Stop comparing! You’re doing it all wrong

It would be a nice idea to make a sticky out of this or an other well appreciated post already existing. I want to address something which, not only being considered useless by me, but also by many other community members.In a world of commercial software there is always competition and winning. That’s one of the reasons why companies such as Microsoft and Apple try to overrule each other in commercials and conferences. We are all used to that. We frankly don’t even care. It’s a tight market and both companies are what seems to be very capable.Let’s forget the companies. We don’t own them nothing in the first place. Why should we take part of this race? With each year, with each new product, with each new feature and more, one or other company claims itself being innovating and up to date.Well… but none of them is perfect.I don’t understand why most people adopt the A vs. B attitude. There is no such thing as the best Operating System because of quite some factors. There is no such thing as the best software application for the same reason. Not everybody has the same desires and criteria for their needs.But even then a lot of people start to make the wrong comparisons. The most common are of course made about (Ubuntu) Linux vs. Windows, The Gimp vs. Photoshop and OpenOffice vs. Microsoft Office.It is well known to almost all members in almost every community that the differences between applications or Operating system (as described above) are and can be very large. When it comes to the amount of features, commercial applications as good as always win. But does that matter? A lot of people hardly use 80% of all Microsoft Office features. There are quite some people who think they need Photoshop but a simple photo edit tool is suffice. Some people spend hundreds of dollars buying an Operating System and additional software while a Linux variant would made their life’s much easier. Also not everybody finds an extensive amount of eye-candy the reason to call a application or Operating System better!In a world where application / OS choice is personal due to the desires and criteria of people there can’t be one better. Even not with Windows Vista coming up. This Operating System is being followed by many people. Yet again multiple Ubuntu vs. Vista threads appear. The funny part is that people express the concerns about Linux having to deal with this. Well for these Linux vs. Vista, Office vs. OpenOffice and Photoshop vs. The Gimp people I’ve got to say only one thing: “Don’t you worry at all, not everybody is playing follow the herd.”For the people who want to compare two applications in order to pick what’s best for them, please use A. compared to B. Look, now you are comparing!

Simple Desktop Enhancements

Ubuntu Linux comes with brown. Why brown you might ask? This color fits more with what the word ‘Ubuntu’ means. It reflects humanity and mother earth better than any other color. For those reasons I’ve used the default theme for weeks back then with 5.10 Breezy Badger. But after a while, consistently using my portable, consistently modifying applications, preferences and configuration files I found it was time to use other themes, colors and backgrounds.Who ever read my previous posts knows by now that Ubuntu Linux is a very transparent distribution. It doesn’t takes ages and doesn’t requires you to be a whiz kid in order to understand it’s workings. Though it’s so transparent I didn’t find it a reason to be modifying appearance with the terminal. I wanted to be able to change as much as possible while hardly using a terminal, The Gimp and other tools.In this Absolute Beginners Guide I will explain how you can easily change things as:

• Backgrounds
• Window themes
• Login Manager themes
• Splash screen themes

But no only that. I will also tell you how to find them. With this information you will be able to customize your Linux installation in no time. As for me, Ubuntu is in my heart and my contribution efforts. So I don’t feel sorry abandoning the colors.

• Where to find them?

The most popular form of Desktop enhancements are backgrounds. Now, while a lot of people find backgrounds being plain pictures or digital creations I’ve made an hobby out of it. By checking numerous websites almost daily I search and save backgrounds I like. For me a background must apply to certain criteria. Why? Because I don’t want to get hyped by a background and it must match with the rest of my enhancements.For instance I hardly download backgrounds which are mostly white or light-gray. This color, when using only the terminal or some small view size application burns your eyes out after a while. So almost all of my backgrounds are a combination of dark and or neutral colors.Where do I find them? I mostly download them from DeviantArt. This by far the largest community which features a configurable gallery sorting resolutions, subjects and more. For people who can think logical or just know enough French to navigate around Hebus is also a nice resource. Being the same type of community as DeviantArt, Hebus is a bit smaller and a lot of backgrounds are not available in high resolutions. But also Google can help find you specific artists. Pixelgirl Presents is an artist website I found. There you can find a lot of very high resolution wallpapers.But it would be a sin to forget about our own community. Also Linux related websites provide wallpapers and other Desktop enhancements, so let’s name them!When it comes to downloading it all our own community resources have more of everything rather than more of one specific subject. Art.Gnome.org offers not only backgrounds but also Application themes, Window Border themes, Icons, Login Manager themes, Splash screens and even whole GTK+ engines.KDE-Look.org is a much larger gathering. But the downside is… it’s indeed more KDE oriented, rather than Gnome. But you will still be able to find quite some enhancements only please note that not all enhancements are usable for Gnome.

• How to install them?

