IT Professionals

Ubuntu Top 5 Tips

Posted by on Jan 9, 2008 | 5 Comments

Gnomie Kaleb (aka hyp3rdrv) writes:

Hey Chris! My name is Kaleb, and I’m a new viewer. I saw your video on Ubuntu a couple of months back and decided to try it out for myself. It’s been tough getting used to it, but I really like it now. Despite this, I have run into a few problems here and there, so I though I would send you a top five tips list for running Ubuntu.

  1. When installing Ubuntu, make sure your system has enough RAM. I cannot stress this fact enough, as I had to use a 1 GB memory stick as extra RAM to install Ubuntu on my 240 MB laptop. If you try and install Ubuntu without using another form of RAM on a low RAM system, it may freeze or hang for several hours. I have heard horror stories about installation times taking up to two or three hours.

  2. Be patient! The initial learning curve is high. Ubuntu does not look like Windows nor does it function like a Mac, so be prepared to spend a few hours browsing around and getting used to the layout — which brings me to tip number three.
  3. Documents and folders are not located in the same place as they are on Windows. You may have to search around for certain programs in the “Places” menu to find what you are looking for. You may also have to unlock certain files that are locked to move/delete them — even if you are the only user on the system.
  4. Get ready to install new programs/codecs to play your music and movie files. When I first started using Ubuntu, it would not play any MP3 files, nor would it play YouTube videos. Adobe Flash does not even support Linux in it’s new version, so you will probably be downloading an alternate version to run flash files. Also, you may have to install codecs/programs to run DVDs. The included “Movie Player” does not seem to work when inserting a standard DVD into the computer. I even managed to run into problems when trying to run the desktop effects app, because my video card uses proprietary drivers that are not supported in Ubuntu. You may have to install different drivers for your sound and video card, depending on the system.
  5. My final tip is the most important — have fun. Once you get used to it you will find there is a lot more you can do with Ubuntu then Windows. Viewing thumbnails on the desktop and including widgets into the top panel of the screen are a really nice feature. There is a lot of eye candy baked into the operating system, and it only takes a few minutes to stumble upon all of the nice features. Most notable of the applications are the search feature on the desktop. Say you want to search for Firefox. Simple type Firefox into the search bar, and it will bring up several options. You can search for Firefox on Google, or Yahoo — you can track Firefox, you can launch Firefox, or you can look Firefox up in the dictionary that comes with Ubuntu. If you’re into games, there are plenty including — EVEN Tetris (be it a Linux version).

That’s it for my top five tips, I hope this educates and helps some people in their decision to switch from Windows to Ubuntu. Keep up the good work and keep posting all of those cool videos on YouTube!

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    Sounds right to me, good advice. :)

  • Russ L’Rogue

    Hmmm … yes, there is a learning curve, as there is with any new system, but it’s not really that steep unless you have the need to tweak things. It certainly has it’s differences, but for the average user, this is not a difficult OS to learn. And yes, it’s not Windoze … thank the Friends of Asgaard for that!

    Memory wise, I’ve installed Ubuntu on a 256MB Dell with no particular problems, certainly not as long an installation time as you encountered. And it was pretty straight forward ’til I started tweaking and adding applications from Ubuntu’s multitude of selections.

    Or finding Linux-friendly drivers for hardware that has only proprietary drivers available … ATI comes to mind, since that is what I have used up to this point (but won’t for much longer if they continue to resist supplying open-source drivers that work.) This, however, is not a problem of Ubuntu … it’s one of hardware manufacturers not having the insight to supply open-source drivers. The easiest but more costly option is to support those companies that do by using different hardware. Unfortunately that may mean buying new hardware (such as Invidia rather than ATI) … or having it included on your new PC.

    All that said, good tips for starting up with Linux … more specifically, Ubuntu. I’ve been using it since back in the Dapper days and it is now my primary OS, Winlose only kept as an unnecessary back-up. I say unnecessary because even in the event that you mess up your Ubuntu installation, you can boot from an installation or a “fix-it” CD and be back in business …

    Oh, and a tip from me: immediately after installing, do a system update via Update Manager to get the latest upgrades for the Ubuntu OS. And later, use Synaptic Package Manager to install additional software and programs. It’s a necessary but easy, painless and straight forward process on the road to having one of the best OSes around …

  • bayoujim

    2 days ago Microsuck notified me that my legally owned Windows XP pro disk could not be activated because I have activated it too many times. I have owned the XP pro disk since 2001 and over the years because of Windows crashes and hardware failures have reinstalled many times.

    I completely changed over to Ubuntu linux 2 days ago.

    I will never use a Microsoft product again. Microsoft should not and will not tell me anymore that I cannot use a product that I bought and paid for
    and is in my own home.

  • pettman

    If you are installing on low-RAM systems, consider using the alternate install disk (uses a nCurses interface that is really light on the hardware requirements and doesn’t require a working video-driver) and xubuntu instead of standard ubuntu (requires less ram once installed).

  • http://webunleashed.projectweb.gr Ted

    pettman is right. Less RAM leaves only xubuntu as an alternative to ubuntu. I run xubuntu hardy on an athlon machine 1.2GHz with 512RAM and 10GB hd. Runs like a charm.