Try Pinguy OS

the font on this page is so bad it’s unreadable.

Hi istok,

Can you be more specific? Is it the color scheme that doesn’t jive well with your eyes or something else? I’ve checked it on multiple systems and browsers without any issues (and obviously I can’t please all people all the time )

Also, I’ll likely implement a second site theme at some point that’s dark-on-bright not bright-on-dark like the current one.

Thanks for the feedback!

I really like Unity.  Sure a new GUI has taken a little getting used to, but now that I’ve been using it for a few weeks it’s all second nature again.  I have to admit all the ‘fuss’ scared me at first, but I’ve had such great luck with Ubuntu always working that I thought I had to give it a try regardless of all the controversy.  I’ve used Mint in the past and like it overall, all though I like the GNOME default menu over theirs, just a personal preference thing.  Unity can’t be all bad because every time I turn around it’s being offered on a tablet, or from another PC manufacturer.  Maybe I’m just not geeky enough, or not a purest enough?  Who knows, but I think Unity & Ubuntu have a bright future.

Try Easylinux OS. http://easylinuxos.sf.net

A lot of the points above are relevant, however I am confused you are comparing like with like. Above, you state that Linux Mint 10 is called Isadora. From my knowledge, Linux Mint 10 was called Julia.

Hi Wigwag,

I’m sorry you’re confused, but thanks for the correction. Corrected now!

Cheers!

Hang on a second; I thought Ubuntu 11.04 only installed the basic things, like MP3 decoders; when did they start automatically bringing in Flash and binary drivers? I still have to use the Additonal Drivers wizard…

Hey Dante,

From Ubiquity: “Ubuntu uses third-party software to display Flash, MP3 and other media, and to work with some wireless hardware.”
I don’t currently have my own screen shot but that is a direct quote from Ubuntu’s installer. Following a fresh install the NVIDIA drivers were already installed on my system, which is not something I’ve ever ran into before in Ubuntu. Recently it’s been the Nouveau drivers by default, then use the Additional Drivers tool to install the NVIDIA drivers, reboot and then they would be loaded.

This time around they were loaded from the first boot, so with that and the note about “some wireless hardware” up there I assumed it may also be installing some closed source drivers that are traditionally accessible through the Additional Drivers tool.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do a few installs on the same hardware with and without that box checked to compare, and I hadn’t thought to do so at the time.

If someone knows better, I’d be happy to be corrected. But from the evidence I’ve seen this is the best assumption I could gather.

Cheers!

Not sure what istok’s point is, but it’s very hard (at least for me) to read white text on a grayscale background.

I’m with istok.  This is a particularly unreadable combination of font and colors.  Couldn’t read the article — skipped to the comments. I’m not a readability expert but I think problem is primarily font, partly fg/bg contrast.  Dark on bright unlikely to totally fix it.

Thanks for the feedback all.

I’m wondering if this has something to do with the back-up fonts. As the default font on the site is the Ubuntu font followed by Sans and then Verdana. I’ll take a look at it as it looks fine to me on various browsers, OS’s, and screen resolutions.

Other than that, if it’s just a personal/system issues not much I can do to correct for that (zoom maybe, make sure no funky configuration options are set in your browser?).

I’ll look at rolling out an alternative theme sooner rather than later to help those that can’t deal with the dark on bright situation at very least, but my font selection will likely be very similar as I’ve had good luck with Ubuntu, Sans, and Verdana and they are commonly used fonts.

Anyway, again appreciate the feedback. Cheers!

Thank you, my friend

Thanks for the nice article. A suggestion: dark-on-bright color scheme will make a lot people spend more time on your site. Otherwise they’ll just leave.

Looks good to me – Not sure what others are talking about regarding the font used.

Hey Solidx,

Thanks for weighing in!

Just as a bit of follow-up: we are working on another theme with both dark/light and light/dark variants. Not sure when it’ll be ready to go live, but shouldn’t be too long.

With having another contributor (sedux) I’ve been able to continue to work on content while they work on the theme (primarily). This has been a huge boon.

There have always been things about our current theme that have annoyed me and with the feedback we decided to just move on to something else. We nabbed a premium GPL licensed theme and have been hacking on it to get it exactly how we want it before rolling it out.

If any are interested in seeing what we got going on “behind the scenes” so to speak our work can be seen at ainer.org/dev.

Cheers all!

Your site is great!  I found your site after reading one of your posts on the sick beard forums.  I used your very through installation and set up guide to get it working (finally).  I plan to use your guides on the couch potato and the headphones programs as well.

After reading this article and “A Case for Ubuntu” I am actually thinking of giving it a try.  Do you have a detailed guide on the install, and as of today what version yould you recommend installing.  Also, will my current office and excell files work with the Ubuntu equilivant, or will I have to reproduce them in Ubuntu?

Also, you say that with Ubuntu there is no worry of viruses, why is that?  Because the OS isn’t popular enough for people to make viruses for it, or because it does something different than windows as to not allow a virus to be let on the system?

