Moving to Open Source

Forget everything you know about downloading and installing software in windows and prepare yourself for a new experience. Well you don’t need to forget everything but it is a different experience.

I will explain it as I understand it:
The software in Ubuntu is based on packages, there is a huge catalog of the packages right here on your system, there are a few ways of accessing the packages and installing the software from these packages: The easy way, the less easy way, the even less easy way.

But before installing any software you should enable extra packages.
You can do it by going to: system -> Administration -> Software sources
The first tab is Ubuntu Software, I recommend you mark all options possible.
Here you can find more information about the meaning of the options.
Now you should go to “Updates” tab and mark the first 2 options on Ubuntu updates. This is to make sure that your system will be updated regularly.

The easy way installing software in Ubuntu:
when you click on “applications” on the top tool bar and go to add/remove. You will get a screen with a huge list of software packages just wanting you to install them on your system. The packages are arranged by categories, you should browse and install your favorite software.
One of the first programs on the list is 7-zip, you should try installing it as it is very useful in opening zip/rar files. You just click on the square to the left of the software name, and click apply changes.
Note: you will need to put in your system password in order to make these changes.

The less easy way installing software in Ubuntu:
Ubuntu has many many more software packages – about 22,841 and counting.
you can’t see all these via the application menu, in order to see all these packages you need to go to: System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager
Here you can see a full list of all the packages – and it is Huge!. If you wish to install a certain software it is best to search for it via Synaptic.
When you right click on one of the packages you have the options of installing/uninstalling etc.

The even less easy way installing software in Ubuntu:
Sometimes you would like to download and install software directly, this can be done via the terminal. I haven’t gone into it yet because I didn’t need it yet (as I said I will go according to my needs), but you can read more about it here.

Now that we enabled extra software sources we can go on improving our experience through the system.

The next stage:
Improving the surfing experience by installing flash, Java and video & audio codecs.

Bookmark to:

I am very excited, I spent a few days trying out Ubuntu on a Live CD an I lived to tell about it
So here is my report of running ubuntu via a live CD without touching my current OS:

It wasn’t a smooth sail, and it started with a problem.
When you run the CD after the reboot you will get the following screen:

In Order to run the cd you will need to choose (using the keyboard arrows and not the mouse) the first option: Start or Install Ubuntu.
Here I encountered a Problem – the computer started to run the operating system but suddenly froze. The solution for the problem was running Ubuntu via the second choice: Start Ubuntu in safe graphics mode. It started fine.
The screen you will get will be the following one:

note: the screen shots were not taken from my actual running process.

Now you are ready to try Ubuntu.
You can check out the various software applications (play some games), check out the places and the system menus. You can even browse the internet.
And here came my second problem. But thanks to the online community I found a solution.
I had to configure my ADSL internet connection.
The first thing I would like to do after installing any operating system is configure the internet system so I will be able to download stuff an access support and help.
After restarting the computer again in windows, I found a solution.

This is how you configure an ADSL connection on Ubuntu:
Start Ubuntu live CD again and the do the following:
applications -> accessories -> terminal
In the terminal window type the following:
sudo pppoeconf

then follow the instruction which means : answer yes on all the yes/no questions, and typed your login and password to your internet connection. After completing this run the Firefox browser by clicking on the Firefox icon on the top bar and vioala you have internet.

A small warning: Running Ubuntu from a live CD is quite slow, when it is installed on your hard drive it will run much much faster.

After trying it out a bit I decided to install it on my computer. Now there are 2 options: 1. Installing Ubuntu as the sole operating system on the computer. 2. Installing Ubuntu as another operating system and have an option to dual boot it with windows or other OS.

Before you attempt installing Ubuntu you have to Backup all the data you wish to keep, and write down all your internet settings. Once you have access to the internet you have access to all the Help you need, Try configure your internet connection via the live CD in order to confirm that it works properly.
Here is a Blog Post and a Podcast about 10 things to do before installing Ubuntu

The Next stage:
Finally Installing Ubuntu and diving into it.

Bookmark to:

As Raseel mentioned in a comment to my previous post all modern Open Source Operating Systems have the option of trying them on a LiveCD. LiveCD means that you can burn the Operating System files on a cd, restart your computer and run the open source operating system from the CD without installing it and without deleting or touching your current operating system.

In order to see if I like using Ubuntu I will Download it and try running it from a LiveCD.

Getting Ubuntu:
A New Version of Ubuntu is released on April and on October every year. The versions are given numbers according to the year and month of release. The last release was on October 2007 so the version number will be 7.10 (7 for 2007, 10 for October). The next version will be 8.04 (you can figure it out yourself by now). But why deal with numbers if you call give each version a name. each version of Ubuntu is given a name. Version 7.10 is called Gutsy Gibbon, The next release will be called Hardy Heron (Don’t ask me why).

Ubuntu has versions that suit 32 bit and 64 bit computer architectures. If you want an operating system in another language other than English, don’t worry, Ubuntu supports multiple languages.

So stage number one: Downloading Ubuntu from here , Saving it to your hard drive, and then burning it onto a CD.

Here are a few video tutorials which might help you with the process:

Downloading and burning Ubuntu CD
Burning an Ubuntu CD using Nero
Burning an Ubuntu CD using Infra Recorder

There are many other video tutorials which I will probably link to on my next posts.

Ubuntu had very useful support documentation , you can try it out if you encounter problems, otherwise you can just Google your problems you will probably find a solution.

If you don’t want to start burning stuff you can always order a CD at minimal cost or even request a free cd.

After you have a CD with Ubuntu files on it, insert it in you computer CD/DVD player, and restart your computer. You will probably have to press a key so the computer will run from the CD, or even configure your BIOS in order to start from the CD.

OK Now I am ready to run Ubuntu for the first time from the LiveCD.

I have Ubuntu running from my CD, so I can try in out without affecting my current operating system.

Up until now it was quite easy

The next stage:
Trying out Ubuntu for the first time and writing down my first impressions. I will even Bring some screen shots in order to impress you as well.

Bookmark to: