Are you ready to take the plunge? It can be hard to decide, particularly if you’re a longtime Windows user. The Windows camp makes the idea seem absurd, and the Ubuntu camp is full of people talking about things you’ve never heard of. Each one thinks they’ve got the answer to all of your problems. Here’s a truthful look at some of the issues you will be faced with if you decide to switch. I’ll also discuss some of the great points of switching as well.
(note: This topic has generated lots of discussion on Digg as to the positives and negatives of modern operating systems. We’ve launched a new board in our forums, OS Wars to discuss just this topic. Please join us there!)
First, a brief history. Just a little over a year and half past, I made the switch from Microsoft XP to Ubuntu Linux. I’d dabbled in Linux before in a few of the various incarnations out there such as Mandrake and RedHat. This however was the first time I’d put it on my primary computer, to be used as my primary operating system.
- You will miss some aspects of Windows. In my case, the thing I missed most was gaming. There are some wonderful games available for Ubuntu and other Linux distros. There are also services like Cedega which allow you to play some games on Linux. Nothing however really compares to playing these games in their native environment, without having to twiddle a service, muck about with Wine or find some kind of comparative product. This is why I chose (and still choose) to dual boot my laptop. I can still play my favorite games under Windows.
- You’ll find that lots of people are willing to help you, simply because you’re using Ubuntu. It’s almost like joining a club that has an exclusive membership feeling but allows anyone in. Over the past year and a half I’ve been helped by lots and lots of people with more knowledge and experience than I have. In turn, I feel happy to do the same for others following in my footsteps. It’s nice to belong and other Ubuntu users make it easy. It’s also nice to get quick answers to problems you may be having simply by posting to a forum, or asking on a blog.
- Sometimes, you’ll really miss using Windows. I’ve been using windows since 3.11. It was entrenched in my nervous system. If I wanted to get somewhere, I simply went to Start and did it. Change my desktop? Easy. Check the Event Log? No problem. Learning to do all of this in Linux takes time. There will be times when you spend an hour troubleshooting what would be a simple problem if you just knew what you were doing. Fortunately there is a community willing to help you and share your frustrations. There’s also that learning curve I just mentioned. Once you crest it, it’s like you suddenly have some serious control over your PC. You can start getting it to do things that make others go”Wow!” even though you’re not having a Vista moment.
- You’ll find yourself spending a lot less money. Really, there’s no reason to go out and buy lots of additional software for your computer when
you can get the same functionality with free software. The list of programs available is huge! Are all of them as fully featured as their Windows counterpart. Nope. Some of them don’t even come close. Keep in mind however that I’ve yet to find a feature missing from Open Office that I used in MS Office. A lot of the features included in pay-for software the average person never uses. If you’re an expert graphic designer, then you’ll probably not want to move from Photoshop to Gimp. If you just like to muck about and make neat stuff, then Gimp works fine.
- When you don’t have to buy the software, the temptation to pirate software is removed. Really, it’s that simple. I know of lots of people with pirated versions of Photoshop who would be just as well served by Gimp (to return to that example). Office? Same thing. The truth of the matter is, if you’re a professional who needs office or Photoshop, you’re going to go out and buy it. If you want MS Office just to use excel a few times and write the great American novel, you’ll be just as well served by OpenOffice.
- You’re not going to have to worry much about viruses, worms, trojans and spyware. It’s a simple fact. I open emails with impunity, even if they come from my office mate and are entitled “Britney Spears Naked”. Why? That exe file tagged to the end of six thousand spaces isn’t going to effect me. Bonzi Buddy for Linux? Nope. I don’t think it will be this way forever as more and more folks adopt operating systems like Linux and OSX but for now, I enjoy myself without dealing with malware, pop ups, and viruses.
- *** (See edits at end of point 7)You are going to be more vulnerable to hackers. If you don’t consider a malware infestation as being hacked, then Linux/Unix is probably the most hacked OS. Sure there are far less instances of hacking than of malware and virus outbreaks but you’ll want to be aware of this. If you have a system with a dedicated IP that’s on all the time, you could be a target for hacking. Read up on your linux security. A good firewall is a good idea. Edit - I’d like to update this a bit. I’m no longer sure point 7 is true - certainly you could be the object of intrusions or scans to attempt an intrusion. At this time however Ubuntu is just as hardened if not more so than other operating systems. So could you be hacked? Yes. Will you? Your probability isn’t any higher than any other OS. However if you modify the base system and open your system to vulnerabilities you may open yourself up to greater risk.
