« OpenOffice 2.03 Is Ready! Get Your Fresh Hot Open Source Office Suite Right Here! | Main | If You're Not Using PDF With OpenOffice.org....It Will Make You Happier Than You Thought Possible (Repost) »

July 01, 2006

Comments

Congratulations. I like your blog very much and read every single post! It´s one of the best sources of information and tips about OpenOffice. Keep going!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux - I made the switch myself a few months back (http://positivesharing.com/2006/01/making-the-switch/) and now run both Windows and Linux on my laptop.

What I find fascinating is that Ubuntu Linux seems to be a more finished and professional product than Windows XP. Go figure!

One thing did puzzle me right after install though: Why wasn't there a firewall and antivirus program included? Some Google-searching gave me the answer: Linux is secure enough that you don't really need it. How's that for peace of mind.

I switched my desktop to Mandriva several years back, once I found a good substitute for Quicken (GnuCash does the job for me). I've been wanting to switch my clunker-laptop over to linux but haven't - wireless is a must. I can get it working well using Windows but haven't been willing to take the leap knowing that it can be trickier on the Linux side.

Re Patrick's post on firewall/virus...actually Linux has both firewalls (VERY good idea) and anti-virus software available. The anti-virus may be less required since there are very few *nix virus' around, but you really should be running some kind of firewall on your system - block ports and that type of thing.

Enjoy.

Solveig, thanks for sharing this! What I enjoy about your writing is it's relaxed, breezy style . Seriously, this was a nice read!

Best wishes,
Miguel Guhlin
Mousing Around - http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

You know, for an older machine, you should consider doing an apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

This will give you a light weight desktop GUI rather than the intensive Gnome. Just a thought!

Miguel Guhlin
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

You know, that's a good point. The afore-mentioned Simon said something about Gnome slowing things down. I'll give it some thought.

Thanks,
Solveig

Does anyone know if Kubuntu supports a lot of video codecs right away? The only linux distro I've tried that worked with a wide arrary of media files was Linspire, the "idiot's linux." :-(

Welcome to wonderful Ubuntu!

re: your video codecs query. Try this link:

http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#codecs

You might also want to try out Kubuntu at some stage, very slick too.

Cheers
Justin

Justin, thanks for the link! I had no idea about the answer. Make, I hope that answers your question.

"re: your video codecs query. Try this link:

http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#codecs "

Shall check out Kubuntu.

Solveig

Hey. I'm glad you switched to Linux, in this case Ubuntu.
There is one thing I want to tell you. You should wait for the Dapper Realease :D It is gonna be awesome!! Check out Flight5 (Beta 5): http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/flight5

Since you intalled Breezy, I guess you don't have that much of stuff on your Home Folder, so you could update to dapper with a Clean Install, that is installing from the CD overwriting your previous Breezy ;)

I'm a happy Ubuntu user, but I recommend against Tux's suggestion to install Dapper Drake Flight 5. It is an alpha, not a beta.

If you're interested in helping the Ubuntu developers troubleshoot and bugfix, then by all means join the Dapper party! Your blog, however, indicates that you are most interested in everything 'just working'. In that case, I recommend waiting to install Dapper until it is officially released.

Glad to see that you gave Ubuntu a try, though Breezy is a bit slow, you will like Dapper Drake when it goes gold(after a short delay). For the easiest way to get most of the common updates/codecs to Breezy is Automatix. Upgrade your Firefox, OpenOffice, install Skype, Java, Flash, Acrobat Reader, and a list of other options too long to list here.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138405

As far as the comments about a firewall, if you are behind a NAT Router, I wouldn't worry about a firewall as the router will block your unwanted incoming connection requests. But if you are not behind a NAT router, or are worried about other machines that are on your LAN, then yes, you should set up a firewall. Automatix installs Firestarter, which will help you configure the GNOME firewall.

Again, glad to see that you have given Linux another shot, it sure has come a long way. Oh yea, what convinced you to choose Ubuntu(good choice)?

Williamts99

Thanks for all the Ubuntu info! I did read that Mark Shuttleworth is delaying the Dapper release and I'm not into the Beta testing aspect so I will wait, thank you.

I will check with the Network Master to see if I'm behind a NAT router, and will hook up to those updates.

Why choose Ubuntu? Well, I really like the emphasis on "Linux for regular people." I was going with Linspire for the same reason and because I edited Peter's book ("Peter van der Linden's Guide to Linux", see book list on right of blog page). But then there seemed to be money involved in that. ;> There seemed to be buzz around Ubuntu with Google, and the Absolutely Free CDs with no shipping were very cool, and the freedom toasters are cool....you know, it was a well researched, detail-oriented decision. ;>

Plus, no joke, Badger is one of my favorite words for injecting into comments to make them funny, so I couldn't resist a release called Breezy Badger.

hi
i also usd ubuntu 5.04
but using apt-get i can only install gcc
rest would we hve to doownload
pls help

Hi Vivek,

I'm afraid I'm not enough of an expert to help--I just took the CD and stuck it in the drive. I guess I'd suggest going to http://ubuntuforums.org

Good luck,

Solveig

just installed xubuntu (Dapper Drake) on my old celeron 500 thinkpad. its working a treat. the responsiveness without gnome or kde is much better.

I also installed Ubuntu and gave linux my first shot. I must say that it was pretty painless. For all of the codec stuff I used EasyUnbuntu (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/index.html) and it worked just fine. Enjoyed reading your adventure into linux-land. :-)

Regina

The comments to this entry are closed.

GetOpenOffice Consulting

Get Book Resources

Search This Blog


Categories