If it is the former, isn’t it just a mater of time before someone decides to make a virus for it?

Hey again Dsmtsi,

I’m glad my guides have been helpful for you and I’m excited to hear you’re thinking about giving Ubuntu a go. First off, with regards to your Microsoft Office Word and Excel documents, they should, for the most part, work with Libre Office (which is the office suite Ubuntu comes with by default. It is also the successor to Open Office, if you’ve heard of that before). However, before you dive in blind with Ubuntu, you can test this out by simply downloading and installing the Windows version of this office suite on your system (http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/installation/windows/).

Once you’ve verified that’s going to work out for you. I’d recommend the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu. Currently, it’s 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) however, in about two months, a new version is going to be released, so depending on your time frame that may be out before you have time to make the move over.

No matter which version is current when you decide to make the switch, if your computer has a 64-bit processor (CPU), I’d recommend downloading the 64-bit version of Ubuntu as that should give you a bit of an increase in speed over the 32-bit version.

You can find the latest version as well as the option to select the 64-bit version right from Ubuntu’s main download page (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download). If you get stuck let me know and I’d be happy to provide more instructions.

I’ve not yet written an Ubuntu install, setup, & configuration guide, and I’ll be working on updating my existing guides before I look to write that up, however I’d be happy to provide help if you decide to take the plunge. I’d recommend first off just downloading a copy of Ubuntu, burning it to a CD or DVD and then just running it in what’s called a Live Environment. This way you can test it out on your hardware without actually installing it. It will be much slower this way (as everything has to load off the CD/DVD, but you can get a feel for it and see how you like it before making any permanent changes.

Another thing to consider before or while you take the plunge, is that Ubuntu uses different file systems than Windows. So, if you have archival drives you may eventually want to migrate those over to an Ubuntu native format (such as EXT4). Ubuntu can read the default Windows file-systems, and some people do run these for quite a time, but it’s both easier to use (in the long run) and more robust to convert your archival drives to native Ubuntu file-systems once you’ve decided to stick with it over Windows. However, depending on how much free space and how many hard drives you have, it may be easiest to nab a 2-3TB hard drive to aid in the transition, but that’s just something to keep in mind down the road.

Anyway, this is just a brief overview on these topics, so let me know if you have more questions and feel free to shoot me an email (daemox@gmail.com) if you’d like, as that might be a bit easier if you have follow-up questions as you make the transition. I’ll respond to your question about viruses in a separate comment.

Cheers!

Howdy again,

So, viruses. This should be a fun one. Some do say it is simply Ubuntu’s lack of popularity that there is (currently) no concern over viruses. But, I think this is an unfortunate oversimplification honestly.

GNU/Linux is already the most popular operating system on servers, and super-computers (by far). It is also used on embedded devices (such as routers), and while it’s not as popular as Windows or Macintosh on the desktop, there are still millions (easily) of GNU/Linux based systems worldwide (again, millions!). So with that in mind, the whole “popularity” argument to me already seems to be on shaky ground.

I think the real reason that Ubuntu (and GNU/Linux in general) is not at a real risk for viruses is much more complex than that. I honestly don’t think I can do the topic proper justice, but in brief I believe it to be due (at least in part) to the following reasons.

1. Ubuntu/Linux is open source. This just right here allows much more awareness of potential security vulnerabilities, and also a much greater pool of people to fix them once found. This can be related to the cliche of “many hands make light work” and also to Linus’s Law of “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”. Some dispute this, but to me it seems sound.

2. As stated above, GNU/Linux in general, is employed on enterprise level hardware (servers, super-computers, routers, etc). It is also used in more of these devices than either (or both combined?) Windows and Macintosh. As such, in terms of enterprise reliability and security, it is more popular and more tested than Windows Server or OS X Server. And, even we standard desktop and workstation users, get the benefits of this enterprise level robustness, as GNU/Linux servers, workstations, and desktops alike benefit from the same core system (GNU tool-chain, Linux Kernel, Gnome libraries, etc).

3. My last little insight is that, as you hinted at, Ubuntu, and GNU/Linux in general, is just designed differently. By default we don’t have administrator access under Ubuntu, instead we have to approve (with our password) any critical changes to the system. Windows on the other hand is normally ran with full administrative access. Also, under Ubuntu we don’t traditionally hop around the Internet downloading software from any ol’ website. Instead, we have a tested pool of software to download from that’s included with Ubuntu. Yes, there are some packages that aren’t in the official software repository, but these are the exception not the rule. This central repository of software also allows us to keep our systems and all applications updated from a central Update Manager (which is much much easier, and much less annoying than having multiple update managers from third party vendors!).

I’m sure there are other considerations, and the above is just my semi-educated opinion, so you may want to read the provided links from Wikipedia and do some additional searching on your own. If, after researching, you are concerned there are anti-malware programs for Ubuntu/Linux, but I’ve never felt any need to run or recommend them.

Cheers!