- There are times you’ll be sorely tempted to just go back to Windows. With me, I’ve found that a dual boot system alleviates that a bit. If I just can’t get it done in Linux (and since I like to hack about my system if I’ve caused my own problem and I need to work) I can simply boot into Windows and do it. This will taper off with time though. The only reason I boot into Windows now is to assist someone with a Windows problem their having or to play a game.
- You’ll need to learn at least a little about the command line. Like it or not, Linux has a CLI and there will be times you’ll want to use it. Having said that though, you can do a lot now via a Graphical User Interface. Why would you want to use the CLI then? Your GUI is like flying over your computer at 5,000 feet. You’ve got a broad view of what’s going on but it’s hard to make out the little details. Your CLI is like walking across your OS. You can stop, take a hard look around and tweak the littlest thing.
- Surfing the web, checking email and instant messaging stay pretty much the same. If you already use open source products like Firefox, Thunderbird and Gaim this is even more true. If not, you’ll have a brief period of adjustment and then you’ll be surfing, emailing and chatting like you always have.
- Playing DVDs, Music and Movies on your Ubuntu box takes two extra steps. Above and beyond installing Ubuntu, you’ll have to do two more things to be able to listen to most types of music and play most types of video files and movies. What are those two things? Installing Automatix2 and then running it.
- If you have a family member or friend who acts as your tech support and they know Linux, they will thank you profusely. Because your Ubuntu experience will be free of viruses, malware and pop-up hell, this means that their support roles have suddenly diminished. If you do have a problem, it’s easy for them to pop right onto your computer from just about anywhere and take a look at it. Unless of course, your problem is getting online. I’ve switched a couple of friends over to Ubuntu and it’s a joy. When they do have a problem I SSH in and fix it.
- You’ll find that you don’t have to reboot. Really! Unless you’ve come across a very severe bug, or have done something to your computer yourself, you won’t have to reboot even when you update Ubuntu! The only time updates generally require a reboot are when a new Kernel comes out and is distributed to Ubuntu users. You’ll also find that, updates aside, Ubuntu is a rock solid stable system. I’ve got Ubuntu machines that have seen heavy and steady use which have been up for 200+ days.
If you’ve been hearing a lot about Ubuntu (or other Linux distributions) and you’re deciding whether to make the switch or not, I hope I’ve been some help. It’s always good to go into a decision like this with information. If you’ve recently made the switch, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know the good and the bad. Ubuntu isn’t perfect. There isn’t a perfect OS out there, but it does offer a range of usability from simple point and click to ultimate customization.
Edit: Here are a few ways you can give Ubuntu a try.
1. You can download the ISO from Ubuntu.com, burn it on to a disk, and boot into it. This won’t touch your hard drive or your Windows install and it will let you see what Ubuntu is all about and if your hardware works well with it.
2. You can visit Ubuntu’s ShipIt and request that CDs be sent right to your door. This takes about a month and is completely free. Ubuntu has made 6.06, their long term stable release available for shipping.
3. You can try Install.exe. This will install an instance of Ubuntu on your windows machine. Read more about it here but know that it’s currently a prototype.
Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Windows, switch to linux, it’s free just take it
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:06 pm
It’s Bonzi Buddy.
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Nice, article i made the move myself a little over a year ago. The games bit i can relate to although, games where always my weakness and i would waste way too much time playing them so in that respect i have found myself more productive.
I disagree that you will be more vulnerable to hackers though, i am responsible for the administration of over 50 Linux based servers and the biggest issue is either security issues with sites etc being hosted or brute force attempts on open services which just comes back to having secure passwords. Ubuntu ships out of the box with no open ports though so security is not an issue as i see it:
(a scan of my bedroom Xubuntu machine gives only ssh which i enabled)
Starting Nmap 4.10 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2007-03-04 13:05 EST
Interesting ports on 172.16.0.200:
Not shown: 1678 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open ssh
Nmap finished: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 1.981 seconds
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Excellent Article. After having used Ubuntu continuously for 2 weeks I think it is a fantastic OS. I agree with all of your points. I definitely do NOT agree with Ubuntu being the most “hackable”. By default, Ubuntu doesn’t have a way to hack into it .. that’s nice. On the other hand, you can get access to a Windows account by a dozen of different methods such as NetBIOS, so on and so forth - DEFINITELY on a newly unpatched system. Sure, if you install OpenSSH (or whatever) on Ubuntu there could be a bug for it, but that’s true with any kind of program. Ubuntu is DEFINITELY more secure than windows, even if you disregard the additional security of users and permissions and all that nice stuff.
