All Current UBUNTU Problems Solved
Sep 27th, 2007 by Don Ray
While you may not think that UBUNTU has anything to do with Panama, I will see if I can make it relevant.
Some of the reasons, I moved to Panama were because I wanted to reduce my monthly living cost and I wanted a more tranquil life. Moving to Panama has provided both for me. Moving to UBUNTU has done the same thing.
On Windows XP, I was continually updating my anti-virus software and its data files. Not only that, but sometimes, you get the update of a new virus signature after it has found its way into your system. Besides the anti-virus software, I had to run anti spyware everyday for fear that some might have found its way into my PC and would be watching to learn my passwords.
UBUNTU has freed up a lot of time. I have used some of that time to learn more about Linux. The move from XP to Linux requires some difference learning, but to me it has been similar to learning Apple OSX.
I am extremely happy with my Open Office replacement for Microsoft Office. I am really tickled with the price difference. Of course the Open Office is free. I have exchanged many documents with MS Office users and neither system has rejected the others documents.
If you are a Quicken or M$ Money user, there are several equivalents, such as KMYMONEY, in Linux and again they cost $0.
If you want a quality photo editor, then GIMP is a strong competitor to PhotoShop. GIMP = $0.
I just put all of my photos into one of the photo albums that are available. When I did that, I realized that I had lost a large number of Photos that were still on the XP system. Since I now have a dual boot system, I just browsed the XP drive from Linux and brought all the missing photos into the Linux environment.
The firewall (Firestarter),I am using, is equal to ZoneAlarm and is catching an enormous amount of attacks that are heading my way everyday. The anti-spam plug-in for my email client is doing a very good job of quarantining spam email.
Amarok has replaced the windows music player. I have more choices for music on the Internet now than I can conceive of trying.
Periodically, I am notified that there are system updates available. A simple click tells Linux to download and update itself. It can’t get much simpler than that.
UBUNTU recognized my Canon printer and it operates properly. The only thing that is missing is the head cleaning utility that I had on XP. Also I have to manually check the ink cartridges to see if they need to be replaced, because the printer software doesn’t tell me like it did on XP. However now that my system is a dual boot system, I can just boot up XP, perform the printer maintenance and then shut down XP.
The other thing that has been nice is the availability of information on the Internet to solve any Linux problem I am having.
UBUNTU is a system that has made tremendous advances in user friendliness in only a few years. This is definitely a system for a country or individuals that want to spend money wisely. This is one of those very rare situations, where you are getting much more than you pay for. I am a convert and I am proud to admit it.
Don Ray,
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/ may have a program which will allow you to monitor ink levels (you may be able to install kink, qink, or ink from Synaptic). If you spend enough time with Google, you might be able to find a utility to clean the cartridges.
I stumbled across several useful utilities for my Epson photo printer and now have all the utility I want within Linux.
Thanks Tuxi.
Hi.
I had been using Open Office for several months, when I read that Sun was offering Star Office 8 for free. It has all of the Open Office stuff and a tad more. I have no idea whether it works on a non-windows platform. I have read that it does not, but that may not be true. Here is a link explaining how to get Star Office 8:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/08/google-pack-adds-staroffice.html
One small problem I had: I downloaded Star Office and it worked fine. Then, to free up space on the hard drive, I deleted Open Office. Then Star Office didn’t work, so I had to uninstall it, download again, and reinstall. Now it works just fine. Apparently, when downloading, the computer senses the presence of Open Office and does not download certain components.
Good luck,
Dan
PS: the “Dan” referenced in the link is not me.
Hi Dan. Thanks for taking the time to comment. If I remember correctly, the Google pack requires you to be on a M$ O$ (XP or Vi$$ta). It is probably a worthwhile download for anyone that is using XP or Vista. I think you still have to pay for Sun Office if you want it for a Linux environment.
Hi Don, I tried UBuntu based on your findings here. My only problem was that I installed on my old SPARC 5 that was running Solaris 8. After I got it installed, I was really impressed with the interface. As I got things up and running I cam across one big problem. There is no java support for UBuntu and SPARC!!! Doh!! So I am stuck. I would highly recommend UBuntu for Intel. I abandoned my attempt after I found out there was no java plugin for ubuntu and sparc. I think I am going to go to Solaris 10 now.
But thanks for the UBuntu updates. I agree that it is a nice os. When my current xp box dies then I will move it over to UBuntu.
Hi Mark. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I have never played around any with SPARC hardware.
Sorry that UBUNTU didn’t work out in your environment. I have brought it up on Intel and AMD environments and also on a Intel MAC.
Just a quick heads-up. IBM is offering their own version of OO.o as Lotus Symphony. I downloaded it and got it to “run” just once, and it was agonizingly slow on my 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 with 1 GByte of RAM and Kubuntu 6.1. I could never make it run again, and uninstalled it, but I still get offers to start document downloads in Lotus Symphony, so it’s ghost is still on my computer. I give it three thumbs down.
Henry
Thanks for the update Henry. I think I will stick with what I have.