Travel Technology - Ubuntu users: a quick show of hands

Is anyone else here a Ubuntu user?

I was recently turned onto it. I installed it as a dual boot on my windows machine. I was surprised how much BETTER my computer runs in Ubuntu. I also love all of the high quality free software that comes with it. There's so many great applications that are simply free! You'd pay HUNDREDS of dollars for apps of this quality on windows. I have my desktop configured with the compiz cube, totally cool. Open source is definitely where it's at.. I'll still use my windows install for some stuff, mainly games, but I'm finding myself booting into ubuntu most of the time now..

If anyone wants to try it out simply use http://wubi-installer.org/. Just download the small file and run it on windows. It'll walk you through the process. It'll create a partition on your hard drive and install the Ubuntu operating system. After that, from now on every time to boot your computer up it'll ask you if you want to load Windows or Ubuntu. It's cool, you can keep everything as is, but now have the option of booting into Ubuntu as well.

There are lots of free apps for Windows, too. ;)

I used to use Ubuntu on my personal laptop, but the two things that brought me back to windows were iTunes and Blackberry syncing.

There are lots of free apps for Windows, too. ;)


Yeah,... and a good portion of them are terrible and come loaded with spyware. There's none of that nonsense with ubuntu, and most all of the apps are high quality. It's not really the same at all..

For example, Ubuntu comes packaged with a DVD burning/ripping/ISO suite thats as good or better than Alcohol 120 (Alcohol 120 costs $50)..

Yeah,... and a good portion of them are terrible and come loaded with spyware. There's none of that nonsense with ubuntu, and most all of the apps are high quality. It's not really the same at all..

For example, Ubuntu comes packaged with a DVD burning/ripping/ISO suite thats as good or better than Alcohol 120 (Alcohol 120 costs $50)..

There are plenty of high quality free apps that are not malware laden. And there are plenty of freeware/open source apps that suck. It is not cut-and-dry one way or the other.

There are plenty of high quality free apps that are not malware laden. And there are plenty of freeware/open source apps that suck. It is not cut-and-dry one way or the other.

No, it's not cut and dry, that's why I still use Windows for some things. But what I'm saying is that I think Linux's open source library is a lot more "lean" so to speak. And those few REAL GOOD applications "just work" (like the mac crowd likes to say). No errors, or compatibility problems. It's sort of just like "plug and play".

There's something to be said about a more streamlined OS maintained by an open source community with open source software, in contrast with commercial stuff. It doesn't matter how much you pay your in house programmers, or how many of them you have working day and night. They can never hold a candle to the collective open source community, who consist of millions of talented programmers who just constantly figure out ways to perfect a source code. It's only a matter of time before the open source stuff becomes the mainstream and put companies like Adobe and MS out of a job.

Open source is where it's at, and if you want the good open source stuff, you need to be on the open source community's OS of choice. Linux.

Don't take my word for it,.. Do the wubi install on a small partition just to try it out. I think a lot of people will be surprised.

Don't take my word for it,.. Do the wubi install on a small partition just to try it out. I think a lot of people will be surprised.

Your assumption that my responses are based on a lack of experience with the platform are misguided.

Your assumption that my responses are based on a lack of experience with the platform are misguided.

Well technically an assumption wouldn't be "misguided", it would simply be "incorrect". If you want to try and bust out some refined English, make sure you know what you're saying. ;)

I'm using it now. It's vastly improved, but still has a ways to go to be as good as Windows. It's really close though. I still get annoying freeze ups and sites that won't work, but fewer than before. I'm really liking it so far.

Well technically an assumption wouldn't be "misguided", it would simply be "incorrect". If you want to try and bust out some refined English, make sure you know what you're saying. ;)

Actually it can be both. And in your case it certainly is. But let's keep the thread focued on the discussion of ubuntu and how wonderful it is. ;)

FWIW, I use Windows. I hardly ever have to pay for any of the softwares that are currently loaded in my laptop. I manage to find good freebie programs that I need. They don't come with spywares/malwares either.

I don't know how mainstream Linus or open source softwares will become. All I know is Windows are not going away for a long time.

I don't know how mainstream Linus or open source softwares will become. All I know is Windows are not going away for a long time.

Next year will be the biggest year ever for Linux!

Or so we hear every year...

Linux, and its many offspring will always have a decent following, but at the end of the day it simply will never become as popular as Windows or MacOS.