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Ubuntu Ultimate Edition
Windows Vista
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Could you please elaborate as to what you mean by Linux being more often hacked than Windows?
That makes little or no sense given my own experience as a Linux user of 8 years. During this time I’ve spent alot of time watching machines of Linux, Windows and OS X varieties stand against intrusion attempts on either my own networks, or those of others. Windows is widely held to be more vulnerable in this regard. I know this and have seen this first hand.
Worth mentioning perhaps that while not my choice of distribution, Ubuntu is very well locked down out of the box, though kernel-level firewalling is always advised. A fresh Ubuntu install doesn’t even provide an SSH daemon running, asking for connections nor any of the other services that expose a Linux machine to unwanted interest. Ubuntu provides a very small attack surface. Try portscanning a fresh Ubuntu install, you’ll be surprised..
Other than that, a largely balanced read for newcomers.
Cheers to that.
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I agree with most of what you said. I would however HIGHLY recommend a Virtual Machine instead of a dual boot. Dual boot is a large pain, and doesn’t solve the problem of needing to do something on the fly in Windows while also running Ubuntu.
On the whole, Ubuntu is (yes, now a little biased) better than Windows. In fact, i misspelled biased just there and Ubuntu’s universal spell checker fixed it for me. Do that in Windows.
Also, you point out Automatix2. You can’t complain about DVD’s in Ubuntu. Automatix alone does everything you will ever need. Newbies…. install it and put your feet up. You wont need anything else.
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:24 pm
The Linux community acts as if it wants to see it’s membership grow, and then it shoots itself in the foot at every opportunity. Ubuntu is a great distro and is the easiest to install and use. That said, let me tell you that the easiest is not easy enough.
The advantage that M$ has that is missed by many is the limited offerings for their OS. Want to do office? One choice! Want to do internet? Ditto! Want to network or play music and video? Again, one choice. Want to play music and watch video with Ubuntu? Get ready for 50 choices of applications whose names don’t even give you a clue what they are for. Can you say “Media Player”?
Choice is a good thing after you are up and running and want to try several offerings without the worry of spyware, virus’, etc that come with Windows compatible freeware. Choice is not a good thing when you are loading the system for the first time and discover that some idiot wrote a new language just to p*$s you off and ruin your chances of success and you have to choose from the unknown gonglomeration that is thrust upon you without even the benefit of a logical naming convention. Who would have known that Totum doesn’t do media on the web when it is packaged as a media player? How does one go about uninstalling the worthless piece of *&^%$, and what should replace it? I have found most of the chat support sites to be populated with script kiddies who are hanging around in wait for another stupid old timer to ridicule when they ask basic questions. Between times, they are involved in writing even more convoluted code to submit for inclusion in the next release and wouldn’t even answer if not for the entertainment value.
The Linux community would be well advised to develop and promote a distro with the feel of Ubuntu, but with all of the bases already covered in the installation. Knowing that I can surf, listen to music, write that letter and mail it without the immediate learning curve would do wonders for my desire to get into more advanced territory. I didn’t spend 10 yrs mastering Windows, (2 of those on a help desk) host my own advice board, and build systems for charities as a hobby, only to be made to feel stupid again by the “club”.
I am still dual booting Ubuntu with XP (running Vista RC2 in a VM), but will likely dump it soon. I have better things to occupy the little free time I have.
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 pm
What are the most preferred support sites/groups/chats that you would recommend to a person coming brand new to the ubuntu world?
Thanks,
Basti
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I am curious about your seemingly opposing statements regarding security under Ubuntu. In one breathe you say that you are more likley to be infected with malware and hacked. In the section above it, you seem to be saying the opposite, that you don’t need to worry about security problems as much under Linux.
Have you really been running Linux for a year as your primary operating system at home? Are you a ‘normal’ computer user, or do you have deeper insight into the workings of the operating system?
I have had a personal computer since early 1984, I have run most operating systems built for home computers, including Amiga, Mac, Windows (all versions) and Linux, and I work in the industry on server platforms as well.
