basic

[Avi Greenbury]

On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 20:21:17 +0900
q0k <q0k.character at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 7:55 PM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 19:41:54 PM +0900, q0k
> > (q0k.character at gmail.com) wrote:
> >
> > > 2 basic questions.
> > >
> > > 1) I have been using Windows for 5 years. Why should I choose
> > > Ubuntu? 2) Which version is better for home use by a student -
> > > 9.10 or 8.4? Why?
> >
> > I'll leave the second question to somebody else,
> 
> 
> About the versions - I am just confused. Why isn't the latest version
> maintained until the latest date. Why two types - "long term support"
> and "short term support", while I undersntand only "old" and "new"...
> I just badly need somebody's explanation, or v.9.10 release notes.
> 

The LTS releases are aimed at servers and business, where stability (in
the sense of unchanging) is important. Using an LTS allows them to keep
the upgrades quite far apart without losing out on support.
LTS releases take quite a bit of effort, though. It's a long time to
maintain particular versions of software, somtimes longer than the
authors of that piece of software do. So it makes sense to keep them
reasonably far apart - the kinds of people who want the LTS releases do
so because they don't want to upgrade regularly, giving them regular
upgrades doesn't make sense.

The 'normal' releases are shorter-term but newer. They're aimed at the
people who don't mind more frequent upgrades (business running few PCs
or home users) and like the newer software that comes with it.

Generally, if you're not sure what you're after the newest release will
give you the best first impression, the LTS the longest before needing
to upgrade. The support period is just that, though. If you install an
LTS there's nothing stopping you upgrading it to the next non-LTS
release. Though going back is difficult.
> 
> I am mainly using OpenOffice Writer, LyX, Mozilla Firefox. The main
> thing I am using on Windows which isn't open-source is its Mocrosoft
> file browser. It just has a directory tree at the left, list of dir
> contents at the right, and big buttons "back, forward, up, cut, copy,
> paste" at the top. I had some difficulty understanding what Ubuntu
> file browser looks like. At Ubuntu website, I don't see a single hint
> about it.

ubuntu's default file browser is called 'Nautilus' and is as featureful
as the Windows one. There is a large selection of them available,
though, if you don't like it.
I'd suggest downloading a LiveCD, booting from it and seeing what you
think. It'll be slower (and less persistent) than a hard-drive install,
but will give you a good idea of how it works and what it looks like.

--
Avi Greenbury