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The Ubuntu Virgin
After more years than I like to consider (it started with Windows 3.1), my PC use has been firmly ensconced in the Microsoft Windows camp. There has been some frustration along the way. Microsoft persuading everyone that they should make use of the additional, albeit non-standard, features of Internet Explorer, only to rip them all away when IE6 started losing market share, being a case in point. On the whole though, I don’t feel that I have had too much to complain about. After all I did avoid Vista.
Perhaps it’s because of my long commitment to Windows that today seems auspicious enough to warrant the writing of my first, and perhaps only, blog.
The combination of exposure to Open Source software on a number of Open University courses; encouragement from Bagel Tech’s Sarah Jane; but probably most importantly, my daughter’s old desktop machine sitting idle in the corner, has resulted in a decision to try installing Ubuntu.
So, today is the day that I begin my journey into the world of Linux!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving up on Windows just yet. I still have more than one PC in the house that shall remain Windows machines for the foreseeable future.
I do have reservations. The last time I was exposed to Linux, was a few years back when my son installed it. My recollections of his experiences are of driver issues and a clunky user interface. Reading about Ubuntu on the web, these earlier problems seem to be now behind it. The latest version of Ubuntu (Natty Narwhal) and its UI (Unity) does seem to have engendered its own criticism however.
It was with a deep breath then, that I emailed Alan Bell (alanbell@ubuntu.com) of the Ubuntu UK Loco (local user group) asking if he would mail me an Ubuntu distribution disk. Within a few hours Alan had replied saying that if I sent him a CD case and a large stamped addressed envelope he would be happy to oblige.
I could have downloaded a copy from the Web, but I wanted to minimise any chances of error, as this is my first attempt.
As I write, I have the envelopes written, the case ready, and intend to be off down the Post Office to get them sent off tomorrow.
Step 1 complete
Author
Ewen Rankin