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...