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August 19, 2007
Electing Ubuntu Linux
Bleeding Edge has been in election mode over the past few weeks. We know it’s time for a change, but even if the leader of our government is a touch over the hill, possibly economical with the truth, addicted to high taxes and policies that contribute to inflation, you can’t give him the push without just a touch of sentimentality.
He’s been leading us, let’s face it, for around three decades – far longer than John Howard has been in power in Australia. And if we do say goodbye to Bill Gates and that long succession of Microsoft operating systems – an institution we’ve come to know as Billdom - will the incoming government, which calls itself Open Source, be up to the job?
We’ve been diligent about our election responsibilities, having spent the past month or so examining the Linux platform and campaign promises and comparing them with Billdom. We know that it’s going to lead us into
slightly unfamiliar territory, but after several weeks using the Ubuntu Linux distribution which we wrote about in June, we think there’s remarkably little difference between either desktop environment.
The more serious issue, in our opinion, is that there’s a price the Microsoft users pays for the familiarity, beyond the not inconsiderable economic cost. Billdom makes its citizens far too reliant on the prevailing regime, and discourages independence. Users are locked in to constant costly upgrades, as Microsoft changes its formats and retires
its software.
Under Linux, we won’t have to pay thousands of dollars for Windows and programs like Microsoft Office, because the operating system and thousands of programs which use it, are open source, which means that for the average home or small business user they’re free. More importantly, the user community contributes to their development, and shares public ownership of the software code.
While it’s true that there’s no real open source replacement for some programs, like Adobe PhotoShop, for instance (although Gimp does have many followers), our trial of Linux suggests we’ll be perfectly capable of completing most of our everyday tasks without having to pay for proprietary solutions.
Things will be more secure under the new regime, and we’re going to have a lot of fun playing with all that new, free software. And for those Windows programs that we can’t replace ... well, we’re going to allow Bill to continue to run a small corner of our IT commonwealth, which we call Tasmania.
The rest of the place is going to be under the government of a Linux distribution called Ubuntu. We have been flirting with it since 2005, but until now, we didn’t view it as a viable alternative for the average punter.
The latest release, version 7.0.4, codenamed “Feisty Fawn”, has overcome our reservations. In our opinion, the average Windows user won't find it too much of a stretch to adjust to. The advantages, including the financial savings, are a powerful incentive to trying it out, and it’s possible to do so without disturbing your Windows installation.
We do have one suggestion. If you want to make the experience as painless as possible, buy a copy of a book called Ubuntu for Non-Geeks 2nd Edition, by Rickford Grant (No Starch Press, $64.99), which is available from larger book stores. It includes a copy of the software, walks the user through some of the more complex processes, and shows him how to adjust to the different ways Linux tackles common operations. We found it invaluable.
The first thing we liked about the Ubuntu CD was the fact that it contains two versions – the full, installable operating system, and a “LiveCD” version that allows the user to boot up in Linux, while keeping his existing operating system intact.
The live version doesn't have quite the same speed or facilities as a full install, but you can use it to test whether you're going to have problems running some of your hardware under Ubuntu. We found it helpful to have a couple of trial runs before we committed.
The installable version will re-partition your hardware to allow you to dual boot between Windows and Ubuntu if you want to take that route, but we opted for a complete re-format and partition.
We installed it on a four-year-old PC with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1GB of RAM, a Gigabyte motherboard, and Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card. It was not a typical system. There were two DVD drives for instance, and two sound cards, one on the motherboard, and other an Audigy 2 Platinum card. The installation took it all in its stride.
We began the installation process at 4.59pm on a Friday, after spending an hour making sure all our backups were intact. By 5.24pm, newly partitioned and with its new operating system, it had become a much more powerful PC than it had been under Windows XP, and a good deal more stable and powerful that it would have been running Vista.
We thought that we'd be using it only as a test bed, but over the past couple of weeks we've gravitated to it for most of our activities. Unlike the three-month-old Windows XP PC that was our principal computer, it’s been completely stable.
The Windows PC lost touch with the USB printer, then Microsoft Office began crashing, without recovering some of our work.