It isn't for a lack of attempts. Even large companies like HP, Dell and Acer have tried to force it into the market, but it just never takes off. Example; Netbook machines. All of them initially came with some form of Linux, but now the majority are all being sold with XP and only a few (the cheapest) still have a non Windows option.

I still mostly use Windows, though I do run some stuff in virtualized Linux.

Tell us about some of your favorite free high quality programs, though!

I've been a full-time Debian user since, what, '01? and Ubuntu user for the last few years.

Sometimes I can get a bit grumpy, but then I get pulled into helping relatives with their MS Windows issues and I stop complaining ;-)

I tried different versions of Red Hat and Debian in the past, but like Ubuntu the best. I currently have a machine running it in my house, acting as a server for my Windows PCs. It is an old Athlon, which would struggle to use XP. Vista would be out of the question. It runs Ubuntu just fine.

It is not ready for the masses yet, but Linux keeps improving every year, and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

Some of my favorite apps, which I also run in Windows on my work Notebook PC, are the The GIMP and Blender. I also host a copy of SugarCRM for my wife to use in her job.

I've run Ubuntu on underpowered machines that could never run XP or Vista (with or without malware.)

I run Ubuntu 7.04 (aka "Feisty Fawn") on my Koolu box, I'm very happy with it. When house guests come over and use the machine, they just click on the Firefox icon and surf their hearts out.

Switched from Fedora to Ubuntu a few years ago and never looked back! It runs both my Web site and interactive sessions fantastically even on the 5-year old hardware I threw at it.

I have run various flavors of Linux over the years, Ubuntu is still my favourite. SimplyMEPIS is quite good, it handles drivers particularly well, i didnt have to do anything special to get my preferred TwinView set-up going, which usually sees me fiddling for a while with xorg.conf with Ubuntu.

Its not really mainstream yet, and I like it that way, though my mother can use Ubuntu for basic web surfing and word processing without any issue once the machine is set up.

I was a dyed-in-the-wool WIndows user, dabbling with Linux. Well, I just spent the weekend setting up Ubuntu on almost every single PC, to either dual-boot w/ Windows, or as the primary OS and run Windows in Virtual Box.

I just am so sick of the vulnerabilities in Windows. I had a guest user hose up one of the machines. The guest user should have no admin rights, no ability to install anything, but Windows is full of holes.

A malware got installed by a malicious ad, and the guest account managed to get the entire PC infected, through the All_users profile. Even though the c:\program files & c:\windows folders were not affected, and the primary parts of the Windows registry were protected, the virus still managed to infect the All_user registry to keep calling up itself anytime Windows was started.

After spending 6 hours cleaning up that damn mess, I said no freaking more, no way no how.

Switched everything / every one to Linux, and run Windows inside Virtual Box only if necessary.

Ubuntu is amazing. PS - there is another zero day Adobe vulnerability discovered on 10/9, that still has not been patched. Windows users be very very careful. As a Linux user I can continue on worry-free about viruses.

I love Ubuntu. This thing rocks!!

Ubuntu is amazing. PS - there is another zero day Adobe vulnerability discovered on 10/9, that still has not been patched. Windows users be very very careful. As a Linux user I can continue on worry-free about viruses.

I love Ubuntu. This thing rocks!!

I have a couple ubuntu and a mac mini with kubuntu(take that apple!)

Abode has been a thorn in my side this year, between all their hole they are causing about 95% of my client and other end user problems. Very bad holes in their entire range of apps, from flash and shockwave to reader and the full products suites.

I've been running Windows 7 on my laptop for the last several months, but I was very close to replacing it with Ubuntu tonight. Instead, I baked a pie. :)

I use Ubuntu on my home media server. The last time I used Ubuntu on my laptop, I switched back to Windows because of the lack of Virtualbox's USB support. I wanted to be able to sync my Blackberry and iPod.

I have a couple ubuntu and a mac mini with kubuntu(take that apple!)

Abode has been a thorn in my side this year, between all their hole they are causing about 95% of my client and other end user problems. Very bad holes in their entire range of apps, from flash and shockwave to reader and the full products suites.

Yea I have a hard time trying to decide who is worse, Adobe or MS. I try to avoid using Adobe software if I can help it now. Non-Adobe software is the way to go if possible, since Adobe software is bloated and full of holes. I especially hate flash, since it can be used as a backdoor, and also has its own cookies that most people don't know about. :mad::mad:

I've been running Windows 7 on my laptop for the last several months, but I was very close to replacing it with Ubuntu tonight. Instead, I baked a pie. :)

I use Ubuntu on my home media server. The last time I used Ubuntu on my laptop, I switched back to Windows because of the lack of Virtualbox's USB support. I wanted to be able to sync my Blackberry and iPod.

