Has anyone tried Ubuntu?

I have a dual-boot Ubuntu/XP box. Ubuntu is the slickest Linux I've used and it installed easily on my late-model Dell. I use Windows for Photoshop CS2. I like The GIMP but it's not as good as PS.

petebown said:
Having to type sudo in front of every root command is just plain annoying, although you can get around this with a bit of hacking.
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Try typing 'sudo -i' and it should give you a root shell.

Gene
 
I've been using Ubuntu on a custom built machine for about 2 years now and highly recommend it. Most good quality hardware should work fine with it however I had to go to a 17 in monitor since My Samsung wide screen (1440x900) would not configure properly. It would stretch horizontally.
 
I had installed Dapper Drake but switched to Suse 10 the 10.2. Installing Fawn seems to be a problem on my AMD box. Not sure why.

Drake was cool but I like SUSE a lot.

I run a dual boot in my home built AMD 64 and wind up defaulting back to XP for scanning and multimedia work. Can't build Flash presentations or scan with my Canon 8400f in linux just yet.
 
GeneW said:
Try typing 'sudo -i' and it should give you a root shell.

Gene
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Re: Ubuntu
Thanks, I'll give that a go. I play with too many versions of Linux/UNIX and never really get to know any one in any detail.
It is possible (with a bit of a hack) to give root a login password to allow you to use 'su' instead, or even log in as root (a cardinal sin in the Linux world... although we all do it when we think nobody's looking 😱 )

Ubuntu is a great introduction to Linux that is very powerful whilst being very easy to install. Another version of Linux that may be worth looking at is Mandriva. This also has a reputation for being easy to install.

Different versions of Linux go in and out of fashion over the years. At the moment, Ubuntu is number one.

My advice for anyone wishing to try Linux before committing themselves, is either install it on an old machine or add another hard drive to your computer and install it there. Avoid partitioning your main hard drive in order to give you both Windows and Linux on one drive, this will only lead to tears... You may destroy all of your Windows data if you're not careful. Some operating systems also don't like playing second fiddle on a hard drive - Windows is one of them, therefore best to keep one operating system per hard drive until you know what you are doing.

There is a really nice free multi boot system out there called GAG http://gag.sourceforge.net/ This will allow you to boot one of several different operating systems when your computer starts.

p.s. Dell have just announced that they will be offering laptops with Linux installed instead of Windows. They've decided to go with Ubuntu.
 
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Right now I am dual booting XP and Ubuntu (7.04), and I haven't seen my ubuntu desktop in weeks.

The reasons are relatively simple, and infuriating:
-No internet connection in Ubuntu, my wireless card will not work, no matter what. (It requires a firmware load)
-No foobar2k (I've tried the available linux media players, and they just don't compare)
-Learning curve of console, I've spent 12 years using and learning windows, why change?
 
I have and like Ubuntu, though I've not gotten too far along learning and using it. I knew this would be the case before installing, but I cannot get a stupid USB modem to work, and so no internet via the Ubuntu partition. No internet in Ubuntu is like having less than half of a OS; it's pretty much dead in the water. I simply plan(ned) to play with it and get used to it some, and then when I finally get switched over to ADSL and a ethernet line, I'll really try to use it. I'd love nothing more than to wipe Windows from my box, though PS is a requirement and it looks like a dual boot is the only way it'll really work.
 
I've tried Ubuntu. Thought it was cool. I run gentoo linux. Compared to gentoo, packages install really, really fast. Of couse I've stuck with gentoo because I like the bleeding edge. Ubuntu is only bleeding edge once every 6 months.

If you want to try Ubuntu, consider Kubuntu. This uses the KDE desktop rather than Gnome. Gnone is more user freindly to the Mac user, KDE will be more familiar to the Windows user.
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Agree 100%. KDE provides you with excellent applications like Amarok and Kate. And there are plenty of other goodies included in the various parts of KDE. Plus there are many fabulous QT applications like KOffice and KPhotoAlbum.
 
I installed Ubuntu once and thought it was quite easy.

But things go haywire after that. Multimedia and internet are my core reasons for using a pc/laptop and neither will work easily on all (most?) Linux distros. This makes Linux IMO virtually useless. The whole point is that I don't want to be bothered with the internal workings of a pc/laptop but just want to start it and be able to work with it, like my tv, stereo, my bicycle or the light switch.

I'm not a noob, working as a sys admin (AIX, Novell, OS/390, etc) and storage admin for an extremely large organisation but I just don't want to fiddle with my OS's at home. I find it tiring, boring and unnecessary when my WinXP Home version will let me do everything without demanding me to delve under the hood to get things going.
 
^ I agree.

Mandriva was generally pretty good, even when it was called Mandrake. My main beef with Linux has already been covered here - not enough support for what is basic functionality, too many instances where underhood fiddling is mandatory, not enough standardization among distributions means applications may or may not come in a package your distro will handle gracefully, and too many applications have their own idea of "how things should work." All of those are what you get with open source, for good or bad.
 
I'm not a noob, working as a sys admin (AIX, Novell, OS/390, etc) and storage admin for an extremely large organisation but I just don't want to fiddle with my OS's at home. I find it tiring, boring and unnecessary when my WinXP Home version will let me do everything without demanding me to delve under the hood to get things going.
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I don't mind going under the hood to qet something working. I find it kind of fun.

Mandriva was generally pretty good, even when it was called Mandrake. My main beef with Linux has already been covered here - not enough support for what is basic functionality, too many instances where underhood fiddling is mandatory, not enough standardization among distributions means applications may or may not come in a package your distro will handle gracefully, and too many applications have their own idea of "how things should work." All of those are what you get with open source, for good or bad.
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The problem with packages can be solved by using a distro with an exhaustive list of packages. Ubuntu is pretty thorough. Debian has every free application that runs on Linux. Gentoo has every free and non-free application that runs on Linux. In the end the system is way better than what exists on windows, which is no package manager at all, with applications using non-standard installer. Worse is that these installers are complete pain when you have a dozen programs to install. Talk about applications deciding how things should work!

I don't know what your talking about under basic functionality. I read many posts with complaints about netoworking. I've never had a problem using a network card. Then again, I've never tried using wireless.
 
I've been running Ubuntu on a custom built computer without any of the under the hood issues. It has run flawlessly. When I download and install updates it's as easy as entering my password and setting back while it downloads and installs.

Networking was up and running by the end of the OS install and all of my hardware such as printer and scanner work fine without any tweaking.

As I said in a previous post the only issue I had was my wide panel monitor (1440x900) would not set up properly so I got a standard 17 inch LCD panel and it works fine.
 
I love Ubuntu. I run Feisty Fawn on my laptop by itself and on my desktop with XP. I only use XP for image processing and games. I just got a Playstation 3 three months ago so I haven't been spending any time with PC games. I like the Gimp but its no Photoshop. I've been meaning to try the Lightzone 2.0 under Linux to see how that is like. I've also been meaning to try the Linux version of Vuescan to see if I can get my Coolscan V to work.

The only hardware problem I ran into with my laptop was with the wireless card. However, with a little research on google, I found a fix rather quickly. All that was required were a few commands on the terminal. For what its worth, WindowsXP doesn't detect the wireless card on install either and always must obtain the drivers off the manufacturer's website. In addition for things to work as they should, there are 8 or 9 other hardware drivers that must be installed after WindowsXP on my laptop. With Ubuntu, everything worked perfectly on installation with the exception wireless card.

Now with my desktop, it was slightly harder as I have a TV/FM card, external M-Audio sound interface and some other not-so-standard stuff. I've gotten almost everything to work except for the sound through the M-Audio, which bothers me a lot whenever I want to listen to music as I have to use the crappy onboard sound instead. My next desktop will be a Mac. As for laptops, I don't mind continuing with Linux. I just use the laptop for work related things and connecting to the internet.
 
