Ubuntu and all its flavors...

[johnny9fingers]

I am preparing myself for the move to linux and am (almost) overwhelmed by the variety available. Ubuntu alone has it's Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio & Mythbuntu.....
First thoughts were to get Ubuntu Studio as my primary interest is to edit & manipulate photos. But there were some apps from Ubuntu I wanted that were not included. So I guess I'll get Ubuntu. Is the reason for the different distributions to offer less cumbersome packages, thus freeing up memory and disc space???

John

[johnny9fingers]

Then again, maybe I'll put Ubuntu Studio on my R51 and make that machine my dedicated graphics studio. And put Ubuntu on my T30, and have that be my do it all machine......

[madcow]

Ubuntu...

That's all you really need.

[johnny9fingers]

Does Ubuntu have all the Ubuntu Studio features???

[GatorHawk]

'Standard' Ubuntu does not have all of the features of the Studio Edition.

Any features missing from one distro or the other, you should be able to add them after installation.

The Ubuntus are made to fit on one CD with a carefully thoughout selection of packages.

If you install the Studio edition, you can still add what ever packages you need, albeit you would have to download and install them manually.

[johnny9fingers]

Thank you GatorHawk,
That's what I figured. I'm a newbie to all this stuff but am eager to learn. I will probably go with my original plan, Ubuntu Studio on the R51 for audio & photo manipulation, and Ubuntu on the T30 for surfing the web, e-mail, IM ect. As I get comfortable using linux I can do more experimenting as distribution updates are available.

Thanks again, John

[GatorHawk]

Glad to help, Ubuntu is a great distro if you are unfamiliar with linux. Still getting my feet wet as well. Using studio for multimedia work and the regular edition for general work/web is an excellent approach.

Good luck and post if you have any more concerns. You'll find (if not already) that the linux and thinkpad communities are truly great and helpful groups

[archer6]

I'm a huge advocate of Ubuntu. It's very ThinkPad friendly and due to its popularity there is a massive number of developers writing apps. I've been using it for a year after trying several other Linux distros. My first version was Ubuntu 7.10 till 8.04LTS was released. It's a long term distro (LTS = Long Term Support, for three years) that is updated regularly with minor revs every six months exactly. I have it in dual boot configs on a few of my ThinkPads my favorite setup is on my T60 which has two 320GB/7200rpm hard drives. The mainbay with XP and the ultrabay with Ubuntu 8.04LTS. The advantage of this setup is they are totally separated, with the XP MBR left untouched. Therefore I can remove the ultrabay HDD & replace it with the optical drive without having to touch the BIOS or make any other changes. Its the best of both worlds. Best of all its screaming fast with boot times three times faster than my fully optimized XP. Finally I have dedicated one of my R60's as a Ubuntu only machine, its fast, fun, and interesting to customize.
.
Cheers...

[al7kz]

You can install regular Ubuntu, then search in Synaptic for "studio", and install whatever parts of ubuntu-studio you want. It has sets of applications for graphics, audio, and video. & you can install the 'look and feel' of Studio, if you want to , or not. Real time kernel isn't supported in 8.10 though, since 8.10 won't support real time kernel for smp. For the real time kernel you have to install 8.04. And 7.10 is the last version that lets you select the input source in Audacity - for some unknown reason, later version won't. Cheers...

[johnny9fingers]

Thanks for the info everyone. When the latest distribution comes out, April 22nd if I remember correctly, I will get Ubuntu & Studio. If windows is completely removed from my machines, will my Canon camera, and internet provider software still work???
John

[bluesceada]

Windows software isn't supposed to be used inside a Linux System. Your camera will probably work with applications like digikam (not sure what gnomes equivalent is....). Of course some applications can be run with wine, but it's not the intention of running Linux when you use all the Windows Software with wine.

I hope you don't really need special software for your internet provider, it will probably not work in Ubuntu (probably also not with wine). Normally you should be able to use some standard dial-up ppp application and enter your customer data of your internet provider there.
Maybe some other person knows an application to do that easy...?

[bajaman61]

Thanks for the info everyone. When the latest distribution comes out, April 22nd if I remember correctly, I will get Ubuntu & Studio. If windows is completely removed from my machines, will my Canon camera, and internet provider software still work???
John

I suggest you try Ubuntu on the LiveCD format. This will allow you to see the Synaptic Package Manager, one of the most powerful tools of Ubuntu and its variants -- and fully test drive Ubuntu itself. You can do this now with the current 8.10 release and you can use it without altering in any way your current operating system.

Once you get to the Ubuntu home screen you can select System, and then Administration, and then Synaptic Package Manager (SPM). This application enables you to search for, select and install, programs along topical interests. I entered the search term "camera" in Ubuntu 8.10's SPM and found over 150 potentially interesting applications, including one which may be of interest to you: Kamera. Click on the line bearing the name of the program and the window below the program listing window will show you a brief summary of the program's purpose.

I also suggest that you investigate WINE. This program enables you to run certain Windows applications in Linux. It sets up a system much like the Windows directory system and enables the user to run .exe files. That capacity may help you in your photo editing.

And if you do not have it, check out GIMP and SYNFIG. GIMP is an image manipulation package that comes in the standard Ubuntu Applications, Graphics selection path. SYNFIG (if you get a good stable version) is great for some 2D cartoon rendering. I, a graphics novice, used synfig to make a short cartoon explaining basic computing for children in another language. The "instructor" is a talking dog I drew on my own -- but he bears a familial resemblance to Goofy. A visit to youtube and entry of "synfig" or "gimp" into the search bar should get you a sample of these graphics programs at work.

