UKC

dont know how but my internet has gone to lightspeed and i mean it makes my better spec lap top with win7 look painfully slow.

anything i need to be aware of with ubuntu or any software i should get ?

In reply to lost1977:

Mint?

http://linuxmint.com/

In reply to lost1977:
restricted extras is worth installing.

In reply to lost1977: I got fed up when they started making ubuntu "clever" and went to Debian, love the stuff!!

In reply to Blastbar:

this is actually a really old version (ubuntu 7.04)

In reply to lost1977:

I didn't like the new interface, so installed kubuntu... much more useable.

In reply to Ciro: What are you all talking about?

In reply to lost1977:

Why? You could try the last LTS version as it has 3 years of support, if you want to avoid the latest version.

In reply to JH74:

ubuntu but with the KDE desktop:

http://www.kubuntu.org/

In reply to Ciro: Fair enough.

In reply to Philip:

only reason its such an old version is it was on a disc i have laying around for years, guess its time to upgrade. but i have to admit it is fast

In reply to lost1977: Another mint vote.
I don't like unity and I'm deeply suspicious of the new searxh 'feature' in ubuntu

In reply to lost1977: How hard is it to change over, and will it affect my already installed programs?

In reply to lost1977:

I'm using mint now, it works much faster than windows 7 did on my netbook (so fairly limited hardware) and makes it a lot easier for me to actually do any work because it doesn't take so long to switch between programs.

I dual boot my desktop with mint and 7 because of games I haven't got reliably running on linux. I haven't found any downside to running linux on my netbook other than reduced touch screen support (or I just haven't found anything to improve my touch screen experience yet), this obviously isn't a problem for most people. I honestly don't know why they bother shipping it with windows 7 - it requires most of the hardware just to run the operating system and increases the price. Mint is very user friendly and I'm finding a lot of things I prefer about it over windows.

In reply to stroppygob:

With linux mint the process is such:

1. Burn a live cd or put it on a usb stick (using unetbootin).
2. Boot from the CD or USB stick
3. Click on 'install Linux mint!'
4. Choose the option to install along side your existing operating system
5. Use the tools to resize your windows partition to give enough space and reformat it (linux uses a different file system to windows)
6. You can now dual boot windows and linux.

You won't be able to see your linux files from windows, but you can see your windows files from linux (you won't be able to use the programs and such though). One of the major differences that immediately affects you as a new user is the use of the software manager - look here first for software you want to install, it has versions already tested and working on your OS and is easier than looking on line, although I've not had any problems with software I've found on line either.

In reply to Jaffacake:
One of the major differences that immediately affects you as a new user is the use of the software manager - look here first for software you want to install, it has versions already tested and working on your OS and is easier than looking on line, although I've not had any problems with software I've found on line either.

Aye, that is one of my only issues with any of the linux OS's (or distro's, as they call them) is the relative inability to transfer programs between each other.
With Windows, you get a reasonable choice of software for any given task, but you can normally be reasonably confident they will all install and work without any issues (bar the usual bug of newer/older).
Linux, however, comes in many different formats, which use different formats etc. This means that, for example, finding a graphics program means hunting through umpteen different programs doing the same job, just built for individual versions of linux. Can be rather confusing, and whilst it is possible to cross programs over between distro's, you do require a slightly more in depth knowledge to do so.
Having the software centre's improves this issue somewhat, but even so it is not quite there yet. However, this is really my only issue really with Linux, having used it myself now for many years as my main system!

To the OP: howtoforge have some reasonable guides, good for the linux beginner. Here is one for Ubuntu 7.04, tells you how to set it up to replace a windows machine.
http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_ubuntu7.04

In reply to thebrookster:
Increasingly, I use Google Drive which is platform agnostic - the advantages of being able to collaborate with colleagues, save files remotely, and so on, makes cloud-based solutions the clear way forward.

Microsoft's 360 stuff and Adobe Creative Cloud, similarly follow a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) model.

As Google are pushing with their Chrome Books, the logical next step is to host entire OS' in propriety cloud environs.

In reply to lost1977: Sounds far too comoplex to me, I'll stick with Windoze 7 thanks.

In reply to lost1977:

I find the Linux and BSDs much more fun than Windows. Seems a lot of other people are the same. I'm sure there are people who find Windows fun, but I don't know many!

Takes a special personality in either case.

In reply to FrankBooth:


The OS on a chrome book isn't cloud based. It's a based on a Linux kernel. With a CB it's the apps and data that are cloud based, with limited offline ability - the apps run in Chrome and can be cached.

To the person above who has trouble with finding the right programs - it's easiest if you pick a popular distribution that compiles several thousand apps for it's distro. If you pick a less popular one you may find yourself hunting for binaries or compiling your own.

In reply to The Lemming:

switched to mint and i like it

In reply to lost1977:

best bit of advice i can give is ti get yourself over to www.linuxquestions.org
one of the best newbie frendly linux forums out there

In reply to dasy2k1:

dont ven think i will need to, mint14 is running perfectly on my old desktop which is mainly used for media viewing, linux is doing everything i need it to perfectly