After you have found some interesting stuff of everything it’s time to get them installed. Don’t worry about terminal commands and difficult CLI interpretations. These enhancements are going to be installed using special applications.Installing another background shouldn’t be a problem. When you are looking at your desktop it’s just clicking right with your mouse and selecting ‘Change Desktop Background’. This is usually one of my first enhancements when reinstalling Ubuntu or getting bored of my theme.My second step is almost always changing the Login Manager theme. There’s really no need to follow the enhancements in an particular order anyway. In order to change a Login Manager you have to open a terminal. There execute the following command:sudo gdmsetupAfter a couple of seconds waiting a graphical application appears. This is your Graphical Display Manager setup utility. In the ‘local’ tab you can add and select Login managers to be activated. After adding one and selecting it you are done. You can test your new Login Manager by logging out. It will bring you right up to it.In order to be able to select and switch from Splash screens we need to download a small application using Synaptic. If you are more skilled, try the Terminal and use ‘apt-get install <filename>’. The application we need to add is being called ‘gnome-splashscreen-manager. It might be Synaptic won’t find it at first. In that case not all your included Ubuntu repositories are enabled. If so, go to: settings -> repositories -> addMake sure you select both Universe and Multiverse when (re)adding channels to the repository. After you’ve done that, try again to search for ‘gnome-splashscreen-manager’. Once you’ve downloaded it you will find it under:System -> Preferences -> Splash ScreenThe application works very simple. So it shouldn’t be a problem.If you like the Human Gnome Theme but you’ve had it with brown? Let’s open the Themes:System -> Preferences -> ThemesWhen you scroll down you will see various themes including the Human theme. You can always select a totally different theme. But the Human theme remains one of the newest themes. A lot of other themes really let you see how Gnome looked a few years back. On the right you can always choose ‘Theme details’. There you can choose how windows should look like, which icons should be used and Window Borders there should be used. Within one minute, you’ll have it customized.You can also add more themes for Gnome, Screen Splashes and Login Managers using Synaptic. But that’s your homework.So now let’s see. The login manager looks way better. When logging in a totally different Splash Screen greets us and the background rocks. These are some Absolute Beginner tips on enhancing your Ubuntu installation.

Installing Intel 815/852/855 graphics controller drivers on Ubuntu / Debian

If you are new to Ubuntu it may happen that devices won’t work. That’s new, for Windows users. Microsoft Windows is an universal Operating System. That’s why hardware manufacturers have developers working for them to write the drivers. But it doesn’t means those drivers also end up in Linux!. There are various reasons for that:- Linux isn’t being recognized as a grown-up Operating System by certain companies and manufacturers.- Propriety still plays a big role. By default hardware manufacturers are not keen on releasing their product specifications.- Not enough developers in the community to write a driver which sometimes can be complex.These are the most important reasons why driver support sometimes fails under Linux. Also I had to live with that until today. I finally got the puzzle solved in my case.The Intel onboard graphics such as the 810/852/855 family haven’t always been working properly under GNU/Linux distributions. The first stage was a simple driver which made it possible to use your portable with a maximum resolution of 1280×1024. After a while 8xxresolution came into the repositories. With this CLI-application (Command Line Interface) it was possible to configure a pre-made script to use the real maximum resolution your portable and onboard chip supported. In my case that is 1400×1050.As I said before on this blog I’m a beginner myself in many factors and forms. My only advantage compared with an Absolute Beginner is the fact I’ve have been using GNU/Linux distributions since 1999. While writing an other article for my blog (about the happiness of Debra and Ian) I’ve came across an interesting piece! I knew that the Intel 855 drivers where bundled with the drivers for the 810 and 915 chipset drivers but the whole problem was they were only available in .rpm. The Wiki article stated that ‘Alien’ (a small application) is able to create .deb files out of .rpm and other archives. That was exactly what I needed!I did the following terminal work to to install the drivers with enabled hardware acceleration :

• sudo apt-get install alien

In the meantime I downloaded the driver and browsed in the terminal to the location it would be downloaded to. After the download was complete I used the following commands.

• sudo alien <filname.rpm>
• sudo dpkg -i <filename.deb>
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

If, in your case you still can’t switch to the maximum resolution you should install 915resolution from the repositories. Please note that you might have to enable the multiverse / universe repositories to download and install this application. 915resolution works exactly like 855resolution, only it supports more (new) Intel onboard chipsets. But even without the maximum resolution your onboard chip should now be as fast as under Windows again. I installed and played Planet Penguin Racer to test the graphics card. It worked as it should even configured at a resolution of 1400×1050 or 1280×1024.

