OT - Taking the plunge! Ubuntu on the way home.

[WayOutWest]

I am having frequent problems with my kid's laptop.  It's a Dell XPS M1330 and it came pre-installed with Vista.  A few people at work recommended Ubuntu so I'm going to give it a try.  If it fails to do the trick I'll probably go with XP.

Any experience or recommendations?

[westkoast]

I use it at home and really like it.  Ill go into more depth tomorrow but two issues I see off the bat...

It doesn't play new computer games.  Personally that doesn't matter to me since I have a playstation.  Maybe your kid will feel the same way since he has xbox.

The second is the one problem with ubuntu is wireless card support ( which has improved since I first started using it) and scanner support.  I've never had a wireless card issue but still have been able to get my 4 in 1 epson scan/fax/printer/copier to work.

If he wants flashy mac style gui, you can do that.  The system itself is easy to use and pretty stable.  Most of what you do with a computer is already installed. 

[WayOutWest]

I use it at home and really like it.  Ill go into more depth tomorrow but two issues I see off the bat...

It doesn't play new computer games.  Personally that doesn't matter to me since I have a playstation.  Maybe your kid will feel the same way since he has xbox.

The second is the one problem with ubuntu is wireless card support ( which has improved since I first started using it) and scanner support.  I've never had a wireless card issue but still have been able to get my 4 in 1 epson scan/fax/printer/copier to work.

If he wants flashy mac style gui, you can do that.  The system itself is easy to use and pretty stable.  Most of what you do with a computer is already installed. 

It's for my 15 y/o girl.  She just wants internet access and AIM, can't believe I bought her a "gamer" laptop, it was my geekness that went with the XPS line.  I've been having problems with the Vista OS.  I've tried the built in disk utilities to repair the problem but it's not working.  This is the 3rd time I would have to reload the OS so I'm going to give Linux a try.  Couple of guys at work have used it and they had not problem with the Video, Wireless or finger print reader with Ubuntu right out of the box.  Plus I've been told it comes with Open Office so her school needs should be met there as well.

[jemagee]

Vista is really terribly, microsoft should be ashamed...combine that with their docx protocol for the 'new' office and i'm becoming more irritated with them than normal.

Don't most companies still allow you to pre-purchase with XP?

[westkoast]

I use it at home and really like it.  Ill go into more depth tomorrow but two issues I see off the bat...

It doesn't play new computer games.  Personally that doesn't matter to me since I have a playstation.  Maybe your kid will feel the same way since he has xbox.

The second is the one problem with ubuntu is wireless card support ( which has improved since I first started using it) and scanner support.  I've never had a wireless card issue but still have been able to get my 4 in 1 epson scan/fax/printer/copier to work.

If he wants flashy mac style gui, you can do that.  The system itself is easy to use and pretty stable.  Most of what you do with a computer is already installed. 

It's for my 15 y/o girl.  She just wants internet access and AIM, can't believe I bought her a "gamer" laptop, it was my geekness that went with the XPS line.  I've been having problems with the Vista OS.  I've tried the built in disk utilities to repair the problem but it's not working.  This is the 3rd time I would have to reload the OS so I'm going to give Linux a try.  Couple of guys at work have used it and they had not problem with the Video, Wireless or finger print reader with Ubuntu right out of the box.  Plus I've been told it comes with Open Office so her school needs should be met there as well.

Even better if its for your daughter.  An AIM client is already installed when you setup, as is firefox, and like you said open office.  They also have a bunch of mini/simple computer games that she might like to play as well.

The one gripe I have with open office is if you try to do a lot of formatting it looks great in open office but if you save it as a DOC and  send it to someone who opens it up in Word it gets messed up (like for a resume which she probably will not be doing anytime soon).  The way to get around that is of course to PDF the document before you send it to someone else.  If it's for a school report with simple formatting I don't think it will be an issue.

Obviously being the techie nerdy guy that I am I went all out to customize it for fun.  Have the spinning 3-d desktop, the flashy windows effects like an application folding itself into an airplane and flying into the task bar, and other goofy stuff.  People are pretty impressed by it when they see it and don't realize I actually have it running on a real old P4 box with only a gig of ram and a half way decent video card.  Certainly way way under what is required by Vista.

[WayOutWest]

Even better if its for your daughter.  An AIM client is already installed when you setup, as is firefox, and like you said open office.  They also have a bunch of mini/simple computer games that she might like to play as well.

The one gripe I have with open office is if you try to do a lot of formatting it looks great in open office but if you save it as a DOC and  send it to someone who opens it up in Word it gets messed up (like for a resume which she probably will not be doing anytime soon).  The way to get around that is of course to PDF the document before you send it to someone else.  If it's for a school report with simple formatting I don't think it will be an issue.

