Ubuntu, my next home?

Due to problems with re-installing Windows on my notebook after I decided to give it a clean install I decided to give Ubuntu a try. The installation problems with windows were sort of awkward, the notebook kept simply shutting down during the installation process and once when it did work the service pack update failed [...]

Due to problems with re-installing Windows on my notebook after I decided to give it a clean install I decided to give Ubuntu a try. The installation problems with windows were sort of awkward, the notebook kept simply shutting down during the installation process and once when it did work the service pack update failed and windows couldn’t be booted up again, also repairing resulted in the weird shutdowns.

Another weird thing was that format in the windows XP installation apparently couldn’t get rid of a couple of Vista RC files I still had on my system, they still remained there when booting up Windows for the first and last time.

So I decided to go for Ubuntu, as they claim it is Linux for human beings, and since I have always considered myself as part of the human race that just might be my thing. It’s not that I don’t like learning new things, but I simply want to be able to use an OS with relative ease, something which in the past Mandrake could offer in some way, but far from perfect.

The first looks of Ubuntu are quite nice, but I must say that it is all pretty new. I did manage to install Xine player though! That makes it sound like such a task, but could simply do it through add/remove software, so not much to it once you figure that out.

Asides from that I also managed to install the latest Ati drivers for my gfx card by using the following lot of scary commands.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sh ati-driver-installer-8.33.6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/edgy
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.33.6-1*.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.33.6-1*.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-control_8.33.6-1*.deb
sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant build fglrx
sudo module-assistant install fglrx
sudo depmod -a sudo depmod -asudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
sudo shutdown -r now

Now I must give a major thanks to the unofficial wiki for the Ati Linux driver, without their help it would never have made it possible for me to install those drivers. I guess if this is considered for human beings, they still have a lot to learn about humans, since speaking in name of humans here for a bit; “We like plug ‘n play, click ‘n install packages, and all of that other nifty kinda stuff”.

I’ll be giving it a chance though, let’s see what it brings me to and I’ll keep you all updated on this. If anyone has tips on Ubuntu or Linux in general which I should know as someone pretty much new to Linux, definitely feel free to leave a comment, it’ll be greatly appreciated.