Ubuntu 9.04 For the Windows Power User 727
crazipper writes "Know a Windows power user who is (honestly) good with technology, but hasn't yet warmed to Linux? Tom's Hardware just posted a guide to installing and using Ubuntu 9.04, written specifically for the MS crowd (in other words, it talks about file systems, mount points, app installation, etc). Hopefully, by the end, your 'friend' will realize just how easy Ubuntu can be to use and start down a long path of exploration with a new operating system."
Re:My experience shows a short path (Score:5, Informative)
It's far more likely that stuff in the repository is safe than something you just download off the net. In most cases.
The normal repositories are provided by the same folks that put together your OS, and the downloads are signed by them so you know you're getting the software from a trusted source. Linux does let you skip the "check for malware" step with things you get from trustworthy repositories due to this signing mechanism. Unless the repo is contaminated, but that's somewhat unlikely and would be found very fast.
And if you don't trust the people you get your OS from then... well that would be special.
You should be as careful adding new repositories to your system in much the same way you would be careful trusting a third party website to get software from. And careful adding packages you download from the web in the same way that you are with windows.
Re:My experience shows a short path (Score:5, Informative)
And then I plugged my mouse in.
I have my MX Revolution (the Best Mouse Ever Made) set up with shortcuts for manipulating tabs rather than the silly default fwd/back buttons. However, after about half an hour of googling and fiddling with repositories, I was no closer to a working mouse. Now, I'm sure some will be quick yell "but it's the manufacturers fault! They don't provide any drivers!". This'd be fine if:
a) there weren't custom drivers for both windows and OS X available
b) the custom drivers for Linux didn't require me to DOWNGRADE THE OPERATING SYSTEM in order to install.
It was at this second point where I decided that Linux was not the choice for me. If I have to reinstall the entire operating system to get a mouse working properly, then there's something very wrong.
Re:Friends don't tell friends to install Linux (Score:3, Informative)
And how is that different then friends running windows calling you at 2am?
It was implied in his post that this wasn't happening before the switch.
Re:Fantastic! (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, there is a menu option in Ubuntu under Applications->Add/Remove that provides a simpler interface for adding applications. Not that anyone who knows what he's doing would use it, but it's there!
Sound in Linux (Score:3, Informative)
Sound in Linux still isn't completely stable across different hardware. I (knowing I'm going to be using Linux) buy specific hardware so I don't have issues at home, but other hardware (Dell Dimension anyone) sometimes have lots of sound issues. I have a a few guys at work with a Dimension E521s that have to reload alsa everyday due to something screwing off in Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04. (sudo alsa force-reload)
I have a feeling it is a mixture of Skype and Flash in Firefox doing it, but Linux should be able to gracefully handle this stuff.
Re:My experience shows a short path (Score:3, Informative)
It's not so much that there is something wrong with Linux that makes them reject it. It's not even really rejecting Linux so much as simply not finding their needs satisfied on the system.
My sound didn't work at first. Then I realized it was picking up my onboard sound, so I pointed it to my sound card, and it worked. Oh wait, no it didn't...flash would play in Firefox, but with NO SOUND.
Sounds like a small issue, but part of the reason I went back to Windows as my primary desktop was that I got tired of hunting for solutions to all the here-and-there problems. Also, trying to explain to my wife and kids why something as basic as printing didn't work quite right, or why a certain app would crash, or whatever, got really old. I don't get that in Windows (running XP, btw). All jokes and cliches aside, Ubuntu wasn't cutting it on my desktop, XP was. I hate, but that's how it went for me.
That said, all my servers run Ubuntu. Wouldn't have it any other way. I'm not a MS apologist by any stretch, I just want my stuff to work.
Re:Fantastic! (Score:2, Informative)
Just so long as you're aware that BeOS and Haiku are more or less the same thing, while Slackware, Debian, Xubuntu and SuSE are also flavours of the same thing, as are the various Windows lookalikes. Except, that is, for Windows 3.1. That is not an OS.