I have been running Ubuntu linux as my primary OS for over a year on a static IP address at home. I run a version in VMWare as a virtual instance at work, on a static IP address. Prior to all of that, I was running various distros of Linux for several years now, as either a primary OS on my home computer or in a sandbox environment to test on.
Of course, I activate the firewall on both, no one should tempt fate without a firewall under any OS. Linux stands behind it’s reputation for security, it is one of the pillars of it’s entire success.
To say that someone running Ubuntu on a static IP address is more vulnerable to being hacked than someone running windows, is really a stretch, and I don’t know how you made that assumption. I stopped reading your piece at that point, having determined that you are not the most qualified person to be writing about this.
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
A quick note - I’ve updated the post to reflect what I believe to be the current status of Ubuntu and hacking.
Basti,
Try the Ubuntu forums http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ and the Ubuntu Guide http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy and the Ubuntu Document Storage Facility http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Main_Page for starters.
This site and other blogs can also be great resources!
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I agree with you. I just wrote two posts on my blog in the past few weeks about switching to Ubuntu and using the new install.exe
Ubuntu is great and since I didn’t do much gaming, I’m not missing Windows at all. I keep XP on my wife’s computer because she refuses to learn and new OS but I find her using my computer every once in a while and liking the speed and ease-of-use
I think I’ll have the entire family hooked by the end of the year.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
You have convinced me to install it
I’ve had Ubuntu for ages but didn’t really think you could do much with it compared to Windows.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
nice article. Ive been tossing around the idea of linux, and have been wanting to see what it was all about. this is a great help.
peace
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:51 pm
M$ Windows is like a designer drug.
First you get hi
Then you go down after a few dashing tricks
So you thing you need to buy more to feel good again
And then you realize the more you spend, the more damage you do to yourself.
Finally you try to quit and ask for help because is to dam hard!
March 4th, 2007 at 12:20 am
I switched from Windows to Ubuntu on my laptop and desktop. The switch has been pretty painless, except The Gimp really does not cut it when it comes to doing professional graphics. Drivers for video cards are still a pain. I could run Google Earth perfectly on Windows, now on Ubuntu it is painful to use. The reason, crappy drivers for ATI video, and I have tried numerous how to’s. I just have to live without.
March 4th, 2007 at 1:57 am
well its been about two and a half weeks for my experience with ubuntu and i must say it has been a good one. someone at work gave me two old dell computers, a 1 ghz pentium 3 with 256 mb ram, and a 2.8 ghz pentium 4 with 512 mb of ram. i say old because they were old to him even though the p4 is only 1 year old. neither one came with a hard drive or optical drive, so i installed some that i had laying around. i decided to try ubuntu edgy eft as the main os on both. i had tried the feisty live cd a little while ago but i never really got into it until these two projects came along. so far everything has been working out. the p4 is very snappy and it boots up a lot faster than my xp laptop. the p3 is about 8 years old and i think ubuntu runs great on it. i’m not only proud that i actually managed to put these two pc’s back together and get them running but also because one of these pc’s was given new life by me instead of heading off to the garbage. my children love to use the p3 for painting (tuxpaint) and looking up cheat codes for thier games(firefox).like the article says ubuntu isn’t without its drawbacks, but automatix2 takes care of most of it. i use
utorrent under wine and gnomebaker for my burning needs. i must say i haven’t had many problems yet. only a handfull like what i assume is a bug in audacity that doesn’t let me export to mp3 (i have that stupid liblamemp3, i just don’t know where it is!!) and i can’t seem to burn on dl discs. i keep getting stupid i o errors and those discs are too expensive to keep making coasters out of them ! i can’t really complain about gaming, i never got into pc gaming. i do however like emulators and i have a couple emulators to keep me satisfied. (vba anyone) i think the gimp is a good paint program but it could be better. i personally like paint.net on my xp laptop. well i hope more people get to have as good an experience in ubuntu as i have. now i’m off to investigate this firewall issue.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:15 am
you can install Gimp and OpenOffice under Windows, so what you say !! and in future all KDE apps too
March 4th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Overall fair article.
Item 3, if you want to fiddle a bit more use KDE (Kubuntu?) which allows you more control, while GNOME tries to provide with a clean desktop from the start.
