Any Ubuntu experts?

[hedgerow pete]

ok people the tecno muppet me has been reading this and many other threads about mint and has decided to go for it on the old lappy i have, i have a disk burnt out with mint on it but since my knowledge is none existant where do i go from here?

i have copied all the docs and programes off the computer but still have windows vista sat there, how do i go about blanking the c drive completly and starting again?

and out of all the linux forums which ones do you suggest as a good learning support one?

 

[Brosville]

What you need to do is to fire the computer up off the cd (rather than the hard drive).
The computer will be configured to start from either - first of all try putting the cd into the drive, and shut down and then restart - if you're lucky, it'll fire up off the cd, if it does, just follow the prompts, and it'll do all the work for you (cleaning and reformatting the drive).
If it just reboots into Windoze you'll have to change the "boot order" - when you boot the computer up, there's normally a quick flash of something like "setup f12", or "boot order f2" - you want to change the boot order, so when you boot up next time, hold the appropriate key down.
If that doesn't work, or you can't find which "f" key to press, try booting up while you slowly keep pressing the "del" key.........
As soon as you've reset the boot order to start off the cd drive, reboot with the cd in the machine, and follow the prompts.
Having reread that lot it sounds complicated, but is in fact quite easy...
Best help forum is this - http://forums.linuxmint.com/

Hope that helps - best of luck, let us know how you get on!

 

[Brosville]

here's a simple tutorial for once you've gained access -

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgHgwpSdqMg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgHgwpSdqMg[/ame]

Once you've got it installed, it's very intuitive - it'll probably ask you early on if you want to "install extras", do so! - then just explore -if you have wifi, it'll probably show a "there's a connection available, shall I connect?" - much of it is "it just does it" - enjoy! (and don't go looking for antivirus/firewalls - it's intrinsically safe!)

 

[JamezF]

In the case of Ubuntu, and possibly also Mint, once you get booted from the CD the installer offers you a number of options regarding disk layout, including dual-booting with the existing windows partition, or giving all of the disk over to the new installation.

You don't specifically need to remove Windows at all.

James

 

[hedgerow pete]

i thought all this techno stuff was supposed to be rocket science!!!!!


if it carries on like this getting simpler every time i will have to start typing with move that one finger and start also designing new super computers powered by bees!!

thanks jamezf and of course techno guru brosville

 

[hedgerow pete]

i will have to remove the windoze vista from the hard drive because, get this , ready ???



my lappy has 75Gb memory of which 32Gb is used by vista on its own and that dont include any of the other problems or programes i use and store, no wonder i am running out of space

 

[Brosville]

As Jamez pointed out, the cd you've burnt will walk you through all that, just choose the "use whole disc" setting, and it'll do it all for you......... it really is a doddle - when you've done it once it's easy!

 

[JamezF]

if it carries on like this getting simpler every time i will have to start typing with move that one finger and start also designing new super computers powered by bees!!

Sounds like Ponder Stibbons and Hex:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_(Discworld)

James

 

[hedgerow pete]

disk world, one of my favorite places its up there with arthur dent and friends

 

[hedgerow pete]

ok next stupid question?

can you techno gurus lisy a few of the extra programes that you rate well for a linux baby, think of these that i have but will proberly need replacing or how well do some windoze programes work on a linux base.

project manager
office
adobe, pdf writer and not just reader
windoze video manager. we cant forget the videos can we

 

[JamezF]

Most Linux distributions these days seem to offer either Open Office or Libre Office (to all intents and purposes the same thing as far as most people are concerned) which is a "clone" of the Microsoft Office suite. They also export to directly PDF. If all else fails there's a printer driver that converts its input to PDF and saves it as a file.

Not sure about project management tools or video stuff I'm afraid. I don't tend to use either very much.

If there are Windows applications that you just can't live without, then there's VirtualBox, which allows you to create a virtual PC on which you can install windows, or WINE, which can be a bit variable and take a bit of persuading to do what you want (I recently got Google Sketchup working under WINE for instance, but it took a bit of working out).

James

 

[Brosville]

I'd concur with most of that - "Open Office" or "Libre Office" both have an excellent "export as pdf" facility built in.
For video editing you're spoilt for choice - my favourite is "Openshot" which is simple, intuitive and does what it says on the tin - if you're very accomplished there's "Kdenlive" and several others

The temptation if you're used to Windoze is to try to use the old programmes you're used to, but you really don't need any of them - often the linux ones are better, faster, and they're all free....
I use "Gimp" which I think gives Photoshop a run for it's money and is far simpler to use -"Digikam" is superb for digital photos - "Chrome" as a browser, Thunderbird for Mail, Qbittorent for torrenting, Brasero for CD burning......... Most of them come "built in", loads more available a couple of clicks away in the "software centre" and all of them free!
It's a bit like landing in a foreign country at first - it's all rather unfamiliar and strange - you're not forever being reminded that it's Microsoft's machine rather than yours, there's no barrage of demands to download/install/update things - you fire it up, and "it just does it" - all the updates are available with a mouseclick or two, there's just a polite "there's updates" logo that you click on, and leave it to it while you carry on working on the machine........ Give it a week or three using it, then use something running Windoze and you'll notice the interminable delay while it fires up and all the petty annoyances of the system, and just how slow and clonky it is in comparison - you'll probably wonder what's wrong with the computer - it's just being throttled by the dreadful operating system.........
I've now been using various flavours of Linux for some 4 years, and find no need whatsoever for Windoze, I do everything I need with Ubuntu or Mint..

 

[JamezF]

I've been a UNIX user for about twenty-five years, and a Linux user for well over fifteen (when it all came on a stack of floppy disks Up until recently I'd hardly ever used Windows in any variety.

Unfortunately some of the applications I want to use for one of my other hobbies (astronomy) just don't have Linux-based equivalents and with astrophotography in particular you can end up needing to run quite a few applications at the same time as they interact with each other. That has meant that I've finally had to give in and install Windows on a machine. I find it an incredibly difficult environment to work in

James

 

[hedgerow pete]

well i have come to the decision that your all very good liers or i am as thick as two very short planks, absolutly every thing you have told me to do or will happen doesnot and so today after several hundred restarts we have decided to completly bin the whole linux mint idea.

I even spent two hours trying to make sence of the mint forum but since there are no stickies or beginers threads etc i cant make head nor tail of it all.

so working under the ideas that i am realy very thick and there fore unable to set up a laptop to linux i will have no chance of running it or setting it up etc.

i am off to dig out the old copy of windose xp i have and i will just zap every thing on the hard drive and reload every thing with xp in stead of linus or vista.

I was right you know, it is rocket science!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brosville]

What a shame - if you were closer I'd happily do it for you - any linux users in Pete's neighbourhood?

 

[VEG]

Could he post the hard drive to you?

 

[JamezF]

It's probably something simple that isn't getting done correctly.

Can you get it to boot from the CD at all? Or does it not even get that far?

James

 

[WaxManSmokerBoy]

My pal Hombre knows a bit about Linux, but you are right, we are all liars or you are thick as the proverbial.

Shall we have a vote on it Pete? Just to be democratic . . . ha ha.

Adios,
WMSBoy

 

[WaxManSmokerBoy]

Been in touch with Hombre, he says that he should be around after mid afternoon Friday and could 'come to you' if you wish.

He won't be home till Thursday morning though or he would have spoken to you directly. He says that if it were possible to steal the electricity at the joint where he met you last, then that would be good, but thought that unlikely . . .

I assume that you might know what he meant by that?

 

[JamezF]

I reckon it's some sort of code so west mids beekeepers can recognise each other. The other one will have to say something like "no, but at least the wifi is free".

James