Ubuntu made it easy to switch, because the installation automatically drops a lot of free programs on to your hard drive, including powerful applications like Open Office. With an installation package called Synaptic, it also makes the process of adding more of them vastly easier than is the case with Windows. Synaptic looks after all the dependencies that a Windows installation overlooks, insulating users from potentially show-stopping surprises. Even more impressive is the fact that most of those programs are updated automatically, along with the operating
system, much more frequently than Microsoft's more limited releases.
You can also install a program called Automatix, that gives users a powerful graphic interface for selecting, downloading and installing other packages, and automatically overcoming the licensing and copyright
concerns that make audio and DVD decrypting and playback such a minefield. It even allows you to write to Windows NTFS partitions on your hard drive.
We found we preferred Ubuntu’s Nautilus file and network browser to Windows Explorer, and we didn’t have any problems mounting peripherals like USB and Firewire drives.
There were some hiccups. The Common Unix Printing System maintained by Apple Inc has simplified the previously complex world of Linux printing, but we knew that we might have some difficulties with our Canon printer, because Canon seems to have a corporate allergy to Linux. As it happened, we hadn't been able to track down a Vista driver for our Canon laser printer either, so we opted instead to spend $129 on a Hewlett Packard LaserJet 1020, which uses the ZJStream protocol developed by Zenographics.
There's a Linux driver for that , and after reading the warning there against using the driver that ships with Ubuntu, we had to resort to the terminal window to install it. That was one of the rare occasions on which we've had to abandon the Gnome graphical user interface that is the Ubuntu equivalent of the Windows desktop, for the command line.
Most Windows users probably find the thought daunting, but – like an increasing number of Macintosh users who also have access to a Unix terminal window - we have found ourselves using it increasingly, simply because you can do some very useful things with a command line. We’ve even found the rare occasion on which we had to compile a program to run under Ubuntu easy, because of the detailed help that’s available on the Web, in addition, of course, to our copy of Ubuntu for Non-Geeks. If only we could buy a book like that to help us choose between the
operating systems that want to run things in Canberra.
Posted by cw at August 19, 2007 04:12 PM
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Comments
Ah Charles, I was just thinking of you. I had missed the Green Guide this week but did hear you wrote about Ubuntu. The two blog posts from us, one on Ubuntu and the other on Vista provide some balanced reporting, so to speak. Kindest regards, Ananda
Posted by: Ananda Sim at August 19, 2007 04:43 PM
Thanks for your very readable and instructive piece, cw. We’re in the process of organising a dual boot system (XP & Ubuntu) – fingers crossed! :)
Posted by: Extulit at August 19, 2007 05:47 PM
Couldn't agree more. I had to buy 2 new PC's for my kids last week. I have been a loyal MS customer up to now. Oddly, I don't find the cost of MS software too bad, it's the other costs that you mention: the instability, incompatibility, incomprehensibility that really gets me.
So after thinking long and hard, I decided on Ubuntu, hoping the kids wouldn't mind too much. Installed without a hiccup and connected to HP Laserjet over the ethernet network. Kids thought the OS was 'cool'.
I have much less Admin overhead, I've saved myself $$$ and there was NO WAY I was going to Vista.
I could be wrong, but MS may be peaking as we speak.
Posted by: Ozviewer at August 19, 2007 06:24 PM
For great printer drivers (although they cost) google "Turboprint" and "linux".
Worth it.
Posted by: Cameron at August 19, 2007 09:10 PM
Is "Ubuntu for Non-Geeks" available from a bookshop somewhere in Melbourne?
Posted by: Anthony at August 19, 2007 09:26 PM
There is always dual boot for those who can't let go.
Personally I think dual booting is like donning a pair of wings and adding an anchor, I will let you guess which is which.
(He He see the confused user flap around in circles)
Posted by: Luke at August 20, 2007 09:03 AM
Hooraah to BleedingEdge for abandoning Winblowz... I also dabbled in the Linux world trialing Ubuntu server edition and recently the desktop version Ubuntu 7.04 and I haven't looked back since.
If you're ready to dive in head first but haven't found suitable replacements in Ubuntu to your favourite Windows application be sure to check out winehq .... Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs in a Linux distro. Although winehq is included in Ubuntu as a package it is advisable to download and compile the latest release as it is updated frequently and the Ubuntu version will be well out of date.
