Common Tasks in the context of Windows...
Installing 9.04 Jaunty Jackelope
Current Update…
3/7/09 - Working on several things - LAMPS, FireflyMediaServer (Firefly for serving up iTunes DAAP to Roku), etc.
2/22/09 - Installing Ubuntu on a $130 MSI Wind PC (Atom chip with 750GB Drive / GB Ethernet) - WindPC
2/22/09 - Investigating MAME (game emulator) on Ubuntu - learning about Linux Graphics Libraries
Open Office 3.0 will read/write Office 2007 docs, but Ubuntu 8.10 only updates to 2.4 due to testing / shipping deadlines.
I found the best tip thus far at http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-To-Install-OpenOffice-org-3-0-in-Ubuntu-8-10-96449.shtml — it involves modifying your Software Sources (where Ubuntu goes to find its updates and installs) so that Ubuntu can update itself to 3.0.
Site Purpose
OK, so you know your way around windows and have been programming win32 for decades — but you sense this Linux thing is worth checking out…
But which one to try? What are the significant benefits over windows? What are the downsides? Which things or paradigms are significantly different than windows?
If you are looking for some ideological bent or rant confirming the virtues of one OS over the other, you won't find it here… I've found there are benefits and drawbacks to just about every operating system or language. Often, the key is to recognize which one works the best in a given situation.
One thing I've learned over the years, is that you can best explain things when you are learning them yourself. So, as I start to learn about Linux, I thought I'd capture some of this on wikidot (which is a pretty cool concept I have to admit).
Some of this is best served as a blog, others as a forum or simple articles on this site.
You will probably find the https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ site very informative, however, the http://linuxnoob.wikidot.com site is designed to explain things in the context of a seasoned Win32 expert.
At this point, I've installed Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex version 8.10 (I like their naming scheme for the versions) on some old iron and new, laptops and desktops.
Current Tasks — Learning how to develop using Mono
Quick Impressions:
The Good
- Installation is too cool for words, both for the OS and any of the programs. More on this in the Installation Article…
- Desktop (Gnome in this case) is clean and efficient. I need to learn more about Gnome vs KDE and other desktop GUIs at this point.
- The updates and dependency database rock -> they keep track of all the programs, their library dependencies and any updates.
- Printer detection and installation is better than anything I've ever seen. Found all my network printers, identified them, installed their drivers and had printed a test page for each one in under one minute!
- Out of the box, it loaded working drivers for just about everything, and offered up third party drivers in the two cases where I needed them.
- The OS, by both its virtue of being open source, as well as inherent security mechanisms, means that excessive CPU usage to scan everything all the time is greatly reduced.
- I'm amazed that it can (in theory) play so well with all the other operating systems, including taking over many of the duties of a typical Windows domain controller
The Bad
- After installing packages, you do not necessarily have any idea where and what happened — if the installation is pure CLI (Command Line Interface), you'll have to go hunting. Often these apps need to run as root, so you have to launch them from the terminal after elevating privs via the temporary sudo. You can activate the root login, however, there seems to be plenty of reasons to avoid doing this — not smart enough yet to know true cost/balances here…
- You tend to have to grope around in the dark at first, if you don't know some of the paradigm shifts. In particular, the notion of the terminal and 'sudo' for most of what you need to do (more on this later)
- Certain things are just plain difficult, such as establishing persistent drive mappings.
The Ugly
- Mapping a Western Digital MyBookWorld — I must be on my 50th dive into Google search threads and Ubuntu forums trying to get a mainstream cheap NAS (running Linux under the covers) to mount shares permanently on my Linux OS. Weird stuff happens, including file save operations that allow me to copy paste a file in a writeable directory on the second attempt, but fail on the first, or cause the system to hang with errors for a few minutes on shutdown. I'm getting through this and am close to a solution, but it should never be this hard! Sometimes, the great amount of expertise on the web makes finding the right solution difficult (or realizing that the solution for SUSE Linux or even an older version of Ubuntu is no longer viable).
