Questions from a lifelong windows user

[simplysped]

Hi Everyone,
I am planning on buying an eee 900 or an MSI wind or some sort of UMPC (going to wait a couple of weeks to see computex releases)

Anyways, I really don't want to buy another windows license. I am considering just loading up ubuntu on the machine when I get it.

I have only used a Mac once, but what I like about it was, connecting to wifi and wireless printers was extremely easy, you didn't have to install any drivers or have the installation discs. And when I would plug in my wireless adapter on my windows pc, it would be such a hassle to connect to the wireless network let alone install the wireless printer driver and print to it.

Is ubuntu like that? Any experiences with ubuntu on wifi?

[Joeb454]

Personally connecting to my Wifi is pretty easy (I have more trouble with WEP, rather than WPA).

And I can't comment on connecting to Wireless Printers - as I don't have one to try it with

[Cypher]

The best course of action in your case would be to grab the Ubuntu LiveCD and boot from it. This will give you a very good indication of what, if any, configuration you might have to do once Ubuntu is installed on the HD.

If it finds all of your peripherals and everything is working, then you're golden. If something doesn't work, post back here and someone with your speciic hardware should help..

[cmnorton]

Don't get me wrong. I like my Kubuntu workstation a lot, and in general, I like the whole [U|K|X|Ed]ubuntu distro very much, but ...

If you liked a MAC for the reasons you stated, you might be disappointed with the Ubuntu distribution in general, especially after the 8.04 release.

[simplysped]

If you liked a MAC for the reasons you stated, you might be disappointed with the Ubuntu distribution in general, especially after the 8.04 release.

D: why is that?

Thanks for the responses to far. What should I take into consideration before considering a distro? I thought ubuntu was a distro of linux, there are sub-distros within ubuntu?

[Joeb454]

Sort of, there's just different Window Managers (Gnome, KDE, XFCE) which relate to Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu (respectively).

I'm not sure how well these run on an eee, though I think you can get eeeXubuntu

And cmnorton - I have had 0 issues with 8.04, and I've been using it since the day the Beta came out

[cmnorton]

D: why is that?

Thanks for the responses to far. What should I take into consideration before considering a distro? I thought ubuntu was a distro of linux, there are sub-distros within ubuntu?

Just my opinion based on MAC user stories and my own Ubuntu configuration experience.

As to sub-distros, each distro uses a different window manager and is configured slightly differently.

The "grab the Ubuntu lived CD" is good advice. Try that, and use Ubuntu as your first distro, IMHO.

[simplysped]

this may sound like a really stupid question but..
i have considered ubuntu in the past for my desktop, but when i kept thinking to myself, i download a lot of random small apps and i never see any compatibility for linux, even big stuff. it's like im sort of stuck with the stuff ubuntu packages me with or the stuff thats rarely available for linux

how do you guys deal with not being able to run windows apps?

for example, lets say i needed to convert a wmv to avi, i just google wmv to avi converter and install the app and uninstall it later on. but on ubuntu i would be stuck!

[eldragon]

everything will NOT work out of the box. thats almost always the case.
it usually relates to driver issues. (like what happens with windows and those 300mb hp printer driver updates ).

like people here said, pop in the livecd and see what happens.

wireless can be a bitch sometimes, especially if you have no experience with linux.

if you are comfortable learning new stuff, and configuring / following some walkthroughs you will be fine. after all, the good thing about open source is that everything is usually well documented.

good luck.

[eldragon]

this may sound like a really stupid question but..
i have considered ubuntu in the past for my desktop, but when i kept thinking to myself, i download a lot of random small apps and i never see any compatibility for linux, even big stuff. it's like im sort of stuck with the stuff ubuntu packages me with or the stuff thats rarely available for linux

how do you guys deal with not being able to run windows apps?

for example, lets say i needed to convert a wmv to avi, i just google wmv to avi converter and install the app and uninstall it later on. but on ubuntu i would be stuck!

well, theres always wine. (windows api compatibility layer) which might or might not work with that app.

there usually is an equivalent open source for most "small time" apps.

if you plan on using closed formats and especially drm crippled ones, i guess linux isnt for you.