What is Digg?150 Comments
- gfixler, on 10/12/2007, -2/+101I've was solely on XP for years, and 2K for years before that, and NT for a couple of years before that on an SGI/NT 320, and 98 for a few years prior to that, and 3.1 for Workgroups for years, starting when it came out. None of those has come close to how easy it was for me to install Ubuntu. Download the live CD from their site, burn it to a disc - now you have an install disc. Reboot with that in the drive, and you're in Ubuntu, pretty much completely. You can try before you buy (and there's no buying - it's yours, free - you're welcome!). If you want to turn the computer into an Ubuntu box, just click the install icon on the desktop from the live CD bootup. There's not much more to it than that, though I'd recommend a quick read through Google to see about how you might want to partition the drive in a good way.
If you're talking about programs, Synaptic, the front-end for apt, which comes built-in, is again, a far cry easier for installing applications, and removing them later, than Windows has ever made it. I'll grant you that once in a while you need something that isn't in the repositories, but most things are. Installing is as simple as browsing the big list, filtering it down with search terms, right clicking on whatever apps you want to select them - as many as you want in one shot - and then clicking the big checkmark that says "Apply." It installs everything, and all of their dependencies, and you don't have to reboot to complete anything. You just start using all of it.
For me, the troubles are eclipsed by what I get out of it. Everything is free, many things update on a regular, and even frequent basis, things are made by volunteers who often work at a more personal level (I've had Linux app programmers add features just for me when I've asked nicely), and there's no chance of adware, spyware, viruses, or any other badness. This machine is spotless, spanky clean and fast all the time, never suffers registry bloat, or the "occasional need to reinstall everything," which seems to be the norm for any Windows user I've ever known (who actually does a lot of stuff like me), and I have a great deal more options.
A simple example is that to sync my programs up between work (XP), and my thumb drive, I have to open truecrypt, select the volume from a browse dialog, type in a password, open a sync program, click a bunch of buttons to make the sync analyze and synchronize, and then click through more things to unmount the TC volume, and eject the drive. On Linux, I made myself a short script that does all of that, and actually more, as it sets things up for SVN versioning. I stick in the thumb drive, click an icon to open a shell, type "melup" (I work with MEL scripts primarily), hit enter, and just give it the passwords when it asks. It's a few seconds of work on Linux, vs several annoying minutes of clicking all over, and browsing through directories on Windows.
Little by little, I'm making everything work like that for me in Ubuntu. I have another script that I've linked to a [purposefully elaborate, so I don't hit it by accident] hotkey that opens all the default programs I use, and moves them to where I want them on my 5 dual-screen virtual desktops, even opening up the files in each that I'm currently working on. In the few months I've been using Ubuntu, I really haven't had to reboot, unless the kernel gets an update, but if I do, I can just hit my hotkey, and it all comes back to life where I want it. This is also very nice after a power outage.
There's good and bad on both sides of the line, but so far, Ubuntu has really worked well for me for about 95% of all the things I do. - rolf, on 10/12/2007, -7/+80@PCore
I also miss installing certain Windows apps on Ubuntu - like Adaware, SpybotS&D, Norton Anti-virus, etcetera? When will these fine programs become available on Ubuntu? [end sarcasm] - pufuwozu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+71Crazy enough, the equivalent of Windows' device manager in Ubuntu is the 'device manager'. Accessed by System->Administration->Device Manager.
- SatNav, on 10/12/2007, -5/+63Thats what she said!
- carpespasm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+52i fail to see how the ubuntu install could get much simpler. you could argue that driver installation might be hit or miss if your hardware is too new, but the install itself is pretty noob-proof. you don't even have to install your programs when it's done. as a serious question, what was it that made the install hard PCore?
- Cyphase, on 10/12/2007, -3/+41Dugg just for the length.
- gringer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32I suspect that a lot of people's experience of a "windows installation" is what appears when they start up a new PC. In this case, the PC has already had the proprietary drivers etc. downloaded and configured from the manufacturers web sites, so everything works well right from the start.
