My 14 Days With Ubuntu
Share

I can’t consider it’s been two weeks already that I’ve used Ubuntu Linux exclusively. If I had to sum up the revel in one phrase, that phrase could be “pleasurable.” And my ordinary readers/listeners realize that I cannot sum something up in one word, so I will use this layout to provide a whole synopsis of my Ubuntu thoughts.
Minimum Requirements
Ubuntu and its derivatives can run on extremely modest computer systems. Ubuntu works great on a system with a minimum of a 500mhz processor and 192 MB of RAM…Specifications that even the six-year antique Windows XP might choke on, and Vista desires triple the one’s specs even to get close to running at any appreciable pace. Xubuntu is a fundamental running gadget capable of doing all the foremost laptop features, but the most effective calls for a 166mhz processor and 48MB of RAM! That’s a laptop that was bought inside the early ’90s!!
These modest machine requirements are what first drew me to Ubuntu. Compared with the monster hardware required to run Vista, Ubuntu offers new life to computers formerly concept ready for the scrap pile. The truth that Ubuntu is FREE on top of all that is just an advantage.
Available Applications
A fresh deployment of Ubuntu (normally less than half-hour) offers any computer consumer the potential to:
* Browse the Internet
* Send and get hold of electronic mail
* Download virtual pictures from a camera
* Edit virtual pix
* Create phrase processing documents
* Create spreadsheets
* Create slide presentations
* Play video games like Sudoku, solitaire, blackjack, Mahjongg and greater
All of the above are complete version applications…Now not time-limited or crippled variations, and they are all free.
Who can use Ubuntu?
Literally, everybody who can click a mouse or kind on a keyboard can use Ubuntu. The real question is; Who is proper for Ubuntu? Here are my thoughts:
* Any aged laptop user who best wishes a computer for Internet, electronic mail, and low phrase processing. This is probably my concept of the number one demographic for Ubuntu.
* Any elderly laptop consumer who desires to do the activities I indexed above plus download and do mild enhancing pictures and play primary video games.
* Families who want a solid, cheaper, worry loose laptop system that the children can do homework on and play Internet games on properly.
I think about the simplest group of individuals who I think ought to no longer use Ubuntu are folks who require specialized enterprise software or software programs simplest available for Windows.
Ubuntu Support
Dell commenced promoting Ubuntu desktops in advance this year. If you buy a computer with Ubuntu pre-mounted at Dell or different carriers you would possibly find, you may have the choice for telephone aid. However, the electricity of Ubuntu is its community. The Ubuntu boards are 2d to none in locating answers to many existing questions and the capacity to ask questions that arise as you operate the system. I have found the boards to be extremely well prepared and frequented by cordial, knowledgeable individuals. Also, many states offer Ubuntu customer organizations referred to as LoCo businesses for the even more localized guide.
Ubuntu Weaknesses
As a great deal of enthusiasm as I actually have for Ubuntu, I am no longer so blinded by the aid of love that I do not see the chinks within the armor. And like ANY software or running system, Ubuntu has some chinks. The maximum obtrusive, in my opinion, are:
Hardware help. The Ubuntu community continues to work difficult at providing drivers and programs to work with each printer in the marketplace and stale the marketplace and scanners, virtual cameras (use a card reader for no problems at all), internet cams, and other gadgets. However, the wide variety of hardware gadgets available over the last ten years is impressive, and Ubuntu has a lot of catching up to do.