PDA

View Full Version : Experienceing the joys of open source for the first time via my Netbook!



ThomasPWillickers
April 16th, 2010, 05:04 AM
So here I be, a complete newbie to the whole open source phenomena, and upon checking out the Ubuntu home page for the very first time, I run across a link to information pertaining to a Netbook friendly version of Ubuntu. Naturally, my curiosity was piqued. Then to find out that not only is the Netbook I have compatible, but that I can run the entire operating system from a USB flash drive with only a 2 gig capacity. Who woulda thunk it? Well needless to say, the first thing I'll be doing upon returning home is installing this little widget on my flash drive and booting it straight from there. (mind is still boggled) So mainly what I am here to say is "Wow this is cool" and also to ask if there is anything I should know about this Netbook specific version of the operating system. Or, more importantly, is there anything that I should look out for? Any information that anyone can give me, please feel free to let me know. I have been wanting to get my feet wet with open source for years and just haven't had the time. I have had nothing but problems with Windows ever since the first day I used it in 1994 and anything that I can do to get away from it, even if just for small periods of time, I will do. And in the process I can learn about something that I have been wanting to learn about since they took Dos and Dos-shell out of Windows and put that silly Dos emulator in instead. Thanks for listening to me rant.

):P

ad_267
April 16th, 2010, 05:19 AM
Well the only piece of advice I can think of is not to expect it to be like Windows. Expect to have to relearn how to do some things. If you try to do everything the same way you did in Windows you'll just get frustrated. Installing software is one example. In Linux you usually install software through a package manager rather than going to a website and downloading a file.

Oh and when you run Ubuntu from a flash drive, it won't save all your settings and files for the next time you run it, unless you save a file to the hard drive. You have to install Ubuntu to the hard drive for that. You can create persistent USB drives that will save your settings if you want to but that's a bit more complicated.

ThomasPWillickers
May 4th, 2010, 02:31 AM
Great! Thank you so much. It's just such an interesting experience having people that not only WILL help but actually WANT to. I've gotten the run around from Windows help for so long that I don't even bother asking them anymore, instead I just Google any questions I have.

ad_267
May 4th, 2010, 08:35 AM
Yeah these forums are pretty good for help. For most things a quick google search is still quickest though :)

ThomasPWillickers
May 8th, 2010, 01:25 AM
Oh most definitely! But the only downside to google is that you don't as often get to chat (albeit at an extreme remove) with a real person, instead you get to read the question/answer series from some other group of people. I do have to admit that with the link between google and youtube there are a lot more how-to videos for the coolest stuff! I want to upgrade the ram on my netbook and since I have never had one before, I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that I needed to know in order to proceed. There were something like 10 or 15 different videos available for ram upgrades alone! How cool is that? Anyway, I digress. Thanks everyone for all of the comments!