Ubuntu - Good News - Very Little Effort Needed!
I am pretty certain a good number of you are here because of my rather risque post on my personal blog. Truth be told and being punnish, there is much truth to what I said. Here is the more to the story. It started as a little gag with some of my friends on IRC. I soon realized it was enough for a blog alone. That is how you and I ended up here. Myself scribing and you reading.
I do not tend to educate anyone on this topic. I am only hoping to learn and share what I learn. I think things are finally easy enough for me to give this OS a full time go and see if I can make it do what I want.
I used the term "easy" to describe my fears of non-commitment to this OS. I started out "PCin'" with a VIC20; a machine that seemed advanced because you could use a cassette or, at the time, a fairly expensive cartridge to load code. Making it do anything special involved BASIC, peeks, pokes and SYSing it... it was not pretty.
We did such things because there were no other options. If you wanted to make it do something that wasn't in a program that is what it took. Shortly after I upgraded to a C64, I met something called GEOS. I was convinced that, in the future, that would be the only way to go. Then came Windows. I was sold on GUI and wanted as much GUI and as little cli (Command Line Interface) as possible. Ubuntu seems like she may well fill that desire for me.
For years, I stuck with windows due to ease of use. I always kept my eye on linux and would build boxes just for it from time to time. I never felt secure enough to make the switch. I decided it was time to really think about Ubuntu. I began experimenting.
The first three boxes were either Feisty or Gutsy Ubuntu. I was still afraid but I set them up and played with them. I experimented with them, all GUI only, and liked them. I felt secure enough to venture on to studio.
Ubuntu Studio is best described as a customized package for audio/video work. I had to try it. I first heard about it when I was still trying out Feisty and didn't have a DVD burner. (Ubuntu Studio is a DVD boot.)
By the time I got things worked out hardware wise, Studio had progressed to Gutsy. I like the hybrid sister. I still have to do some work with her if I want her to do "exactly" what I want her to do. However, she is definitely performing well enough and being easy enough for me to honestly be excited about this set-up I have. To get to exactly what I want is going to take some work though.
What do I want?
The 100% honest answer is that I, am after playing with this OS for a bit, not 100% sure anymore. I wanted dual monitors. My experience with Windows may well have tainted what to expect. With workspaces and such, I use this machine differently than my windows boxes. I don't know exactly what I can get it to do. I feel I know enough to realize that this OS will definitely work for me.
Furthermore, I built this box for the audio editing and musical midi stuff. I have been removed from that aspects of PCs for so long that I need to reaquaint myself with it before I even dare decide what I want to attempt.
I have already succeeded at setting up dual monitors. It took only a little effort, not much,; digging for some not too hard to find information, less than 5 command line entries, a few reboots, some cries for help in ubuntu at wyldryde but, in the end, less work than earlier versions.
No, she is not perfect and I still have some work to do. Ubuntu is now to the point where she is the OS of choice on my newest and fastest machine. I did not even opt to make it a dual boot machine. Folks, for a basic home computer... I think, in my humble opinion, she has a arrived.
I am not going to talk much about the basic desktop version of Ubuntu here. I am giving or have given those boxes away. I do not have anything bad to say about them though. If you have over 256 Meg of RAM, you can do a completely GUI install on it. Even if you don't, the text install is simple enough for anyone who can read to install it pretty easily. I am on studio because I liked the basic distro enough to make this leap. I would encourage you all to try it and let me know what you think.
I am going to continue to blog a bit about making this particular version submit. I am telling you folks, this Linux distro is the best I have seen yet. (I have a shoe box full of old Linux CDs.) I am giving serious thought to switching completely over to it as an OS.
Thanks for reading, leave a comment and check back for some more of what I am learning. If you have a radeon 9800 be sure and check back for I plan to share just how I got dual monies. Leave me feedback and suggestions as well. I want to see just what I can and can not make this OS do. Personally, I am prety excited about it.
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