For some time, the folks at Ubuntu have been trying their best to make Granny — and most everyone else — happy. They’ve attempted to build a Linux distribution that’s easy to install, use, configure, and maintain — one that’s at least as easy as Windows, and whenever possible, even easier. As a result, Ubuntu is one of the Linux distributions that has been most directly touted as an alternative to Windows.

In this feature, I’m going to compare the newly-released Ubuntu 7.04 (codenamed “Feisty Fawn”) with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows Vista in a number of categories. To keep the playing field as level as possible, I’m looking wherever I can at applications – not just in the sense of “programs,” but in the sense of what the average user is going to do with the OS in a workday. Sometimes the differences between the two OSes are profound, but sometimes the playing field levels itself – OpenOffice.org, for instance, is installed by default in Ubuntu, but adding it to Vista isn’t terribly difficult. 

I tried to stick whenever possible with preinstalled software, although this rule sometimes had to be bent a little — for instance, to see what backup solutions were available for Ubuntu through its own software catalog. 

Also, while I was tempted to compare Vista’s Aero interface to the Beryl window manager (which has a similar palette of visual effects), I decided that pretty graphics, while nice, had more to do with personal preference than efficiency. In addition, Beryl isn’t installed by default in Ubuntu, and Aero isn’t available on all PCs.

In each case, I’ve tried to look at practical benefits rather than theoretical ones — what works, what doesn’t, and what you have to do to get certain things done. I should also note that, despite being a big fan of Vista, I’ve tried to keep my enthusiasm for it from overriding my judgment. Everyone needs something different, and not everyone needs (or wants) Vista — or Ubuntu — so I’ve done my best to keep my mind, and my eyes, wide open.

**As seen on InformationWeek**

ShareThis

1. A Sony  VAIO VGN-TX770P notebook computer, with 1GB RAM, an 80GB HD, and anIntel  915GM shared-memory integrated graphics controller.
2. A dual Opteron desktop computer with 2GB RAM, a 320GB HD, and an ATI Radeon 9550 graphics controller. (This is my day-to-day computer.)
3. A Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 session running on the desktop system, with 512MB RAM and a 16GB HD.

Vista and Ubuntu have roughly the same installation procedure. Pop in the installation disc, boot the computer, and run the setup process (which can take an hour or more). Both OSes let you manually choose disk partitioning schemes for an existing disk, or have the computer wipe everything down and sort things out. 

Ubuntu Linux		Windows Vista
(click image for larger view) The Ubuntu install process can work automatically (i.e., erase and repartition an entire hard drive as needed), or you can manually edit partitions. view the image gallery		(click image for larger view) Vista’s setup process is mostly automatic; however, there are some useful disk-management tools if you need them. view the image gallery

If you wanted to install Windows XP on a computer that used a mass-storage controller with no drivers available for it on the installation CD, you had to place the drivers on a floppy and go through a bit of rigmarole to get them working. Vista has improved this process enormously: You can read drivers needed for installation from anyattached mass-storage device, like a USB drive.

This is particularly important in my case, since my desktop machine uses an integrated Silicon Image SiI3114 SATA RAID controller which has no drivers on the Vista setup DVD. I had to download the drivers from the manufacturer’s Web site; once I did, I was able to provide them on a USB drive during Vista’s setup routine. Ubuntu, however, detected the SiI3114 automatically at startup and had drivers ready for it. Other people haven’t been as lucky, though: Folks who used the HighPoint HP370 controller under 6.10 had issues getting Ubuntu installed.

If you attempt to install Ubuntu on a system where Windows XP is present, the Ubuntu Migration Assistantwill attempt to import your files and documents from your XP installation. IE settings, wallpapers, user avatars, and the contents of the My Documents / Music / Pictures folders can all be imported this way. Unfortunately, one key piece of the migration puzzle, e-mail (not just e-mail client settings, but the contents of one’s e-mail), isn’t fully supported yet. The Ubuntu people are working hard on it.

