Tech/Computer advice from me

Happy hour starts in 5 minutes
Fear The Spear said:
Skinned Aussie !
This forum on "Ubuntu Installations" is really scarin me, with all the endless threads of people having installation issues, now that I'm about ready to take the Ubuntu plunge
Help me, man ! These threads are painting a bleak picture !

Ubuntu Forum : Installation & Upgrades
Click to expand...

Fear...sometimes ya just gotta jump in there! Make sure your objectives are squared away: if it's to learn a new OS then expect some growing pains. if it's to jump right into a new work environment...well.....that's a personal risk calculation. I played for a while with "tiny" Ubuntu images I could load from a USB more as an experiment in different rescue formulas than anything else - and - as a way to explore ideas for reloading known good images as part of my daily routine. those were my objectives. there is a learning curve for every OS and it aint always worth the investment in time. the interfaces will be different and the problems will be differnt.

rec you sit down...list the reasons you want to change OS...and then do the research and use the folks with deep (and impressive) expertise at BGO to figure out what you really want to do. you are obviously on that path. looking at the questions you have posed...rec you revisit one last time your objectives and rank ordering the characteristics/uses that are most important to you....then ask these folks who clearly "know their ****" what best fits your objectives. no solution is going to be perfect. what you're after is "best fit" based on some set of ordered criteria - and only you can decide what those are.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
fansince62 said:
rec you sit down...list the reasons you want to change OS...and then do the research and use the folks with deep (and impressive) expertise at BGO to figure out what you really want to do. you are obviously on that path. looking at the questions you have posed...rec you revisit one last time your objectives and rank ordering the characteristics/uses that are most important to you....
Click to expand...

It basically boils down to me being too broke to upgrade to a newer Windows, when XP support expires in April.
And of course, too broke to buy a new PC or laptop, etc. :)
So, the fact that Ubuntu is completely free, and seems to have less overall issues than MS, appeal to me.
 
Fear The Spear said:
Skinned Aussie !
This forum on "Ubuntu Installations" is really scarin me, with all the endless threads of people having installation issues, now that I'm about ready to take the Ubuntu plunge
Help me, man ! These threads are painting a bleak picture !

Ubuntu Forum : Installation & Upgrades
Click to expand...

With the plethora of machine builds out there, spanning the last 15 years, that sort of thing should be expected from a free, community built and maintained OS.

There are a lot of people that don't follow instructions... there are a lot of people that wont read what the actual error on the screen says and think about it... or don't know how to handle anything that doesn't go exactly right and throw their hands up... or use really old equipment, or have some obscure equipment that causes some weird random problem no one has seen before. Those are just facts of life, when it comes to technology there are people that just 'don't get it'. There's nothing wrong with that, for those of us that get technology there's tons of other things in life we 'don't get' that seem simple to others. In addition to that, sometimes there are just crappy situations that are completely out of the hands of the user - it would have happened if they were an expert or novice. It's just the way life is.

Anyways, all of that is to say that if you're going to change OS's on an old machine you run those risks. Especially if it's a free, community built/maintained OS :)

All i can say is that from the few of us that have voiced that we've used Ubuntu, all of us have been happy with it. Your mileage may vary :)

You can download the boot-to-cd image and boot to that without altering your computer in any way. If you can boot to that and use the computer for an hour or two without any problems then you **should** be able to install it without any hardware problems. Booting to that CD will run that OS on your hardware, it's just running it from a CD instead of your hard drive - you just pop the CD out and restart, you're back in your windows environment.

You can read about the boot-to-cd download and instructions here. You can also just use a USB flash drive. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/try-ubuntu-before-you-install

You can also download a file and run it while you're in windows. It'll 'install' ubuntu like a program. When you restart your computer it'll ask if you want to go into Ubuntu, or if you want to go into windows. You can choose. Both will be functional. If you get tired of ubuntu and want it gone all you do is go into windows, open up add/remove programs (start -> control panel -> add/remove programs) and uninstall Ubuntu. I've used this before and it worked great. This may be the best way for you to go forward - if you like ubuntu just always boot into it. If not, remove it. Your computer should otherwise remain unchanged. Though you'll have to have enough hard drive space free to use it.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/install-ubuntu-with-windows


These are just the facts of life when it comes to computers. Too many variables (manufacture, combined parts, age of sytem, etc) to guarantee anything. The only thing we can say is that there are a few of us willing to help you if you get stuck, when we have time. That, and if you back everything up appropriately and your computer gets screwed up and you want to go back, you can.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Apple is evil and Steve Jobs did his best to put me and everyone else like me (designers who specialized in the use of Flash) out of business. I'll never buy another Apple product I don't have to. Too bad because they have superior engineering.
 
Fear The Spear said:
Skinned Aussie !
This forum on "Ubuntu Installations" is really scarin me, with all the endless threads of people having installation issues, now that I'm about ready to take the Ubuntu plunge
Help me, man ! These threads are painting a bleak picture !

Ubuntu Forum : Installation & Upgrades
Click to expand...

What you need to do is to run Ubuntu from the disc first, to get a general feel of it, and make sure your existing peripherals still run, lik a printer.