Obviously being the techie nerdy guy that I am I went all out to customize it for fun.  Have the spinning 3-d desktop, the flashy windows effects like an application folding itself into an airplane and flying into the task bar, and other goofy stuff.  People are pretty impressed by it when they see it and don't realize I actually have it running on a real old P4 box with only a gig of ram and a half way decent video card.  Certainly way way under what is required by Vista.

I've heard all about some cool customization stuff on the tech boards I read.  I don't know if I'll spend that much time on it since all she really wants to do is go on myspace, facebook, AIM and stuff like that.  Right now she has her AIM notify her cell phone of a message then she jumps on a non-Vista PC.  We have two desktops running XP and my laptop plus a third machine running Server 2000.  The Server 2000 is missing a ton of plug ins that my kids use all the time, the machine is not compatable with XP so I might upgrade that one to Ubuntu first before I tough my kids laptop.

Have you had any experience with Dell's 400 line of servers?  I have a Dell 420 Server machine that will not run XP, that is the one I am thinking of upgrading.  The one problem I see is that there are few learning games on that machine that will probably not work on Ubuntu (reader rabbit and such).

[westkoast]

Even better if its for your daughter.  An AIM client is already installed when you setup, as is firefox, and like you said open office.  They also have a bunch of mini/simple computer games that she might like to play as well.

The one gripe I have with open office is if you try to do a lot of formatting it looks great in open office but if you save it as a DOC and  send it to someone who opens it up in Word it gets messed up (like for a resume which she probably will not be doing anytime soon).  The way to get around that is of course to PDF the document before you send it to someone else.  If it's for a school report with simple formatting I don't think it will be an issue.

Obviously being the techie nerdy guy that I am I went all out to customize it for fun.  Have the spinning 3-d desktop, the flashy windows effects like an application folding itself into an airplane and flying into the task bar, and other goofy stuff.  People are pretty impressed by it when they see it and don't realize I actually have it running on a real old P4 box with only a gig of ram and a half way decent video card.  Certainly way way under what is required by Vista.

I've heard all about some cool customization stuff on the tech boards I read.  I don't know if I'll spend that much time on it since all she really wants to do is go on myspace, facebook, AIM and stuff like that.  Right now she has her AIM notify her cell phone of a message then she jumps on a non-Vista PC.  We have two desktops running XP and my laptop plus a third machine running Server 2000.  The Server 2000 is missing a ton of plug ins that my kids use all the time, the machine is not compatable with XP so I might upgrade that one to Ubuntu first before I tough my kids laptop.

Have you had any experience with Dell's 400 line of servers?  I have a Dell 420 Server machine that will not run XP, that is the one I am thinking of upgrading.  The one problem I see is that there are few learning games on that machine that will probably not work on Ubuntu (reader rabbit and such).

The customization takes a little bit of time to do.  You have to download a few pieces of software, tweak a few things, not something worth your time if it's for your daughter.  I just did it to do it.  Seen some videos on Youtube about Beryl (not what I am using but does similar things)/Linux and thought it was cool.

Don't have experience with the 400 line of Dell's.  Sorry =/  Though Ubuntu Server was running on a Dell server for this software company I was working with last year.  They did not have any trouble installing it at all.  Do not remember what the model was exactly.

As for playing learning games....those games are usually basic when it comes to graphics and you can install a program called WINE.  It is describe as a windows emulator (though technically it is not) that will allow you to run windows applications in Linux.  It will mimic a typical folder structure and is fairly easy to use to install software.  Applications and games that are more graphic intensive don't work well.  Basic programs do though.  I don't see why Reader Rabbit would not work.  WINE is actually a pretty cool idea and works well for most basic windows apps you can't live with out.  I've heard of people using WINE to run World of Warcraft with very little problems but it took a lot of pounding away at tweaking it (from what I read)

One other thing I really like about Ubuntu is the apt-get command.  It will go out and look for software, download it, and install it all from one command line with all the options set.  Pretty nifty IMO.

[Derek Bodner]

As much as I want to promote Linux, you do have to realize that there is going to be a learning curve.  I use Linux exclusively, both on my desktops (at home, at work, and on my laptop) and on my servers (my job's a linux sysadmin).  but I can't say you're going to be able to use it without issue and without a learning curve.  It's a completely different OS, from the kernel level up through the userland tools.