Item 7, Linux on general should be safer than windows. Some Linux distro (e.g. Mepis) comes with firewall preloaded, which will give you a bigger safety net.
Item 9, most new users will not need the command line. The only a new user need to use CLI is when you ask for help in forums and kind souls is helping you with instructions which you can cut and paste. Clicking on controls is slightly more challening to communicate in forums
March 4th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Automatix is the best way to break your Ubuntu install (and by break, we mean require a reinstall).
You’re taking the plunge into linux, why not just bite the bullet and copy/paste a few lines of code to get your codecs. It’s *all* in the wiki (help.ubuntu.com) check out the Restricted Formats page.
Even if you dodge the bullet once with Automatix, you have nothing but problems trying to upgrade to the next Ubuntu release. Automatix is a BAD IDEA. Just say no. It really doesn’t help that much anyway. Especially not in the long run (compare installing a few codecs vs mucking around backing up and reinstalling, or even having to manually fix the stuff it broke during your upgrade).
March 4th, 2007 at 3:41 am
I switched to Kubuntu at the beginning of the year and have few regrets.
The only glitches I’ve found are a) Finding a compatible printer and then finding that a lot of it’s features (such as duplex printing) are compromised and b) The hours of ‘wasted’ (not really, as I learned a bit) time trying to get my son’s Zen player to get recognised as a ‘real’ USB device - and failing.
Apart from that, no complaints at all.
March 4th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Care to explain a lil more in details why Linux would “be more vulnerable to hackers” than typical Windows installs…???
March 4th, 2007 at 4:23 am
I made the switch in Nov and while I love it, i’m still struggling. Most things work, but most things take more effort.
I’ve worked in UNIX as a DBA since 1992, but replacing all the applications that I use in windows is hard work, near impossible. 4 months on I am starting to stabliize, but there are apps that just don’t have equal offerings in LINUX, and it is that which makes it difficult for me. Outlook can be run fairly stable with wine, but don’t minimize. Things like evolution don’t always work so well in the corporate env (or at least not in mine).
I’ve only crashed once, but have to login and out often to clear down the wine issues that I have with the programs that hang (until I find out exactly what to kill). TOAD doesn’t seem to have a serious equal in LINUX and that is very difficult for me.
On the flip side, I can do all kinds of things with networking, VPNs and run most java stuff without issues. I’ve moved my azureus client from the PCs to a small laptop running liux and we now drop our .torrent files onto a shared dir and it downloads them for us — azureus can really pound a PC. Samba file shares work great, but I can’t seem to get the shared printing to work — I now have a 1TG file server where I store the torrents and backup PCs, etc. I have an NTbackup of my windows install restored into VMWare — which I use occationally for things like quicken and when I need windows.
I still have my windows partition there — just in case, but I hope to remove it soon. I don’t think that I’m going back. If I could get cutting / pasting working across all applications I’d never go back. Better font / web rendering would be nice too, but it might be more a limitation of mine than anything else.
It’s been harder than I thought and longer than I thought, but like many people, I use my PC extensively for work. I’m happy that I did it and it gives me great joy to know that my laptop runs a FREE OS. I scour the internet looking for LINUX taking over articles. I just wish that I knew how to give back. If only I were a killer coder like the gang / world that gave us LINUX!
Give it a shot.
March 4th, 2007 at 4:44 am
I’m a linux enthusiast (been using it and BSD on my home systems for 10+ years) and I also use windows (XP and W2K). I’m a professional Unix consultant.
There are major drawbacks to linux that should be added to your otherwise full description.
They are:
- hardware support.
- documentation.
First of all hardware. If you’re migrating an old platform to linux, you may find some of your hardware is not supported. This is particularly true for USB devices, WiFi, and video cards. The situation with regards to webcams is simply terrible. Last time I installed a linux system for a family member, nt a single webcam worked to it’s full potential (i.e. as it does under windows) without a great deal of very complex configuration - including recompiling drivers.
So far as documentation goes, the quality is spotty. The means of accessing it varies and it’s hit and miss if it’s up-to-date, or even exists at all. While earlier utilities (the basic ones, from the Unix era) are professionally documented, later stuff like KDE has a completely different approach, so you won’t find a “man” page for it. Some software only comes with “help” when you run it.
No doubt someone will come along now and provide single-example counter-claims for all the above points.
Having said all this, I still prefer linux systems to windows. They’re simply more reliable robust and predictable.
