Andy asks:
I am considering switching from WINDOWS to UBUNTU, which is a Linnux based operating system.
Has anyone here had any experience with it or have any pointers that I should be aware of ??
Thanks,
AndyS W4OAH
On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:56:50 -0800, AndyS wibbled:
Yes, yes and yes.
Hi Andy...
Ubuntu is a separately maintained branch of debian with more regular releases (6 monthly) and perhaps a more polished end-use experience (no disrespect to debian). It therefore benefits from the *massive* set of available packages that the debian guys crank out (and many debian devs are ubuntu devs and vice-versa).
You can trial it from a live CD to check if a) it works on your hardware (very likely) and b) you like it. When you are ready to instally, it is possible to dual boot linux and windows, though you may need to shove windows down into a smaller disk partition (reinstall or borrow some software that's good at re-partitioning disks whilst preserving data).
9.10 (Oct=10 release, 2009) is current. 8.04 (2008, April=4) is the last LTS or Long Term release which will have bug fixes and security patches made available for 3 years for desktop variant and 5 years for server variant which is good if you don't want to be reinstalling every couple of years...The next version which will be an LTS as well is scheduled for April 2010 (10.04).
Get the current one from here and burn to a CD:
There are some options worth considering too:
Obviously double check if you want the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version. In addition, you can use Ubuntu (Gnome windows based), it's sister Kubuntu (KDE windows/desktop based), Xubuntu (XFCE based) or the Netbook remix (perfect for flash based little netbooks like the eeepc).
The Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu is a matter of taster - start if Ubuntu if you don't know.
Once (if) you install it on the hard disk, the rest of the packages are available via the internet - and you can add KDE or XFCE to a base Ubuntu install.
IME, Ubuntu is pretty stable (there are bugs from time to time, might as well be upfront) - more stable than most MS desktop OSs. You get a lot for free, including a rich set of applications. The ones most likely to be of interest to you might include:
OpenOffice (word, spreadsheets and presentations - fairly reasonable MS Office compatability)
Gimp - raster paint progam - very advanced for free software
Firefox
Thunderbird
Pan/Knode/Thunderbird for USENET
Eagle PCB for PCB stuff and schematics (free version limited but usable, paid version fairly powerful).
Cycas for 2D CAD (free or paid)
Inkscape for vector graphics
Lots of ucontroller programmer/utility software (certainly decent AVR support)
Excellent chess if you like that...
HTH
Tim
-- Tim Watts Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.
Yup. I'm more of a KDE fan, so I've used Kubuntu at various points on several machines from old Thinkpads to dual-CPU SMPs. It's pretty painless initially, especially the way it installs itself as a dual-boot with Windows, which is quite slick. (Do a backup first, though!)
The main issue I have with Ubuntu (and maybe Debian in general, I don't know) is that it won't do as it's bloody well told, especially when it comes to disc partitioning. If I have a 1 TB disc, say, and I want the partitions to start on cylinder boundaries (due to some issues with other OSes), I should be able to do that...but Ubuntu insists on changing the partition table to do what _IT_ wants, even if I tell it to install on a pre-existing partition. And for what? To save 5 MB of disc space. Maddening.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
-- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 email: hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net
I have just converted my production machine to Ubuntu, the file server has been for a long time.
There is also Virtual Box from Sun that creates a virtual PC with simple hardware (IDE, Floppy, CDROM, network card..) C: is mapped on one large Linux file. You can get access to part of the Linux file system and USB ports may be passed to the VB.
I run XP in the virtual box for the few utilities I still need. The state of the windows box can be saved to disk, copied and reanimated.
I can also move the virtual machine to the laptop and have the identical environment, although slower. (not tested yet)
It is possible to access the internet, limit networking to the local machine, the VBoxes or pull the virtual Ethernet plug with a mouse click. Usually my XP has no internet access any more.
Performance is surprisingly good. The only thing I could not get to work is the DG8SAQ network analyzer that does lots of real time stuff over USB.
XP installation was faster than on the bare machine. Must be the the RAID0 driver under the ext4 file system and the Linux disc cache that really works.
regards, Gerhard
Yes, my machines are now ubuntu based (6-9 months now). It features a decent environment although there are several minor aspects that need some polishing. But now you can work with it. However, it helps if you have someone nearby who can provide some help since this is a nontrivial change. I would not have been able to without some support. A great plus for Ubuntu is that you (almost) have not to worry about finding a place to download software: (almost) everything you need is in the repositories!
BUT, this switch has only been possible thanks to sun's virtuabox, where I still run an XP system when needed: certain applications are not available for linux, there are scanners, etc which are not supported in linux and you often have to read or write that M$-office document from/to someone. OTOH, openoffice, while usable, is still not as usable as the M$ alternatives. Since you can save your virtual machine state with open apps, it is even faster to start the virtual system than a real machine! Also, with this approach, there is (almost) no need to worry about virus protection: you simply restart at a known snapshot, provided that your data is somewhere outside the XP system.