If you really want to be cool, try dumpster-diving or fleabay for old '80s or '90s mini machines like Prime, Honeywell(/Bull) and so forth. They crop up from time to time, and offer a really useful perspective. GCOS and PRIMOS are great to work with.
Disclaimer: I worked with these machines when they were still current. You probably don't want to try anything much older unless you have a seriously large bedroom and don't object to a huge power bill.
Re:Astroturfing Galore (Score:1, Informative)
It's out of hand that anytime anyone posts something negative about Linux that someone screams shill or astroturf and the rest of the Linux lemmings nod their heads instead of addressing the issues. If we're wrong, prove us wrong. If what we say is valid than it's valid.
Re:My experience shows a short path (Score:5, Informative)
Your post displays a mix of FUD, lack of knowledge and lack of intellectual curiosity.
Firstly, for a huge variety of software that a user might install, the process is a single command in a terminal, for example:
sudo apt-get install <whatever>
Alternatively, applications can be selected for installation or removal through nice GUI programs such as Synaptic.
The system repositories are set up on installation and files in those repositories can be assumed to be secure. Contrast that with Windows, where the process often involves downloading a random exe file that may or may not be trusted.
There are some applications and libraries that may require adding repositories, but, in my experience, those repositories provide detailed instructions on how to add them. Your failure to grasp these simple steps shows a lack of effort on your part and not any difficulty with Linux.
Under Windows, after installing an application, can you be sure about what the installer did? Under Linux, I can query the package manager for the files installed and the scripts run. Under Windows -- no. So under Linux, I can feel more secure and trusting of the package that I just installed. It's Windows that should make you feel insecure.
I fully expect this post to be downmodded to hell by the Windows fanboys, but, fortunately, I have some karma to burn!
Re:"Power Users"? I don't think so... (Score:4, Informative)
Ahh, now I get it!! (Score:2, Informative)
What I couldn't understand was all the negative digs here from
Now I get it...
Re:My experience shows a short path (Score:3, Informative)
Let's be a little more clear on this process, because you're simplifying it way too much.
You want some new program for Windows?
1. Search the web. Come up with page after page of results.
2. Find a bunch that are either crippled trial versions, or you have to pay for them.
3. Finally find one that looks like it'll do the job, and is free.
4. Download an untrusted executable.
5. "Scan it" for "malware". I'm not really sure what this means. Your antivirus programs will try to check the closed binary for matches, but they aren't all that good at it. The fact is you have no idea if this thing has a virus, and you certainly don't know who it's going to talk to after it's installed.
6. Install it. Agree to a EULA you won't read. Click Next a bunch of times until it's done. Files are now all over your filesystem because there's no useful standards about where things go.
7. You may have to reboot the machine a this point for some reason.
8. The program insisted on making its own incomprehensible entry in the start menu, based on arbitrary criteria. Maybe it's the vendor's name, maybe it's the program's name. Move this to a sane location.
9. Clean up the systray helpers, desktop shortcuts, and other party favors.
10. Disable this thing from starting automatically when Windows starts.
OPTIONAL STEPS
11. Find it doesn't work because you need some obscure dll or codec or something.
12. Go find those, following the steps from above.
13. Dismiss constant badgering from the program about how it wants to update using its own little update method. 14. Undo the file association hijacking it may have (e.g., probably) done.
There. Easy, wasn't it? Now you have a program. You still don't have any idea if it's malicious, even if it's from a trusted source. A recent example is Google Chrome, which I installed and later discovered a stupid little updater it silently installed alongside, sending god-knows-what information to god-knows-who, and would not uninstall in any normal way (I had to remove the entire directory).
Now let's compare this with the modern apt repository-based system in Linux systems. You want a new program. I use the commandline but let's make it easy on the newbs.
1. Run Synaptic. Type a keyword or two into the search menu.
2. A variety of suggestions come up. Pick one and put a checkbox next to it.
3. Click "Install."
4. It installs. It also fetches all dependencies for you so you're not pulling step 11 from above.
5. It puts a single shortcut into a sane, logical place in your Applications menu.
6. It's been vetted and verified by the repository maintaner, which is not just some guy, but a large group of people who have checked this program.