I tried XGL/Compiz today

This morning I got busy installing XGL/Compiz. I’ve used a community wiki guide to download, install and configure XGL, but especially Compiz. XGL and Compiz (composite manager) are enhancements which make fancy animations, separation of hardware resolution and software resolution possible… and much more according to Novell. Me, being interested in eye-candy and possible Mac OS X look-a-like features tried it for those reasons.The whole technology is still ‘Alpha’ and it is not recommended to be installed on a productive machine. Since I have quite some time to spare and have the Ubuntu CD-Rom lying next to me I decided to give it a try. My portable is equipped with an Intel 855 onboard video chip. Knowing that it isn’t a full-blown video card I didn’t expected very much. Since animations and effects use only more resource I kinda new the outcome.To install XGL I used this guide. After some minutes I continued installing the composite manager (compiz) using this guide. After that was done I only had to configure the composite manager. Being scared of breaking my system before seeing the end result I quickly checked the compiz configuration guide.As I said before, I wasn’t really expecting sunshine. A few weeks ago I installed SLED 10 on my portable to check out XGL/Compiz and it slowed down my notebook with a lot. Browsing the internet, typing a letter or what not was almost all in slow motion. SLED 10 came with too much software pre-installed. A lot of services are enabled and all together they use quite some resources. So maybe my more tweaked and fine-tuned Ubuntu installation would act differently.No difference at all. After booting my Gnome desktop with XGL enabled and the Compiz plugins behind it things went slow motion. Since the project is still alpha and my portable doesn’t have a full-blown video card / standalone video card XGL/Compiz is useless for me.There’s is one thing in particular which I find disappointing. Downloading and installing XGL/Compiz is a breeze. But configuring Compiz is really harsh. When I first started Gset-Compiz I didn’t understood a thing. It took me fifteen minutes get used to the option descriptions and interface made for this application. Since it’s still Alpha I hope this will be changed when it’s beta or near final.

Ubuntu websites / repositories down

Just an hour ago a lot of (official) Ubuntu websites and main repositories went down for what seems to be a (large) maintenance operation. As soon as more information will become available I’ll update this post.Update #1:Hours have passed but still Ubuntu websites and the Ubuntuforums servers are down. On #ubuntuforums at irc.freenode.net various reasons are being mentioned concerning the sudden disappearance:- Major problems with servers / server software.- Compromization / DDos attack.- Power outage at Canonical, which seems to host the Ubuntuforums.As far as known there weren’t any maintenance schedules announced for this weekend. So it safe to assume that it’s a worst case scenario which is taking place. More information (hopefully good) will follow.Update #2:Channel Ubuntu (#ubuntu) over at irc.freenode.net (IRC) posted a link which holds a cached Google version of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/archiveThere you will be able to choose from hundreds of mirrors to download packages and CD-images from if necessary.Update #3:Some Ubuntu websites are (coming) back online. The same goes for the main repositories which were also offline.Update #4:Ubuntuforums are back online.

Ubuntu 6.10 Knot-1

Yozef, a forum staff member at Ubuntuforums has posted download and release information about the first milestone CD, 6.10 knot-1. It’s of course a developers release but these milestone releases also reflect how the next version is going to look like and it’s an opportunity to search on a major scale for bugs. So software developers and beta testers have something new to play with.Please read Yozef’s post if you are interested in downloading this release. Note that developer releases are not meant to become used as your primary operating system. Still in development these releases can get broken from time to time.Can I contribute? Yes! If you have a spare computer left or you can make a dual boot or triple boot you can help and search for faults, problems, errors and what not. I’m going to try to write an full guide on contributing this week. But due to time I fear it will be only online next week.

Argumentations, don’t forget them.

For many new users, Ubuntu Linux becomes a milestone to achieve. At first, beginning with the GNU/Linux distribution you might feel like your the only one. But as soon as you login for the first time all problems just fade away. You are thrilled you got (Ubuntu) Linux installed. And even if you encounter a device or service not working out of the box you say to yourself: “I’ll fix that later.” Back to exploring!That’s how it went in my case. But I immediately learned an other lesson. When it comes to fixing problems there’s is a chance you’ll have to put 100% against it to get it solved. Also to know more about what you are using and learn the ways of your newly installed OS it can take 200% and a lot of time. Of course you don’t have to do it! But I doubt you’ll stay happy!As glad as an absolute beginner could be I don’t advice to start spreading the word about GNU/Linux. Why? The answer to this question is my reality every time I talk about GNU/Linux with people… and I talk a lot!

Something what’s important when hitting subjects such as GNU/Linux are argumentations. Often both sender and receiver forget to mention them. I’ve been working for four years (busy with my fifth as you read) being a salesman. Without argumentations you won’t be able to inform people. I carefully use the inform because I find it wrong to push people, whether their fears or their ‘I don’t want’ attitude makes sense or not.

