Getting Started With Ubuntu - How To Connect To The Internet And Do Common Window Tasks

Download the latest version of  Ubuntu  from their official site and burn the downloaded ISO file to a blank CD. Any good CD burning software should be able to handle writing ISO files to a disc.

When the CD finishes remove it and put it back into the drive so it auto plays and followed the instructions to boot into the Live CD. Live CD allows you to temporarily run  Ubuntu  and most of its features without doing anything to your installation of Windows. This is a good chance to see if you really like what  Ubuntu  has to offer before really committing.

After playing around in  Ubuntu's  environment for a bit you'll notice an examples folder on the desktop that has various types of files that can be opened using  Ubuntu's  default programs installed. For example,  Ubuntu  will use Open Office (a free alternative to Microsoft Office) to open DOC files.

Connecting to the Internet in  Ubuntu 

There was no obvious signs of how to connect to the Internet. After looking around the help pages built into the operating system you'll notice that connecting to the Internet is pretty simple, unless you have a USB ADSL modem. Being on an Orange broadband basic package means a USB ADSL modem has to be used unless you own a router separately.

Being on the basic package means connecting to the Internet using a USB modem, not an Ethernet Live box that Orange provides on the upgraded package. So rebooting the computer and finding a web page came up with the instructions to extract some firmware, write a boot script etc. just to get the modem to connect.

After completing the modem installation in the  Ubuntu's  Live CD environment you'll be prompted to restart  Ubuntu  to get started. Restarting  Ubuntu  whilst using Live CD will just restart into Windows, so that's no good!

There had to be another answer. At this point I got fed up and went back to Windows. A few months later I plucked up the courage to try  Ubuntu  again but the Internet connection issue was still stick in my mind. So I searched around on Google more and searched the  Ubuntu  Forums. This is when I came across some luck. I found a thread in a forum thread where a guy made a USB ADSL modem manager program!

Was this going to end the problem? I thought. So after checking out the USB Modem Manager site and then following the link to the latest version, I downloaded the Debian file for it, .DEB. First thought was, being used to Windows, what the hell do I do with a Debian file? Is it a  Ubuntu  version of a Windows zip file or what?

I double clicked the Debian file downloaded to my desktop and voilà, it started to install the modem manager, great, must be just  Ubuntu's  version of a windows .EXE file. The program prompted me to unplug and plug my modem back in and it still didn't work. So after a couple of times of re-extracting the firmware, disconnecting and reconnecting using the options in the manager, the progress bar for the Internet connection located in the top right went fully green, it must've worked.

I opened Firefox, typed in a URL and hey presto, the Internet worked. Fortunately, this USB modem manager doesn't require a restart so it's possible to run and test the Internet while using the Live CD, which I highly recommend doing.

Taking the Plunge with  Ubuntu 

With this caveat fixed, I took the plunge, backed up all my files onto an external hard drive and fully installed  Ubuntu  over Windows.

After trying it for just over 24 hours I became convinced that this was an operating system that I would be using for the long term. I can copy large amounts of files from one hard drive to the other without my PC noticeably slowing or making music stutter, file transfers are seamless whilst doing other tasks.

I tried opening a video file and  Ubuntu  complained that it couldn't play that type of file, but it promptly came up with a message telling me I can download the required files to get it to work, so a click of the OK button and it was fixed. I tried playing an MP3 and the same happened, just a click of a message and  Ubuntu  located and installed the required files to play my music. These files need to be downloaded separately due to propriety issues.

A few things take a while to get used to, such as the folder views it has and the prompts that come up occasionally requesting your password to be entered. This might seem odd to have to enter a password just to change the date/time. With Windows latest operating system, Vista, prompting for requests on more admin type tasks, the odd one or two from  Ubuntu  are manageable.

Playing Video Games and other Windows Software in  Ubuntu 

I don't play games much and haven't attempted to do so yet, but I'll try WINE sometime and see if that works. WINE is a program to let you play Windows only software in  Ubuntu . Could come in handy for Photoshop since the free equivalent, GIMP, just doesn't cut it for some things I want to do, such as batch image processing.

 Ubuntu  is a flavour of Linux that is becoming a popular, free alternative to Windows. To get started, go to the  Ubuntu  site.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide will help the average computer user out there decide whether they really want to take the plunge with a different, but free operating system. In summary, if you're prepared to spend a few hours to get used to it and to get it working the way you want, go for it!

Source by David Babble