Goodbye Redmond, Hello Ubuntu !!!

Just heard a rumor that there is going to be a workshop on Ubuntu (The popular Linux distribution) sometime around Techtatva. I have had some experience working on Ubuntu. (My Ubuntu partition was, sadly, lost when I tried to triple boot XP-Ubuntu-FreeBSD. Still don’t know why I tried that..!!) I am currently trying to get Mac OS x to work on my x86 based PC (A “Hackintosh” as they call it! ). It isn’t completely legal to do so, but so far I have not been successful at it. Will let you know as soon as I am able to do it. ( I hope Apple doesn’t sue me )

Anyway, coming back to Ubuntu, I was impressed by the user-friendly nature of this Linux distribution. It was certainly better than what I had expected. Installation was a no-brainer and downloading the essential codecs and programs was just as simple.

The fun (or hassle, depends on how you look at it) lies in unlocking some of the more advanced functionalities such as File Sharing with a Windows computer, running Windows only applications and games (Counter-Strike and Warcraft 3 mainly), virtualization (running virtual XP or Vista machines on Ubuntu), etc..

Sometimes, even the most common tasks can get a bit frustrating. Your precious backup of all the Windows installables is totally useless and you will have to find open source alternatives for commonly used software. You will be amazed at how effective some of the open source alternatives are. OpenOffice.Org is an awesome replacement to Micro$oft Office. And I have already dumped Photoshop for GIMP (and also gotten some people to do the same !) . And it goes without saying that Firefox and Thunderbird have been popular substitutes for IE and Outlook .

All this work is not without reward. A fully setup Ubuntu desktop is truly a sight to behold. Thought Vista’s Aero effects were cool? Just check out the pimptastic shininess that is Beryl. Just search for “Ubuntu Beryl” on YouTube. Go ahead, i’ll wait. Still think Vista Aero is cool? And all these effects work on my Lenovo ThinkPad R60 with 512 MB RAM. The same machine can barely open a couple of applications on Vista before running out of memory. Searching for files and folders is a snap. ‘Nautilus’ is not too different from windows explorer. Looking for new software is great fun. I felt like a kid in a candy store going through all the applications in ‘Synaptic Package Manager’. The bonus is that all the application are free. You don’t have to worry about limited trials or those all important cracks and keygens. Oh, and did I mention that the threat of viruses and malware is almost non existent in Ubuntu? No more scanning for viruses and Trojans in pen drives before use.

And the future is bright for this OS. Dell is already shipping some of its laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed. And there is a poll on the Lenovo blog asking people what their favorite distribution is. Ubuntu, with more that 20000 votes, is clearly the frontrunner. Also, there are rumors of a Google OS based on Ubuntu. (Wonder if it will be called ‘GooBuntu’ )

Clearly, this is an exciting time to a part of the great Open Source Movement. So, go ahead and give this OS a try. Canonical (The commercial arm of Ubuntu) ships CD’s of Ubuntu for free. You can expect them in about 3 weeks from the time you place an order. But only Ubuntu 6.06 i.e the LTS (Long Term Support) version is shipped. I would suggest downloading 7.04 a.k.a “Fiesty Fawn” (sounds geek, eh! ) which is the latest version from the Ubuntu website. There is also an update coming up in about a month 7.10 a.k.a “Gutsy Gibbon”, I believe.

And if you run into any problems at any stage you can always post your queries on ubuntuforums.org. It is one of the most helpful and friendly forums I have ever come across.

And don’t forget to post your experiences or comments back here…

~Quote Of The Day~

~” A research has shown that there is no intelligent life on earth…I am only visiting it “~