by Gadget 4 Replies latest jw friends
Does anyone here use the Ubunto os? What do you think about it? I've been reading a bit about it, and have a spare hard drive I can install it on to experiment without risking my data so I fancy giving it a try.
The main things that concern me are ease of use/setup (once I get used to it), and compatability with other software I use. For example, will the driver for my modem/printer/scanner/etc be compatable?
Paul
I've been thinking about installing it myself when I get a new PC.... If I ever get a new PC.
hi gadget,
the drivers for your hardware will not be compatable. hardware makers usually only make drivers for windows and mac.
that said, linux really does rock. i am not sure about ubunto, but most major distros like fedora come with generic drivers for hardware. but there is no guarantee.
part of the journey into linux and opensource software is that it makes a bit of a hacker out of you. you will probably be required to wrap your head around finding and installing drivers from the command line. but this is good knowledge to have, considering how important linux is becoming these days. dual booting might also be a challenge for you, since depending on the booting software that ubunto comes with, it may not see the windows side if it is not fat32. and most xp machines are formatted NTFS if i remember correctly. this issue may also be a problem in trying to see files on the windows side from ubunto, but it's worth a shot still.
may the source be with you,
tetra
I have Ubuntu installed on a seperate machine and XP/Vista on the other. I wouldn't recommend dual booting Ubuntu/Windows although it is theoretically possible. I tried it and because Ubuntu didn't fully support my new SATA hard drives it installed a corrupted OS and messed up the master boot record. It took some sorting out.
Once Ubuntu is installed though it's pretty good. It's bundled with lots of useful apps but one drawback already mentioned is lack of drivers. I run a LAMP server on my Ubuntu box and it works without a hitch. Other than that I use the Linux machine just to learn more about Linux.
If your a bit of a PC techie it's fun to learn linux but there's nothing in Linux distributions that you can't do in XP.
I have experimented with various Linux OS, namely SuSE, Caldera, Mepis, and briefly, Ubuntu. I used Mepis for over a year, was happy for a while, but gave up when I installed a new Creative sound card which apparantly could not be configured. I spent a lot of time online at various Linux expert forums, NO one could offer concise instructions on how to configure the sound card and make it work. I suppose if your hardware is supported, it would be ok, since Ubuntu is a free distribution. I chose to go a better way, so after some research, wiped the drive and installed BeOS, available as a free download from BeBits. This worked great, so when the newer version, termed Zeta became available (from Purplus software), I purchased it, and have used it with great success for roughly three years. BeOS/Zeta is superior to Linux because they were written in a much cleaner manner. Most hardware is supported, especially with Zeta. Also, because code is written so cleanly, using BeOs/Zeta really does speed up your computer. Installing new hardware is no problem, if the driver is not already present, download the driver and unzip it to a folder where all your other drivers live. You usually don't even have to reboot the system (although you would for a video driver), just restart the service which that driver supports and it will work.