March 4th, 2007 at 5:29 am
It does not have DRM though which may annoy some people hah!
-
http://www.WindowsVistaUserGuide.com
March 4th, 2007 at 5:29 am
It does not have DRM though which may annoy some people hah!
-
Windows Vista User Guide
March 4th, 2007 at 6:15 am
I am a Mac user and your comments are right on. While I do not know a lot about using Linux, I feel that Linux and OSX (both Unix-like) are superior for all those reasons, and one more…
We’re not just lemmings following one another over a cliff. We’ve thought about what makes sense for US.
March 4th, 2007 at 7:07 am
I have been using Windows since 98 and have loved it. So about 2 years ago I started getting into open-source software and eventually switched to Ubuntu, dual-booting it with Windows. After about a month of using Ubuntu, I got rid of Windows completely.
But wait! This is not a pro-ubuntu response to your article. While I agree fully with you on most points, I must put forward my point as a web designer and casual gamer that I just cannot live with Ubuntu. My profession requires me to certain applications like Adobe Photoshop which definitely has no match whatsoever in the open-source world; not even GIMP comes anywhere close to the functionality. When it comes to the coding part yeah, it was great for that. But that’s just too much of a chunk out of my life to live without.
Basically, I can’t see anyone but a strict programmer or someone who uses nothing but OpenOffice make a smooth transition to Ubuntu. It’s free, but the lesser cost does no justice to the functionality and compatability hit you’ll have to take.
As much as I hate to say it, Windows does the job much better for me and for lots of people I know who have had the same experience as me switching back to Windows after Ubuntu.
March 4th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Hey, nice article about Ubuntu.
However, I disagree with your point 7. Just the opposite is true: You will be more secure, not more vulnerable to hackers.
Also, in the upcoming release, there’s mainly no more need to install Automatix. You can easily install java/flash/etc.. from add/remove programs.
Cheers.
March 4th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Be very careful about recommending automatix to people. It has been known to break systems in the past. Whilst it may work for you right now, be aware that during upgrades many people have had issues which can be directly attributed to the way automatix works.
Another issue with Automatix is that it means people don’t really have a clue what is going on under the hood. I know some people don’t care, but when the system goes wrong it is hugely beneficial to know exactly what the history of the system is.
Check Scotts blog post on this.
http://www.netsplit.com/blog/articles/2006/10/30/automatix-and-upgrading
Scott is an Ubuntu developer and Canonical employee, he knows about these things.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Does anyone have experience with the install.exe and life with Ubuntu on NTFS formated drives?
March 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I thought I’d give it a try a few months ago. I started by dual-booting. Within days I was ready to dump OSX all together. I love it. I’ve decided to build a newer, AMD system just to run Ubuntu at home.
March 4th, 2007 at 11:12 am
@Ramzy:
>>It’s Bonzi Buddy.
Who cares? It’s annoying. And that’s how it ought to be spelled.
I just installed Kubuntu last night. Beryl this morning. Yeah, I can use a command line, but I’m a fish out of water on Kubuntu. I don’t know where to find things yet (like system settings) or fix things (like config files, registry - which I thank Linus for not making one), but I managed to follow the Wiki docs to get Beryl cooking and it’s pretty cool. I already use OpenOffice on Windows and in the last year have committed myself to only using free/OSS software, much of which is already available for Linux… so moving totally to Linux will be easy. I refuse to buy Windows Vista due to activation hostility, phoning home weekly to verify legitimacy, and needless DRM.
March 4th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I’ve switched every computer in my house to dual booting xp & Ubuntu. I had two older laptops I’ve given new like with Xubuntu.
I got so tired if fixing my kids’ Windows computers who, even with my router/firewall and ZoneAlarm/AVG, were constantly infected & crippled with malware from their surfing habits of teen sites rife with exploits. The kids had NO PROBLEM adjusting to Linux as I already had them using Firefox, GAIM and Open Office in XP. Plus without the insidious DRM and having GTKPod, it’s actually EASIER for them to rip their CDs and share their music among their friends.
I run my favorite XP games in Wine and wasn’t hooked on any major installed games so I don’t miss that part. The only thing keeping me from full time Linux is the printer issue. My Canon i960 is useless in Linux.
Linux as a mass market OS isn’t quite there yet but once all manufacturers start issuing hardware drivers in Linux along with Windows , the tipping point will be reached.
