My Ubuntu, Installing Ubuntu, Using Ubuntu

I have been talking to some friends at work about Ubuntu and wanted to share some thoughts on what I believe to be a viable desktop replacement OS for Windows XP or Mac OSX. To start, I first tried Ubuntu in October of 2005. It was recommended to me by James Hemphill who was a colleague at Biblio.com. He is quite the Jedi, so when he said it was a good fit for me, I knew I might actually have a chance at understanding how to get involved with a Linux distro. Since then, it’s go to be Ubuntu.

Since then, I have installed Ubuntu on numerous different systems that I own, like my Dell 600m laptop dual booting XP Home, on a 2001 500mhz Indigo Blue iMac that was running OSX Panther, and other countless desktops that come through my house – neighbors, friends and even our Rabbi! Rabbi Hurwitz is a fan of Ubuntu, he likes the concept and it’s easy to use. I use this on systems that I work on so in the event that I need to boot back in to back things up, I can do some from the Ubuntu install.

I use Ubuntu for browsing, email and am now comfortable using Open Office for word docs. I use gFTP in place of filezilla and confess that the only applications keeping me tied to Windows are Half Life 2 and Fireworks 2004 MX as I have still not warmed up to using Gimp in place of this. In time, I am certain I will. I really like being able to access the Windows partition from within Ubuntu, that is slick. For music, I still have not setup Ubuntu to play nice with our airtunes network, this will happen in time also as I am pretty motivated to get this working.

So, installing Ubuntu is as easy as inserting the CD. If you are going to want to dual boot, and I expect you will, I recommend doing an install of Windows first and saving some memory for the Ubuntu install when this is complete. I have gotten away with as little as 3 GB but recommend saving at least 5 GB in the event that you want to save music or images to your Ubuntu partition. If you follow this route, you can use the guided install and have the installer use all available space.

The installer is so slick, you can actually run apps on the desktop (Nibbles, solitaire, etc.) while you are installing the system! I recommend having the system hooked up on the network when you do this so you can run the updates just as soon as the install completes, this will take about 20 minutes depending on the speed of your system and connection.

When I was working with Red Hat 9 back in the day, I was given the option of modifying the boot order during the install – Ubuntu does not give you this option so be prepared to learn how to modify the boot order if you don’t want Ubuntu to be the default OS. It’s pretty easy to do, just open a terminal (from the applications menu and then select system). Enter sudo naultius (your password) and then open the grub folder. You can use the command dir to list the directory you are in and CD to open a subdirectory.

Browse to the Grub folder and then select the menu.lst file. You will want to make a back up of this file and save it to your home folder or desktop. You can simply move XP to the top of the list, following these directions but keep in mind, as the author notes, these will be overwritten when Ubuntu updates. In the same article, the author mentions hidden menus – which I will need to investigate!

You should now have a working install of Ubuntu! On my first install on my Dell 600m, now four years old, my wireless card was found! I did not have the same luck with setting up a wireless card on a desktop that I had for a short while. It involved setting up a NTIS wrapper, and with 2 kids running around the house these days, there just wasn’t time.

That said, I wish you the best of luck with Ubuntu, it’s fun to learn more about Linux when you have the right interface!

GO CHARGERS! I am looking forward to the Chargers bringing a new level of pain to Foxborough today!  Go Bolts Go!!!