Yesterday I was on the phone with a colleague of mine. He was totally hyped about a (relative) new web browser called Shiira. “Yeah you got to check it out, it’s neat and so cool,” he said. Being a man of argumentations and facts my first reaction was: “Why is it so cool?” I had to ask him two more times before he finally started to spit it out. The browser has Mac OS X features such as Expose build in, the browser is made in the same style as Safari, it could import bookmarks from Safari and much more. During the conversation I remembered so many conversations I have had with people about Linux and realized one important thing (the answer to the why?)!Time, experience, some theory and being an example of a satisfied GNU/Linux user is what makes people think, switch and try. In all my conversations I can always reflect and give feedback on statements made by others and answer most of their questions. When people start to use silly argumentations I still can lay down facts on the table making my point without engaging an useless Windows vs. Linux discussion. Those factors I just wrote down even woke the interest of the same colleague. He uses Apple and Windows for years, don’t knows better, didn’t wanted to know better until we talked a couple of times about Linux. By giving him examples, facts, information he really had to change his opinion about GNU/Linux in general. Even more interesting is the fact he agreed to let me install Ubuntu Linux on his (relative) old computer as soon as he gets his new Macbook Pro.The best thing, no matter how much you love Ubuntu as an absolute beginner is to avoid feeding people’s current (but oh so outdated) opinion about GNU/Linux. Telling people that Linux is more secure does not mean much for them. Explaining them about permissions, the file system, root account and password will have maximum effect. Because it are valid argumentations.

Ubuntuforum members… and their blogs

RichBarna, a member of the Ubuntu Forums came up with an splendid idea. Since a lot of forum users and staff members have their own blogs it would be handy to bundle them.Almost all blogs listed so far (the topic is growing by the day) are related to Ubuntu Linux. Whether it’s by die hard hacking guides or links to other handy websites, there’s something that will be handy. Also there are some logs with more common and philosophical talk about Ubuntu and Linux.Especially if you are new to Ubuntu I recommend you check these blogs for handy guides and words of capable forum members.

.deb, debra, debian? The package manager!