March 4th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
@ Brian (#10)
Don’t be a dick.
Even before the edit, the difference between viruses, adware, spyware, etc., and hacking was clearly stated. The division of the paragraphs was even stated.
This is not your article, Brian, nor is it a place to boast about how many distros/OS’s you’ve run or how long you’ve owned a PC.
The only reason I reply in this way is to provide an example of what the average Ubuntu guru is NOT like for those considering a switch; the standard help anywhere for Ubuntu is everything but pompous, condescending, pretentious, and critical.
March 5th, 2007 at 10:35 am
My daughter’s computer (a CappuccinoPC SlimPro 625) had a HD failure. When reinstalling, I did both XP and Ubuntu. XP required a couple of CD’s from the manufacturer for drivers. Ubuntu installed in less time, and all hardware was recognized - no searching for drivers.
She has everything she needs: Open Office, Firefox, Gaim, Skype, F-Stop, VLC and Amarok.
She needs a CD and application to connect her Sony-Ericsson camera-phone with XP. In Ubuntu, just connected it and it was immediately recognized and photos downloaded. Easy.
March 5th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Great article. I think the most important thing is to encourage people to make a gradual switch to Linux. I know several people who tried to switch completely at once, got burned and now won’t try Linux again.
A better way is to first test a Live CD, then install Linux as dual boot and/or install Linux on your second computer (if you have on that is) and keep windows on the primary computer.
That way, you can practice in Linux throughly and still have the option of quickly going back to Windows temporarily. I’ve myself been switching over to Ubuntu like that for about a year now. I plan to migrate completely before the end of 2007. But there’s no rush really.
I think one thing that would make the switch easier would be a tool similar to AutoHotkey.com that converted hotkeys and some other functionality from Windows to the corresponding actions on a Linux system.
March 6th, 2007 at 8:25 am
It’s also worth pointing out that DVD playback is not supported by default in Windows. You need to install DVD player software.
In comparison a fresh Windows XP install needs a lot more work (installing drivers, application software, anti-virus software, codecs etc) than a fresh Ubuntu install. And as mentioned before Automatix takes care of much of it for you.
March 17th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Before Linux on the desktop will ever be mainstream (as in greater than 1%), the linux community will need to learn to accept commercial software running in linux.
Presently there is an anti-commercial attitude in the linux community which is an overreaction to Microsoft. Microsoft is evil, not all commercial software is. The attitude is reinforced by the (otherwise goodly and beneficial) distribution systems like yum and apt. Those systems are great at distributing open source software. They don’t do so well at commercial software. This hard-codes the anti-commercial attitude.
Until major commercial software is written for linux, linux on the desktop will forever be niche. Faking it with wine and vmware is just that.
Presently, getting Adobe’s support would be the most significant thing for linux on the desktop. Now that it’s bought up macromedia, it’s the company with the biggest set of major apps.
March 17th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I’ve been using Windows since ‘95 and ‘ol MS-DOS, but lately these days something started to get me interested in Ubuntu, i sincerely tried Windows Vista and i hated it!, so i began reading websites about linux and ubuntu, Ubuntu seems to show really good progress and ease of use.
I’m waiting on Ubuntu 7.04 to give it a try, games are not really important to me, besides there’s also virtualization on Linux
March 27th, 2007 at 5:07 am
“Before Linux on the desktop will ever be mainstream (as in greater than 1%), the linux community will need to learn to accept commercial software running in linux.”
Commercial software will be accepted with open arms, as long as it’s “free” software.
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:23 am
I switched to ubuntu because of drm and all kind of restrictions in vista.By the way macrovision owns installshield.ouch!!!!!…Search the registry in vista for macrovision and installshield.No need to say more.
The only beef i have with ubuntu is that it saves cookies(max:31) and documents despite firefox attempts to delete the browsing history.This is really disturbing.In windows i was able to delete all cookies but ubuntu won’t let that happen.Try pressing F12 in Feisy Fauwn,search for cookie.See result.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:03 am
Hey Fanfi,
That’s odd with the cookies. I’ve just cleared my private info via Firefox, and I come up with no cookies in a search. Well, there are files that contain the word cookies and one or two local Firefox things, but nothing from the web.
AG
September 14th, 2007 at 1:13 am
First of all Ubuntu is free to those whose time has no value…I don’t remember where I got this but I love using it.
