Ubuntu - Alternate PC OS

[JamesB]

Gordon said in another post he has been using Ubuntu on his laptop for his Operating system.

I downloaded the version that allows you run it from a CD, and NOT install it on your system.

I am using this to test with and it looks pretty cool so far. it comes with firefox (which im using to write this post), an office program and an email program. so far in just tinkering with it for less than 15 minutes it looks pretty cool. Maybe even enough for me to load it on a secondary drive to try it out for a few months using a boot loader or something.

It does have GIMP for processing images, but I really dont like GIMP, I could use it if I had to, but prefer other programs.

check it out if you feel up to it...its free

http://www.ubuntu.com/

James

[brad]

Does GIMP have anything resembling PS Elements' functionality?

[Digital Prophet]

You know I have been mulling this very thing over. I was thinking of dual booting my laptop but since I have NO linux experience at all I was hesitating.

Let us know how it rolls.

Prophet out.

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by Digital Prophet

You know I have been mulling this very thing over. I was thinking of dual booting my laptop but since I have NO linux experience at all I was hesitating.

Let us know how it rolls.

Prophet out.

Do it. It's easy and doesn't effect your current boot OS.

Another thing that is kinda cool, You can download VMWare for free and they offer all kinds of OS flavors already built into a VM image..

[Digital Prophet]

Originally Posted by AndrewCCM

Do it. It's easy and doesn't effect your current boot OS.

Another thing that is kinda cool, You can download VMWare for free and they offer all kinds of OS flavors already built into a VM image..

Ok, that's it. I just became old.

I took one look at the VMWare thing and became confused and slightly frightened. Now I know how my mom feels when she trys to set her VCR.

Prophet out.

[rages4calm]

Originally Posted by brad

Does GIMP have anything resembling PS Elements' functionality?

Gimp is almost as powerful as photoshop is there is alot to it, my brother has been using linux for nearly 7 years and he uses gimp for all his photo editing and web work.

Also t here is a photoshop type version of gimp for both linux and pc out.

A guy thought it would be a cool idea to re-write the toolbars and framework for gimp to make it look more like photoshop it can be downloaded here http://gimpshopdotnet.blogspot.com/

Anyways ubuntu is a nice OS if you have no linux experience at all.

Gimp tutorials
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/..._manipulation/

[PeteQ]

So how come no complaining about the limited amount of software for this OS? Whenever the Mac v. PC debate comes up that's always in there somewhere and yet here is an OS with even less apps, drivers, etc. I'm not saying it's not a good OS and as I have never used it I would be talking out of hand if I said anything other than the obvious, but it's funny that a newcomer alternate PC OS gets a bunch of "try it" mentions while the proven Mac gets more or less the opposite response.

I think for some folks it's:
PC good....
Mac bad...
End of discussion.

I guess if you are a programmer or IT guru then all of these alternate OS's might be fun to play with and even use for specialty stuff, but I would bet their market share is pretty small and it would be quite a while before they move out of the cult status circles and offer truly mainstream apps. I use cult status because that's what us Mac folk market share people are commonly referred to as and if their groups are smaller I would say that fits them as well....

[rages4calm]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

So how come no complaining about the limited amount of software for this OS? Whenever the Mac v. PC debate comes up that's always in there somewhere and yet here is an OS with even less apps, drivers, etc. I'm not saying it's not a good OS and as I have never used it I would be talking out of hand if I said anything other than the obvious, but it's funny that a newcomer alternate PC OS gets a bunch of "try it" mentions while the proven Mac gets more or less the opposite response.

I think for some folks it's:
PC good....
Mac bad...
End of discussion.

I guess if you are a programmer or IT guru then all of these alternate OS's might be fun to play with and even use for specialty stuff, but I would bet their market share is pretty small and it would be quite a while before they move out of the cult status circles and offer truly mainstream apps. I use cult status because that's what us Mac folk market share people are commonly referred to as and if their groups are smaller I would say that fits them as well....

There isn't a limited amount of software for linux, all linux software is free for the most part in the first place and any type of software you can find on a pc, I guarantee you it can be found for linux as well, maybe not the same company but something similiar none the less and free on top of that. As far as drivers go even if the OS doesn't detect the driver doesn't mean that you can't compile your own, I have rarely ever had problems with any of my linux boxes detected drivers though or finding them on the company websites.

