Pic Of The Day: Ubuntu Installfest
Update 2008-02-19: George Wright has blogged about the installfest here.
Update 2008-02-21: Jono Bacon has also blogged an account of the meeting .
Today's Pic is of our director, Ashley Highfield, starting the week with an .
Ubuntu is an open-source operating system which aims for ease of use. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s George Wright [right] and Ubuntu Community Manager [left] offered to install the OS on a laptop for Ashley to take home and experiment with. We're hoping that both George and Ashley will be posting about the experience (Update 19/02 - George has now posted here).
There are more pictures and .
Alan Connor is co-editor, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Internet Blog
Comments
I'd like to know what he made of the Ubuntu colour scheme!
The Ubuntu colour sheme is hideous. Some sort of dirty 70s orange .. eurgh.
Dont waste your time playing with Linux/Ubuntu, get a Mac, its a PROPER Unix machine ;-P
I just installed ubuntu last night; couldn't quite get past the thought of ditching Vista so I ran it on a Microsoft Virtual PC. There's some great instructions on - in which the problem with mice is also fixed!
... oh and I have a mac, so I still have "proper" Unix ;)
So Matthew... let me see if I get this right... The theme of Ubuntu is hideous so we should just disregard completely the most advanced and secure OS in the world and give away our freedom (and cash I might add) for a prettier background)
If there is one thing ubuntu is amazingly robust is in personalization (customization)... you can make it look exactly as you want it to... try that on windows or mac
As to bling factor just take a look at the latest versions of compiz fusion...
I have been playing with, what apple likes to call their new features, for more than 18 months before leopard or vista came out.
One thing you are right ... Apple hardware is very sexy... If I had the money I would gladly purchase an apple laptop... But the fact that for half the price of an apple laptop I was able to purchase an HP laptop with much better specs. This completely obliterated the reason to think mac...
My laptop would be even cheaper if I had the chance of choosing the OS that comes preinstalled... but because of windows monopolization tactics I had to pay a premium of windows vista... an OS that i do not use, and further more I had to spend a lot of time getting all the hardware to comply with linux... a problem that would not exist if companies did not ignored all linux users when they create their hardware drivers.
Congratulations.
Duarte Molha - it might seem an invalid criticism, but appearance really does matter (much of the economy is really based on appearance after all). You'll find Mark Shuttleworth also agrees:
I don't personally feel that they've achieved that goal yet, but then you probably wouldn't share my subjective opinion of pretty :-) (so I use a different distribution & look/feel)
(Whizzy is not the same as pretty IMO)
Shame you can't use that ubuntu laptop to download iplayer stuff and won't for the forceable future so far... maybe this will get mr Highfield's gears in motion, non-microsoft users are not second class citizens
The Ubuntu colour scheme is not without it's charm. Little charm even so.
So Matthew... let me see if I get this right... The theme of Ubuntu is hideous so we should just disregard completely the most advanced and secure OS in the world and give away our freedom (and cash I might add) for a prettier background)
First impressions are VERY important and well, Ubuntu's puke orange/brown really is not a good first impression.
Kubuntu looks a lot nicer, but really, Linux? Its not for the mainstream user is it? Far too finickity and techy still.
It's got to be said, like it or loathe it, Ubuntu's colours are unique. That said loathe it and you're three clicks (maybe four) away from a different colour scheme or entirely different theme.
I criticised his comments regarding Linux at the time so refreshing to see he has demonstrated an open mind on the issue.
Andrew ( # 3 )
I'm running Ubuntu Live CD right now, the only thing it does to your hard drive is read it .
Try before you install, No danger of damage .
I'm currently waiting for random data to be written to a empty partition (getting ready to test out encrypted LVM) so while its running in the background, I figured I would "surf the net" and stumbled here from Groklaw.net.
I don't know how well it runs in a vista VM, but it runs very well from CD.
Full Hardware detection hotdock,sound,video,net,wifi,MICE, and in my case thinkpad sound/function keys ( complete with on screen display) :-)
Ubuntu's colour scheme is like Marmite: you either love it or hate it.
I am secretly hoping Ubuntu will defect to KDE. KDE4 is rather sexy. Good luck to Ashley with Ubuntu, hope he likes it! :)
www.gnome-look.org and get another theme or try kubuntu, it's blue. problem solved.
Get a mac - unix like? Ok I guess it's unix like but its very very much less usable unless you install Fink and add tons of packages. Buy an overpriced computer with less functionality and the worst security of any computer out there (yes, thats what I said).