About a year ago, I wiped the hard drive of my IBM ThinkPad and reloaded it to factory defaults with a recovery CD (it was being returned to them). It was quite an eye-opening experience for me, watching all the specially crafted scripts doing their work, and having to reboot about 4-5 times before everything was set up and ready for what I saw when I first purchased the computer. - xertys, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33In 2007 an ***** called osbourne posted spam to digg. He just disappeared no one ever found him until 2010 when a young girl called Mary found his body and markings on his chest saying "I spammed digg." and now you have read this he will appear in your digg comment box saying your not spammy enough and kill your browser.
- isosceles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Ubuntu is the easiest Linux distro to install. You literally boot it up, double click on install, set the time, create a user and that's it. The installer partitions and installs Ubuntu and you're set.
- JrGhoull, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18ubuntu is one of the most absurdly easy things to install. you pop in the live cd, theres an icon thats labeled "install" you then proceed to (and here comes the shocker) install it. and to think i thought installing xp was easy!
damn isosceles beat me to it... - JHawk24821, on 10/12/2007, -5/+22Figures, informative article written about a just-released version of a techy open source OS - and the digg users ask about the wallpaper with the hot chick.
- EricTheGrey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15@rolf :
"I also miss installing certain Windows apps on Ubuntu - like Adaware, SpybotS&D, Norton Anti-virus, etcetera? When will these fine programs become available on Ubuntu? [end sarcasm]"
Well, Norton does have a version that runs on Linux, apparently:
http://www.symantec.com/press/2000/n000420.html
Good luck finding it on their site though.
One down, two to go. :)
EtG - MasterChi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Where can I download that wallpaper of the Female warrior in those pictures?
- coredump0x01, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Argh, I just got a flashback of AOL in 1996 after reading that. I thought your species was extinct!
- msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12You need to edit your Xorg.conf file. I've set up Ubuntu with a plethora of mice, and I've gotten all of them to work, search a little harder for Howtos on the forums. You answered your own question about flash in 64bit. That's entirely Adobe's fault. With more effort, you can run the 32bit versions of firefox with the 32bit flash player from adobe inside 64bit linux, but from the tone of your post, you probably aren't willing to learn how.
As for the rest of your post, it can be summed up as "I want Windows without having to pay for it." Sorry, it's not a 1 for 1 clone, it's an alternative. - coredump0x01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Ubuntu (especially Feisty) is a hot topic in the Linux/Unix world, If you don't like it, then just filter out the Linux/Unix section. Just click on your profile, select Manage Topics, then uncheck the topic(s) you do not want to see. Unless of course you enjoy trolling. Also get more creative then just copying and pasting the same comment across stories http://digg.com/linux_unix/What_Should_You_Expect_from_Ubuntu_7_04#c5846869
- ubuwalker31, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11@PCore:
I imagine that installing programs though "Add/Remove" programs is different, and perhaps more 'stress inducing' because your not used to it yet. That is normal when trying out something new. Ubuntu is also adopting "click and run" technology which will allow you to install software 'the windows way' by downloading a file from the internet and installing. Of course, the programs are different than windows too, which makes the transition a little more difficult too. Let me know if I can help! - JHawk24821, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13No no no, you have it all wrong. The closer is supposed to be, "If you post crap like this on digg, you get blocked."
- Narwaffle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Beryl/Compiz (call it what you like) integration is a nice feature in Feisty, but restricted modules is probably going to save me the most time - hunting around Synaptic is time consuming - glad to see they've implemented this.
- tcissell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I installed Ubuntu on my MacBook (via Parallels) last night. This is my first experience with anything Linux, and since I've heard about how easy Ubuntu is to use, I decided to try to install it without reading any documentation. To my surprise, it worked perfectly. However, once I got it running, I asked myself, "now what" and did a quick "beginner Ubuntu" search. From there, I found Automatix (which is running right now).
My main motivation for installing Ubuntu was that I'm finally sick of hearing you Linux geeks gloat about how wonderful Linux is - so now that the distros are becoming idiot-proof, I figured it was time for this idiot to find out what he's been missing.
Scrolling through Synaptic has amazed me with the number of applications available, and I'm really looking forward to digging into this! However, I am a bit upset that I've purchased so many TV Shows and Movies from iTunes now, preventing me from moving my media library into a Linux app (I saw that there was a way to sync the iPod via Linux, but can't remember the name of the app now). :(
Thanks, Digg. Wish me luck! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I expect more Digg articles about it.
- crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Classy, Orbit.
- softpedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It's NOT the default wallpaper... It's just my wallpaper...
This is the default one -> http://www.kubuntu.org/~jriddell/tmp/kubuntu-wallpaper.png - tmattoneill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7There are exactly two things that keep me from using Ubuntu exclusively. I'd love to hear from you guys (in a patient, rational, non-flaming way) what you think about each of these.
1) Have never been able to get my wireless network to work on Ubuntu unless I run it through a virtual machine on XP. I've read the forums, checked out the FAQ's emailed with various people, tried the various open source drivers, etc. all to no avail. I've been using Ubuntu on and off since around version 3 or so but have never gotten it to work. I've tried PCI internal wireless cards as well as USB connected wireless access points. If I could get this one flaw fixed, I'd use Ubuntu 20x more than I do now.
2) Games. I've got this great processor, huge flat screen monitor, sweet SLI configuration, all to play games with. Obviouisly, these are not supported in Ubuntu. I tried dual booting for a while but it got tiresome and over time I found myself migrating back to XP exclusively. What's the point of all the nice hardware when I could be using a system 1/10th as powerful and get the same performance out of Ubuntu? I feel like it would be a waste.
2.a) What I'd REALLY love to do is set up my media pc upstairs (uTorrent, Video, Audio) to run off Ubuntu and have it be my OS of choice. I don't play games on it and only use it for multimedia through the stereo and TV. I know musicmatch won't work (damn Yahoo!) but everything else should. However, I've never had satisfactory support for the codecs most videos use and I've never been happy with DVD playback support.
If you guys can offer some constructive advice on these 2.5 points, it'd be great. I WANT to use Ubuntu, and I love the look and feel of it, but besides just playing around with the web browser and OS, I've never had much luck.
p.s. The install could NOT be easier. - crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7At least it doesn't look like every other OS. And it takes about 2 seconds to change it to something more blue.
- dunee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@softpedia - I realize GIMP works fine for some people, but the UI differences just drive me up the wall. I've been using Photoshop since 1995, and Photostyler before that. The little, subtle differences between doing it the Photoshop way and the GIMP way give my brain seizures. I accept that it's unfair to compare the two, but GIMP just feels odd. I'm sure it works fine for other people, just not for me.
Funny enough, I didn't have the same problem with going from MS Office to OpenOffice. OO is different, again, but most of the learning curve actually comes from having to unlearn some of the idiosyncratic habits MS Office has ingrained me with. I'd be using OO exclusively if it didn't make such a mess of exporting to .doc, but I undertand that's more due to the closed nature of the Word format specifications, than a problem with OO itself. I'd create a document in Writer, save it as .doc, open it in Word to double check some of the usual suspects (margins going off, bullet points changing shape and format, and so on) and save it again from Word. No problems at all. Most of the time PDF is just as good, if not better, for the final product, so I don't have to go through Word all that often. Pivot tables in Calc are a bit rougher around the edges than in Excel, but it's nothing that can't be deal with.
Inkscape is another great example. It does what it's supposed to do and it's easy to pick up. It is just GIMP - and even with the Photoshop-like UI upgrade, I still found it difficult to use. Guess once you hit the age of 30, it's all downhill from here, old ingrained habits and so on. - arcticblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yes, WPA works out of the box. It's extremely easy now: just click on the network icon thing next to your clock, pick your wireless network, then enter your key. Another thing I like is the ability to migrate Windows and other Linux accounts over to your new installation (wallpaper, favorites, files, login image, etc).
- rotten777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It is just you. Besides, it can all be customized to whichever size you would like to see on your own desktop. ;)
- Eleo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Ugh, go back to YouTube.
- sincewednesday, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Thanks for the update, softpedia. It wasn't clear from your article that it's not the default, especially since the images follow directly after this sentence: "Both Kubuntu and Ubuntu are face lifted with new artwork, starting from the boot splash and continuing with the splash screen and the desktop wallpaper."
- softpedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5There you go: http://images.google.com/images?hl=ro&q=heavenly+sword&btnG=Caut%C4%83+Imagini&ei=I2EGRuujM6jwyAKA8pjxAw&gbv=2
- gregduh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5someone copy that comment and submit it as its own story
- bmwboy2844, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Some of you might find this helpful:
http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294
GIMPshop! is a photoshop look-alike that runs on linux, mac and windows... - chili555, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"...the distros are becoming idiot-proof..." and "...one day it'll be a viable alternative over windows on the desktop, for all users."
This is a very sad day. Now any Jane or Joe 6P can install and run linux without 'sudo vim /etc/modules'? Criminal! - arcticblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If connecting to your WPA encrypted wireless network is the only internet access you have, then yeah, it is kind of a showstopper. Had that problem myself.
- coredump0x01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Free broadcom drivers are currently being worked on, but there is still errata concerning the Tx and Rx power controls that needs working out before you can stop using ndiswrapper.
- tOnybOgs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Try
http://www.songbirdnest.com
Its a cross platform media player/web browser built from Mozilla. Its a really nice app and will allow you to play tracks bought from iTunes :) - wounded625, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4open automatix, then go to misc., then install Cntrl-Alt-Delete
it makes the gnome task manager open with cntrl alt delete - geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The best way is pressing said application's "X" button. The window manager tells the application the window's closing, if the Application doesn't respond, your window manager will then ask you if the application is responding, and you will be given a way to kill it.
Of course, in the event the application has gone rogue enough that this doesn't even work, or is tapping out you CPU for untold number of cycles, there is a second (and third.. etc) way. If you can get to a terminal (ctrl+alt+F2 will typically do it, be patient), you can type "killall -9 application-name" which tells the kernel to kill the application, regardless of its state of operation. If you want the "Windows" feel, however, there is a System Manager written for GNOME that will make you feel right at home. It's called GNOME System Monitor, and is easily installed in whatever distro you happen to be running.
Good luck. - nicoladimaria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@bobmugulie
simply use alt+f2 which will prompt for a command, there write "xkill" then your mouse pointer will become a skull
you click the window you want to kill (be extra-careful) - cdmarcus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Seriously, most Windows programs are harder to install than Ubuntu... and Ubuntu is an OS. Also, the Windows installer is horrendous... instead of asking all the questions at once, then installing it, it asks them in intervals of 15 minutes. Also, with Ubuntu, you don't need to install very many programs after the OS is installed, since they're already there. I'd say it takes less than half the time to get an Ubuntu system up and running than a Windows system.
- crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Why are people digging him down? He's trying to help you!!
- coredump0x01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3...err http://digg.com/linux_unix/WiFi_In_Ubuntu_Feisty_Fawn_Explored#c5846865
- imjustabill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It's much, much, much more customizable. Beryl beats the crap out of the Vista's visual effects.
- softpedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sorry.... without the -d (that's for development releases :) .. my bad)
so it will be just gksu update-manager -c or kdesu update-manager -c - kahrn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3For Microsoft Windows users to migrate to Ubuntu, it'll take more than what the Ubuntu Development teams can do. It's only partly down to them.
The real challenge is getting companies and the media interested and convinced. Without the support of the hardware manufacturers and software developers (Adobe, etc..) then it will never reach out to all the users it should do.
That said, someday, it will be supported by the big companies. One day it'll all work, and one day it'll be a viable alternative over windows on the desktop, for all users. That day is just getting closer and closer, and we just have to be patient, and support the project. - ttread, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Advantages of Ubuntu over Vista:
1. No hassle with license fees + registration.
2. No hassle with antivirus, it's not needed.
3. More secure - even if you click on something bad, it won't run.
3. Lots of cool software available for free, easily installable.
4. Choice of a number of desktop interfaces, which are highly customizable. - softpedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2hit Alt+F2 and type
gksu update-manager -c -d (in Ubuntu)
or
kdesu update-manager -c -d (in Kubuntu) - orbit1979, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7^
LOL! I even dugg you up!
Granted my comment my not have been "refined" or "sofisicated", but you must admit, its true. - bobmugulie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2beginner question: how do you kill a process that isn't responding. is there an equivalent of ctrl-alt-delete?
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