So, what you do is this: If you have the disc, insert it in the drive then an icon will appear. Click on that and it will take you in to Ubuntu. At this stage you will NOT be able to save anything to your hdd, so if you do want anything saved, save it to a usb drive.

This will also allow you to check out all the bells and whistles that Ubuntu has. At this point in time, nothing can go wrong as you have not installed anything.

When you are ready to install it on to your hdd, you have to make sure that you have backed up everything you need, as there are two ways to install, either back-to-back with an existing Windows installation, or as a stand-alone Ubuntu installation. It all depends on what Windows you have.

To install, make sure the disc is in the drive, then you have to change the boot sequence in the BIOS so that the computer boots from the disc. You should be able to follow the instructions from there as each version differs slightly. You might even be able to install from a 'prectice' session, but again, it is dependent on the version of Ubuntu.

If you are intending to use 12.04, you might be able to install with WUBI (google it). Just download it and it will install Ubuntu for you, but expect it to take quite some time, and give you monthly download limit a huge hit.

The scariest part is finally making the decision to bite the bullet. Once you have, you will wonder what all the fuss was about.
 
tshile said:
You can download the boot-to-cd image and boot to that without altering your computer in any way. If you can boot to that and use the computer for an hour or two without any problems then you **should** be able to install it without any hardware problems. Booting to that CD will run that OS on your hardware, it's just running it from a CD instead of your hard drive - you just pop the CD out and restart, you're back in your windows environment.

You can read about the boot-to-cd download and instructions here. You can also just use a USB flash drive. Try Ubuntu before you install it | Ubuntu

You can also download a file and run it while you're in windows. It'll 'install' ubuntu like a program. When you restart your computer it'll ask if you want to go into Ubuntu, or if you want to go into windows. You can choose. Both will be functional. If you get tired of ubuntu and want it gone all you do is go into windows, open up add/remove programs (start -> control panel -> add/remove programs) and uninstall Ubuntu. I've used this before and it worked great. This may be the best way for you to go forward - if you like ubuntu just always boot into it. If not, remove it. Your computer should otherwise remain unchanged. Though you'll have to have enough hard drive space free to use it.
Installing Ubuntu with the Windows installer | Ubuntu
Click to expand...

SkinnedAussie said:
What you need to do is to run Ubuntu from the disc first, to get a general feel of it, and make sure your existing peripherals still run, lik a printer.

So, what you do is this: If you have the disc, insert it in the drive then an icon will appear. Click on that and it will take you in to Ubuntu. At this stage you will NOT be able to save anything to your hdd, so if you do want anything saved, save it to a usb drive.

This will also allow you to check out all the bells and whistles that Ubuntu has. At this point in time, nothing can go wrong as you have not installed anything.
Click to expand...

Thanks, guys.
To make sure I'm hearin you all correctly, are both of you basically talking about the same procedure, with the boot to CD "trial" option ?

Also, I still cannot find a CD that's big enough to hold the Ubuntu file.
The file is 732 mgs, and typical CD's only hold 700 mgs.
I know someone mentioned that there are CD's that hold more than 700, but I cannot find them anywhere. It seems as though they stopped making them, because they assumed if people needed more than 700, they would use a DVD. But my PC is so old, it doesn't have a DVD drive, only a CD drive
 
Last edited:
Fear The Spear said:
Thanks, guys.
To make sure I'm hearin you all correctly, are both of you basically talking about the same procedure, with the boot to CD "trial" option ?

Also, I still cannot find a CD that's big enough to hold the Ubuntu file.
The file is 732 mgs, and typical CD's only hold 700 mgs.
I know someone mentioned that there are CD's that hold more than 700, but I cannot find them anywhere. It seems as though they stopped making them, because they assumed if people needed more than 700, they would use a DVD. But my PC is so old, it doesn't have a DVD drive, only a CD drive
Click to expand...

Yeah you'll need a DVD drive. Since that's not an option, you can use a USB flash drive. If you don't have one you can get one for like $15 from walmart or staples.

The other option is the Install inside Windows option I mentioned. You just download and install it like any other program - no other parts needed. I'd just go that rout. Give Ubuntu a week or two as a trial run - see what you think, or if you have any problems.
 
tshile said:
The other option is the Install inside Windows option I mentioned. You just download and install it like any other program - no other parts needed. I'd just go that rout. Give Ubuntu a week or two as a trial run - see what you think, or if you have any problems.
Click to expand...

This seems the easiest option, by far.
So, after trying it a while and alternating between the 2 OS, and I decide to go all-in with Ubuntu, and ditch Windows, what's the easiest way to do that, considering the limitations with my circumstances ?
Would I just re-install it the same way from the file on hard drive, and it would give me the option to install it on top of Windows ?

EDIT : I just tried clicking on the file, after I converted it to an ISO file with ISO recorder, and instead of trying to install it, it opens "CD Recording Wizard", forcing me to try to copy to a CD or DVD, which I can't do, of course. I assume that's because it's an ISO file now ? But without ISO, the file was completely unreadable. Do I need some other program to open it, and install directly from the hard drive ?