I like the elephant skin background myself and if all goes to plan with gnome-look.org theme and background chooser you won't have to go chasing around a nice look either.
but why Ubuntu, just because it's the most well known, does not make it the best, look at Windows and you realise that.
Get a mac - unix like? Ok I guess it's unix like but its very very much less usable unless you install Fink and add tons of packages.
Dirk Gently? Dirk Gently?! Dirk Gently'd NEVER say anything bad about Macs!
Anyway, you're REALLY, HONESTLY suggesting that using Ubuntu and installing packages is EASIER than doing the very same on OS X or even installing *nixy bits on OS X?
You're crazy for sure.
Buy an overpriced computer with less functionality and the worst security of any computer out there (yes, thats what I said).
Confirmed, you're one of the crazy ones. I salute you Mr Dirk Gently imposter.
@gord Shame you can't use that ubuntu laptop to download iplayer stuff and won't for the forceable future so far.
Getting there... you can stream and the Mac version is on the way (https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7233252.stm) - one thing at a time....
m
Congrats!
I totally didn't get the "proper unix" comment though, unless it's "proper" to force people to buy your product if you want them helping it out.
I've been using Ubuntu for over a year now. Getting used to it was slightly painful (about the same as the switch from Windows 95 to XP), but since then my computers have run a lot faster and been a lot more fun to work on. I still have XP on one machine, 'just in case', but it rarely gets turned on.
Kind of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to allow us to watch iPlayer stuff via streaming, but shame on them for supporting the Microsoft monopoly and not allowing Linux users to download the material.
For those who thank Ubuntu is ugly you should really take a look at some of the screen shots. Linux can be made to look like anything you want. After using Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distributions for 2 years I hate having to use Windows computers. They are so boring. Even Vista is boring compared to a well set up Linux system. For all the things people try to say you can't do with Linux, those are the people who go in thinking it can't be good. Open Office saves to .doc format, you can use I-Pods with Linux, etc, etc. I'm glad the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is doing this, congrats and good on you.
Anyway, you're REALLY, HONESTLY suggesting that using Ubuntu and installing packages is EASIER than doing the very same on OS X or even installing *nixy bits on OS X?
On ubuntu (and other similarly setup Linux systems)
Applications -> Add/Remove. Then search for what you want, tick a box and click apply.
Different from mac and windows, but not hard.
The Ubuntu colour sheme is hideous. Some sort of dirty 70s orange .. eurgh.
System -> Preferences -> Appearance. Then you can choose new themes, colours, fonts, icons and visual effects.
This is great, I am looking forward to seeing how it goes. I swapped Vista Business with Ubuntu on my desktop two days ago, and I didn't like the initial theme, dispite my favourite colour being orange. Soon changed that by installing compiz, and had great performance so far.
Also installed Ubuntu on a laptop for a mini-power saving server last week, and that's great to configure with Debian's APT - also installed a slim config of ubuntu on a ultraSparc 5, functions as an asterisk and web server on limited hardware.
More feedback! MOAR!
I used to wonder what Microsoft "XP" meant (then learned it just means 'ex-perience')... can anyone tell me what Ubuntu means, or for that matter, Kubuntu; Gutsy Gibbon;
and so on.....?
I love Ubuntu. I've been using it for about a year now. I'm not techy-I've just muddled through and have everything I need, including bbc listen again and, if the TV moron bug grips me, access to iplayer. I can't imagine I would ever want to download TV programmes: it's hard enough to get away from as it is, (my favourite pub just gave up and installed a moron screen) but if I did, there's always the DVD recorder or bit torrent.
My partner has a work laptop with XP on(her employers-a large voluntary organisation- have rejected Vista) and I can't believe I ever put up with it. There is NOTHING good about it: even Word is second rate compared to OO.org.
The best thing is that I'm running a three year old laptop that I bought for under £200; a pentium4 with an ATI card, admittedly, but as far as Windows users are concerned it would be ready for the scrap heap. It's still faster than my partner's six month old Dell Centrino.
As for appearance: change it. I use the BUUF icon set (Scroogle it) and change my desktop background with my mood. I have fiddled a little with the window frame colours and barely think about what I'm looking at now. I'm focussed on what I'm doing with my computer, which is as it should be.
As for shelling out for a Mac: that's just ridiculous. It's like volunteering to pay tax to foreigners for the privilege of being patronised.