What do you do with your Ubuntu

[omni504]

I've been trying to figure out the bigger dfferences between linux and windows, and it would really help me out (understanding the benefits of linux), if whoever comes and reads this post just drops a reply. Saying what they do with their ubuntu/linux distro (word processing/web surfing/running servers....etc). Thx

[dzark]

I use mine on my laptop which gets a fairly major day-to-day thrashing. It's a modest dual core with 1Gig ram, and right now as i type I'm running (in order of taskbar):

Email, Word, Web Browser, Torrent Client, Instant Messenger, Amarok (iTunes), Inkscape (Similar to Adobe Illustrator), Gimp (Similar to Photoshop), Blue Griffon (Web Editor)

Would be quite surprised if i could happily run all these at the same time on XP/Vista. And reliably (as in i'm too lazy to save beforehand) suspend and resume.

Oh yeah, on the stability side - One of my clients has an ubuntu camera surveillance/webserver i built over two years ago, that has only been restarted 2 times, and that because of updating kernels for security. Show me a windows box thats still responsive after a year ;)

[ephmanjmm]

I run different servers e.g. mail server, ftp server, web server, and file server with the server edition. I use the desktop version on my desktop and my laptop for everything else like web surfing and office use.

[orc_dragoon]

I do word processing, Email, Web Surfing. I use ubuntu/xubuntu for the main reasons others do, Its free, easily customisable and most of us lost/never bought windows. So we could save a 100 dollars or so lol.

Also Im running this on a crap machine that windows didnt agree with.

[philinux]

Everything I used to do under windows. My current pc has not had windows on it except for the builder who tested it.

Gimp - photo editing
K3b - disk burning
Firefox - Net surfing
Thunderbird - Email
Connect to my pc from my PS3 using fuppes as a media server.
Open office for my spreadsheets and the odd bit of word processing.
Kopete for messenger

[binbash]

websurf, seo, high res movie center, server etc

[tarps87]

I use it for programming, games, internet banking, web browsing anything I need to do really.
I also have a Ubuntu server setup up as a file, update and media server

Connect to my pc from my PS3 using fuppes as a media server.


Have you used mediatomb? If so how does it compare?

[konqueror7]

i use linux because it has that thing that makes me use it...:D

once you use linux, you see the other side of the world!

[konqueror7]

btw, i use it for my projects and general desktop usage, i only login to windows for the games...

[3rdalbum]

Web surfing, IM, Bittorrent downloads, photo editing, video editing, DVD burning, home server, watching Blu-rays, a bit of open-source gaming, putting videos onto my MP3 player, listening to music, and that's probably the comprehensive list.

Most of the things that can be done on Windows can be done on Linux, and a lot of things are more comfortable or more flexible on Linux than on Windows.

[matthew.ball]

I use this laptop for pretty much everything; development, email, interneting, latex document editing etc.

I'm very happy with Ubuntu :)

[Greyed]

I have several machines with several uses.

PIII-667 w/768Mb RAM tower running Debian: My home network's router, file server and firewall. Also serves as my dedicated bittorrent client.

PIII-667 w/256MB RAM laptop running KUbuntu 8.04: Media player hooked up to my LCD widescreen TV.

AMD 2500+ 2/2Gb RAM tower running KUbuntu 8.10 (dual boot with WinXP): Web browsing, email, writing with OOo, personal finances. Basically all the things Linux is supposed to not do when people ask "Is Linux Ready for the Desktop (http://greydmiyu.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/the-wrong-question/)". This setup also runs inside a VirtualBox VM on the dual-booted WinXP host. For the times when I'm gaming in WinXP and want to just quickly switch over for some real work.

VBox VM on T60+ Thinkpad (400Mb RAM given to the VM) running KUbuntu 8.10: Power of Linux at my fingertips at work for when I need it.

Xen VM w/196MB RAM, leased running Debian: My email/web/FTP server with a dedicated IP which isn't blacklisted for simply being in the wrong IP block.