Sorry, I'm so high maintenance
 
Last edited:
Fear The Spear said:
This seems the easiest option, by far.
So, after trying it a while and alternating between the 2 OS, and I decide to go all-in with Ubuntu, and ditch Windows, what's the easiest way to do that, considering the limitations with my circumstances ?
Would I just re-install it the same way from the file on hard drive, and it would give me the option to install it on top of Windows ?

EDIT : I just tried clicking on the file, after I converted it to an ISO file with ISO recorder, and instead of trying to install it, it opens "CD Recording Wizard", forcing me to try to copy to a CD or DVD, which I can't do, of course. I assume that's because it's an ISO file now ? But without ISO, the file was completely unreadable. Do I need some other program to open it, and install directly from the hard drive ?

Sorry, I'm so high maintenance
Click to expand...

I haven't installed ubuntu on a physical machine in years... I'm sure the process has changed. Off the top of my head: Do a full backup of the system (and make sure you have your windows XP disks), then you can use their instructions to just install ubuntu over top of windows. It'll wipe out windows. Alternatively you can keep your setup so you can always go back if you need to.

But we'll help you cross that bridge when you get there. Try unbuntu out for a week or two (and don't short change that... give it a solid week or two of good use...) If you're interested in going forward we'll work it out then :)
 
tshile said:
The other option is the Install inside Windows option I mentioned. You just download and install it like any other program - no other parts needed. I'd just go that rout. Give Ubuntu a week or two as a trial run - see what you think, or if you have any problems.
Click to expand...

That method is referred to as WUBI.

Just follow this procedure: Installing Ubuntu with the Windows installer | Ubuntu
 
Fear The Spear said:
Also, I still cannot find a CD that's big enough to hold the Ubuntu file.
The file is 732 mgs, and typical CD's only hold 700 mgs.
I know someone mentioned that there are CD's that hold more than 700, but I cannot find them anywhere. It seems as though they stopped making them, because they assumed if people needed more than 700, they would use a DVD. But my PC is so old, it doesn't have a DVD drive, only a CD drive
Click to expand...

From what I remember from the old days, CDs can be found with 800MB capacity. You must be looking in the wrong place.

Then again, a DVD drive down here is can be bought for less then $40, so they should be a lot cheaper in the US. It's just a straight swap.
 
ALL Windows only programs are not compatible with Ubuntu, but most Ubuntu programs are compatible with Windows. Go figure.

For example, if you choose the Ubuntu route, kiss goodbye to your MSOffice programs as it will not run, but you can install LibreOffice, or the newly release updated version of OpenOffice, as both will allow you to read, open and edit MSOffice created documents. You can also create new documents and save them in a format that MSOffice will recognise, and thus, open. Not sure about the editing part though.

Any open source based program and software is compatible, but closed source software, much like all of what Microsoft produces, will not run natively. You will need software like WINE.

Games made specifically for a MS pc will not run, but there are many alternatives, and in a lot of instances, are a lot better visually and run better on a Linux (which Ubuntu is coded from) pc.

Photoshop does not run on Ubuntu, but the alternative is GIMP, which can run on both.

One advantage of running Ubuntu is that you will never have to purchase software ever again as all of it is open source, and free to use.

Even though I have to use W8, I still use programs that I use, or can use, when I go back to Ubuntu.
 
Hmm, that's a major thing to consider.
Although it sounds like even if there's a Windows program that you cannot re-install on Ubuntu, there is usually a similar program that is compatible with Ubuntu, and free, as well ?
So I may not have to totally "do without" any of my previous programs, huh
How about MS Excel ? Does LibreOffice or OpenOffice have a similar spreadsheet program to that ?
Or Adobe for PDF Files ?
 
Fear The Spear said:
Hmm, that's a major thing to consider.
Although it sounds like even if there's a Windows program that you cannot re-install on Ubuntu, there is usually a similar program that is compatible with Ubuntu, and free, as well ?
So I may not have to totally "do without" any of my previous programs, huh
How about MS Excel ? Does LibreOffice or OpenOffice have a similar spreadsheet program to that ?
Or Adobe for PDF Files ?
Click to expand...

All covered. All free. Every program you'll ever need can be found in the Ubuntu Store. Some of the more popular one's are pre-installed, like LibreOffice and a pdf reader. No need for a pdf creator as LO can create pdf's as well.

Just a heads up, I prefer LibreOffice over OpenOffice. I was an OO user for a long time, then Apache took over and it was rumoured that OO was no longer going to be free, so the main developers all jumped ship to The Document Foundation, taking THEIR code with them, and LibreOffice came in to being. LO has better support, and is updated on a regular basis, whereas I think this is the first time OO has been updated since Apache took over, some 4-5 years ago.
 
Fear The Spear said:
This page says "Please download a 64-bit flavour of Ubuntu Desktop."
However I don't have enough memory for the 64-bit, so I need the 32-bit
Will the WUBI still work with the 32-bit ?
Click to expand...

Read it carefully. You are looking at how to install with W8.

Bits has nothing to do with RAM. If your pc does not have enough RAM, you will be advised during the install.

You are best advised to install an LTS version (12.04 LTS) as it has 5 years of ongoing support.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top