I am a tri user though I use a mac for most of my work, pc for gaming and linux for networking and whatnot at home, Its all about what your comfortable with and rather or not you have the time to learn it.

[dstarr]

If you dig a bit, you can find how-to's for building ubuntu on a usb drive. Search for "live usb"... pretty handy, carry the OS around with you in your pocket.. (I'm just barely a geek..... ) Plus, unlike the live CD, it has local storage also.....



Dave

[Digital Prophet]

... So so old.

Prophet out.

[JamesB]

Originally Posted by dstarr

If you dig a bit, you can find how-to's for building ubuntu on a usb drive. Search for "live usb"... pretty handy, carry the OS around with you in your pocket.. (I'm just barely a geek..... ) Plus, unlike the live CD, it has local storage also.....



Dave

like this

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/01...b-x-ubuntu-610

James

[PeteQ]

Originally Posted by rages4calm

There isn't a limited amount of software for linux, all linux software is free for the most part in the first place and any type of software you can find on a pc, I guarantee you it can be found for linux as well, maybe not the same company but something similiar none the less and free on top of that. As far as drivers go even if the OS doesn't detect the driver doesn't mean that you can't compile your own, I have rarely ever had problems with any of my linux boxes detected drivers though or finding them on the company websites.

I am a tri user though I use a mac for most of my work, pc for gaming and linux for networking and whatnot at home, Its all about what your comfortable with and rather or not you have the time to learn it.

See, this is a perfect example. How many of the worlds "users" are going to compile their own? C'mon, seriously, do you think the world is made up of only programmers? And about the "similar" issue. I agreee, and I can find something similar for a Mac v. PC debate as well. That's the point. I was using "similar" software back in 1988 on my Mac Plus while the PC folks were using Wordstar.

And to be honest I don't have the time, nor do I even want to learn how to program Linux or any other OS for that matter to do my networking when since 1988 all I have had to do was plug in a cable and as the Mac cult says "it just works". Connecting my firt two Macs, a Plus and an SE/30 took less than one minute. I plugged in the cable, turned on file and printer sharing and that was it. No IRQ's to fight with etc. Remember those days?

[cdobbs]

Ubuntu is great! I have run many different linux distros and this one is my favorite so far. I run Ubuntu solely on my not so new laptop and it runs perfectly. GIMP is a very formidable opponent to PS and for FREE you can't beat that.

My latest purchase has been a 4GB Sandisk Titanium thumb drive. It is U3 compliant which allows you to install portable apps to the drive and carry them around with you. They will run on any PC you plug-in to. Apps like GIMP, instant messengers, Open Office, and many more.

[JamesB]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

So how come no complaining about the limited amount of software for this OS?...

when it is free, what is there to complain about??? maybe I should have titled this thread as "a secondary OS"

it does come with a lot of programs you can use for spread sheets, word docs, presentations in which you can save into other formats like MS word and excel, comes with email , web browser photo editing software and lots of other stuff.

One thing I did like was the multiple desktops you can set up (like tabbed browsing). I loved this back when I was using Solaris 2.6 at work, email and windows programs on one desktop, web on another, alarm monitoring on another, and access to the network elements on several other desk tops.

granted there is a lot of software I have that I use frequently that is only available on Windows OS's, so this Ubuntu will NOT replace my need for a Windows system, just something else to play with

James

[rages4calm]

Originally Posted by JamesB

when it is free, what is there to complain about??? maybe I should have titled this thread as "a secondary OS"

it does come with a lot of programs you can use for spread sheets, word docs, presentations in which you can save into other formats like MS word and excel, comes with email , web browser photo editing software and lots of other stuff.

One thing I did like was the multiple desktops you can set up (like tabbed browsing). I loved this back when I was using Solaris 2.6 at work, email and windows programs on one desktop, web on another, alarm monitoring on another, and access to the network elements on several other desk tops.

granted there is a lot of software I have that I use frequently that is only available on Windows OS's, so this Ubuntu will NOT replace my need for a Windows system, just something else to play with

James

Agreed, Also this is one of my favorite things about linux.. you can download emulators for windows such as a linux program called Wine that allows you to run/install windows software :) i use debian at home and i have photoshop cs2 installed on it.

For those who like ubuntu here is some eyecandy for ya :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYsxa...elated&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOz8duTh-4