Basically WinXP for games, Linux for everything else. Could I do a lot of the above with Windows or a Mac? Sure. Not all of it though, no way could I run a decent dedicated server on a 196Mb leased VM. But could I afford to? Nope. I'm paying for one Windows license in the above. No way could I afford 5 licenses plus the licenses for email, ftp, web servers or a robust firewall/routing setup along with all the required virus scanning tripe. Not to mention look at the iron on which those tasks are running. A 10 year old laptop as a media player? Or a 10-year old tower running a file server, firewall and routing for my network? Both on an OS less than a year old?

[Liviu-Theodor]

I browse internet with either Firefox, Seamonkey, Opera; I edit various documents with OpenOffice (text, spreadsheet, drawing), I create PDF documents, download files and programs, play some games, experiment with linux, listen to music, burn CD's, use archives, use messenger, learn french and english, and probably other things I can not recall right now ;) ...

[Jingle]

I use my computers mainly for internet access, messenger chat, media playing/downloading and photo management & printing. When I get an extender such as a PS3 I'll be streaming media to my tv/stereo system too.
I also intend to be able to access my shared documents from anywhere over the internet but I've not got round to setting that up yet!

The only thing I HAVE to run in windows is a program called Memory Map (http://www.memory-map.co.uk/) (I haven't tried this in a windows emulator yet).

[dox_drum]

I've been trying to figure out the bigger dfferences between linux and windows, and it would really help me out (understanding the benefits of linux), if whoever comes and reads this post just drops a reply. Saying what they do with their ubuntu/linux distro (word processing/web surfing/running servers....etc). Thx


It's free
Does the same stuff that windows... and more
Terminals: give you the control (easier than DOS)
Firefox: just the same.
Xfig: much more powerful than Paint
GIMP: does as PhotoShop
OpenOffice: wider than Office (specially on supported formats)
Emacs: the most powerful editor, konsole, browser, et cetera.
Repositories: Got everything you need in just one place.
WEB configuration: is automatic man!... of course you can customize it later
The most impressive (and customizable) looks and effects
Evince and Okular: almost universal document viewers (PDF, PS, DJVU, CHM, and more)
Cairo dock: customizable dock... as the one of Mac systems, but much customizable.
Kernel: If you are an expert... you can modify it as you will.
Ubuntu Forums: find all help you need at the tip of your fingers. MS help is often useless.
Amarok: Music player that allows you to use your iPOD
Xsane: Scanner manager... connect your scanner, open xsane and that's it!
Printers: most printers drivers are available, specially HP ones... hplip
Pidgin: Universal instant messenger (Gmail, yahoo, msn, ...)
VLC or Totem: video players, better than WMP
K3B or Brasero: Burners... musics, videos, iso files.... what ever you want
TOVID and TODISC: allow you to create DVDs from other video formats
Kile: LaTeX editor, free and much better than Winedt



And for sure much more that I do not remember immediatly or simply do not know.

Enjoy!

[e00878]

everything:

cycas cad 3.9 - architectural 2d drawings
blender - 3d model > renders > 2d drawings
gimp - postprocessing images
scribus - layout for presentation
oowriter - documents and etc.
oocalc - figures
planner - task planning
evolution - email client about working with about ~2000 emails
kazehakase - web browser very fast and smooth running
pdftk - editing pdf files, for joining and rejoining files
gscan2pdf - application very similar to adobe reader professional, only for free :)

and so on...!

and what are you doing on windows? pay for every move???

[Tony Flury]

I do everything on Ubuntu i was using my Windows PC for :

Letter and other documents : Openoffice rather than MS Word
Spreadsheets : Open Office rather than MS Excel
Games : either directly on Linux or via Wine.
Websurfing : Firefox
Graphics : Used GIMP on Windows and now on Linux.
Virtual Worlds : Secondlife runs on both Windows and Linux
Email : Browser based.

I also now do development under Linux (without paying large lumps of cash for licenses) - I user python and GTK.

[donkyhotay]

I've completely converted and use linux exclusively at home now. If I find something thats windows-only that I want I find alternatives.

[Zenze]

I started using it on my laptop for c programming so that I wouldn't have to ssh into one of my schools unix labs to get my work done. I ended up using it for everything I do on my laptop though. In fact the last time I tried to boot into windows I couldn't, it wants me to activate it and I'm not going to go buy another key...