One of Ubuntu’s biggest positives is its “live CD” mode. Boot the CD and you can run a full, working copy of Ubuntu directly from the CD without installing anything on the host computer. Obviously you won’t get the full range of functionality possible with Ubuntu when you do this (you might not be able to persistently save files or settings, for instance), but you can get a very good feel for how things work without actually committing yourself completely to the OS.

You can also use this live-CD feature to perform system recovery to some extent. (Ubuntu 7.04 does have read/write support for NTFS partitions, although it doesn’t support encrypted files or security groups.) The closest thing Vista has to something like this is the ability to install a full working version of the OS on a computer without a Vista license key, and to try it out for 30 days (extendable to 120).

Both operating systems include a few utilities on the CD itself. Ubuntu’s install CD includes a self-test to determine if the disc has any burning errors and a memory test routine (the venerable Memtest86+). Vista includes a memory test as well, and the ability to restore the system from a backup, but no integrity check for the installation media — for instance, if you downloaded and burned it as an .ISO from MSDN. You can also boot to a command prompt to do some basic recovery work — get access to hard disks and CD/DVD drives, for instance.

Finally, I mentioned at the top of this section that most of us deal with Vista as a preload and will probably install Ubuntu manually. That said, it is possible to buy a computer through some PC vendors with Ubuntu preloaded. System76, for instance, offers Ubuntu 6.10 as a standard preload, and some of the other major vendors (Dell (Dell), for instance) are making noises that they might start offering some distribution of Linux as an option. It’s not clear whether they’ll offer Ubuntu, but it’s one of the better candidates

**As seen on InformationWeek**

ShareThis

Fonts are like candies: you can never get enough of them. So if you are getting tired of the fonts that come with your system, here is a hand-picked collection of a few open source fonts that deserve a closer look.

The Liberation fonts are designed as drop-in replacements for the widely-used proprietary fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Courier New, etc. The Liberation font pack consists of three sets: Sans (a substitute for Arial, Albany, and Helvetica), Serif (a substitute for Times New Roman) and Mono (a substitute for Courier New, Cumberland, and Courier).

The SIL organization offers an impressive collection of fonts released under the Open Font License. Here you will find fonts designed for specific purposes (e.g., the Antika font is designed especially for literacy education) and specific languages (e.g., Arabic Script Unicode fonts) as well as all-around high-quality fonts like Gentium and Charis.

If you need a serif font that looks every bit as good as Times New Roman, try the Linux Libertine font family. It comes in the regular, italic, bold, bold italic, and small caps styles.

The MgOpen typeface collection offers four font families: MgOpenCanonica (similar to Times Roman), MgOpenCosmetica (similar to Optima), MgOpenModata, and MgOpenModerna (similar to Helvetica). Each font contains four styles: regular, italic, bold, and bold italic.

Arev is a nice sans serif font which can come in handy when you work with languages based on non-Latin alphabets. Since the font provides extensive support for diacritical signs, it’s also suitable for use with “diacritic-heavy” languages like Vietnamese.

The Droid font family designed by Ascender for Google’s Android platform consists of the Droid Sans, Droid Sans Mono and Droid Serif fonts. Each font provides support for Western European, Eastern/Central European, Baltic, Cyrillic, Greek, and Turkish languages. While the Droid fonts are released under the Apache license, neither Google nor Ascender offers a downloadable version of the fonts. But, with a little perseverance, you can get the font working on your system. Download the system.tar.gz archive, unpack it, and you will find the Droid font in the fonts directory.

Finally, if you want to spice up your documents with a pinch of handwritten text, then take a look at the Rufscript font.

**As seen on Linutop Mag

ShareThis

Ubuntu 8.10 has stunned me with many ways. Even if it may seem the same at first look for someone who’ve used Ubuntu 8.04, I saw tremendous progress. The impression currently have, about Linux, is going to be changed forever. Intrepid Ibex shows epic compatibility with the various system setups that I tried it with. And, looking back to some 5 years, Linux has improved a lot in being user-friendly and visually appealing.
So, for those of you who’ve been working with Windows from birth, this is the time to hop in. The Ubuntu band-wagon is growing. We all know what Vista was like. It was horrible and all it did was successful leech the hardware resources. Ubuntu is the way to go for the future.

