[ubuntu-in] Advice to those new to Ubuntu (and its derivatives)

[Narendra Diwate]

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 20:40, Ramnarayan.K <ramnarayan.k at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
>
> Am posting this with some trepidation since its not about Ubuntu per
> se and seeks to provide an alternative to new / first time users who
> are having trouble with Plain vanilla Ubuntu but here goes.
>

Thats a nice piece Ram. A lot of it makes sense as well for a Newbie user to
Linux / Ubuntu.

A few of my own points. For a person who has moved from Win, any main stream
Linux distro's default install provides a much more usable machine than what
a default Win install does. From Drivers for Video, Audio, and a myriad
bunch of devices like bluetooth to scanner or cameras to Personal Media
Players like IPods, all these are available on a default install. Plus
browser, chat, Office, PDF reader, CD burner, and a whole bunch of commonly
used apps.
For a lot of people (new and old users alike) just downloading the Ubuntu
restricted extras will give them restricted media formats access and with
those apps they will have most that they will ever be doing with their
machine. Yes, from a language point, they will need to download the
languages that they need.

Bells and whistles - they have 3D, compiz, themes, what more does a regular
user need, especially considering the fact that i have hardly seen any
Windows user who has gone beyond changing the Desktop wall paper and the
mouse pointer.

One thing that i do miss is a thoughtfully made DVD with a lot of common
apps over those available in the install CD. But then it probably is much
better downloading only those software that you *are in need* than a lot
more that you *may need* at some point in future.
 What i would like improved - Software center should atleast show the
download size of the selected software and the dependencies.

Yes, i have heard that Mint is much more Newbie friendly than Ubuntu
default, though i have not used it. Probably that has to do atleast in part
with the inclusion of Proprietary software in the Mint install.

If you know what you need then as mentioned a ubuntu minimal install is the
way to go.


 Personally I prefer a distro that gives me a usable install in a CD worth
of download that installs in about 3-5GB than a distro that comes in DVD
with a whole lot of software that i may or may not need and installs in over
12Gb. Thats one main reason why i moved from Opensuse to ubuntu a while
back.

But the more i get to learn the workings of the Linux system, the more i am
finding myself moving towards distros that are simple, efficient, small and
give you just what is needed. That why i keep trying small distros like
Puppy, DSL, Slitaz, SLAX, AntiX, NimbleX, Austrumi etc. Maybe also because
my Linux exp started with Puppy Linux that came in a 50MB size.These distros
give me a fully usable system in the space that a Video driver package
occupies in a regular system. For me atleast there is beauty in small,
simple and efficient things.
-- 
Regards

Narendra Diwate
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