Lessfeet

I was discussing last night with someone about upgrading Ubuntu to a new version. I said I did not know much about it because I was alway trying new distros and I never keep a version long enough to upgrade. I also said I thought it was very simple. Just a few clicks and that it is done with little worry that it would break anything. I looked at the Ubuntu instructions for upgrading. It was just as I thought it is all done with no commandline or recompiling the kernel. I don’t know about it breaking stuff. I guess it’s like anything else. Some things could break.

You can setup a dual boot Windows-Ubuntu Linux system  no muss, no fuss. You hardly need any technical skills at all to this with WUBI (Windows Ubuntu Installer). There is a WUBI installer on all Ubuntu Disk but you have to have some skill to create the disk or boot to the disk but you can just download the WUBI directly. Once you have downloaded the executable file just double click on the file inside of Windows and follow the prompts. WUBI will prompt you to restart your computer and take out the disk then you’ll see the computer will ask you what operating system you want to boot. Choose Ubuntu and hit enter. Login and there you have it, Linux. No repartitioning required!  It’s very easy!

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is here and I’ve only been using it for a few days even though its been out since September. Sorry I’ve been busy with Windows 7. Ubuntu 9.10 is a fantastic operating system. There is everything you could want here. Easy install, nice looking and friendly user interface. It is very easy to install new software from the Ubuntu Software Center. It has a lot of the most popular open source software like Firefox, GIMP and Open Office pre-installed. After install and a brief update I enabled the wireless driver and put in the security key and it worked with no other configuration. This OS makes me wish this was not a Microsoft world.

I need a Linux that is lightweight. One that can run on old machines. I can install it and not spend a lot of time configuring. I think I have found it in Linux Mint. The one CD install loads most of the common applications like: Firefox, GIMP, Open Office, media players and CODECs. The wireless on my laptop worked right out of the box. This is very unusual for Linux. I am going to send a donation to these guys to keep this distro going.

You could buy a HP MediaSmart Server or any of the other Windows Home Server PCs or any of the other home-server products (one being Drobo). These work great but they cost $525 and up. I am going to turn a pc I already have in to one using Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu Server is free and I figure it might be a fun project. It will be harder to configure than an HP but it should be relatively painless. It is a good project and I really do need a home server.