Using Ubuntu Linux a beginner must know ‘yet another’ interesting piece of information. This information I am going to share with you is not only fun to know. It will also add some points to your ‘I understand more about Ubuntu and Linux in common.’Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X users know that most applications they download have file extensions such as .exe, .dmg and more. These two are the best known and mostly used in our digital world. When you decide to add Linux onto your hard drive you can forget about these extensions. Make room for the new!- Synaptic Package ManagerGNU/Linux distributions work with package managers. A package manager is also an application which lets you do the following things:- Install applications from repositories.- Update installed applications.- Reinstall installed applications.- Uninstall applications.- Search easily for applications within repositories.What are repositories? What applications? Why not just downloading? Why Why Why?GNU/Linux distributions work with package managers because they make it easy for users to find, install and update software. For the developers it’s much easier to upload there applications to repositories. Imagine when a developer has finished writing a new version of his application. He cleaned up the code, he received some bug-reports from the community and took care of them and he even added some new features. He uploads his work to the centralized system and voila. For the people who have a previous version installed it will be just a matter of running the ‘update-manager’. For users who are searching for a particular application ‘Synaptic Package manager’ will display the application based on the user’s search criteria. For an user who has found an application which suits him more, the previously used application can be simply deleted by clicking with your right-mouse and select uninstall. All changes will be applied as soon as you hit the ‘Apply’ button.- RepositoriesThese are the servers where developers upload there applications, themes, scripts and what not. From a users point of view these are the servers where you can search for applications, themes, additional features for you applications, hardware drivers and what not. You name it! By default Ubuntu Linux has quite some repositories available. You can find them at:System -> administration -> Software properties- or -Synaptic Package Manager -> Settings -> RepositoriesThere you can not only ‘turn on’ / ’select’ more Ubuntu Linux’s default repositories, you can also add other repositories which haven’t been made or aren’t being maintained by the Ubuntu community. Only please note! Repositories which are not descendant of the Ubuntu community can be filled with all kinds of applications, scripts, codecs and what not. So there is a theoretical chance that 3rd party, bleeding edge releases can break your system. Also there can be found propriety / commercial software there. This last isn’t always legal in every country.By default, most users and especially the absolute beginner does not need to add more repositories. In the default ones you will thousands of applications, add-on’s, drivers and what not for your system and hardware.- Why not just download?There are three important reasons for GNU/Linux distributions to have a package manager. Why would you spend much more time being online, querying Google, browse to dozens of about pages, release notes and installation how-to’s. That the beautify of package managers. Start, search, select, apply! Even primary schoolchildren can do that. So it makes Linux a lot more functional, already ‘Out Of The Box.’ The other reason is directly linked to the first.Installing applications under GNU/Linux distributions is not so easy as under Windows or Mac. Often you are required to know some terminal commands and be able to browse your way through the countless unlogical named seeming folders.But what if an application isn’t listed in any of the repositories you know and have selected? Well, than you’re way more than an absolute beginner. But you will probably have to read the installation notes written by the developer and trust on own knowledge. If needed, there’s always the community which can help! Also remember this. When you start installing applications manually they won’t be automatically updated by your package managers updater. This way, if software features a serious security issues you will be vulnerable. And that’s the third reason.If everybody starts installing software and of course never updates GNU/Linux distributions will not be able to be so secure, stable and innovating as they are now. Don’t forget not only do updates fix ‘dull’ bugs and security issues, new version can also bring new features with them. So it’s always worth it!- Who’s Debra?Don’t be surprised to hear this. But Ubuntu Linux has been build on top of the foundation of an exciting distribution. Debian Linux! Ubuntu Linux is not the only one. Novell uses SuSE and Fedora Core has been generated from Red Hat Linux. That’s the beauty of Open Source. When something fabulous has been created by a community it isn’t being kept a secret. You are as a matter of fact will be encouraged to use it, implement it and create your own version.Debian’s package manager used the .deb file format. All the files you will download from the repositories are .deb whether you use Debian or Ubuntu. The .deb files are archives. Within these archives there are two other archives (gzip or bzip). One of the two holds all information files while the other holds the files which are going to be installed.While the name ‘Ubuntu’ roughly means ‘Humanity towards others’ the meaning of Debian is a little bit harder to catch. It isn’t a real word. When thinking of a name for his newly made GNU/Linux distribution Ian Murdock thought about his wife, called Debra. So he decided to use the first three letters and his own name. Debian was born. But it didn’t stopped there. Also the new file format had to get a name. Again he used his wife’s name. So the .deb file format was born.