Ubuntu (9.10 netbook remix)

[thelordharry]

Got me a new netbook last week that shipped with Windows 7 crippled, I mean starter and I was so annoyed at how sluggish it was (even with 2GB of memory) and how many features have been removed that I thought it was time to try another OS. There's no way I'm going to line Micro$oft's pockets for the 'anytime upgrade' and to quote a very true post I read somewhere "Windows 7 Starter is like Microsoft stealing the wheels off your car and then trying to sell them back to you". Anyway, I've loaded the Ubuntu 9.10 netbook remix on there as a dual boot and so far, I'm getting on very well with it. It seems a lot zippier than 7 (naturally, being much thinner) and frankly, as it's on a netbook that I only use for email/web/productivity, what else do I need? I'm going to trial it for a while and see how I get on but I can seriously see me favouring it over Windows on a day to day basis.

Anyone here use Ubuntu, of any flavour? How do you get on with it? What have you found to be the pros and cons? Any tips for a Linux newbie? Thanks.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Anyone here use Ubuntu, of any flavour? How do you get on with it? What have you found to be the pros and cons? Any tips for a Linux newbie? Thanks.

Hi, I'm CPH!

I generally get along well with it; the biggest difficulty is just getting used to the different ways of doing things. I've been using various Ubuntus for over a year.

It seems you have some awareness already of the fragmented and modular nature of the Linux world. I've only briefly seen the Netbook remix, having never owned a netbook myself. The Linux kernel is the Linux kernel wherever you go but its the functionality apparent to the user and the programs that make the OS to the end user. The standard netbook remix seems to be based off a lightened and restructured Gnome desktop; though a KDE-based version is in the works the Gnome version may be more stable because Gnome is generally a bit more stable than KDE right now (they've matured Gnome 2.x for about 7 years now while the KDE team has recently uprooted everything to produce their version 4.x).

Relative to other distributions of Linux, Ubuntu is regarded as user-friendly and well-supported, with good reason. Though Canonical tries to monetize Ubuntu by selling support packages, most support is available free through Google -- ubuntuforums.org, etc. Also, Ubuntu has the benefit of a huge collection of free software available in its repositories made available to the user through one of the various package management apps. There are over 25,000 packages there of various sorts, all available to the netbook remix user as well as the "full" version.

A small bit of history may become relevant here: Ubuntu originated as a fork of Debian. Now there are several similarities and differences between parent and child distro here: where Debian is rather conservative and focused on stability, Ubuntu is one of the more adventurous Linuxes in incorporating the newest packages (though you still have to award it fairly high grades for maintaining stability despite this), also where Debian has never had a regular release schedule, Ubuntu has a new version every six months (x.04 release in April, x.10 release in October where x is the year). Most Ubuntu releases are supported by updates for 18 months, though "LTS" or Long Term Support releases are supported 3 years (on the desktop versions). The upcoming 10.04 release will be an LTS.

There is generally compatibility between Debian and Ubuntu packages as you'd expect; packages are made in the .deb format. Such packages can be found even outside of repositories as downloadable .deb's -- for instance Google Chrome is downloadable as a .deb among the other formats available at the download site. In this case you click on the downloaded .deb file to launch the installer (where installation means 1) unpacking, 2) copying binaries to their proper location, then 3) clean-up/editing the program menu to include the new program. the actual executable binary needs no other "installation," in the windows-registry sense as it's just click-and-run).

Ubuntu is generally one of the better Linuxes when it comes to driver support, so it should pick up most common devices out of the box. However, as to playing media the -stock version of Ubuntu lacks codecs for mp3 files and such, due to legal issues rather than technical. Go to a package manager and install the package "ubuntu-restricted-extras," which will pull in many of these needed codecs. Though a netbook lacks an optical drive, it's similarly true that Ubuntu lacks support out-of-the-box for commercial DVD playback for the same (legal) reasons; the package "libdvdcss2" will cure this, though it's found in a third-party repository (specifically "Medibuntu" @ www.medibuntu.org).

Your default browser should be Firefox, though Chrome is available as I mentioned above.

