgeous looking desktop. I decided to install it straight away and since then I haven’t looked back.

There is an abundance of free open source software just waiting for you to experience. The package management system – Synaptic, allows you to search repositories of software and download them. The quality of a lot of the software is incredible.

Linux is written from the ground up to be a secure operating system. This means that you won’t have to worry about getting viruses, spyware or any other kind of malware. My system is as stable as a rock.
Of course, there are downsides to running Linux. The main one is that there is a learning curve that can be quite steep. It is not windows so If you are trying to get something working, your windows knowledge will not help you.
You might need to troubleshoot problems using the Command Line Interface – similar to windows DOS, but many times more powerful.

Fortunately, help is at hand on the incredibly friendly and helpful forums at ubuntuforums.org
I have been running Ubuntu Linux now for 18 months and can’t see any reason now to return to windows. Once you get past the mind set of using closed source software a whole new world opens up before you and you realise that amazing things are possible with linux.

I hope you found this article helpful and I hope it inspires you to try out Ubuntu Linux as I did. You won’t regret trying it.

Here are some resources:

distrowatch.com

Distrowatch – News on the latest Linux distributions.

ubuntu.com

Ubuntu – Download the Ubuntu Linux operating system for your computer

ubuntuforums.com

Ubuntu Forums – Go here for help and advice

wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

Linux on Wikipedia

order linux on cd from frogshape!

http://www.frogshape.com

Getting Started With Ubuntu – How To Connect To The Internet And Do Common Window Tasks
By David Babble

Download the latest version of Ubuntu from their official site and burn the downloaded ISO file to a blank CD. Any good CD burning software should be able to handle writing ISO files to a disc.

When the CD finishes remove it and put it back into the drive so it auto plays and followed the instructions to boot into the Live CD. Live CD allows you to temporarily run Ubuntu and most of its features without doing anything to your installation of Windows. This is a good chance to see if you really like what Ubuntu has to offer before really committing.

After playing around in Ubuntu’s environment for a bit you’ll notice an examples folder on the desktop that has various types of files that can be opened using Ubuntu’s default programs installed. For example, Ubuntu will use Open Office (a free alternative to Microsoft Office) to open DOC files.

Connecting to the Internet in Ubuntu

There was no obvious signs of how to connect to the Internet. After looking around the help pages built into the operating system you’ll notice that connecting to the Internet is pretty simple, unless you have a USB ADSL modem. Being on an Orange broadband basic package means a USB ADSL modem has to be used unless you own a router separately.

Being on the basic package means connecting to the Internet using a USB modem, not an Ethernet Live box that Orange provides on the upgraded package. So rebooting the computer and finding a web page came up with the instructions to extract some firmware, write a boot script etc. just to get the modem to connect.

After completing the modem installation in the Ubuntu’s Live CD environment you’ll be prompted to restart Ubuntu to get started. Restarting Ubuntu whilst using Live CD will just restart into Windows, so that’s no good!

There had to be another answer. At this point I got fed up and went back to Windows. A few months later I plucked up the courage to try Ubuntu again but the Internet connection issue was still stick in my mind. So I searched around on Google more and searched the Ubuntu Forums. This is when I came across some luck. I found a thread in a forum thread where a guy made a USB ADSL modem manager program!

Was this going to end the problem? I thought. So after checking out the USB Modem Manager site and then following the link to the latest version, I downloaded the Debian file for it, .DEB. First thought was, being used to Windows, what the hell do I do with a Debian file? Is it a Ubuntu version of a Windows zip file or what?

I double clicked the Debian file downloaded to my desktop and voilà, it started to install the modem manager, great, must be just Ubuntu’s version of a windows .EXE file. The program prompted me to unplug and plug my modem back in and it still didn’t work. So after a couple of times of re-extracting the firmware, disconnecting and reconnecting using the options in the manager, the progress bar for the Internet connection located in the top right went fully green, it must’ve worked.

I opened Firefox, typed in a URL and hey presto, the Internet worked. Fortunately, this USB modem manager doesn’t require a restart so it’s possible to run and test the Internet while using the Live CD, which I highly recommend doing.

Taking the Plunge with Ubuntu

With this caveat fixed, I took the plunge, backed up all my files onto an external hard drive and fully installed Ubuntu over Windows.

After trying it for just over 24 hours I became convinced that this was an operating system that I would be using for the long term. I can copy large amounts of files from one hard drive to the other without my PC noticeably slowing or making music stutter, file transfers are seamless whilst doing other tasks.

I tried opening a video file and Ubuntu complained that it couldn’t play that type of file, but it promptly came up with a message telling me I can download the required files to get it to work, so a click of the OK button and it was fixed. I tried playing an MP3 and the same happened, just a click of a message and Ubuntu located and installed the required files to play my music. These files need to be downloaded separately due to propriety issues.

A few things take a while to get used to, such as the folder views it has and the prompts that come up occasionally requesting your password to be entered. This might seem odd to have to enter a password just to change the date/time. With Windows latest operating system, Vista, prompting for requests on more admin type tasks, the odd one or two from Ubuntu are manageable.

Playing Video Games and other Windows Software in Ubuntu

I don’t play games much and haven’t attempted to do so yet, but I’ll try WINE sometime and see if that works. WINE is a program to let you play Windows only software in Ubuntu. Could come in handy for Photoshop since the free equivalent, GIMP, just doesn’t cut it for some things I want to do, such as batch image processing.

Ubuntu is a flavour of Linux that is becoming a popular, free alternative to Windows. To get started, go to the Ubuntu site.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide will help the average computer user out there decide whether they really want to take the plunge with a different, but free operating system. In summary, if you’re prepared to spend a few hours to get used to it and to get it working the way you want, go for it!

http://launchpad.net/usb-adsl-modem-manager – USB ADSL Modem Manager for Ubuntu

http://www.babblestorm.co.uk/search.php?search=ubuntu – Ubuntu related news