So, how do I get stuff that works on Ubuntu?

I have to admit, this was a significant fear of mine before installing Ubuntu.  I stated before that I have been a fan of +Nixie Pixel for a while and have been watching her tips and reviews for a while.  But what scared me is she totally qualifies as a super-user (Linux fans will see what I did there) and so many of her videos centre on using the 'Terminal'!

Danger! Education Inbound!  Computer users of my pedigree will remember using devices like the ZX81, BBC - even the early days of the 'IBM Compatible Personal Computer' (when was the last time you heard that phrase?) will remember typing commands into the keyboard to get the computer to do something.  These days we use the mouse and pretty graphics to accomplish our tasks.  I pointed out in this post that using the mouse and screen is something called the Graphical User Interface or GUI.  Using the keyboard to enter commands is something called the Command Line Interface or CLI.  In Ubuntu (hell, all Linux Distributions, or 'Distros') enable you to use both a GUI and CLI.  As the linked post explains, the GUI in Ubuntu is called Unity.  In all distros of Linux (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the CLI is called the 'Terminal'.  No, it's not fatal, and no it's not where American trains stop to collect passengers.  Without massive knowledge, I'm going to guess it named after what we used to call access stations to the centralised computer - a computer 'terminal'.

By first impressions it appeared that to install a new program on my system, if I were to head down the Linux route, I would have to learn a series of commands that to all intents and purposes would be a new programming language.  That terrified me - and I'm a qualified (albeit outdated) geek... what would it do to the uninitiated?

As it transpired, my fears were unfounded.  One of the default applications you get when you install Ubuntu is something called the 'Ubuntu Software Centre'.  If you own an Android or Apple smartphone, it works in the same way as Google Play or the App Store.  And much like those app providers, many (indeed most) of the applications you'll find there are free.

As soon as I installed Ubuntu, I set about getting the applications that I knew I needed.  So I installed Dropbox, (I have it on my work PC, my home laptop,  Android smartphone and tablet - and share a load of data with my family with it) Gimp, (the open source equivalent of Photoshop - just don't ask me why it has such a S&M descriptive name) and Chromium (Danger! Education Inbound!  I had been using Google Chrome on my laptop for a while...  What I didn't realise is that Chrome is a Google branded - and cut-down version - of a Linux web browser entitled Chromium).

So I can't show you how easy it is to install all of those applications short of removing them and re-installing them - and what would that do for me... better to get new free stuff!  So here's how I got a cracking audio recording/editing package entitled Audacity (I hasten to point out that I had been using it on my Windows PC for years - but it was designed for Linux).

First I selected the Ubuntu Software Centre from my launcher.  This is a great start for any new user, as it shows a ton of applications that other users have installed as well as adverts for new apps that are out there.  (And before anyone gawks at the price of games for Linux... how much did you pay for your last XBox game?)  Then in the search box, enter the name of the app you want - or the type of functionality you want (entering 'audio editing' provided Audacity as the second result).

That done you can click on 'more info' for just that, but I know this app and didn't bother.  Then you just hit the 'Install' button, enter your password as authentication, and away it goes.

Once it's installed, and I'm sure there's a more elegant way of doing it, I just hit 'Dash Home' icon on the Launcher (it's the one that looks like the Ubuntu logo) and start typing the name of the application you've installed.  As if by magic, the application will appear on the screen below.  If you want to, you can click and drag the icon for that app to the Launcher and place it wherever you want it.  Else you can click on it - and Huzzah...!  It's running.

Honestly, that's as complicated as it gets for getting free software.  I do have to be honest, I have not downloaded any software that I have to pay for - but when I do, I'll make sure that I post about any differences.

I'm sure there is a reason why you would want to install software using the Terminal...  But so far (agreed, I've only been playing with Ubuntu for a couple of months) I haven't found the need.  I'm sure I will - and when that happens...  Yeah, you've got it - I'll post about it.

On that note, if you have any burning 'asks' for a new user like myself - or are an experienced user that wants something dumbing down to a level that I can understand - please leave a comment and I'll see if I can answer it, either as a reply or a post in it's own right.

Post Publishing Note: When looking for some advice on Google+, +ryan rochford put up a link to this...  Makes more than enough sense to me!

Installation 2(ish) revisited

I mentioned in a previous entry that I ran into a few problems when I attempted to install Ubuntu on my daughter's laptop.  The screen went mad, the colours were wrong and I didn't have a visible mouse.