- Dependency Hell!For an absolute beginner I praise smart people who have made the .deb file format possible. I explain why! In my years as Mr. Fix It and Mr. Build It (working in a computer store) I learned how to maintain Windows installations properly. So I thought it wouldn’t be a hassle using GNU/Linux. I chose for SuSE Linux since back then it was one of the best known distributions. They also had a professional candy-layer over themselves which caught my attention. Installing, setting up wasn’t really the hardest part. A lot of my old hardware (old these days that is) was recognized correctly. Back then my Cyrix 333MHz CPU, 256MB Sdram PC133 and 10GB Hard drive were the most standard of standard. Also installing software wasn’t that hard. But soon I discovered something I wasn’t so pleased with!SuSE uses the .rpm file format. Now imagine. Most software consists out of pieces. Developers won’t have to code that again and the package manager will automatically select the missing libraries or applications which hold those pieces. WHAT! Yes, you are hearing that right. So when you add a application from the package manager the chance is high you are missing quite some components. So the package manager goes searching and comes back with a list of libraries and applications you have to install. By installing the extras you are sure that the first application (the one you actually want) you ensure it will work correctly. A very big problem is you are forced to add more and even other applications you don’t want. To make things more depressive those extra applications you need to fix your dependencies could also need extra packages. So it’s an very very frustrating way of working. Not only does your software list grow, it also consumes hard drive space.But just extra packages isn’t the only problem. The worst problem is a possibility of a dependency hell. Software or components are linked to (specific) version. But what if that dependency upgrades to a new major version number (for exmaple: 9.2 to 10.0)? Bingo! This way it’s just a matter of time before the system will start braking itself and fixing dependencies becomes an annoying hobby.Debian based GNU/Linux distributions don’t have this problem. Debian based distributions search in predefined software repositories in order to solve the dependency. Something RPM package managers can’t do by default. But with so many software, versions and dependencies going around also Debian based system could face a dependency hell. But this is very rare! So the chance you’ll be facing one is almost as good as zero. And even if you encounter one Synaptic / Apt give you enough other options to solve the problem.

Which distribution is the best for me?

A lot of absolute beginners ask themselves this question. When visiting websites of known distributions you will always read the pros but not the cons. No surprise there! But what’s the best method then? I think there are at least two serious methods. But they blend perfectly together.- Get familiarized with a distributionThere are more distributions than other Operating Systems. So you can start searching for a distributions which goals, ideas and what not suits you! Is that important? Maybe at first not. You are not there to contribute or help others. You are there firstly to start using a distribution which you are hopefully gonna enjoy and if necessary being helped. But the chance that you eventually want to contribute and help will only grow as time passes. Because that’s the beauty of Open Source. So surf to the website of different distributions and check out what they have to say. Use Google to find reviews of those distro’s and read them.- User experienceNothing is as valuable as own personal hands-on experience. Installing, configuring, using, tweaking and the ease of it or result will break a distribution or make it. A distribution may be good looking, very popular and what not. But if you can’t handle it’s not the distribution for you! Note, it’s the distribution for you! Don’t start saying GNU/Linux is nothing for you. This is without a doubt the best method to find a distribution which is the best for you. Until you have worked on a couple of distro’s you won’t be able to say which one is more suitable for you and why.- Linux Distribution ChooserA bit more unorthodox but interesting method to choose a distro is the ‘Linux Distribution Chooser’. This web application released by Zegenie Studios asks you question which are related to use, level of experience, way of working and more. Distributions such as Ubuntu / Kubuntu, Debian, SuSE, Linspire / Freespire, Xandros, PCLinuxOS, Yellowdog, Gentoo, Slackware, Mandriva, Fedora Core and more have been added to the list. Based upon the features of the distributions and your choices it matches three (or more) distributions for you. These distributions are most likely the ones you will  enjoy working on. So it’s quite precise!So I’ve you are searching for reviews and official webpage of distributions go Google or hit websites such as:- Distro Reviews- DistroWatch- OSVidsTo take the Linux Distribution Chooser test please click here.