Ubuntu is not without its bugs and quirks, and for some of the older T2X series for example, has some noted install problems. Those problems can be worked around and you can access a very interesting and different computing experience.

Ubuntu's semi-annual updating (and the Linux kernel or core program changes) can sometimes cause peripheral hardware to stop working. That happens with MicroSoft products as well; but, for example, you can face issues concerning codecs/proprietary software for certain media players that you will not face with MicroSoft software. A visit to the Ubuntu home page and fora and a search for your camera by name may also benefit you.

Internet access? Your system should work just fine simply by plugging the cable into the machine and booting Ubuntu. On your first accessing the main desktop you should see a small icon in the upper right corner: two computer screens, one behind the other. Left and right click on these and you will see the status of your internet connection and other information. It will probably have started to connect to your wired internet service provider before you can even click on the icons.

You may need to add "drivers" to access WIFI or it may simply work "out of the box." If you need to add drivers there is a media connectivity page on the Ubuntu site that has lots of information about setting wireless up. The Ubuntu mini-programs (including those with graphical user interfaces) that help you set up WIFI are discussed there as well.

One more suggestion: get a Thinkpad just for Ubuntu and keep Windows on a separate machine rather than erasing it. You can install a "dual boot" system, but given the other things you will need to learn about Linux generally, I recommend starting things this way. Less complexity initially (such as sorting out hda, hda1, and your hard drive hiearchy and boot protocols) means you get to enjoy your new system sooner -- and not pull all of your hair out if a glitch develops.

[archer6]

One more suggestion: get a Thinkpad just for Ubuntu and keep Windows on a separate machine rather than erasing it.

I could not agree more. When I first decided to try Linux a few years ago, I took one of my older ThinkPads and dedicated it to Linux. Wiped the drive and installed Linux only, that way I was free to do whatever I wanted and if I made a mistake that caused a real problem I was not affecting my work machine.

Then only later after having sufficient Linux experience did I embark upon the dual boot setup.

Cheers...

[bluesceada]

I did the same when first trying out Linux, ..

But when you can use a separate computer or seperate harddrive (disconnecting the other harddrives) and if you can bring some time, then rather start with a hard distro, and you will learn really really much. I started with Gentoo in its old days (no installer, just a manual you have to follow to get it installed).

So start with something less easy, and you will learn more by doing that, but just if you can bring some time. It will take you sometime to get the system working, and to get all your devices working. But you learn really a lot, and you also learn a lot independent knowledge which will help you with any unix-like system. You will know more about the system than what is possible under a Windows system where everything gets hidden (as microsoft considers everything a secret). And you will always be able to reconstruct the problems and repair your system, you will never need to reboot and reinstall.

It is not as hard as it sounds, you just need some time for it and don't install an easy Ubuntu where you won't know much about your system even after using it for years..

So to keep it short I'm for the "bottom-up" approach of learning, rather than "top-down". Even if "top-down" is easier for the near future.

// Not to get me wrong, for productive use I would use a more "stable" distribution, so use a Debian, or for most people rather Ubuntu, which you can say is just a more pre-configured and up-to-date Debian (but less stable because of being up-to-date)

[archer6]

I believe it's all in how one approaches Linux.

Whether it's a distro that is perceived to be "easy" or one that is "hard" it's all the same. One either dedicates the required amount of time to learn it or they do not. Frame of mind is everything. If you ask yourself... why am I doing this? ... what do I want to achieve? And set out to truly learn and embrace something new, then one can accomplish the same result no matter what distro is used.

One of the first things I tell my friends that are interested in Linux but have no experience is "Linux is not Windows" which just happens to be the title of a great article for anyone interested in Linux to read. It will increase your chances of success with Linux by a great deal. It puts you in the right frame of mind and reveals some things about the OS that one would not know without reading this.

Finally having learned the basics from a "hard distro, way before I was aware of Ubuntu, and long before Ubuntu was a "popular well known" distro. I now highly suggest that new users begin with Ubuntu, and here is why. With Ubuntu and a ThinkPad which is typically very Linux friendly, you get up and running quickly and easily, therefore you experience a degree of success which is very encouraging. It gets you started using Linux right away. You are then free to "drill down" and learn it at a pace that is right for you. With time being the premium it is today, in my opinion Ubuntu is one of the best at attracting new users.


Here is the link:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Cheers...

[bluesceada]

For me it was different, my first experience was setting up Suse, I just installed it, it maybe was cool, but I didn't know what to do with it or what advantages over Windows it would give me, it didn't excite me much. It was very slow, too, because it was overloaded with pre-installed things. That was a really short experience.
Maybe a year after that I came to Gentoo due to a friend, and during the installation you really found out about the advantages, e.g. symlinks, mounting your drives where you want, etc. (yes I know you also can do that in Windows somehow, but not as user friendly). Setting up your system exactly like you want, choosing different Desktop Environments, or just a simple Windowmanager, etc.
It's in it that you build your system from ground up, and just then getting in your mind that there IS choice over a lot of things. In a preconfigured environment you don't necessarily recognize in which things there is a choice, as it was already choosen by someone else who things (s)he knows what is best for you.

But yeah, not everybody is that much interested to have his/her system exactly customized to their needs. And not everybody is that much interested in how the System works "in-depth".

So, I also recommend Ubuntu to most people, as most people don't want to offer so much time for the "switch". But I give them the option, and ask if they would offer more time for a customized system, and then recommend to rather look into plain Debian, or some other, less pre-configured, distro.