How to Start With Ubuntu Linux
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Are you a Linux fan? I know my System Administrator Allan would yell to forget Linux and use FreeBSD. This isn’t a FreeBSD conversation, though, it’s an Ubuntu one. But it’s just funny that Allan came to mind here, since today at work in Canada, he was recognized by someone for being part of my live show. He is a professor at a college up in Canada. Earlier today, he was walking along the hallway when he heard another instructor and a student discussing FreeBSD. Since he is a FreeBSD fanatic, he had to stop and talk with them. As soon as he started talking, the student’s eyes got huge and he blurted “I know you! You’re on Chris Pirillo’s show.” Allan couldn’t believe it, but there you have it. We’re even reaching college students in Canada. While this doesn’t really pertain to this list, I did find it very cool. Now, on with our top five list!
- Have a broadband connection. Ubuntu is very Net dependent. When you start with a clean install of the operating system and begin popping in your music CDs and reviewing Web sites like YouTube, initially Web plugins, audio, and video codecs are prompted automatically to the user to install — but only if the computer has access to the Web. This also includes certain proprietary video and network drivers that need to be obtained when updating the current system. The reason for this is these multiple sources of code are under different licenses and though they may be free, the license requires the end user to electronically agree to the terms and conditions of the patent software.
- MAKE SURE YOUR HARDWARE IS SUPPORTED! Many people assume everything will just work right out of the box. That’s not the case in certain hardware. The toughest problems people have is when it comes to wireless hardware. There is one major chip designed by Broadcomm which is used by many companies in their wireless devices in many major retail products and white box systems (i.e. HP, Dell, Gateway, etc.). Though older models of these Broadcomm chipsets have over time been worked out to get them functioning, some do have difficulty with connecting to a secure wpa2 wireless routers, or flat out won’t work at all. To avoid this, many laptops that have Intel and Realtek based chipset cards work right out of the get go. There is also a list created by the Free Software Foundation of supported wireless chipsets that will also work out of the box. Another option that I find works well are wireless bridges. Many companies such as D-Link, SMC, and Linksys make these products. They plug into your existing ethernet port on your PC and redirect it to connect to the local router programmed on the device you set up. They may be best for those who have desktops as they are a bit too clunky to travel with a laptop.
- If you are a gamer, you may be limiting what possible game titles you can play. There are a slew of games for Linux that are free, and there are certain commercial game titles you can play using Wine. There are, though, limitations on what may work under Wine. If a certain game is heavily dependent on Direct X10, or a combination of Active X plugins, it’s not likely going to port over well into Wine. Since Direct X and Active X are copyright protected plugins and are two of Microsoft’s exclusive technologies, it’s not going to be available for other operating systems any time soon. You can find out what games work by checking the Wine database list of software tested that works. However, companies like Activision, ID Software, Bioware, and many more have made commercially supported cross platforms of their games for Linux. Example: Quakewars, Call Of Duty 1-4, Doom 1-3, Quake 1-4, and Unreal Championship 1-3 all have NATIVE Linux installations. Many of these companies I mention also make Macintosh platforms of the same titles.
- Drivers not needed. Many devices such as scanners, digital cameras, Web cams, and printers need to be factored, and you don’t need, in many cases, to install drivers for them. *If you have a device that doesn’t have proprietary chipsets* Ones I know that just “work” include:
- Web cams: Logitech
- Digital cameras: Canon, Fujitsu, Any camera that essentially is recognized as a removable USB disk device.
- TV/FM tuners: WinTV, Asus tuners, AMD/ATI tuners, any tuner card that uses a Phillips semiconductor chip (which many do).
- Scanners: Hewlett Packard (single or all-in-one)
- Printers: Hewlett Packard (single or all-in-one), any printer that supports postscript printing support.
- Just buy a prebuilt, Ubuntu-supported PC. Instead of second guessing on everything, you can just buy a full system complete with 30 days to a year of tech support from the following vendors that support Ubuntu-tested hardware:
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33 Comments
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February 26th, 2008
at 10:51am
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February 26th, 2008
at 9:26am
mind here, since today at work in Canada, he was recognized by someone for being part of my live show. He is a Professor at a College up in Canada. Earlier today, he was walking along the hallway when he heard another instructor and Original post byChris Pirillo
Windows Vista Torrent
February 27th, 2008
at 5:11am
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koenjac
March 19th, 2008
at 6:10pm
what is the best linux distro for gaming?
moecage
March 23rd, 2008
at 5:24pm
most of the games on Linux and other websites only work on ubuntu
fredbird67
March 24th, 2008
at 1:29pm
I don’t know if you’re talking about Windows games you have to use Wine or Cedega to run or if you’re talking about games built FOR Linux, but in the case if the latter, I’ve been using Linux exclusively on my computer for the last three years, with several distributions (Mandrake, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, Mint, and currently running Ubuntu), and I know for a FACT that they’ll work with all distros. And as for those needing Wine, I seriously doubt that Ubuntu would some kind of corner on operability.
moecage
March 25th, 2008
at 2:27pm
ok dude come down i’m just saying i’ve been using ubuntu for a year now and i have used kubuntu and mint and i have seen that some games work best on ubuntu maybe it’s just me, and if it’s just me thin i’m sorry i mean come on man i’m a linux guy just like u. i’m just trying to help another linux user an any way i know.
