Installing Ubuntu

Thanks for giving linux some props!

Windows users are behind the times. I can just see ole Bill
G. and Ballmer sitting at their desks, grinding their teeth, saying “There is only 100 billion left what are we going to do.”, while in the USA there is a single working mother struggling to get a computer so her three kids could get some education. Sounds harsh, but its true.

Windows users are behind the times. I can just see ole Bill
G. and Ballmer sitting at their desks, grinding their teeth, saying “There is only 100 billion left what are we going to do.”, while in the USA there is a single working mother struggling to get a computer so her three kids could get some education. Sounds harsh, but its true.

Chris,

I like Ubuntu as well, but when you say:

“Ubuntu eliminates the “Geekery” from using Linux. Any normal computer user with basic knowledge can install and run Ubuntu. It’s simple, it’s beautiful… and it’s free. What more can you want?”

I disagree to a certain extent. It may eliminate the “Geekery” from using Linux when you are installing it on a modern box, but try it (in this case Xubuntu) with a 5 year old Dell laptop with a Linksys wireless PCMCIA card. You need a lot of geekery to 1. get it installed in the first place and 2. to get the wireless card to work (which I still haven’t done).

While I really like the interface and the fact that its free, Linux is still a hassle to install on anything other than computers that are of very recent vintage. This, in itself, limits Linux’ reach to all but the very geekiest and determined among us. Aunt Minnie will never go for it.

I’m not so sure about the “linux without geekery” part. Ubuntu is a great kind of Linux, that’s for sure, it’s easy to get the hang of it. But you still end up with a lot of things that work much better by command line then by using the Gnome GUI - installing packets with apt, for example. What bothers me most, though, is the trouble Ubuntu has given me with the WLAN card and driver. And I run it on a pretty run-of-the-mill Acer notebook that’s three years old, nothing fancy here. To get WLAN connectivity, I had to write around in wpa_supplicant.conf files, learn about etc/networks and stuff like that - way too complicated for me, really.

Well, I keep hoping for the next version…
:-)

Because all in all, Ubuntu is great for hopeless and clueless Non-Geeks.

I’m not so sure about the “linux without geekery” part. Ubuntu is a great kind of Linux, that’s for sure, it’s easy to get the hang of it. But you still end up with a lot of things that work much better by command line then by using the Gnome GUI - installing packets with apt, for example. What bothers me most, though, is the trouble Ubuntu has given me with the WLAN card and driver. And I run it on a pretty run-of-the-mill Acer notebook that’s three years old, nothing fancy here. To get WLAN connectivity, I had to write around in wpa_supplicant.conf files, learn about etc/networks and stuff like that - way too complicated for me, really.

Well, I keep hoping for the next version…
:-)

Because all in all, Ubuntu is great for hopeless and clueless Non-Geeks.

Ubuntu is excellent , I use it on fit 4 the skip PCs that would never run XP .
7.0.4 will run on a 250 Mhz PC with 256 meg ram.
Yes you have everything that you could wish for, Unlike Windows where you have to get MS Office and loads of other things to get a usable system.

Ubuntu is excellent , I use it on fit 4 the skip PCs that would never run XP .
7.0.4 will run on a 250 Mhz PC with 256 meg ram.
Yes you have everything that you could wish for, Unlike Windows where you have to get MS Office and loads of other things to get a usable system.

Glad to hear this..I’m looking for a laptop and my old Dell Celeron 600 no longer has a functional PMCIA card slot for wireless connectivity. But I’m willing to wipe clean and load Linux and donate it to a project that helps out single moms, thanks for the idea.

I was wondering what i was going to do with it!!!!!! thanks again…..and yes I do enjoying giving away stuff that is useful not junk that no one can use so woo-hoo…..good article for me and timely.

I’ve been using Ubuntu for a couple months now. I went from Vista to this and only dual boot a nLited version of XP for games. If it weren’t for that I would dump Windows completely.