I believe this is the day of conversion. Linux is ready for you. So, come with me on a ride to the brighter side of computing. So, enough with the stories right ? Here we go.
P.S: Most of these stuff are Ubuntu-specific.

Configuring Software Installer
I usually hear people say – “Software supports is low for Linux. There’s barely any”. Thats plain wrong. Linux supports almost the same amount of software Windows does. Maybe not more than it. But, there are a lot of softwares, both open source and closed source, which are being supported by Linux.
Ubuntu simplifies the software installation in linux through the Synaptic Package Manager. You can find it at System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. Or, you can use the Add/Remove at Applications -> Add/Remove. Both basically work the same way but Synaptic Package Manager gives you more control.
But, to get the best apps from the Linux ecosystem, you need to enable some additional repositories. Here’s how you do it :

1. Go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources
2. In the “Ubuntu Softwares” tab, check every checkbox (it won’t do any harm).
3. Ensure that all checkboxes are checked in the “Third-Party Software” tab.
4. If you’re interested in online updates, go to the “Updates” tab and check “gutsy-security” and “gutsy-updates”.
5. After doing the above stuff, press close and in the window which pops up, press Reload and wait for a while.

Now, Ubuntu will list a lot more software in its software manager.
Getting The Right Apps

There are some essential apps you can’t live without. Since I work the Release Candidate, I don’t know how much our software composition are similar. Go to Applications -> Add/Remove for a newbie-friendly and visually appealing installation experience or go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager for more control. But, install these if you don’t already have it :

• VLC Media Player : Absolutely necessary. It even plays .wmv and .flv.
• GnomeBaker : Works better than Brasero in CD/DVD burning.
• Azureus/Deluge : For torrent downloads.
• Macromedia Flash Plugin : Works on Mozilla and Gecko-based browsers.
• GStreamer ffmpeg video plugin : Lot of extra plugins.
• Real Player : To play Real media files.
• Comix : If you’re like me and read a lot of digital grapical novels

Using Aptitude Installer
You can use the command-line to install software too. Softwares can be GUI or CLI. But there are a lot of good CLI softwares out there that you might want to check out. (Eg: Mencoder, ffmpeg etc).
Its as easy as typing – sudo apt-get install <software-name>. It’ll ask you for your root password. Give it and you’re done.

Run Windows Softwares on Linux with Wine
Before anything, Wine Is Not an Emulator. Not I’m joking. Thats what WINE stands for. Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. And it does not need Microsoft Windows.
Wine can open any .exe or similar Windows files. Select a .exe, right-click and enter properties. In the “Open With” tab, select Wine Windows Emulator (ironic though since they say its not a emulator) click +Add and take it from the options.
You can run apps such as uTorrent, Winamp etc very smoothly. Some games run well too. Good luck experimenting with it.

Summing Up..
Hope that pretty much took care of the basic stuff you need to do to have a good time with Ubuntu. Linux is ready for the desktop. It supports most of the formats and the softwares are growing too. Maybe one day, big companies may start developing games for Linux and I’m sure that would be the end for Windows cuz I’m believe that’s the reason why most of us still use a Windows. So, I wish you all a smooth ride.

ShareThis

Ubuntu 8.10 features better hardware compatibility, bug fixes, speed boosts and some added features such as :

• Linux Kernel 2.6.27
• GNOME 2.24
• Nautilus - Tabbed file browsing and Eject Icons for removable devices.
• File Roller – Now supports ALZ, RZIP, CAB, TAR.7Z file types also.
• Encrypted Private Directory – Although not default, the package has been promoted to the main repository.
• Guest Session.
• Totem BBC Plugin etc.

A dark brown color scheme is also said to be included in the new package. With applications such as Wine and Open Office also getting an upgrade, linux use is stepping to a new level. Firefox 3 comes pre-installed and there will be a live CD (one of the most awesome features if you ask me). And these are only some of the features. There are more goodies out there. So, why waste another minute? Download Ubuntu

Go get the CD image here or Order the CD for free at Ubuntu ShipIt!.

ShareThis