There is an extensive database of applications and their success / failure when installed and run under winehq.
ps/ Check out my site run entirely by Ubuntu and open source application.
Posted by: C@sPEr at August 20, 2007 11:36 AM
I moved over to Ubuntu about a year ago on my mums old laptop. It is alwas faster and more responsive than XP on my sisters vastly superior XP machine.
For a laugh I raced the two machines to see which could find the screening times for Spiderman 2. Ubuntu won, though XP got to the "welcome" screen first, it was only for show, it took forever for the desktop to become responsive and load up IE.
I await the day when I can install Ubuntu on my sisters machine, it has a decent graphics card which is linux compatible, so I will be able to run compiz-fusion/beryl on it. I even managed to get Beryl working at full speed from the live CD (do that Vista).
Posted by: Devon Buchanan at August 20, 2007 08:40 PM
I have dual booted my home PC and an old laptop of mine with Ubuntu and Xubuntu respectively. It has been a great success. I'v really only had two issues of any note. Having to use ndiswrapper to get my wireless card working (laptop worked straight away)and my workplace uses Word. I have had real trouble going from Openoffice to word and back. Table layout get all twisted in my docs! I am still a linux newb but I love it. Glad you guys are enjoying it too.
Posted by: flotoonie at August 20, 2007 10:56 PM
Oddly enough, I read your article whilst typing this up on a home computer that I rebuilt with my small kids after watching a small video clip about Ubuntu by Nenson Mandella.
I concur that it was very easy to install and use. We had fun downloading the free 3D games and later watching the software upgrade itself. Very nice :-)
In an increasingly disposable world, I find the notion of "No hardware left behind" appealing and very sustainable.
Posted by: Roland at August 21, 2007 12:55 AM
Thanks for the nice article. The biggest stumble here was the recommendation for Automatix. Not that there aren't occasionally appropriate uses for it, but when it undermines the good qualities that you just praised synaptic for you really should think again before giving Automatix an unqualified recommendation.
-james.
Posted by: James Stansell at August 21, 2007 04:49 AM
Yes, Hurrah indeed! I'm a fan of Bleeding Edge, and have been excited to see you agitate for a Linux revolution over the last several months. Good to hear the Feisty install went smoothly.
As you point out, it is a disgrace that so many government and non-profit orgs still pay through the nose for Windows when distros like Ubuntu have come so far. This is one of my major bugbears.
Personally, I made the change after sniffing the Vista/Longhorn breeze several years back and not liking the odour. I don't have a tech background, so the first few months were an uphill battle, largely of my own making due to my need to dabble with eye candy.
Unfortunately I still have to dual boot with Windows so that I can play games. Hopefully not for too much longer though!
Anyway, keep up the good work and continue to promote uptake of open source software as much as you can!
Posted by: adam at August 21, 2007 12:00 PM
terrific to have your g-g comments here...i hope it continues...as with anthony i would like to hear when & where the ubuntu book is available...i know sweet fa about it but would like to know more.
it is great to have you blogging again...the blog is so bland without you...we even had a blog entry about there being no blog entries... what the...
Posted by: zeke at August 21, 2007 12:35 PM
Nice article regarding Ubuntu. Might say that there is not not only Ubuntu, but also other Linux distros and Mandriva is another one that comes to mind as also being a good easy to setup and use distro for first time users.
As far as dual booting, it is not an ideal situation. Much better to use a program like VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org) - available for free for personal use. It allows Windows to be run inside Linux, (or vice-versa) and is easy to setup and install. I have been using last few weeks and am very happy.
Posted by: Daniel at August 21, 2007 04:38 PM
Hope the next 'workhorse PC' is completely Linux compatible. I'm taking the plunge, getting one built and putting Ubuntu on it. Can't wait, am so sick of my lifeless XP box.
Posted by: Jill at August 23, 2007 06:52 PM
Tasmania? You mean that the real world will be run by Mainlanders?
Also, I'm not sure that assigning MS to a population which is about 1/4 Scotch & 1/4 Dutch really underwrites MS's habitual destruction of independence.
MS will be getting decent scenery & interesting fauna but at least the cold might give them a message. The icy, steep, tree-lined roads are also a little reminiscent of low-level programming in Win32. (-:
Posted by: Leon Brooks at August 26, 2007 12:23 PM