I also mentioned that I posted a question on AskUbuntu to see if any members of the community knew what the problem was.  As I compiled the entry linked above, I went back to see if there were any suggestions - and there was one.  Another user had encountered this issue when attempting to install it on their father's machine.  But they went ahead with the installation and there were no problems when the booted from the hard drive.

So I gave it a go.  This presented me with 2 problems; the first of which was just a pain in the butt.  I couldn't see my mouse.  So every input had to be made via the keyboard - most notably the tab key.

But the problem that gave me greater concern was when I could not progress past on individual screen.  As the software is installing, you are required to enter some user information such as which time-zone you're in and what kind of keyboard layout you are using on that machine.  There is one screen entitled 'Who Are You' that I just could not get past.  It asks you for your name (clearly I entered my daughter's name) the name you want to assign your computer and finally the password you want to use.  I entered all of the information that was required, but the 'continue' button remained grayed out.  There were nice green ticks next to the username and the passwords, no red crosses displayed anywhere but I still could not go any further.

I revisited AskUbuntu to see if anyone else had encountered this issue.  While I couldn't find any reference to anyone running into this when installing Ubuntu 12.10, there were a number of posts relating to the same thing happening when installing 10.04.  It transpired that if you use any capital letters in the username, it would not let you move on.  So I trotted back to the installation and removed the capital letters from my daughter's first name and surname (with some degree of discomfort, after all proper nouns afford capital letters - I know, I'm a pedant as well as a geek).  But the 'continue' button was still greyed out.

I returned to AskUbuntu and discovered in one thread that someone also noticed that if there were any capital letters in the computer name that it would not let you continue.  I looked at the computer name, assured that there was no problem here - as it was the default name provided...  And there were 3 capital letters in the default name!  I was annoyed on 3 levels:

• Why insert invalid characters in the default name?
• Why was there no red cross next to the computer name indicating this was the field that was causing the problem.
• Why hadn't this been fixed when it was a known issue in 10.04... and 10.10, 12.04 and 12.10 had be released since then?

(Post Publishing Note: +Steven Thomsen-Jones pointed out in the comments below that he used capital letters in his computer name and still managed to successfully install the operating system.  This got me thinking that I remembers seeing a note next to the computer name I wanted to enter saying that the name had to be between 1 and 64 characters.  When I renamed the computer to get rid of the capital letters I substantially reduced the length of the name.  It was this reduction in the name size that enabled the installation, not the removal of capital letters.  But many of my gripes above still stand - rather than invalid characters, why was the default name too long and why wasn't there a big red cross pointing out my error?)

By rights, I should be more than a tad peeved with the installation and it should taint my view of the operating system - but it hasn't.  I am still very keen on the entire concept of Ubuntu.  Why?  I ran into this problem and solved it in less than 10 minutes.  I knew from previous installations that if I ran into an issue, I could dash off to AskUbuntu and I would be able to find an answer.  And this is the major difference in using this operating system to any other I have used - the community.  The community genuinely want to support other users, but by the nature of the operating system, people know what they are talking about and how it works. It's an open environment, not closed off to protect their patents.  I have run into loads of issues with Windows and have found the supporting forums unhelpful and next to impossible to understand without taking a so called Microsoft qualification.

So here I am, I have now conducted 3 successful installations, with only the wife's machine to go.  I no know that I have done the right thing by my kids, as they listened to me talk through what I did to make my daughter's installation work - and they were genuinely interested.  They are at last starting to learn about computers, not applications.

I now look forward to the next 'problem' as I know finding the solution will enable me to learn more about the environment.

Going envrionmental on your posterior

And no, I don't mean that I want you to go green...  I want you to go all orange, red and purple (the default colours employed in Ubuntu).

Once you've installed Ubuntu and booted up (or indeed you're just trying it on a disc/memory stick - go on, just give it a go!) you'll enter a slick, mostly intuitive and professional-looking environment.  If you're a Windows user, you'll find it fairly simple to start navigating - if you're a Mac user, my guess is that you'll find it easier (and there's a reason for that that I'll talk about in another entry).

But you're not looking at Ubuntu, for that matter when you fired up your Windows or Mac machine you're not looking at those operating systems either.  I've warned you before, I'm a geek that took a degree in Electronic Engineering - and that involved a fair bit of coding in near, if not completely, obsolete programming languages (PASCAL, FORTRAN, assembly code and C+ - and I mean 'C+' as it was new at the time... and as I graduated, C++ was just about to be launched - and if I'm right, C++14 is just about to come out...  If you know coding, then that should imply that you can work out my age).