My first operating system was DOS I’ve had every version of Windows up to XP and I’ve built every windows based computer I’ve owned. My first foray into Linux was Red Hat many years ago and since then I’ve had very brief flirtations with the operating system that is until UBUNTU. I should point out that I have been using Picasa, Firefox, VLC and open office for longer than I can remember on my windows box.
I’ve been using Ubuntu for a month and in that month I must have had to reconfigure and restart my system from a command line at least twice a day and often more than that, thank god for my laptop and google.
My installation a Socket A AMD processor 1.2 or 1.9 Gigahertz depending on who you listen to, 750 megs of ram and ATI all in wonder video card with 128 megs of ram and video acceleration, on windows at least
I used a separate HD , 30 Gig’s, to install Ubuntu on, I didn’t want to deal with dual boot. Windows on IDE0 Linux on IDE1.
Everything loaded fine and I was up and running with basic apps in no time it was relatively easy to upgrade Firefox and set up to read my NTFS drives then I got google earth, opps first problem with video and believe me I had to reconfigure my xorg file more than I care to remember to get my desktop back after many reboots to a command line and forget desktop effects. So I bough a new video card NVIDIA gforce 6200 now I can run google earth but forget desktop effects they still don’t work for me But hey! what’s 70.00 between friends.
Next problem I’m tackling and I don’t know why I need to tackle it because it was working fine originally but now I can’t see my window laptop on the home network, the laptop connects with no problem to UBUNTU but even if the config files on UBUNTU show the laptop I don’t have a browsable network from Linux.
I also have a USB hard drive for backup 500 gigs 5 partitions fat 32, I have to use the word backup with caution because I never know what drive I am going to be allowed to write to, sometimes all of them, sometimes none, most often one or two of the partitions will be available to me but it’s a moving target and it’s getting worse, I am sure that with a few more re-boots I will no longer have access to that drive.
Video/Webcam forget it.
Sound card, well it seems UBUNTU likes my disabled in CMOS onboard sound card better than my Soundblaster, half the time anyway so I just took the soundBlaster out of the computer for now, better than switching cables at the whims of the operating system.
I never know which app. will run my video file, in Windows I always used VLC with the added codec pack in Linux even with the extra codecs installed VLC won’t play quite a few formats .AVI seem to be a problem sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t but so far I’ve been able to play everything once I figure out which of the 4 players I have installed will render the file.
I am still using UBUNTU after a month so it isn’t all bad, the basic operating system works well for most of the things I use a computer for but it ain’t ready for prime time by any means. The average computer user wants to be able to unpack the machine, plug it in throw in the disk from their ISP and be online that night not, spend 3 or four hours a day for a month trying to get video cards and network cards and sound cards to work not to mention doing something as simple as writing to their USB drives did I mention forget the webcam???
So far free has cost me about 100 hours, $70.00 some odd for a video card and a 30 gig hard drive from the junk piile but I’m hanging on, I want to be the Linux Guru when it’s ready for prime time in another few years or so.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
VoyeurOne #50 says it all. Not uintil Ubuntu and all the upcoming Micro$ wannabees get all the drivers working right out of the box, they will always be nothing but a geek OS. I can’t tell you how much time is wasted, on trying to get my network, video, sound, drivers to work.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Well I are the Linux Guru now….. Update….. After a lot of searching I found someone else who had the same problem as I did with the USB hard drive, seems that if you write a routine to “wake the drive up” before trying to write to it, the permissions won’t get all muddled up . so let’s call this one fixed. I have desktop effects to work perfectly for a while but eventually Beryl will lock up and I have to hold down the power switch reboot. so I guess this is a 90% fix and I wouldn’t know I had a problem if I rebooted my machine once in a while. WebCam works where I use it, so for me that’s a 100% fix but I have yet to figure out how I would use the camera if I decided I wanted to use it with a Yahoo client. I did get to talk to my laptop after a fashion by discovering another podcast” Linux Reality” that explains a way to work around. I have to paste and copy a bunch of stuff using terminal to tell smbmount where the laptop shares are, I’m supposed to be able to do it on boot but if the laptop isn’t turned on at boot time Ubuntu hangs, So let’s call that one yeah right!! but it works…. Next project is scanner, wish me luck. And I’m up to well over 200 hours in trying to make this out of the box experience work, definitely not a turnkey operation yet !!