Ubuntu's done a fantastic job of getting close, and you'll likely going to have minimal trouble using it for basic things, but there are still some steps you'll have to do manually.  Small things like installing nvidia or ati restricted modules/drivers, which aren't really fault of Ubuntu as you have to do that on windows, but it will be a different process to doing it on Ubuntu/Linux than it would be in windows.  Not necessarily harder, but different.  You will likely have to install win32codecs and other packages to play mp3's and dvd's.  Again, this isn't something that is a "problem" on Linux, because windows has this problem too (if you try installing windows xp from scratch, not from OEM packaged, it can't play MP3's or DVD's out of the box either), but since most OEM's bundle these codecs in with the system, most people don't notice it.  There's even a possibility you could have to custom compile a kernel, edit an xorg.conf, or other such things that you've never done before. 

You just have to realize that there IS a difference between Linux and Windows, and be ready to do a little bit of learning.  There are great communities, and you will be able to get the answers you're looking for, but don't expect there to be no learning curve or problems.

[westkoast]

As much as I want to promote Linux, you do have to realize that there is going to be a learning curve.  I use Linux exclusively, both on my desktops (at home, at work, and on my laptop) and on my servers (my job's a linux sysadmin).  but I can't say you're going to be able to use it without issue and without a learning curve.  It's a completely different OS, from the kernel level up through the userland tools.

Ubuntu's done a fantastic job of getting close, and you'll likely going to have minimal trouble using it for basic things, but there are still some steps you'll have to do manually.  Small things like installing nvidia or ati restricted modules/drivers, which aren't really fault of Ubuntu as you have to do that on windows, but it will be a different process to doing it on Ubuntu/Linux than it would be in windows.  Not necessarily harder, but different.  You will likely have to install win32codecs and other packages to play mp3's and dvd's.  Again, this isn't something that is a "problem" on Linux, because windows has this problem too (if you try installing windows xp from scratch, not from OEM packaged, it can't play MP3's or DVD's out of the box either), but since most OEM's bundle these codecs in with the system, most people don't notice it.  There's even a possibility you could have to custom compile a kernel, edit an xorg.conf, or other such things that you've never done before. 

You just have to realize that there IS a difference between Linux and Windows, and be ready to do a little bit of learning.  There are great communities, and you will be able to get the answers you're looking for, but don't expect there to be no learning curve or problems.

All very true but as someone who writes code, understands codes, reads code you really shouldn't have too much trouble W.O.W.  The Ubuntu community is very awesome.  I don't think I've ever had a question go unanswered or had not already been answered before.

[WayOutWest]

All very true but as someone who writes code, understands codes, reads code you really shouldn't have too much trouble W.O.W.  The Ubuntu community is very awesome.  I don't think I've ever had a question go unanswered or had not already been answered before.

Bods sounds like some kind of MicroSoft shill. 

I figured I would have to find and install a driver for the NIC, Wireless NIC and sound card.  I might have to get a driver for the video as well.  I'm sure there are plenty of MP3 players out there but I'm concerned about being able to play movies and such.  I am actually installing it right now on the laptop.  I'll search the web for drivers, hopefully I can get my part/model numbers from Dell's website.

Not sure about compiling a kernel but I figured there would be .sys, .ini and .cfg file equivalents on this OS.  I can always reinstall Vista or get a copy of XP from work if all else fails.  I am an above, actually way above, average computer user so if I can't get it to work this OS has problems.  Actually, it's been a while since I loaded a PC from scratch, I've gotten used to using "images" to just dump and preconfigured OS onto a new PC.

[WayOutWest]

hmmmm...can not get full video resolution to work and cannot get wireless going either.  The video drivers fail to load, they kick back some eror.  Strike 1 and strike 2.

[WayOutWest]

Still no go with wireless or upgraded video support.  all the places directed to by the ubuntu community are bunk.

I guess there is something to be said about billion dollar company support.  If I can't fix this by Friday I'm gonna trash it.  I figured out DEC VMS and HP Unix in less time.

[WayOutWest]

OK.  Got video card to work.  But I cannot get my wireless going.  Is there some bug with Ubuntu and Linksys routers?  I hardwired to the net right now but I really need to get wireless going.

[Derek Bodner]

Is there some bug with Ubuntu and Linksys routers?

It's not likely with the router, but with the wireless card.

post the output of:
sudo /usr/sbin/lspci -vv

(those are v's, not a w).

It would probably be helpful to go to ubuntuforums.org and search for your wifi card.

[WayOutWest]

Is there some bug with Ubuntu and Linksys routers?

It's not likely with the router, but with the wireless card.

post the output of:
sudo /usr/sbin/lspci -vv

(those are v's, not a w).

It would probably be helpful to go to ubuntuforums.org and search for your wifi card.

I've searched.  I get an IP address and my routers shows my wireless connection in it's DHCP table but I cannot get on the net via wireless.