Danger! Education Inbound!  When you load your operating system and you can move your mouse and click on things, that's not the operating system.  That is something called the Graphical User Interface or GUI.  In essence, it's nothing more than an application - 'app' if your used to smartphones - that translates what you are doing with the mouse and keyboard, talks to the operating system that's buried beneath and then tells the screen what to do.  Ubuntu attempt to make this clearer to the user and community, as they don't call it 'Ubuntu' they call it Unity.  Why...?  Because the community not only influences the way Ubuntu works, they can recode each element of the operating system.  So if they want to talk about enhancements to the file manager, they can talk about that...  It's called Gnome...  But if the want to influence the GUI they talk about Unity.

The Unity GUI differs from both Windows and Mac, but not so far as you'll never be able to work it out without having read loads of manuals.  But there are a couple things about the GUI that appear a little strange and not instantly obvious.

Danger! Education Inbound!  Let me take you around some of the areas that confused me at first, and remember that I was predominately a Windows user:

• Launching an application - Are you used to clicking on the 'Start' icon...?  It's not there.  Instead the 'Launcher' is down the left-hand side of the screen, as a series of stacked icons (you can see it in the first image of this entry).  You just place your mouse pointer over the Launcher move your mouse up and down to scroll through them and click on the one you want.

• Closing, maximising and minimising applications.  This makes Windows users look a little foolish for a couple of minutes - as none of the features are found in the upper-right of your application window.  They are in the upper-left (time for Mac users to feel smug - but as I said, I'll come back to why later).  But when you maximise the application, they appear to have disappeared (along with the menu titles like File, Edit and View).  In fact they've simply been 'auto-hidden'.  Simply move your mouse to the top of the screen and they'll appear - I guess they thought that they'd only show them when you're using them.

• Finding running applications.  Windows users, are used to seeing them along the bottom of the screen.  In Ubuntu however, you move to the Launcher - and the more arrow heads there are next to an application, the more running applications of that type there are running.  Click on the application and you're presented with thumbnails of the open applications of that type.  Do note that pressing the keys [Alt]+ [Tab] works the same way as Windows...  But there's something better...  Press what Ubuntu refers to as the 'Super Key' - we all know of it as the Windows Key - and [W] and you get thumbnails of all the applications you're running.  But it get's even better, but we'll talk about that another time!

• Shutting Down.  Again, no 'Start' button.  So look in the diagonally opposite corner.  There you'll find an icon that looks like a gear wheel.  Take a closer look and you see that it sort of looks like a power button.  There you'll find all of the options you would expect to shut down the machine, or indeed change users.

I could rave on for ages about the differences that I've found in Unity compared to Windows, but that's not the point of this post.  I just wanted new users to know how to find the options they need for their first encounter.  I will do a another entry about Unity shortcuts - and trust me it will change the way you use your computer.  But I think that my next post will be about downloading and running applications.  Suffice to say, you will not need to bring you wallet with you for that one.

Installation 2(ish) and 3

My daughter takes after me in many ways - and the shiny new thing is one of them.  She saw her brother playing with a cool looking interface and wanted it for herself.

But she made a valid point.  She too inherited her laptop, this time from my wife, after we had it refreshed.  Over the year she had it, the boot time was getting longer and longer and I had done the usual stuff to attempt to improve it (disk clean up, de-fragment and registry fix) but nothing worked to enable the machine to boot in an acceptable time.  As such, she asked me to install Ubuntu on her machine.

I had a disc and a memory stick, so I thought I'd trial it for her.

Danger! Education Inbound!  One of the very attractive things about Ubuntu is the fact that once you've made this disc or memory stick, you can boot your machine from it to try out the operating system without committing to install it (the picture at the top of this entry).  If you're happy with it you can then get this disc/memory stick to either remove your old operating system and install Ubuntu, or form a dual-boot - where it installs Ubuntu on your hard drive and the next time you boot your machine, it asks you which operating system you want to use.

So in went the disc, on went the power and up came the operating system...  With all the colours wrong, rasters across the screen and no visible mouse cursor other that a block of faint grey pixels in the form of a mangled square.

My first thought was that there must be something wrong with the display settings and after finding the appropriate dialogue box with a near invisible mouse cursor (and that took some time I can tell you) I discovered that there were no options that I could make.

Again, I pestered my wife's cousin to see if he knew anything that I was doing wrong and even put a post up on the AskUbuntu help pages.  There was a thought that it could be outdated video drivers, which I refreshed, but no difference.  So at that time, I elected to park that installation and try it on my machine.  (NB I checked AskUbuntu as I complied this entry and found a reply that said that they encountered this in the past, but when they installed it, there were no issues.  I'll give that a go and report back what happens.)