7. It's also been reviewed by dozens, hundreds, or thousands of others who have worked on the program, used it, debugged it, modified it, and so on. There are no secrets. 8. You were done in step 3. The rest was just gravy.
I've been using Debian and Ubuntu as my primary systems for over three years at this point and I cannot imagine how I ever thought the Windows way was sane or safe. You're downloading random, untrusted executables from who-knows-where, allowing them to do anything they want on your system with no way of telling what they'll do beforehand and no useful means of undoing any of it, then cleaning up after them, and your antivirus nonsense does little to protect you in any meaningful way. How is this easier?
Re:My experience shows a short path (Score:3, Informative)
Let's be a little more clear on this process, because you're simplifying it way too much.
And you're seriously over-complicating things.
1. Search the web. Come up with page after page of results.
Yes, Google searches often result in many, many pages. That does not imply that the result you're trying to reach is not listed first. Do a search for "context", "gimp", or "opera" on Google and tell me how far you need to look before you find home pages for a text editor, image tool, or browser. This step can be replaced with "Search the web, find what you're looking for".
2. Find a bunch that are either crippled trial versions, or you have to pay for them.
Nice assumption that all Windows programs require money. This step can be left out.
3. Finally find one that looks like it'll do the job, and is free.
Not a problem if you actually know the name of what you're after. Even if you don't know the name, again, it turns out that Google is actually pretty decent at indexing online information. Do a search for "free windows text editor" and see what comes up in the top 3 results. This step can be left out also, you still haven't moved on from using Google to find what you're looking for.
4. Download an untrusted executable.
Yeah, I guess the offerings on firefox.com or opera.com are untrusted, but somehow I trust those people to avoid making a bad name for themselves more than I trust an anonymous repository.
5. "Scan it" for "malware". I'm not really sure what this means. Your antivirus programs will try to check the closed binary for matches, but they aren't all that good at it. The fact is you have no idea if this thing has a virus, and you certainly don't know who it's going to talk to after it's installed.
Unless you're only downloading source code, and always go through all of it line-by-line before compiling and running it, I don't see how this has anything to do with OS.
6. Install it. Agree to a EULA you won't read. Click Next a bunch of times until it's done. Files are now all over your filesystem because there's no useful standards about where things go.
This is just getting ridiculous. Just because you don't understand the conventions doesn't mean people don't practice them. By default nearly every Windows program released in the past decade puts its main files in Program Files. Shared libraries go in Program Files/Common Files (difficult to remember, I know). User settings are stored under the user's home directory inside the Application Data folder. I'm not sure what's difficult to understand about that, or how that's any different than Linux conventions for putting things in /bin or /etc or /lib or /usr or /home. Again, this step has nothing to do with OS.
7. You may have to reboot the machine a this point for some reason.
Microsoft has been trying to eliminate post-install reboots since XP and they've done a pretty nice job at it so far. The only things I install today that require a reboot are things like SQL Server or something that needs to modify system files that are currently in use. Most of the time when it tells me I should reboot I tend to ignore it and don't see any problems. Regardless, any minor application that the vast majority of people would download online does not require a reboot, it's essentially limited to system software and updates at this point.
8. The program insisted on making its own incomprehensible entry in the start menu, based on arbitrary criteria. Maybe it's the vendor's name, maybe it's the program's name. Move this to a sane location.
Maybe you enjoy doing that after the install, but most people fill that out when prompted dur
Re:"Power Users"? I don't think so... (Score:4, Informative)
Open Terminal.
Type "sudo apt-get install wine" and type password. Press enter. (A suggested step: "sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts" for better fonts)
Once the process is finished, right click on any exe. Go down to "Run in Wine." Install and use as usual.
If it does not run, google the software's name plus wine. If the software is known at all, there should be a solution.