That’s no coincidence

On the same day I wrote my article called ‘Don’t even start about Microsoft,’ aysiu (member of the Ubuntuforums) also posted one. We didn’t knew about each others post. For me it’s a confirmation about a returning phenomenon. Flamebaits and troll-posts are being made by ‘heatseekers’ as I like to called them.These people like to post a lot of unlogical and nonces threads and post about the whole Windows vs. Linux debate. But as we all know, this is a subject which:1. Does not interests the normal GNU/Linux user2. Is a discussion with no end3. Does not have be started every time over and over, since it’s pointlessThe core problem is even not the subject. It’s the people who go personal, intimidate and try to upset other forum users by their posts. I hope, just as a lot of members on the Ubuntuforums this storm will pass over very quick. For everybody who is interested in aysiu’s post (and I recommend reading it) please click here.

Absolute Beginner Guide: I need help!

Ubuntu Linux is one of the distributions where ‘Out Of The Box’ is a fact. I don’t know any other distribution which is capable of recognizing as much hardware and what not by default. Except recognizing a lot of hardware which is a good feature, Ubuntu Linux is a very transparent distribution. If it comes down to getting in depth or solving a problems it’s relatively easier to understand and solve than with other distributions.This is my Absolute Beginner Guide which is here to solve the number problem before you can solve the rest! As in normal life you have to know what is going on, to what your problem is related, how to search for a solution, where to search for a solution and how to ask people to help you. All this and more is important if you want problems to be solved quickly and easily.- Know what you are using!A lot of people hear about Ubuntu. They hear nice stories, they hear interesting features and more what makes them curious. But just beginning on a voyage knowing it is a GNU/Linux distribution isn’t enough. Especially if you are a real Absolute Beginner! First, read and learn about GNU/Linux in common. Try to find out why it’s different, read about it’s variations and it’s development methods. If you are planning to install Ubuntu Linux for the first time or you’ve just installed, please read the articles I’ve linked below here. They will help you understand not only the history and important names, they will also show you the fundamentals and principles of something more than just commercial applications and products.- Linux- Linux Kernel- Open Source- Proprietary Software- Free Software Foundation- GPL- GNU- Source Code- Linus Torvalds- Richard Stallman- Mark Shuttleworth- Shuttleworth FoundationNow that you know more about GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, GPL and Open Source than you ever did before I think you will be looking from a different point of view towards Ubuntu Linux or any other distribution. Now, after installing Ubuntu and running into some problems you know why you want to solve them and keep using Ubuntu Linux.- How to recognize a problem? Pretty simple you must be thinking. Well, if it would be so, I wouldn’t have posted it in this guide. Switching from one Operating System to an other is a major step. As soon as you login the first time into your newly installed Operating System your orientation is completely gone. All buttons and menu’s where you are used to have are gone. There’s also no start button or logo to click on. Every menu has an other name and all of it takes time to adapt to. Technically Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux distributions differ very much. So you can’t use the same software you used on Windows for example and you can’t use all the drivers you’ve been using under an other OS. Is that a problem? No. GNU/Linux distributions offer a lot of other applications which can replace their Windows counterparts. But what could be a problem is hardware for example. I have an Epson Stylus DX3850 and I couldn’t get it to work. I forgot to check the Epson website for drivers. After a few minutes I found out the printer is ONLY supported on Microsoft Windows, not even Mac OS X. So that isn’t a problem which can be solved by the community for you. If you can’t get your handheld working for example, try to search Google if there is a solution. If not, well than it also isn’t a problem, it’s just not possible.What is a problem? Well, what if you have an other computer at home with Microsoft Windows on it. But you can’t see the machine over the network using Samba. That is a problem!So you see, there is a big difference between something you can find out really quickly yourself and things you really can’t explain or fix.- Where to find help?A lot of people tend to use Google. That’s nothing bad but there are better solutions. The Ubuntu community has created it’s own resources and documents covering everything from A to Z. It’s always the best to search first through the resources of the community (whether it’s Ubuntu you use or an other distribution). Because problems and manuals are always being released first on the communities network. Search engines pick them up weeks, sometimes months later.Before you are going to hit everything the community has, stop! Just think for a while about what you want! Do you want to know more? Do you want to know the definition? Do you want to solve a problem? Because it are all different things. Below here you will find a lot of resources available for questioning and searching. But take a look what kind of resources it are!- System Documentation (Local Computer -> System -> Help -> System Documentation)This is a documentation about Ubuntu in specific for the absolute Beginner. It tells you about the desktop, the menu’s, applications and everything you see in front of you. It tells you how to add and remove software, it tells you how to update your installation and so on. So basically, this is an Ubuntu manual. Will you find solutions to problems here? I doubt so. This resource tells you how to use, not to solve.- Online Documentation (Local Computer -> System -> Help -> Online Documentation)Also here you won’t find solution to problem. But as with the system documentation you will find knowledge which can always come in handy! But the Online Documentation has one big plus for the absolute beginner. It features the ‘community docs’. These complementary documents have been written by Windows users, Mac OS X users and more people who switched. In there documents they tell you how they adapted themselves to work as efficiently in Ubuntu as they did on their previous Operating System.Ubuntu Online DocumentationUbuntu Community Docs (Complementary)- The Ubuntu WikiguideNow this is yet another great example of Open Source. In this Wiki you will find a lot of community written guides and how-to’s. So if you didn’t got your wifi working yet, just enter wifi in the search field and hit the return button. The Wiki doesn’t solves problems, it tries to prevail them. If you follow the directions and actions as described you will most likely be able to easily get hardware working and services such as Samba working properly!Ubuntu WikiguideBut what if you have a real problem. You followed a guide and you even searched on Google’s special Linux search page? The best option is to sign up with the official Ubuntuforums. There you will be able to both search for a solution and ask for help (if still necessary). But forums are something different than other static resources. They are filled with users, respected users sometimes even guru’s and what not. In order to be helped you must respect the rules of the forum and the community using it.- How to ask for help?Please read the following very carefully and try to remember it. Much (not all) will depend on how you act and provide information. If you do it correctly and by the rules, help will be overwhelming. This is actually the same at a lot of forums.- I’ve signed up, now help me!Wrong! First of all start thinking about your problem. “My internet connection does not work”. This is a bad example. Being able to use internet depends of quite some factors. For instance if your ‘wifi’ card isn’t being recognized, that’s one keyword! So now it’s not anymore: “My internet connection does not work” but “I have problems with my wifi card”. Still this is too vague. Imagine thousands of people posting such threads. How on earth will you be able to find a similar problem. So let us continue. You can’t get it installed, you’ve tried a guide to install wifi drivers but during a command an error appears which isn’t being covered by the guide! That’s a lot more of information. Now we can make out of it: “Error while installing drivers wifi card.” The only keyword left is the brand and model of the wifi card.Here you go, now you have quite some keywords which will make searching for the similar problem and the solution much easier.- I couldn’t find it using the search, PLEAZZZZZZZ HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This is a really bad way to ask for help! After you couldn’t find a solution using the search function there is one more thing you have to do before posting. You have to select the right forum where to start your thread and read the RULES of that forum section!You might ask yourself: “Why has everything got be done by those rules.” It’s very simple! By keeping everything organized, by names and specific problem descriptions it won’t be necessary to cover one type of problem thousands of times. In the future people with the same problem will be forwarded to your post for example or people will use the search and find your post and the solution right there.- I am waiting for ages, why won’t somebody reply?If you ignore forum rules, that’s what you will get. But even if you did everything according the book you have to realize one thing. A lot of people within the community are using Linux mostly at home, in their free time. So that’s also exactly the time when they are able to help somebody else. Also, some problems are weird, rare, badly described. For somebody who has to invest his own time to help others not every problem is a known problem or understood problem. So always try to be as precise as possible. If you get an error, copy the whole error into you thread. If you have written a script or you are using a command, post the whole command and script with the output. It will only help!So if you keep these forums rules in front of you, problems will usually be solved quite quickly.Ubuntu Web ForumsUbuntu Web Forums (Other Languages)So basically, if you have a problem, a question or whatever surf through this document and you will find a resource which offers the right content for you.