Ubuntu worked fine on my machine, so I decided to bite the bullet and dual-boot my laptop.  Then I was presented with a raft of options.  I already knew that I was going to be committed to this operating system, so when I was asked how much space I wanted to devote to it I decided that I wouldn't go with the default space allocations, but decided to split my drive in half.  I have to state that this was a completely uneducated decision, one purely based on faith.

Potentially this was a mistake, as I'm certain I did something wrong with the installation.  After finding the correct setting in Windows 7 that enables you to make a decision on what operating system to use (they've hidden that away and unless you change it, the computer will never give you the option and automatically load Windows) and what I saw wasn't what I expected.  All of the screenshots I had seen simply showed 2 options: either load Ubuntu, or load Windows.

You can see from the picture what I get.  I'm supposed to be a geek, but I haven't any idea what most of these options mean - but what I have discovered by trial and error is the bottom one enables me to boot Windows.  That said, both environments operate exactly as I expected them to, so the error is only cosmetic.

Warning! Question Incoming! If anyone out there knows what I did wrong, or indeed how I can fix it so that I only have 2 options, I would love to hear from you.

What staggered me though, was the speed at which the system booted.  I even demonstrated the difference to a couple that came round for dinner one night - and they're as geeky as me.  As a benchmark test, I decided to fire up the machine from a cold start, (ie starting with the PC turned off) log on, open a browser and enter Google+.  In Windows 7 it took 1 minute 54 seconds - and my guests thought that was rather good.  Then we headed off down the Ubuntu route, using the exact same routine. 58 Seconds!

Considering that most of the time I use a computer it's simply to access the net, or write a document, that's probably the main reason that I find myself selecting Ubuntu rather than Windows (when I might as well go and make a cup of coffee while I wait - a gross exaggeration, I know - but waiting 2 twice as long for the operating system to load feels like an age).

So there I am.  I'm using Ubuntu, but what does the interface feel like and what it like trying to get software for it?  I guess I've set the topic for my next entry...

So why install Ubuntu in the first place?

I mentioned that one of my principle reasons for heading in the Linux direction was because of my kids.  I was becoming increasingly worried that all they knew about computers was how to use Microsoft applications and felt proud when they identified a new shortcut.

But what truly 'forced' me down the Linux comedy cul-de-sac was when my 8-year-old son managed to destroy his netbook.  He inherited it off me a year ago after I had it refreshed.  All he was doing with it was accessing his school's virtual learning environment, surfing the net (supervised of course) and playing online causal educational games.

A couple of months ago, he informed me that it would not boot - so being the dutiful Dad that I am, I sat down to fix it.  It was trashed!  The operating system (OS) was corrupted, files were missing and everything I attempted to do with the damned thing resulted in a boot loop - hell it wouldn't even boot in the so-called 'safe mode'.

I hit the point where I knew it was a case of reformatting the drive and reinstalling the operating system.  But something inside of me just hated the idea of having to go out and buy Windows of whatever variety.

As a recent convert to Google+, I had been (and still am) following +Nixie Pixel and was intrigued by the many flavours of Linux she was using and providing tips for.  So why pay for an OS, when I could get a free one?  The only question, was which version should I go for...?

Danger! Education Inbound! I now know that the correct terminology is which 'distro' should I go for - distro being a truncated form of distribution.

I had no idea which would be the most appropriate distro, but knew my wife's cousin is something of a guru in this area - so in the finest traditions of social networking, I fired a message to him over Google+ asking should I go Mint, Ubuntu et al.

After a really insightful conversation, we decided on going Ubuntu and was guided down the route of getting release 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) as he had installed it for his septuagenarian mother and she found it exceptionally easy to use!

Danger! Education Inbound! The release number and those 3 letters tell you a lot about the release you're getting.  The first 2 digits tell you the year that it was released, hence this version came out in 2010.  But there are 2 releases of Ubuntu pushed out each year; one in April and one in October - hence the next 2 digits after the full stop, so this one came out in April 2010.  The LTS stands for Long Term Support.  Every forth release of Ubuntu is a LTS version which means that they are supported and receive updates for five years, with paid technical support.

So off I trotted and went to download Ubuntu 10.04.

Now something I should explain about myself is that I'm fatally attracted to shiny new things.  Once I got to the site, I saw that was release 12.10 was available.  People were talking very favourably about it from the reviews I read and watched online (and I was staggered by the community that follows/supports Ubuntu).  So rather than follow the advice of an expert, I decided that it was 12.10 or nothing.

