Ubuntu Linux 5.10, Sofware Operating System

Author's product rating:   

Instructions / Help	Good
Ease of use	Easy
Ease of Installation	Good - quick to install
Reliability	Excellent
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Its free and quite user friendly
Disadvantages:	wont run windows software straight off

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Why Linux?
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I have tried Linux once before in my computing life. I installed a version of Red hat a few years ago and found it was quite easy to get to grips with if a little limiting in hardware

compatibility as it refused to recognise my printer, camera , phone or scanner and was the reason I returned to windows.

I felt a little monopolised by microsoft , whenever another security feature is added to another version of windows I have felt obliged to go along with it , I felt my hands were tied
and so I wanted to give Linux a try to satisfy myself that Microsoft was not the only useful Operating System.

Could I survive without windows???
.
I had sent away for a live Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) disc so that I could give it a try but hadn't yet got around to it so as I already had that version ,that was the one I decided on.

Installing
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I wanted to install it on a second partition on my main drive and use a boot menu to choose the OS to boot from.
I like to use Paragon Partition magic from inside windows to make partitions ,as I prefer to control my partitioning from inside my software rather than leave it to my meagre skills

in the Dos department.
After starting Partition Magic , I chose to create a new partition and make it a Linux partition. It does this automatically and takes a lot of the guesswork out of ,for me anyway,a

tricky process.
I shut down the pc and put in the second of the 2 discs I had recieved from the Linux bods (disc 1 is the live disc and disc 2 the installation disc).
The install process started and ran quite easily with some easy questions to answer.
I could have created a partition using just the Linux install disc as the option is there but I hadn't realised this beforehand.
I chose to install to my Linux partition and it flew through the process ,detecting the hardware for itself.

Booting into Linux
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When I restarted I was presented with the GRUB menu of operating systems installed on my harddrive and chose Linux .
Linux started with a little box for me to put my user name and password into. In Linux operating systems you normally have 2 log ins. One as the administrator which is called

root and one using another name. This is so that you can have control over your computer and not install troublesome software incorrectly which would interfere with the

Operating system.
However, In Ubuntu 5.10, you are the Administrator by default and have only one login box. To install anything in the root folder, you must type Sudo before you do ,this gives you

time to think about wether you want to install to the root folder or just into your own user folders which is safer.
When you first log in you are on the desktop which is called gnome ,in Breezy Badger (5.10's nick name) it is brownish and has a menu along the top. The menu leads to choices

of already installed software including a browser , word processor and email programmes.
There is a program called Synaptic which lets you browse for and install free software and also the Gnome app installer which is similar.
With these two programmes you have a lot of control over what you install and can also upgrade your software using the 'search for updates' facility.

There is a little icon on screen to show your harddrives, it will not see the NTFS drives automatically though,only FAT and FAT32 ,floppy and Disc drives.
You should also see a disc icon which is your disc drive with the disc still in it. If you remove the disc, the icon disappears.

Asthetics
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I opted to add the KDE desktop quite early on as this gives a more windows like feel and looks nicer in my opinion.It looks a lot more like my husbands mac OSX too.
Adding KDE changes the look and feel a little and Ubuntu is known as KUBUNTU with the KDE facility running.
The inbuilt Browser works like windows explorer allowing you to browse your own harddrive and optical drives. You can also browse the web with it.
I prefer the Mozilla firefox browser (already included)as it is more familiar and the bookmark facility is easier to use.
Setting up the browsers and email is very easy providing you have your email passwords etc and your internet usernames. The whole setup should take seconds.
There was no problem with our internal network.

I added my trashcan to the desktop and icon shortcuts for a few programmes I use regularly and it was very comfortable to use.
You can add a picture for a background or change the colour of the screen just as you can in windows.
There is a multiple screen facility so that you can have 4 screens running at one time and just choose which one to look at by clicking on a little box in the userbar.
The menu can be moved around so that you can have it at the top of the screen if you prefer.
You can add the user bar to the bottom which can expand when you hover over it with your mouse exactly like the Mac .
It is easy to change the look of icons or the clock.
Each user can have a different desktop and login just as with windows. You cannot change another users homefolder or personal installations . Only root can do that unless root

has allowed other users permission to do so himself so it is very tamper proof.

Additions and niggles
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I discovered that although my monitor worked with Linux, some programmes were not displaying correctly and I needed to install the newest NVidia drivers( for my graphics card)

manually. This was easier than I expected as the NVidia site has Linux drivers and full instructions for installation. It went without a hitch.
There are different packages for installing software in Linux and the ones for Ubuntu are known as Debian packages they have .Deb after them.
Despite my best efforts,the Lexmark printer I have doesnt work well with Ubuntu ,neither does my old cannon scanner and the Zip drive needs a bit of messing about with using

the shell to make it recognised. The shell is a little text box you type commands into to make stuff work. You may need a guide book or a Linux website to help you learn what sort

of things to type in. It's sounds harder than it actually is to do.
There are tutorials for these problems on the web.
Likewise NTFS is not automatically recognised much to my suprise as it was in Redhat. I hunted for and found the instructions to make my NTFS drive readable under Linux.
You should not write to NTFS from within Ubuntu as it may overwrite files that are needed in windows.
That doesn't mean you can't but it is inadvisable.

Good things about Linux.
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You can download a firewall called guarddog which is very easy to set up but really it is very very secure even without a firewall.
I tried a port scanning site to test it with the newly installed firewall turned off ,it could not see my operating system and couldn't infiltrate a port uninvited .
My camera when plugged in,shows as a removable drive as does my telephone. You can see FAT32 and FAT drives or partitions automatically which is good because at times with

a dual boot machine, you want to look at something you have saved in your other operating system. You can set up a FAT or FAT32 partition for this purpose if you havent got

another drive.
There is a program called explore2fs which allows you to read the Linux drive from within windows.

There is no need to defragment as the way the OS works it does not store the files all over the show as Windows does, and so doesnt really get fragmented in the first place.

In conclusion
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Yes I could live without Windows! I could still surf the web , participate in Forums and review sites. Keep and manipulate my pictures and documents on my PC .
I would use this exclusively if it wasnt for the windows only software I run for my embroidery machine and games like the Sims which I really like.
I have toyed with Wine which is a windows emulator for running Windows software on Linux, so far my embroidery software is still not runnable but once the powers that be

manage to get a reliable emulation for running it , I will wave goodbye to windows for good.

The latest version of Ubuntu is 6.10 which I haven't tried. I will have to get around to it.