Edgy Eft is under developement

The Ubuntu’s developer community is already working on the next release of Ubuntu Linux called ‘The Edgy Eft’. The final release is scheduled at the end of October.As a beginner, what should you know about development versions? Unlike commercial products you can easily track the progress. Also at a time you desire you can simply download the ‘daily’ version and see how it looks like for yourself. From then on you can use the update-manager to keep the ‘daily’ version updated. But as with all beta’s do not use them as your primary operating system. Also do not import all your files into the system without having or making a backup.If you are interested in keeping track of ‘Edgy Eft’ both on paper as installed on your system, please refer to the links below here.- The Edgy Eft Specification List- The Edgy Eft Specification List (declined)- The Edgy Eft Release Schedule- The Edgy Eft Daily buildsThanks to ubuntu_demon for providing the correct links.

Don’t even start about Microsoft

Computers, hardware, software and what not related to it can make people frustrated. It’s perfectly logical that if you are using the computer only a few hours a day for email and word processing you will never understand or be interested in knowing your system in depth. But these days switchers and dual-booters make it a habit of starting flaming about Microsoft Windows. You should know that it isn’t the default level GNU/Linux users, developers and forum moderators / administrators are on.Of course a lot of users who switched to Mac OS X or GNU/Linux have had problems with Microsoft Windows. But it doesn’t means that is the reason why they switched. It also doesn’t means they don’t use Microsoft Windows anymore. GNU/Linux is something very different than commercial operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. GNU/Linux is open-source.We all know Microsoft is a big company. They make their products behind closed doors and what they make is what you get. Totally different are GNU/Linux distributions. They’re created by thousands of contributors all over the world. Everybody who has an idea can voice his or her opinion and start building it. Everybody is allowed to use the code, ask for help and use the end-result. Everybody is even permitted to modify it for it’s own use!That is the biggest reason why people switch.When I joined the Ubuntuforums, one of the first article’s I found in somebodies signature was: “Linux is not Windows” This is a very known article within the community. As time passed I started to get annoyed by the returning ‘winhoos flame threads’ and eventually wrote my own thread. With the thread I hoped people would start thinking about the nonsense they were writing. I encourage you to also read my article before starting or participating in ‘winhoos flame threads’.Of course it’s totally normal to post your history with Microsoft Windows and compare it with your distro experiences. But please, do it in a normal and adult way. This way your writings could end up useful and become considered as good comparison material.

Why Ubuntu Linux?

A few years ago GNU/Linux distributions were still only for those who could handle. Users had to compile their own drivers and kernel. Applications which were available at that time weren’t real competitors with applications used under Windows. A lot of terminal work, terminal command skills and configuration editing was required. So it’s logical that a lot of everyday computer users didn’t see nothing in GNU/Linux.But here we are, it’s 2006 and the word Linux has been mentioned more than thousands of times everyday worldwide. Though in the wrong context since the word ‘Linux’ relates to the Kernel. This layer of communication between OS / Distribution and hardware has been blamed of a lot. GNU/Linux distributions such as SuSE Linux have evolved not only rapidly but also functionally.The hardcore terminal command throwing days are over, extensive hacking in configuration and script files isn’t needed, applications have become very mature and serious competitors of Windows based app’s and the support both hardware as community is great!So is it time to switch? Why not dual-boot? I honestly believe people with an Apple using Mac OS X won’t be benefiting as much as Microsoft Windows users would. From my point of view the difference between distro’s such as Ubuntu Linux / SuSE Linux and Mac OS X is the price. I’ve been working on Apple hardware and Mac OS X for half a year now. I find Mac OS X, it’s feature and GUI very in harmony and a real alternative of Microsoft Windows. But the biggest benefit is that the user is able to run creative applications such as Macromedia Studio and Adobe Creative suite.Microsoft Windows users on the other hand do have something to try. I’ve been working on Microsoft Windows operating systems for a long time… who hasn’t. I’m happy that GNU/Linux distributions today are so evolved. Today the day I’m being able to leave commercial interests and problems behind and enjoy open-source!So why should you give GNU/Linux distributions a try? These distributions are all build on a solid Kernel. While this may not mean something to you, it’s a very important factor. The Kernel (as I said before) is mainly busy communicating between hardware and the Operating System. So if the Kernel is weak, poorly build or to complicated for it’s developers you can expect trouble. Also security and stability is important. Why should you be administrator in your account all the time? It’s only a high risk which results in virus-cleaning operations, spyware / ad-ware removal and what not. You can be playing administrator when it’s needed, much less risk! To make things interesting let’s pull up some costs. If something costs money, people are always are prepared to listen. GNU/Linux distributions don’t cost money usually. You can simply download a desired distribution and install it, configure it and use it! Also the software which is a real competitor as I told, is free of charge (usually though). So there you have it! A nice, stable and cost-efficient operating system!Why Ubuntu Linux? Why not SuSE Linux or Puppy Linux? Go ahead, indeed, try, experience and learn. But if at one point you find (community) support lacking, services / devices and software not working OOTB (Out Of The Box) and you’re missing the ability to fully understand your distribution… Ubuntu Linux is the distribution which will take care with all of that.