New here, First time user

[SgtPickles]

Hi,
I have recently moved from windows 7 (boo) to Linux (yey) after my partners Father showed me Kubuntu and VMware to sync my iPhone 4 (the main reason to stick with windows) I have a HP Pavilion AMD x64 I didn't like the Kubuntu set up so searched the internet and found Ubuntu to be the most popular, I d'loaded 10.4 LTS after a read a lot of people didn't like... unity? as a new user I'm not sure what that is.

I am just wondering as I do like MacOSX I saw a tutorial about making Ubuntu look a lot like it, can you do this on the new Ubuntu and will my laptop run it well and would the VMware sync still work with my iPhone 4?


Thanks in advance 'Pickles

[Resplendent Raven]

Unity is a graphical shell interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_%28user_interface%29), i'll leave the other questions to those more experienced with MacOSX and Ubuntu tweaking

[SgtPickles]

Thanks for the reply, makes sense, I do have one question, I think I will try the new Ubuntu, its seems to have the best support, I'm unsure of which 11.10 to d'load, 32bit or the 64bit, I have a 64bit machine, but the website recommends 32bit? is this because 64 isn't as stable? :confused:

[Revolutionary101]

I personally use Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit and I have had no stability issues. According to the following article, Ubuntu 12.04 (the next version) will have 64-bit as the default.

http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/11/6-key-changes-in-next-ubuntu-1204_12.html

Oh and welcome to Ubuntu by the way!

[vancinas]

I've got a 64-bit machine, so I downloaded the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 11.10. It's been running fine, and I haven't had any stability problems. If I understand it correctly, a 64-bit operating system can make better use of 64-bit hardware.

[MG&TL]

The 64 bit. I can't remember exactly why the 32-bit version is "recommended", but really, it's not significant either way for recent releases.

[Cowboybebop79]

First you don't need vmware to sync your iphone 4 it can be done natively in Ubuntu there is a guide here (http://askubuntu.com/questions/994/can-i-sync-with-my-iphone-4-and-ipad).

If you find a guide to make Ubuntu look like MacOSX make sure it is for "Gnome 3" as the newest versions of Ubuntu use this while older versions including Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Unity is optional in the newer versions of Ubuntu so if you don't like/ cant run it you can choose (at login) a normal set-up similar to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

IMO Kubuntu is one of the most flexible interfaces you can get almost everything is changeable I recently did a post about a set-up I made to look similar to Unity you can see it here (http://www.2buntu.com/2011/11/05/unity-in-kubuntu-kind-of-tutorial/) (lots of pics)

Hope this helps some

[joetait]

If you want something that looks like OSX then you could try macbuntu http://sourceforge.net/projects/macbuntu/ I used it very briefly and it seemed fine, but perhaps read a couple of reviews to check it's all good if you like the look of it.

[dagroves]

Cannot answer any of your questions, but I just wanted to say welcome to Ubuntu and welcome to the forums!

[grahammechanical]

The 32bit Ubuntu will run on either a 32bit or a 64bit CPU but the 64bit Ubuntu will only run on a 64bit CPU.

It was thought that if someone did not know whether the CPU was 32bit or 64bit then recommending 32bit Ubuntu was the best option because they would get a working Ubuntu.

It seems that new machines with 32bit CPUs are rare so it was decided that from 12.04 onwards the recommendation would be changed to 64bit. This is also important because more and more models are being sold with more than 4GB of memory. A 64bit operating system can access more than 4GM of memory but a 32bit OS cannot unless in the case of Linux it has a special kernel coded to make some use of more than 3GB of memory.

Regards.

[nickelbox]

I can't remember exactly why the 32-bit version is "recommended"

It's because the 32 bit can run on both 32 and 64 bit systems but not the other way around. It's "recommended" to maximize compatibility. 64 bit version is perfectly ok on a 64 bit system.

[SgtPickles]

Thanks of all the great response, I have now got my ISO file so I'm going to boot with new Ubuntu, be back later :)