Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) aint half bad after all

Hello, there. I just checked out Ubuntu 11.10 otherwise known as Oneiric Ocelot and in case you don’t know what an Ocelot is well take a look at this:

And oneiric means dreamy….just a few hours ago I took a look at this updated distro of Ubuntu, and I was absolutely amazed at the progress that has been made with the Unity interface. I love the way things have matured since I absolutely wasn’t fond of 11.04. I did say however that I would stay posted and I am so happy I did!!

Below is a picture of Ubuntu 11.04’s Dash and how it displays your most frequently used programs.

One of the the changes I have noticed is the way the Ubuntu Software Center has been revamped..but don’t just take my word for it have a look for yourself.

Isn’t that lovely?

Te Ubuntu Software Center continues to be improved.  One of the things that has gotten better  is the new “Top Rated” view on the main page that makes use of the social rating features introduced in the last update. This time around it’s also much faster.

Some of the other improvements are to the feature known as dash and search these make it easier to find what you are looking for quickly. The best news is that the Dash’s search features have been divided into sections to make it a bit easier to find what you need. It’s worth bringing to your attention that Ubuntu is now referring to these content subdivisions not as “Places,” the term GNOME uses, but as “Lenses”. This will no doubt take some getting use to, but may very well prove to be worth it at some time in the future.

• Something else about the Dash feature is that you can narrow down your search to a specific category after all whats the point of looking for something where you know it is not? That is such a waste of time.

Oh and before I forget if you were used to using Evolution before things have changed. Since the default program here is Thunderbird. I must admit that I haven’t used Thunderbird just yet but I do like Evolution and one things that is offers that Thunderbird does not is its included calendar feature.

More information can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneiricOcelot/ReleaseNotes?action=show&redirect=OneiricOcelot%2FTechnicalOverview#New_Features

From what I have seen already Oneiric Ocelot is definately a serious leap in the right direction (pun entirely intended)

Special thanks to http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk and http://www.ubuntu.com

How I got started with Linux

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This story begins at the beginning of 2010.  I was broke at the time so I was trying to find a free operating system. I needed something I could run on my PC’s at home. I had searched on the Internet, but found nothing useful for a long time. But one day  I was at Barnes and Noble and I saw a magazine for Linux. (While I had heard of linux before I never thought of it as something I would ever be able to use.) When I asked people who I knew were computer professionals, I was told it was for people that were experts, and difficult to use. I never heard anything positive about it. I am so amazed that I hadn’t came across it sooner.

When I read the magazine I became exposed to Ubuntu 9.10.  Karmic Koala. It sounded so good, as if it was exactly what I was looking for. As a result, I got very excited took it home, and to my surprise had such an easy time installing it to my PC that I decided to run it along with Windows XP as a dual boot system. All I did was put the live CD in the drive and the instructions were step by step you would have to be pretty slow to not get how to set things up.

Since then I have been very satisfied with Ubuntu in general and I have been able to check out later versions of it such as 10.04 (Maverick Meerkat) and 10.10 Lucid Lynx. I am looking forward to 11.04 Natty Narwhal for how it integrates multi-touch even more than 10.04.  This experience just goes to show once again how I  manage to find the coolest stuff by accident.

I will keep you posted on how I learn and grow with the different distros available so keep posted.

Read more: http://computersight.com/operating-systems/windows/how-i-got-started-with-linux/#ixzz1aPlfhqoa

Upgrading my laptop

In July of 2010 I was given a laptop to repair by one of my friends, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it despite hours of trial and error so eventually I got so frustrated with it that I just set it aside and forgot about for a while. Meanwhile my friend got another laptop so he told me I could keep it.

In December of 2010 I took the laptop to my cousins house and we found out after wiping the hard drive clean with Darik’s Boot and Nuke, and then trying to install Windows XP what the problem was the whole time: It was in fact the hard drive the whole time that was causing the problem so I went and got a new hard drive and then got new RAM, once I did that we installed Windows 7 Ultimate on the laptop and immediately installed Avast! anti virus on the machine I was very happy with the results and I continue to use this same laptop to this day. I want to mention the specs for this machine. Starting with the way it was originally set up. And then I will tell how I upgraded it. I am considering further upgrading the RAM in the future.