As to Win 7, I've never seen how well it handles a netbook, though I'm somewhat surprised to hear such a negative review since it seems to fare quite nicely on full-sized computers, even with as little as 1 GB of RAM (though I haven't used such a machine for an extended period; I'm only relating what I've seen at the computer shop where I work).

[Reliant121]

With windows 7, i believe the starter package misses out on some of the power management systems that the main versions have which manage to use the hardware a lot better.

I cant talk from experience, all the computers we have are fully kitted for RAM. Apart from the little netbook, that was 3gb RAM. its a little slow to start, but runs fine once its online and active.

[Laughing Man]

I've been using ubuntu 9.04 (ultimate gamers edition 2.3) for about 6 months, so far i love it.

First month or so was spent trying to find functions i needed and see what other extras were included.

I'm still wary of doing anything from command console, mainly because i dont understand the language.

I find if there is something you need, theres someone else who needed it first and has found a solution.

[thelordharry]

Thanks for the input guys, especially CPH....you learn something new every day

[kostmayer]

I'm trying Jobicloud out on my netbook. Seems to be a bit speedier then Ubuntu, but I'll see how it goes.

Have just put Ubuntu on my main laptop for no apparent reason, as Vista was working fine.

[thelordharry]

I'm trying Jobicloud out on my netbook. Seems to be a bit speedier then Ubuntu, but I'll see how it goes.

Have just put Ubuntu on my main laptop for no apparent reason, as Vista was working fine.

Resident Vista = very good reason to put, well, anything else on it

I'd be interested to hear how Jobicloud works out for you. Is the experience much different to Ubuntu?

[thelordharry]

Ah, Jolicloud even Looks good. Might even give it a try on my other netbook for an XP dual boot.

[kostmayer]

Jolicloud it is

Seems to be running a bit faster then Ubuntu, though I only really use it for browsing/chatting whilst not at my desk. Its written for cloud computing, web apps like Gmail and Wikipedia are installed and run the same as local apps like Skype. Still haven't found out if I can rebuild my netbook with it, log in to my Jolicloud account and have it restore itself to the same state.

Vista always worked fine for me, but I like a change now and then. I'm just waiting for them to finish porting Android over for my HTC phone - I can already run it over the top of Windows Mobile.

[thelordharry]

Jolicloud it is

Seems to be running a bit faster then Ubuntu, though I only really use it for browsing/chatting whilst not at my desk. Its written for cloud computing, web apps like Gmail and Wikipedia are installed and run the same as local apps like Skype. Still haven't found out if I can rebuild my netbook with it, log in to my Jolicloud account and have it restore itself to the same state.

Vista always worked fine for me, but I like a change now and then. I'm just waiting for them to finish porting Android over for my HTC phone - I can already run it over the top of Windows Mobile.

Snap. I got a HTC TyTn2 with WinSlow6. Didn't know that Android had been ported that way yet so might have to look into it myself! Any tips for URLs etc?

[kostmayer]

Snap. I got a HTC TyTn2 with WinSlow6. Didn't know that Android had been ported that way yet so might have to look into it myself! Any tips for URLs etc?

XDA Developers.

Not sure where the Android port for HTC TytnII is upto, I've got a Touch Pro2 (Rhodium). I quite like Windows Mobile, but Android looks very nice. And if you're not worried about having all your info on Googles servers (big if I know), it'll sync all your PIM data in real time when its altered on your phone or PC. No need for an Exchange server, or plugging your phone in to your PC to sync it. Being able to sync my phone is one of the main things keeping me using Windows.

[thelordharry]

Thanks for the link. I've used the site quite a lot over the years, having used all versions from Pocket PC 2003 upwards. Looks like a lot of work has gone into porting it but from reading a few threads, it's not perfect yet it seems. I'm not sure I'm willing to make the jump if things like the camera/bluetooth, stuff like that aren't guaranteed to work. Also, I rely upon apps like TomTom etc and would essentially have to build the device from the ground up, again. Maybe when I eventually replace the Tytn2 and it just sits there doing nothing, I'll give it a try