Pere
SuSE and Mandriva both offer respectable Linux packages. SuSE's package offers a lot of other software. Debian/Ubuntu has been the developer's favourite for a long time now, but if your primary interest isn't software development, SuSE and Mandriva might be worth looking at.
-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
[...]
The main deficiency I found was the database front-end which seems very limited compared to Access. For most users everything else is equivalent or superior to MS Office. You can of course run almost any program in VirtualBox as pointed out elsewhere, it really works very well - it seems faster than native in most cases due to lack of virus scanner I expect.
I use emacs, but it is an acquired taste.
Other invaluable programs I use are:
openocd - for ARM jtag debugging, along with the gcc toolchain.
LTSpice - runs well in wine and has been developed with that in mind.
[...]-- John Devereux
Agreed. (Worth reiterating that's a lack of open source in general problem rather than specifically an Ubuntu issue).
Rekall was showing a little fledgling promise for a while but it died. knoda is OK for quick and dirty table data entry and IIRC can manage basic forms.
But, you're right - there is absolutely nothing that comes anywhere near Access that I know off - and I tried a few commercial programs on a trial basis too.
Access is the one truly decent bit of software I think MS came out with. Probably because it is an incredibly hard bit of software to write well - not something I think would be easy for a couple of bods to knock up in the evenings. It's very GUI heavy on the user interaction side.
Writing something that didn't have much gui support for design (say required doing the design in a declaritive language of some sort) but churned out nice guis for the users (and even better, could generate and run those same guis in a scripted web environment) would be an easier starting point. Once you have that, it becomes easier to then attack the design-as-a-gui end.
If you don't have decent event scripting on every widget, and proper subform support it's a non starter...
-- Tim Watts Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.
For more simple database jobs I haven't found anything with the simplicity yet very nice reporting chracteristics as MS-Works. Dirt cheap, many PCs have it pre-installed, and I can still read in my old database files from 1989. Surpringly few people know about it even though they usually have MS-Works. The robustness has IMHO suffered a bit after 6.0 so I prefer 6.0 or older. Software is often like wine, older is better.
[...]-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
I confess I never heard of either of those....
There is one called "kexi", but the version in Debian does not really compete with Access either. But I note the debian version is 2 years old, and there seems to be a new 2.0 series imminent...)
This is *particularly* annoying because the only windows program I still need is due to our company database - which I wrote myself! I've been using Debian for almost everything else for ~10 years.
AIUI the actual database backend is very bad. But it is a capable and easy to use database GUI development system.
Which is all that is needed, since linux has a good choice of powerful databases (and is likely already used for most of the worlds internet accessable ones).
-- John Devereux
What everyone else said. I've been using Ubuntu on a laptop for a few years, and I've had it on my main desktop for several months now, quite happily.
I do need VirtualBox -- my accountant _really_ wants me to use her favorite bookkeeping software, and it only wants to run on Windows.
-- www.wescottdesign.com
Many thanks to all who answered. It seems that UBUNTU is well accepted and a reasonable alternative to what I am now using.
I have ordered the CD (I only have dialup) and in a few weeks I'll give 'er a butcher's to see what happens. I still have a little self-education to be able to convert to dual boot, and that seems like the most reasonable thing for me to be sure of backward compatibility.
Thanks again, guys. You've been a big help.
AndyS in Eureka, Texas W4OAH
AndyS Inscribed thus:
Ubuntu makes easy things hard. Try others before making a firm choice. Open SuSE Live CD's and full install DVD. Though my personal preference is version 11.0 with KDE3.5 desktop.
--
Best Regards:
Baron.
Tim Watts Inscribed thus:
Access was derived from Ashton Tate's DB3 and FoxPro.
--
Best Regards:
Baron.
Try openSUSE 11.2 -- They've gone back to KDE (the new release) as the default window manager & desktop. Very slick. I was originally RedHat and then Fedora when that launched but openSUSE is sweet.
But yes, the OP ought to at least drop by
-- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
I am too.considering a switch.
What software packages DO NOT WORK with UBUNTU?
Thanks for any info.
TMT
If you approach Linux thinking that it is Windoze, you are going to have problems from the start.
...or Fluxbuntu, which is lighter than any of those
--and less graphical.
There is also an alpha release of Lubuntu which uses the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE). Some folks are watching that development with interest.
A bootable moonOS CD will also show you the Enlightenment desktop in a *buntu environment.
The thing about desktops is that you can have as many as you want; just choose the one you want at startup.
...and Linux Mint is *buntu with a more complete out-of-the-box experience (codecs, DVD support, fonts, Flash, Java, Adobe Reader...
--all the proprietary junk) There are GNOME, KDE, Xfce, and Fluxbox editions and an LXDE edition is in the works.
****There is also this which was recently released****On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:47:53 +0000, Baron wibbled:
The primary contribution from FoxPro was Rushmore acceleration. I never used the Windows version of FP but I though the Access GUI was more or less all MS?
-- Tim Watts Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.
On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:06:39 -0800, JeffM wibbled:
Just wait for RatPoisonUbuntu...
That's new to me - must check that out....
-- Tim Watts Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.
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