fredbird67
March 25th, 2008
at 9:16pm
Oh, OK. Somehow, I seem to forget the possibility that one might be being sarcastic — and the funny thing is, my wife has a very sarcastic sense of humor as well. LOL
17Paperclips
March 29th, 2008
at 12:21am
what the hell? Your such a linux n00b, you don’t know anything. DEBIAN is what Ubuntu is based off of, and uses a package manager with .deb as the extension. So Debian is the most commonly used distro, considering that so many distros are based off of it, and it’s also the package that most Linux games use. (.deb) ur suck a fucking idiot
moecage
March 29th, 2008
at 1:22am
ok dude i did know that Ubuntu is based on Debian u fucking idiot when did i say that Ubuntu what not based on Debian, never that’s when.
Ubuntu is best for games that’s how i see it but it may be deferent for some one but not all 100% of games are made for Ubuntu so i’m no idiot and i’m no n00b ur the idot for thinking that the Ubuntu experience is the same for all user.
P.S.
SUCK IT YOU IDIOT NOOB
pcwizkid
April 1st, 2008
at 3:14am
Ubuntu rocks, I’ve had it dual boot since last year and have Gutsy running smooth, check out my videos for details. Cheers
NilocGray
April 1st, 2008
at 8:14am
Just got the CD and wanted to install on laptop .. my only hesitation is that I still want/need to play World of Warcraft …. you guys have any thought on how I can get it to run on the new ubuntu platform?
drumwizmv
April 2nd, 2008
at 8:07am
program called wine
Jr4594
April 6th, 2008
at 9:18am
you can still keep windows or osx
hmsballa26
April 6th, 2008
at 1:55pm
cant you have like vista and ubuntu on the same comp like dualing them or whatever? im thinking about getting ubuntu
4orty5ive
April 6th, 2008
at 6:09pm
partition hard drive, dual boot, one operating system on each partition. I don’t know which order they need to be installed in though.
eskrotinho
April 7th, 2008
at 5:21am
yes, of course you can. and is very easy to do. Wait 17 days more and is going to be even easier.
CCmachine
April 12th, 2008
at 11:13pm
do this:defragment the drive in Vista,
right click Computer and go to manage, click hard drives or volumes or something similiar on the left (near the bottom) and try to shrink your drive by 10+ gigs. if it doesnt work look up tutorials on the internet on how to shrink vista partitions.
then, download the latest Ubuntu from ubuntu[dot]com, hit install, tell it to use the largest available free space, and then you can install! vista will still work on the machine. PM me if you have any issues.
Colamix666
April 15th, 2008
at 4:22pm
if you like movie editing linux is the worst os on the planet.
ashaiba91
April 18th, 2008
at 12:15am
mac os x 10.5 is amazing for movie editing
teren9
April 20th, 2008
at 4:02am
WoW is one of the few games that work almost perfectly under wine so you’ll have no problem with it.
GreenDrums1234
April 26th, 2008
at 2:12pm
nobody cares. Mac osx sucks dick at everything else.
idiothater1
April 27th, 2008
at 12:51am
@GreenDrums1234
That couldn’t be further from the truth. I have used Macs and PCs all of my life and are very familiar with the MacOS, Windows, and Linux. MacOS can do everything that Windows can do and many things it can do better. The only downside to MacOS is that there arent as many games made for it, so thats when Mac users fire up a virtual machine or boot into Windows to get the gaming fix before returning to MacOS. MacOS smokes Windows at everything else.
GreenDrums1234
April 27th, 2008
at 5:58am
Windows has royally fucked themselves. Xp was a great operating sys…… Macs are pretty cool in lots of ways. Linux can do everything a mac can do AND more, except video editing, but with wine, i can run all my games anyway…. Agree to disagree i guess.
harjeet
May 3rd, 2008
at 10:01am
hey i would like to try out ubuntu live cd but i dont know where to download it from. if you could give me an url address that would be a great help thanks.
blurrybigfoot74
May 11th, 2008
at 3:55pm
Are You serious?
I’ve been looking at Kino and I’m not impressed so far.
I’m a Sony Vegas PRO fan, the only reason I’m hanging on to Windows is to edit vids.
Misku155
May 12th, 2008
at 11:37pm
“mac os x 10.5 is amazing for movie editing” hahaha and nothing more ;]
profvids
May 14th, 2008
at 3:48am
hello can you increase all your video’s FSP
profvids
May 14th, 2008
at 3:49am
sorry its FPS frame per second
ki2594
May 17th, 2008
at 7:55am
its amazing for everything but games
Zentraleinheite
May 30th, 2008
at 6:22am
Linux + Wine = Best OS Period
GreenDrums1234
June 1st, 2008
at 1:12pm
Quite true. My opinion has greatly changed since then.
Zentraleinheite
June 1st, 2008
at 1:17pm
Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I still use XP on my desktop, but all of my servers and laptops run Linux. Windows XP (with adequate antivirus [often obtained for free]) is a fantastic OS that can be used for a wide array of applications: Office/productivity, games, video/software editing, personal computing needs…even distributed computing. XP is really a lot more versatile and competent than a lot of people give it credit for.