After playing around with a couple of applications, I learnt how to load Ubuntu to a memory stick and installed the new OS.  It took an age, but that had nothing to do with the OS, but rather my woeful internet connection (3 Meg at best - and the internet access is employed installing all the relevant updates and 'proprietary' plug-ins which I'll talk about another time).  But once it was installed I was astounded at how complete a package it was.  I was under the false impression that I would end up with a OS that the computer could boot to, then I would have to install all the applications my son would need.

Yet once I booted the machine, the first thing that struck me was how professional, slick and polished the interface looked.  The cliché states 'you get what you pay for', but after seeing Ubuntu from initial installation, you can shove that statement where it belongs (it should be placed alongside stereotypes like dumb blondes, gay men can't whistle and posh people are highly intelligent).

When I examined the bar of applications down the left-hand side of the screen (Danger! Education Inbound! It's called the Launcher.) I was amazed to see that all the common applications he (or I) would need were already installed and ready to run.

So what was there...?  Firefox (if you haven't heard about it, you really need to get out more - and that has nothing to do with being a geek!), LibreOffice (an open source - that makes me realise that I'm going have to work out how to differentiate between Operating System and Open Source - equivalent to Microsoft Office, that includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications) and Thunderbird (an open source email system akin to Outlook Express).

The following morning I presented the netbook to my son and told him to go and play.  From the corner of the room I watched him to see when he needed some assistance.   Albeit, I had given him his password on a piece of paper, I gave him no other information on how to use it.

Remember, this is my 8-year-old son who has only experienced XP and Windows 7.

My son happily playing on Ubuntu 12.10 installed on  his netbook

I poised to jump in and help - but he just fired up the machine, opened a browser and found his favourite maths-based casual games site!  After thanking me with a huge hug (he had been without his netbook for a week - to an 8-year-old, that's 'forever'...  I know, because he told me... repeatedly!) I asked him if he could write his uncle a thank-you letter for suggesting the solution.  He dashed back to the netbook, opened LibreOffice Writer (egg sucking time, but that's the word processor) and started typing away!

I've stated that I'm attracted to shiny things - so envy struck.  My son had a new toy that I wasn't playing with.  I smothered my envy in pseudo-logic, in that if he encountered a problem - I needed to know the system better than he did, and elected that I needed to dual boot my machine...

But that's another story...

What the heck is this all about?

Blogging is sooooo 20th Century...
Linux is only for uber-geeks with long greasy hair and heavy metal t-shirts...
Open Source Operating Systems will never take off...

I've heard all this before. And I'll admit, I was scared to play with Linux - albeit that I was tempted to convert a machine I had lurking in a wardrobe just to see what all the fuss was about.

But I have become increasingly frustrated with corporations telling me what software I 'must' have and what upgrades I 'should' make to keep up-to-date.  The thing that irritated the hell out of me was that my kids (11 and 8) were telling me that they knew tons about computers, but when I watched them, I realized that all they knew was how to use Windows applications.

Yes I'm a geek - and proud!  I got into computers by getting my ZX81 from W H Smiths as a 'Build it yourself' kit (we didn't have enough money to get the pre-assembled variety), learnt how to 'code' in BASIC, upgraded to a BBC Model A (again, low on cash) and then converted it to a Model B.  From there I ended up on an electronics and gadgets buzz that led me to take a degree in Electronic Engineering.

My kids' experience with computers rocked me to the core.  I want them to grow up 'knowing' computers, not corporations interfaces.

We had an incident a couple of months back that 'forced' me to install Linux (Ubuntu) onto one of my kids machines.  In so doing, I knew that I would have to learn the operating system (as that's all I thought it was back then) so that I could guide them.

This has led to me dual-booting my own machine, finding myself spending the majority of my time in the Ubuntu environment by choice and (notwithstanding my geek-ridden background) boggled by terminology, techniques and options.

Hence this blog.  I should have taken to this environment like the proverbial quacking bird to H20, but I found myself scared, mystified, confused, intrigued, converted, confused again, downloading manuals and consulting far too intelligent relatives at impolite hours of the night.

I aim to have this blog as a chronicle of my Ubuntu journey - why I started down the Ubuntu route, the challenges I've faced, the support I've gained, the resources I've used - and the reaction from friends, family and colleagues when I've gone all 'Linux' on them.

I also hope to develop a community of supporters that will aid me on my journey, and an even more importantly, a community of those interested in giving Ubuntu a go.

Until the next post, where I'll explain why I ended up going ahead with my first Ubuntu installation, I'll leave you with this...  I've been playing with Ubuntu on and off for a couple of months and am no expert - but my wife is adamant that I have to dual boot her machine by the end of the week!