PDA

View Full Version : Introducing myself



SacValleyDweller
April 27th, 2009, 07:28 AM
Im not sure if Im supposed to do this here, seeing as there is a similarly themed thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=388359) in "Florida Team (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=225)," but I'll give it a go and hope that I'm not fouling up in my first post.

My name is Glenn, and I am a relative beginer to Ubuntu.

When contemplating the operating system for my new laptop back in October of last year, I heard Vista was not the best (being "Big Brother-ey", needing Antivirus software, etc..) and the virus free Mac was slightly out of my budget. A freind I met in my Intro to Computer Science class was an avid Ubuntu user. According to my friend and what I was able to scour from the internet, Ubunto had little to fear from Viruses. So, wne I bought my Laptop, my friend helped me put Ubuntu on it (I believe version 8.7, and partition the drive on it so that Vista would run on it too if I ever needed it.

I am currently embarking on a Bachelors degree in Computer science (probably quite the task as I'm a beginner to most everything computers, save web surfing and Microsoft office apps) When Im at school, Ubuntu is the only operating system I use.

At home, My computer is an 8 year old macine with Xp on it that needed a new hard drive in '05. I use it because I cant get the Laptop to connect to my home internet.

As my name may imply, I live in the Sacramento Valley, California, USA.

I make my account here so that I can get help if need be when I can't get in touch with my friend.

And that's my story.

cariboo
April 27th, 2009, 08:03 AM
Welcome, enjoy your time on the forums.

mc4100
April 27th, 2009, 08:11 AM
Welcome to the forums, Glenn.

Let's presume you're a complete beginner, unless by relative you mean you already know everything below...

Applications
Ubuntu has a much different way of handing how you get new applications.
It's all about the source. Free software (as in free speech) requires that the code of program, from which the program can be built, it's source, is published with rights to change and redistribute; this means huge repositories can be created, providing a secure place from which one can install every sort of application imaginable.
They build and package the applications. We download those packages from the repositories, or 'repo's for short.
A friendly way to see the contents of the repos is Applications -> Add/Remove...
Further to this, there's a package manager, an advanced view of every single package on your computer -- but you don't need to use this.
This is covered in switching from ... (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows) which is helpful for beginners coming from Windows.

Theming
Gnome, the desktop environment you're running, is highly themeable.
Here (http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=100) is a large collection of popular themes. To install, you download the ".tar.gz" (this denotes a compressed archive file) and drag it right into System -> Preferences -> Appearance.
You might run into more .tar.gz files in search of third-party applications, these are usually what I mentioned above, and you might want to avoid them until you've gained experience -- for they need to be compiled to be useful.

Updating
A new release of Ubuntu is delivered every six months. The release name is the last digit of the year, followed by the month in which it was released.
Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope, was released a few days ago. You don't need to upgrade, and the Update Manager will ask you to, just yet -- each release is supported for eighteen months. That's twelve months of security updates left presuming you installed 8.10. The exception is a "Long Term Support" release, or LTS, which is supported for three years.
During the six months between new releases, updates are provided.
One can select the type of updates in System -> Admin -> Software Sources, by which I mean, you can choose to only be provided security updates, recommended updates (these fix problems in application, called "bugs"), and backports, which are new versions of software from the next unreleased version that have been made to work with the current one.

Audio/Video codecs
See here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats).

adaliabarclay
April 27th, 2009, 09:24 AM
Welcome to the forum and have great fun over here

Sealbhach
April 27th, 2009, 10:22 AM
Hullo Glenn, welcome. Did you ask in the Absolute Beginners Forum for help with your home internet? Most wired internet connections work automatically.


.