Alternative to Microsoft Windows: Free software (Ubuntu)

[jokinna]

well good on ya red! now ive killed my xp and its got ubuntu on it instead

but its all good. im sick of windows. i only need a web browser, torrent program, vlc, and somewhere to copy my fotos. couldnt boot from my flashdrive, so burnt a dvd instead. couldnt get a dual boot working, so killed xp off and now all ubuntu. still trying to navigate round everything and get use to this.

only one major problem i have, cant bloody access my shared files on my network. i can see and access my other xp computers, they can see me but cant access any files without a password. givn me a headache. been at it for 2 nights. posted up in the ubuntu forums no help. gunna hav to go read some more more headaches.

but thanks for influencing me to change dunno bout the speed bit tho, takes a little longer to access my hard drive than before.... who knows?

cheers
jokinna

[yankatthebay]

try a username of "guest" with a blank password - that is normally what windows assumes you are using when you just click on another machine. Linux is just being "nice" and letting you specify it if you want to use something different.

[RedPhoenix]

Let me know how you go with the network drive stuff, as per YATB's suggestion.

but thanks for influencing me to change dunno bout the speed bit tho, takes a little longer to access my hard drive than before.... who knows?

Very strange mate - are you talking about loading files from the internal drive, or booting up, or accessing stuff on an external USB?

The guys at the ubuntu forums are usually pretty friendly, but feel free to post here for help too.

Red.

[jokinna]

Very strange mate - are you talking about loading files from the internal drive, or booting up, or accessing stuff on an external USB?

yeh booting up is hell fast. ubuntu is on a 300gb hd, and i have a 2tb hd for vids and wotnot. the 2tb takes a while to load up to view all the files. both are internal.

will hava nother go with the networking lata today, im due for another headache i rekon

jok

[ohagas]

Another question - does the hibernate feature work work with ubuntu when installed alongside Win 7? Mine tends to hang and I have to force shutdown. Have googled it and found that others have had similar problems, but can't seem to find a solution.

[Duane]

Zazz has a refurbished pentium box with ubuntu available today for$120 delivered.

I'm thinking this might make a bargain media centre.

Will a 3.46ghz celeron be enough grunt?

http://www.zazz.com.au/index.php# for anyone interested

[RedPhoenix]

Sorry Seáno, can't help you on that one; boot and shutdown speeds for me, are pretty quick, so I never bother with hibernating.

As for the Zazz box, yep - the CPU should be up to the task ( here's a pic of someone using the same sort of system, for mythtv: http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/inde ... e&id=zj0n2 )

Red.

[ohagas]

Sorry Seáno, can't help you on that one; boot and shutdown speeds for me, are pretty quick, so I never bother with hibernating..

Yeah Red that seems to be the consensus out there. I tend to use it frequently however, on my daily commute - watch half a movie on the way in and the rest on the way home. It's great being able to pause the movie then open it at the exact same spot by hibernating.

[yankatthebay]

is it just me or do the fonts on the listing for AKFF look squashed and hard to read on firefox on linux. I hoped installing the windows TTF files would help but no difference at all. I hate to ask for help on something like this, but do you have a solution to this Red?

[yankatthebay]

actually - it seems to have fixed itself now for some reason. now I feel silly for asking. the TTF files just must not have loaded last time I looked at it properly.

[leftieant]

There was a font / Firefox discussion a couple of years ago - here

[mingle]

Just resurrecting this oldie...

Ubuntu 12.04 is just out and looks pretty good...

The new "Unity" user interface is quite nice, although a bit too much like OSX in it's operation (the 'Global Menu' bar drives me nuts!).

The Ubuntu Software Centre is also very slick-looking, well laid-out and easy to use.

I'm still a bit torn between giving Ubuntu another go, or sticking with LinuxMint 12 - with its more 'traditional' interface and more complete software suite...

Cheers,

Mike.

[Digger]

I have the Kubuntu disc in one of my drives as we speak. I've been considering a dual boot with XP for some time and after pulling my old PC back from the brink a couple of times I will probably do it soon.

I've run the program by booting from the disc drive and find it interesting..seems to work well other than being a bit slow running from the disc.

I have some issues about which partition option it needs to be but some reading should resolve that.

I have machines with XP, Vista and a couple with Win 7 but am almightily sick of all the crap Windows attracts!

Dig

[Drew]

I'm using lubuntu (on a shitty old Dell Latitude laptop), which is a fair bit lighter than Ubuntu with Unity, and a little more intuitive for folks coming over from Windows (it's the machine the family browse on when they come to visit) ...

the upgrade to 12.04 did screw up a few features such as Hibernate, but all told still much better than trying to run Windows 7 on the same hardware

[millonario]

When I got fed up with issues on my old computer, I decided to install ubuntu. It was great! A little tricky to begin with but I got the hang of most things. The computer still works and I use it to manage my media. I think the story behind the development of the platform is great.