[...] [Full text] The computer is being given away as part of a contest BTW; just be one of the first 10K people to subscribe to his YouTube Channel (But hurry! There are already ~9,800 people subscribed!) [...]

I installed Ubuntu 5.10 a couple of years ago and wasn’t all that happy with it on my hardware. On essentially the same computer, Ubuntu 6.06 ran much better and Ubuntu 7.04 is great. Ubuntu 7.10 is due out next month, but I’m not sure it will be a huge improvement for me personally because I update most of my software as I go, using Ubuntu/Gnome’s excellent update manager. It will be a great place to start if you’re new to Ubuntu.

You really have to try this operating system to know how good it can be. Stable as a rock, though the same cannot be said of ALL programs available for it because some of them are further along in development. Most are excellent. It’s easy to uninstall the ones that are a little buggy, but the OS doesn’t come with buggy programs initially; I had to seek them out and install them myself …

If you try it and like it, please contribute to the Ubuntu community in some way. It’s part of the deal, and it’s a very good deal!

I tried installing Ubuntu (and a few other flavors of Linux) on a Gateway w/ a P2 350 CPU. I can never get past the splash screen before they crash.

I checked Gateway’s site for a BIOS update, but nothing that isn’t on the machine. I was always told Linux was good for older hardware because of its’ lower overhead.

Anyone have any insight?

I had the same problem with a pentium 2 350 mhz dell machine, I could play with the image disk, (it loaded everything) but it would not replace the existing xp operation system as a full install.

I’m running the 64-bit Feisty Fawn with my XP. Easy upgrade! I’m keeping XP for the internet and Ubuntu for office. Word of mouth will help keep this distro out there for students and others to have.

I have loaded Ubuntu on a 5 year old Gateway desktop with a 2 Ghz Celeron and 512 M of Ram. This ran without a problem. On older equipment I usually run Slackware. I have found that Slackware will run on virtually any old equipment. It is the only thing that I could get to run on my old HP Pavillion that had a 433 Mhz Celeron and 64 M of ram and an i810 chipset.

I tried out Ubuntu starting at 6.06 putting it on a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Windows XP. Excellent install process recognizing all hardware and even had a working wireless. Couldn’t find my Brother MFC 210 printer though. There are drivers for Linux at the Brother site but apparently I couldn’t get the install done right as I couldn’t print anything. There was information available for printers that were compatable but I didn’t want to buy another when I have two already. Don’t have that problem with Windows. So.. until Linux becomes user friendly to the non-geeks like me I’m stuck. Yes, I could take the time to learn and I may after I reach retirement in a couple of years.

Psst, warpwiz, give Puppy Linux a try:
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1

Armando

I totally agree with you, Chris, on the easy install and immediate usability of Ubuntu, particularly for the typical non-techie, not-interested-in-tweaking end-user. Having used this OS since it’s early days, there are only a couple of criticisms … no, more like comments since I really have nothing to criticize about the OS: 1) Yes, some hardware is not supported, such as anything Linksys (re: wireless cards in particular), the reason being that this equipment uses proprietary software and drivers (as in not open-source) and 2) Something that seems to draw a not of downside comments, especially by some of thosfairly newish to the Ubuntu community (mostly in the way of whines about this or that), is that Linux, unlike anything MS in nature but being open-source, leaves itself open to a lot of tweaks and when practiced by someone not necessarily knowing what they are doing can cause system maladies (breakage?)

Other than that, I have nothing but good to say about Ubuntu … even on my old HP n5000. I, too, have installed it on two computers that are being donated (sans MS of any kind … not bashing Windoze here, just supporting Linux) to whatever good cause (or deserving family) comes along in my neck of the woods.

Sounds good - but how to try it out and keep the (essential) Windows install safe? Partitioning is simply out of the question. The live CD run is great, but s.l.o.w. Seems to me that an install on a USB external drive would be fast enough to be a real tryout and save the Windows machine at the same time. However, the resulting problems with GRUB require guru-level geekiness. Now that install would be a great YouTube view!