Using Ubuntu as your main system

[zipperback]

My wife and I both run Ubuntu as our only operating system.
With Linux there really isn't a need for any other operating system.
We use it for all of our personal and business needs and we're very happy with it.

- zipperback

[rmcellig]

Thanks Zipperback! You mention that you use Ubuntu for your business needs. I asume that you are using OpenOffice to create docs to send out to MS users? Do you experience any issues with formatting etc... I would like to hear your comments in this regard.

[rmcellig]

How can I make my Ubuntu setup to look as closly as possible to my Mac? I know there are themes out ther etc... but I would like to know which ones are the best, most stable ones as well as how to install these themes etc... in Ubuntu.

[rmcellig]

I use Rapidweaver (www.realmacsoftware.com) as my web creation tool on the Mac side. If I am going to use Ubuntu, is there a way for me to use Rapidweaver in Ubuntu and/or are there similar tools for Ubuntu that are fairly easy to use?

My web site: www.mcran.com

[aatyler]

Just my $.02 worth:

I have two laptops, an ASUS M50VM-B1 and an asus EEEpc-1000HA. I'm a fairly big fan of the asus hardware. The M50 is my gaming machine and I do all of my school work on the E. Ubuntu 9.04 is loaded on the M50 and EEEbuntu is loaded on the E.

So far I am more than please. Infact everything (at least for my two computers) worked out of the box and is infinitely more stable than windows ever hoped to be. I haven't had any problems with Open Office / MS Office compatibility as long as I'm careful how I save my files. Thus far I haven't found anything that I did in windows that I can't do with open source apps in linux (with the exception of games, although I dual boot on the larger laptop and even then, most of them work fairly well in WINE under linux).

I did do ALOT of research before I installed so there were a couple things like repartitioning that would have caused a few head-scratching moment had I not done the research. I will point out, if you intend on dual booting vista and ubuntu, search for 'resizing vista partition' and such before you start out. Vista is VERY picky about the setup and the boot sectors. The dual boot installation took me about 3 hours and I had to do a repair install on vista. But, it was painless and would have taken no more than 30 minutes if I had installed Ubuntu as the main operating system.

Some of the other pluses to linux is the security (I know this is mentioned before in this thread, but it is so refreshing to have an OS that is secure I had to mention it ) and the repository system is infinitely superior to how windows installs programs.

I wish you the best of luck with your choice.


-Adam

[~unknown]

First post
Ubuntu is great. I've been using Ubuntu as my main operating system for over a year now, and I love it. The quickness, the stability, the looks... It's amazing. And the support of Ubuntu-Finland has been awesome. Only issues I haven't got solution to are getting the sidescrolling function of my mouse working, getting my graphics card function properly and fixing GRUB, which got messed up after updating. But for games, I have to use Windows, at least for now.

[rmcellig]

Thanks so much aatyler for your comments. I remember installing Ubuntu 8.10 on my Mom's HP last year. Her PC came with Vista. It actually went very well. She uses Ubuntu as her main OS and has never used Vista. She loves Ubuntu!

[aatyler]

Thanks so much aatyler for your comments. I remember installing Ubuntu 8.10 on my Mom's HP last year. Her PC came with Vista. It actually went very well. She uses Ubuntu as her main OS and has never used Vista. She loves Ubuntu!

Your welcome for the post. I think that unless you are a hard core gamer that wants to be on the cutting edge of games without having to work with WINE/Vboxes there is no reason not to use ubuntu as your primary or only OS. I haven't booted into windows since I installed linux and I'm thinking about just deleting the partition all together.

[rmcellig]

I installed Virtualbox with the hopes of installing both Windows XP and Mac OS X. Is this possible? This way I can still use the very few apps that I depend on in the Mac OS and a couple in the Windows OS.

[xpod]

I`ve used *buntu as my main/only system now for just over 3 years, which is also most of the time i`ve used a computer.
Besides the heaps of ignorance i suffered with to start out with i cant say i`ve ever had any real problems.Not with *buntu anyway......
I tried many other distro`s during the first couple of years and indeed i still have a wee look at others via virtual machine on occasion.
I`ve tried numerous minimal *buntu installations as well as many of the more lightweight Distro`s and although they do run that bit quicker on some the older hardware that passes through my hands there`s no real need for anything too lightweight on any of our own current machines.

It`s all good.