Fujitsu Life-book 4210 Tablet PC

12.2″ touch screen

Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005

40 GB Hard Drive

512 MB of RAM

4.5 lbs yes it is heavy especially when you carry it around a lot!

2 hr battery life!!  So annoying but its better than nothing

This laptop is about 5-6 years old

Now for the new specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate edition I also used WUBI to install Ubuntu  Linux 10.04

500 GB Hard Drive

1.5 GB of RAM

On Saturday March 5,2011 I went and purchased 2GB of RAM to add to my laptop and I installed it that night now I have more memory for virtual machines

More recently, one of my RAM modules went bad so I have  2.5 GB of RAM which is excellent for me since I have a 32-bit version of Windows that will only support but so much RAM so this will be fine for me. I also upgraded Ubuntu 10.04 to being a real partition on my hard drive of its own Ubuntu 10.10 which I plan to keep just the way it is.

Read more: http://computersight.com/operating-systems/windows/upgrading-my-laptop/#ixzz1aPjPS26C

A simple Word processor, but it gets the job done

Hello all, in one of my previous posts I mentioned several different word processors and I have come to the conclusion that one of them is indeed my favorite for the reasons I will talk about below:

The choices are: Word 2010, Open Office, LibreOffice , and last but certainly not the least at least in my opinion the wonderful Abiword.

Abiword is a very simple word processing program, its name even reflects sharing since the name “AbiWord” (pronounced “Abby Word”) is derived from the root of the Spanish word “abierto“, meaning “open”. I have found it to be very easy to use, and as a result it has become something I am quite fond of. One reason is that it  loads up really quickly which makes it more efficient to use when you are in a hurry. I also find it quite useful for writing notes and simple do do lists etc. I found out about this program a few years ago totally by accident, and I have been very happy with it ever sense.

Something else that I like about it is that is is free. Although, honestly speaking, the other programs I have mentioned witht he obvious exception of Microsoft Word 2010 are also free.  They are great products all of them are but they are also more complex and so are needed if you got a heavier project to handle.  The current version of Abiword is 2.8.6 and it is updated pretty often.  I am happy to see that since it shows me that there is an active community of those that enjoy program as well. It is cross-platform which means it can be used whether you use Windows or Linux so once again there is freedom with that.

Now don’t let its small size fool you for Abiword can pack quite a punch and a simple search on Google will blow your mind as to what is available. So by all means check it out. You will be happy you did!!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbiWord

http://www.abisource.com/download/

 

 

What to do once you have installed Ubuntu

I will give you some pointers as to how to make your the Ubuntu Linux operating system more useful to you as I am pretty sure you have been used to using one of the windows based operating systems that have come out over the years like Windows 95, 95, Windows XP, Vista (yuck!!) and last but not least Windows 7.

So here we go, if you were to obtain a live cd ( which can be found in several magazines that cater to the Linux community such as Linux User, and LInux Format magazines) that contains Ubuntu you would be able to load up and test the waters without making any adjustments or commitment at all. And should you decide you do indeed like it so much that you want to run it along with your current windows system then that fine, but you may become so fond of it that you decide to use Ubuntu instead.

Now it is only fair to warn you, installing files and application is not going to be how you are accustomed to doing it case in point when you want to use a file that ends in .exe you would click on it and it would automatically install itself to your pc. Well Ubuntu is just a bit different in that you will more than likely be using what is known as the Ubuntu Software Center which is a handy way of locating and obtaining what ever programs you are looking for. A great example would be in the world of word processing you would go to the software center and go to where it says office see the picture below:

you will see something like this:

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Once you get to office you will then see a selection of programs you can use for your word processing needs. Now each of the various editions of Ubuntu have by now switched over to Libreoffice by default so really out of the box you have a great start, however I recommend Abiword as it is very quick and has mostof the features you are looking for in the 1st place.

I also want to bring to your attention the games section there are so many that are available that it is insane.

So there you go have fun learning about this OS that you got for absolutely free!

In case you were wondering about the picture if you look on the bottom of it you will see a number 2,174 items that are available all for free!!!

www.ubuntu.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.jupiterbroadcasting.com

Read more: http://computersight.com/operating-systems/linux/what-to-do-once-you-have-installed-ubuntu/#ixzz1aPVX5abn