The install was very very simple. I had the Live CD which I downloaded the ISO of and burnt onto a blank disc. After it finished burning and popped out of my CD tray, I just restarted and pushed the tray back in. I was greeted with a very self-explanatory, user friendly menu and selected to boot onto the live CD.
After checking to see that my wireless was working correctly, I clicked the Install button that was sitting on the desktop begging me to be clicked. Again, I was greeted with very user friendly menus that guided me through the whole process. From start to finish I would estimate that the install took all of 20 minutes.
After a quick restart, I entered my username and password for the first time, and up came my new desktop. It loaded up, and up came a symbol asking to install "restricted drivers" for my Nvidia video card. They had 2 options and one of them was well marked with [RECOMMENDED]...I thought that looked good so I selected it, and enabled the driver. It required a reboot, so I obliged and rebooted my computer.
This time after I let it boot up, I was told that there were 126 updates. the first thing that ran through my mind was the hours upon hours that I had spent updating Vista, and how badly I want to get to bed tonight. So I followed the instructions that it gave me, and 22 minutes later, every update was installed and ready to go!!
I didn't have too much time to spend playing around on Ubuntu tonight, but I did change the theme to the very sexy "Dark Room" theme. Oh, and also I deleted the bottom bar (I just thought it was ugly and unnecessary). Then I hovered over the top bar>>>Right clicked>>>Add to Panel>>>Scrolled all the way to the bottom>>and added Window List (This is the feature that was on the bottom bar that I deleted)
Here is a look at the NEW desktop!!!
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| From Screenshots |
And This is the theme that I selected to get this great looking desktop.
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| From Screenshots |
I will post more soon folks, as you can see I ventured off and installed Picasa. I will be posting on just how I did that, as well as how-to install everything I "need" to replace my Windows Desktop that I just left behind.
All-In-all, this install was by far the easiest operating system install that I have ever experienced....In fact, even through fully updating Ubuntu, it has far surpassed Windows in ease-of-use. I am impressed so far, and look forward to digging deeper into Ubuntu to see what problems I will encounter
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10 comments:
Good to hear wireless working.
Next port of call will be going to add/remove (in the applications menu), selecting "all available applications" and then installing all multimedia codecs (I won't tell you, just to see how easily you find them). Install VLC, and if not in the menu, google AWN dock and learn how to install that. Good little launcher.
Also, since you have deleted the bottom bar, right click on the top one and see how to modify this.
Then go to gnome-look.org and find some wallpaper/metacity (window borders) and GTK (themes - though I like that black one as well). You can also alter your icon sets and by installing gcursor to alter mouse cursors.
If your ISP had a "free zone", and that includes ubuntu, then chances are you can also run your updates without impacting on your download quota (I have this option with my ISP). That is a little more complex, but nothing Copy+Paste won't fix (that's the beauty of the command line - copy paste will do the trick).
Here's a nice and simple command which should get all the codecs installed for video & audio which chrismcm mentioned:
Run Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal and copy & paste the following command into it and press [enter] while you're online:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras vlc helix-player totem-mozilla
If you're into graphics I would heavily advise adding inkscape and blender to that list too.
Daisy and Chrismcm,
Thanks again for posting up all the helpful information. I will definitely give all of it a shot!
Chrismcm, I really like the look of AWN, and will definitely be trying to get that working on my PC... and gnome-look.org seems to be an amazing resource to spruce everything up!!
Daisy,
I appreciate the shortcut, I will give that a try. Hopefully you will keep reading, and help me out along the way. I appreciate the time you took to post up.
Regards,
Blake
"other" in the poll: actually doing it...
I'm following your blog with interest. You seem very motivated. :)
FYI: deleting the bottom panel is something I do in every fresh Ubuntu install, to make way for the Avant Window Navigator dock. But you don't have to re-add Window List or anything else; it's easier to just move them to the upper panel before deleting. Right-click and unlock, then right-click again and choose Move. Then put your cursor on the top panel and click where you want it to go.
You might want to search out and install Ubuntu-Tweak. You'll be wanting to customize your desktop soon; it makes that a lot easier.
dwasifar,
I appreciate you following my blog. I will be making a post on AWN in the upcoming days, so far this whole experience has been great. I look forward to hearing more ideas from you, and creating articles regarding them.
I will also do some research on Ubuntu-Tweak per your recommendation.
Thanks Again,
Blake
You should really try getting used to using virtual workspaces. When you removed the bottom bar you also got rid of the workspace switcher. You should add this applet to the top bar and give it a whirl. It allows you to use different workspaces for different things.
For example, right now I have some math homework on workspace 1 where I'm using LaTeX to type out my answers. On workspace 2, I have research documents open. And on workspace 3, I get distracted and post comments on blogger. :-)
PS: Try pressing ctl+alt+left, ctl+alt+right, and windows+e if you have advanced effects enabled in the appearance settings.
Wait till you get into Wine and Virtualbox! (Available in the standard repositories, I think)
You can seamlessly and effortlessly (especially if you had the RAM to run Vista properly) keep a full screen or windowed XP/Vista application (RDP) running in one of your virtual workspaces. Saves you having to figure out a lot of workarounds for Cisco's VPN software or Citrix/IE-only nonsense, especially with the easy networking in Ubuntu and Virtualbox.
Advanced Desktop Effects application is a must have, as you can customize hotkeys and hotcorners with amazing effects for organizing or viewing your desktop and apps.
I don't know much about Citrix, but Cisco VPN, at least, is relatively easy to set up once you figure it out. Install network-manager-vpnc and get the group password, then you should be set.
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