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Part of the Linux experience is a very sharp blade that cuts both ways. I cannot fathom anyone saying that it's easier than Windows to set up and use on a daily basis. However, for that very reason, there are many people who both love and hate it. Windows will usually make things quite easy, but at the expense of customization and flexibility. There is bloat, for instance, in the initial install that is hard, and many times impossible, to get rid of. So, if you don't want to get under the hood, Windows would be safer, though if you need to get under the hood, Windows could be a problem, while Linux would make it relatively painless. If you want to have a "pure" OS without Mr. Bill and ilk deciding what you need and WILL use, try a Linux distro.

There are simply no guarantees with Linux that everything you'll want to do with your PC will be supported. It'd be highly unlikely that what you want to do wouldn't work in Windows, though there are some tradeoffs, not the least of which is system security. I guess it's like photography: Use the right tool for the job and final output. There are always tradeoffs with whatever equipment you use, and you have to do some research and testing to find what works best for you.

If I can get online and do with Ubuntu what I'm fairly certain at this point I can, I'll only fire up WinXP for photo editing.
 
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Ubuntu Redux

Ubuntu Redux

Reviving this thread.

I've got three servers and three desktop computers running Ubuntu 9.04. My media server serves up home video, photos, music and with great ease. I stream to PS-3 and a LG-390 Blu-Ray player. Transfer rates hit 90MB/sec, vs the old days of running packaged NAS, like the old Terastation, or LinkStation at a snails pace.

Any suggestions as to good photo related software? Is anyone using Ubuntu with the Nikon 9000ED?

Thanks,
Gary
 
been running it along side windows for years. currently running it along side vista on my laptop. i use if it i want to boot up FAST and get online. i use vista for image manipulation, scanning and watching DVDs on my TV.
 
I ran it on a G4 Powerbook for a while. It was pretty decent and nice looking, but my major gripe of it was that there was no real decent flash player available for ubuntu on powerpc. If I had a windows based machine I'd probably run ubuntu over windows.
 
I honestly tried to use OS X. I bought a MacMini and OS X 10.x and used it for two months but in the end I just couldn't do it no more. Maybe because I've been a Linux user for the last 10 years. The OS X just seems to me like "my first pony". More like a toy than a tool.

Ubuntu (or any other Linux) is so much better than OS X really.
 
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bwcolor said:
Any suggestions as to good photo related software? Is anyone using Ubuntu with the Nikon 9000ED?
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I run Ubuntu. I use The GIMP, digiKam, F-Spot, and UFRaw. I also use a variety of tools like gpsbabel, imagemagick, and exiftool with perl scripts that I write myself. I've posted a number of them on the web and on Flickr. I use Vuescan with my scanners, my only 'commercial' software and well worth the money I paid for it (years ago, the upgrades are free).

I have recently succumbed to running Windows XP Pro in Sun's VirtualBox on Ubuntu, since I got an iPod Touch and it won't sync with anything but Apple software, which is not available on Linux. Other than that, I don't mess with Windows at all except at work.

I do not have a Nikon, but it's all the same once you get a RAW or JPG file.
 
bmattock said:
I run Ubuntu. I use The GIMP, digiKam, F-Spot, and UFRaw. I also use a variety of tools like gpsbabel, imagemagick, and exiftool with perl scripts that I write myself. I've posted a number of them on the web and on Flickr. I use Vuescan with my scanners, my only 'commercial' software and well worth the money I paid for it (years ago, the upgrades are free).
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@bmattock, could you share some of the details of your Ubuntu/Vuescan/scanner setup? How well has this worked for you?

I'm researching scanner compatibility with Vuescan on Ubuntu or other Linux distros. I've been a Mac user for years. But it seems that I may be able to get a much more powerful system running Ubuntu for considerably less than the cost of a MacPro. However, being somewhat familiar with basic system administration tasks in Ubuntu I'm also aware that the time spent configuring a system is its own cost.

I've seen some interesting information at the Avasys website http://www.avasys.jp/lx-bin2/linux_e/scan/DL1.do but I've seen very little testimony about how well these scanner drivers actually work.
 
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