[Sorivenul]

I use Ubuntu for helping out around the Forums. That said, I've used it for image editing, web browsing, word processing, programming, mail server, web server, file server, print server, audio recorder/editor, video recorder/editor, and more I can't even think of right now.

When I still used it as my primary operating system, I used it mostly for programming, office work, and web browsing.

[mbzn]

I use Ubuntu for everything, internet, email, messing around, playing music, skype, ect. I deleted windoze together with need for speed as i no longer play it. i do have a virtual machine for win2000server with ms-sql for me to play around with. ms-sql because it is more used for some reason.

[philinux]

I use it for programming, games, internet banking, web browsing anything I need to do really.
I also have a Ubuntu server setup up as a file, update and media server



Have you used mediatomb? If so how does it compare?

fuppes I find is easier. And works exactly the same.

[S0m3th1ngw13rd]

I use mine for web browsing, watching DVD's, music, programming, email, instant messaging(mostly with my son who is in next room, lol) I log into XP when I wanna play a game.

[lukjad007]

I use mine to surf the web, type, print, create spreadsheets, play (some) games, e-mail, etc.

[steveneddy]

mail, web, music (mp3 and internet radio), office, Gimp, balance check book, IM (Pidgen, Skype)

In other words, the same things that you would do with any other computer regardless of operating system.

[oldsoundguy]

everything but Adobe programs and media center controller. It is the main system in my place with MS being used only for my music and photography and SELDOM if EVER taken on line.
(NOT a gamer, though!)

[jerome1232]

I use it for...

General Web Browsing (e-mail, banking, etc...) A teamspeak server, A file Sever, torrenting, video/audio encoding, and some gaming.

[sox fan Matt]

email, music, also helping people in the forums when im able to

[omni504]

So basically if youre just using it to do everyday stuff (emails, surfing, messaging, word processing), its the same services as windows, only alot... "Free"er... But if you're power user unix is tons better in services.

[omni504]

Oh ya and when i kept hearing about evolution on the posts, i tried to configure mine, but it keeps asking me for a POP password for my yahoo account. Am i missing something?

[tarps87]

fuppes I find is easier. And works exactly the same.

Thanks, I will have a look when I get a chance. The automatic database update in mediatomb isn't very reliable for me

Oh ya and when i kept hearing about evolution on the posts, i tried to configure mine, but it keeps asking me for a POP password for my yahoo account. Am i missing something?

Assuming you have set it up correctly this should be the password for your mail account, you can tell evolution to remember it if you want.
If you want to post your evolution settings someone should be able to check them

[omni504]

Well i have it connecting to "pop.secureserver.net", maybe i'm supposed to sign up over there or something?

[baizon]

I'm "working" with linux. I programming in C/Java. Its much better to access libs, compile etc. then Windows. But it's just my opinion :)

[michalwrigh]

well i am newcomer in this.. i am just reading your threads....

[themarker0]

Its my OS, i browse game chat etc. what did you expect, a romantic relationship?

[jerenept]

Its my OS, i browse game chat etc. what did you expect, a romantic relationship?

:lolflag:


same as u

[Daycare]

Again I have only just recently converted at the weekend, but have found I have no problems doing everything I did in Windows in Ubuntu; E-mail, web browsing, mp3 player, spreadsheets, word documents. Don't feel the need to go back to XP again.

[wkhasintha]

I'm "working" with linux. I programming in C/Java. Its much better to access libs, compile etc. then Windows. But it's just my opinion :)

ditto :mrgreen:

[Legendary_Bibo]

Pretty much everything, and I can spend more time playing on it than I used to. HP computers are known to crash and surprisingly the only time my laptop crashed was on my second day with 9.10. Now it runs flawlessly. I loved surfing the web, but I dreaded turning on my laptop when it had vista, now it's gone, and I love my computer. Even after installing at least 30 more programs, it's boot time has only slowed down by 5 seconds at most, but it's still less than a minute. I had to learn Open Office though, but I set it up to act very similarly to Office 07, just without the big *** buttons everywhere.