Just dual-boot, and run Windows only when you have to. :p

Yea I have a hard time trying to decide who is worse, Adobe or MS. I try to avoid using Adobe software if I can help it now. Non-Adobe software is the way to go if possible, since Adobe software is bloated and full of holes. I especially hate flash, since it can be used as a backdoor, and also has its own cookies that most people don't know about. :mad::mad:

Hmm, I guess you can give up flash if you no longer want to visit Youtube or the N other sites that use flash on the internet. You could browse the net in lynx, I'm sure its quite secure ;)

If you think that most open source software is coded secure by design, I would highly doubt it. Some of the worst security vulnerabilities come from kiddies hacking up code they know nothing about, ie. if you look at all the exploitable Joomla modules.

In Windows 7/Vista Microsoft is going the right direction in restricting users by default and making them authenticate to go into admin mode. However most users don't understand anything about it, and if someone was surfing for porn on ubuntu and they were asked to for the root pass to play a "video" they would probably just type it in and the whole machine will become infected anyways. Cleaning up rootkits on linux is not easier than windows.

Just dual-boot, and run Windows only when you have to. :p

Yeah, I may just do that. It's an old laptop with a smallish hard drive, though (80 gigs I think).

I've started to use Ubuntu on the laptop. It works for most things but not all, so I'm still spending a lot of time in Windows.

Having been a Windows user since 1991 I find that Ubuntu takes some getting used to, and I still feel more comfortable in Window (XP).... but having had the various Windows security flaws explained to me I try to stick to Ubuntu when I'm using Internet-based applications "out in the wild"

UBU 9 on thinkpad tablet, works great.

Do you ever use the live CD, or do you just dual boot?

I've started to use Ubuntu on the laptop. It works for most things but not all, so I'm still spending a lot of time in Windows.

Having been a Windows user since 1991 I find that Ubuntu takes some getting used to, and I still feel more comfortable in Window (XP).... but having had the various Windows security flaws explained to me I try to stick to Ubuntu when I'm using Internet-based applications "out in the wild"
you may want to try 'kubuntu' instead, more windows like apeal.

I used the live CD, worked well, but I did have to make changes to the load to compensate for some multi-touch thing. In the end, I just did a dual boot to a second partition (the typical load is TINY) and then share items across the two partitions.

ubuntu and a xp vm for things i cant easily do in linux... dual boot is a pita.

Ran ubuntu off a CD for a while in 2007 when my harddrive failed in my laptop :(

Got me by... barely... installing it would make the experience better I'm sure... but was happy to finally buy a new harddrive and install windows again ^^^

I've used Ubuntu since 2006, I made the switch after realizing I would never upgrade to Vista. There are definitely challenges in the beginning, especially the idea of "package management" is foreign to a long term windows user. After you learn the beauty of being able to type sudo apt-get install 'yourprogram' , though, you will never go back to having to search for a program on the internet to install on your computer. I actually have XP on my ancient laptop for things that don't play nice with Linux (my gps for instance), but after three years of running Linux I get hopeless fustrated with the hardwired limitations of windows and turn the laptop off as soon as I am finished.

I'm thinking about installing it as a dual boot with Vista. I've been playing with it a bit, and also messed around with OpenSuse on an ancient Win98 machine to make a file/print server. Ubuntu live just saved the important stuff off a virus trashed hard drive for me.

I've used Ubuntu since 2006, I made the switch after realizing I would never upgrade to Vista. There are definitely challenges in the beginning, especially the idea of "package management" is foreign to a long term windows user. After you learn the beauty of being able to type sudo apt-get install 'yourprogram' , though, you will never go back to having to search for a program on the internet to install on your computer. I actually have XP on my ancient laptop for things that don't play nice with Linux (my gps for instance), but after three years of running Linux I get hopeless fustrated with the hardwired limitations of windows and turn the laptop off as soon as I am finished.

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose

Now get rid of your ancient laptop. :)

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose

Now get rid of your ancient laptop. :)

:) I actually have VMWARE server running on my ubuntu box too. I just keep the laptop around because my GPS program and ESPN360 both struggle under virtualization.