Liking it so far

So, about a week or so ago, I installed 8.10. I had tried 8.04 for a while, and though I liked it, nothing I could do would get the wireless to work, so it just wasn't feasible as a primary OS. I'm delighted to say that 8.10 has fixed that, the wireless only took a little tweaking and has given me no bother since, and ubuntu is now everything I need in a system.

(including, and most importantly, Tetravex! how did I live without you?!)

Having said that - I had to work through a multitude of little hitches and annoyances to get here (what drugs were they on, thinking that system beep was a good idea?). It was enormous fun doing it, and I learned a lot. But most of the people I know, even the computer-competent ones, just aren't comfortable with anything different or new. When you can't convince people to switch from IE to firefox, how can you hope to get them to give linux a try?

At the moment - I'm a complete novice, and that's a strange feeling, after being so windows-savvy. I have so much still to learn, and I want to know it all *now*! :P I'm not convinced I'll stay with ubuntu forever, either - there are so many linuxes out there to try. And unixes. And others.

Still, hopefully in a year or two, I'll be answering questions on the forums instead of asking them :P I honestly can't ever see myself needing to go back to windows, and I hope I never have to.

redandgreen said: (including, and most importantly, Tetravex! how did I live without you?!)

No doubt!

redandgreen said:

Having said that - I had to work through a multitude of little hitches and annoyances to get here (what drugs were they on, thinking that system beep was a good idea?). It was enormous fun doing it, and I learned a lot. But most of the people I know, even the computer-competent ones, just aren't comfortable with anything different or new. When you can't convince people to switch from IE to firefox, how can you hope to get them to give linux a try?

I think you've hit the nail on the head here, more than once. Working through the little hitches is the best part, I think, and you're right: you do learn quite a lot fixing those little things.

As for people being uncomfortable trying new things...well, we fear the unknown, and fear leads to all sorts of emotions - sometimes, it seems, to a greater attachment to what's familiar.

As for convincing people, I've given up. If someone says, "Man, do you have a spare XP CD Key layin' around?" or "Man, I wish I could afford a Mac...Windows blows!" then I'll bring it up.

Otherwise...meh. Linux is something you have to want. :)

redandgreen said:

At the moment - I'm a complete novice, and that's a strange feeling, after being so windows-savvy. I have so much still to learn, and I want to know it all *now*! :P I'm not convinced I'll stay with ubuntu forever, either - there are so many linuxes out there to try. And unixes. And others.

Still, hopefully in a year or two, I'll be answering questions on the forums instead of asking them :P I honestly can't ever see myself needing to go back to windows, and I hope I never have to.

And that's the beauty of it! To find yourself, after all those years, a complete newbie, as if you'd just sat down at a keyboard for the first time...it's an exhilarating experience!

There's lots to learn; I suggest starting with the Command Line Interface, and shell scripts.

And absolutely, don't stick with just Ubuntu. Although, to save yourself the hassel of formatting over and over and over, or partitioning your hard drive to kibbles and bits...you might look into virtualbox (www.virtualbox.org). It lets you emulate other OSes inside of Ubuntu. If you find one you like, you can always format then. :)

Hope to see you back on the forums, asking *and* answering questions with the rest of us. We can always use a fresh face. :)

Cheers, and welcome to the light! :)

redandgreen said: (what drugs were they on, thinking that system beep was a good idea?)

Shrooooooooooms :shock: xD

Lol, anyway.. Glad to hear your liking it. Its good to be free of microsoft.

magmon said: Shrooooooooooms :shock:

xD

LOL!

magmon said:

Lol, anyway.. Glad to hear your liking it. Its good to be free of microsoft.

Amen to that! A friend of mine has taken the "free" thing to heart; nearly every time his PC boots up he cries out, "Freeeedoommmm!" like Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

Yeah, he's a twit. But it's kind of funny, too. :P

My experiences have been similar. I was using Ubuntu as a primary desktop for about 4 months straight, and I still use it frequently (the linux machine is now my media centre/projector machine). The reason I installed it in the first place was because I wanted to learn more about Linux in general. Unfortunately for me, I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually needed to use the terminal. I really haven't learned a lot.

I guess it just proves how easy to use the system is. I really like how it just plain works with things. It's always hit or miss, fingers crossed, pray-that-the-last-patch-fixed-the-driver-issue with Vista. Neither my cellphone or printer worked with Vista initially, and I've had to go reinstall sound and chipset drivers more than once. No problems with Ubuntu. The thing just works.

redandgreen

I honestly can't ever see myself needing to go back to windows, and I hope I never have to.

+1

I equate the concept of being forced to return to Windows, with being gelded.

Glad you are here.

Just answer the question that you already know, you know?

steveneddy said: Glad you are here.

Just answer the question that you already know, you know?

Agreed. I'm no Ubuntu guru but a lot of questions are things like basic networking, which aren't really too specific to the OS and I can see that the user's mask is wrong for their subnet, or whatever.

Very graphic, though amusing and, startlingly, apt.

:lolflag:

Tamlynmac said: +1

I equate the concept of being forced to return to Windows, with being gelded.