Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn is just fantastic! Everything went very smooth and quick! I had to pinch myself when i booted into fiesty for the first time and (EVERYTHING) just worked! Pure Heaven!!!!!!!

No restarts for new software installs, fantastic support on the web, bing bang boom and your done!

This is the way it should have been all along. The linux world knows what i’m talking about.

I’ve found all the expensive programs that windows would use and that i myself use in linux based versions for free….. If this isn’t open source i don’t know what is.

Everything has just been rock solid with fantastic security. I just hope that what i’ve found in the linux world stays pure and true and doesn’t find itself in microsofts shoes down the road when ubuntu realy hits prime time.

Don’t know really what else to say about ubuntu except if your looking to try linux, ubuntu should be on the top of your list. Great for the beginner switching from windows. With the few weeks i have under my belt i’m very happy!

Install the package msttcorefonts. Through the Synaptic Package Manager, or by writing “sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts” in a terminal. This will install some typefaces that you’ll recognize from Windows, such as Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet MS, and more (including kick-ass, best-typeface-ever, Roberts-secret-second-love-with-whom-he-has-at-least-15-bastard-children, Comic Sans MS!)

If you need to install other fonts, place the font file in /home/username/.fonts/
This will make the font file available in the system. Applications might need to be restarted for them to become available or work properly.

If you want to change the fonts that the system uses (in Ubuntu with GNOME) go to System > Preferences > Font and do your thing there. GNOME might have to be restarted in order for the new settings to look good. (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to give GNOME a quick restart with having to restart the computer. REMEMBER to SAVE your work though, as this command will kill anything when it restarts.)

The absolutely best things about Linux is that there is so much freedom, and with every problem there is someone working on it, and sharing the solution. Windows and OS X will never have that, and that’s why Linux is my OS of choice (and love.)

Nomax

Great post!

What I really love about the Ubuntu (and GNU/Linux in regular) is the freedom, and the fact that there’s always friendly people around to help you whenever you’re stuck. Also, being able to effect which way applications I use every day are developed by contributing feels so great.

One of the greatest downsides with using a GNU/Linux desktop is of course the lack of hardware support, but since more and more companies take interest in GNU/Linux (Dell for example), I’m pretty sure that will change by time.

Another useful application to get is Automattix which helps you install commonly requested applications easily in Ubuntu.

Great post, Robert!

Ah, I see. Well, good luck!

Alissa,

Thanks for sharing! I can relate to the font thing, but at least for me, it’s more of a disturbance than a show-stopper. That being said, I do hope the future will look brighter in this area…

David,

Ok, I see. Not sure why it isn’t there on their web site.

Harmen,

Ah, Google is amazing!

Gini,

That’s great to hear!

Micke,

Thanks! And if it’s any comfort, there are still a number of companies where the employees are forced to use Windows 2000…:-)

Fredrik,

Ah, they caught you!
I’ll let you know how it goes with mom, and I wish you luck with you and your parents.

I also tried to sneek Ubuntu onto my parents machine once, but that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, so they’re back on Windows again. Maybe I should give it a go with Feisty. I’m looking forward to reading about your results with your mom.

I switched to Ubuntu late 2004 when the distro was still small and relatively unknown. I’m delighted to see how it has become more and more popular and indeed more and more outstanding!

I used it at my previous job as a Web Developer, but now I’m unfortunately forced to run a 6 year old outdated OS which is slow, buggy, unsecure, ugly and non-intiutive. Most of you probably have forgotten about it, since it belongs to a past generation of OS’s, but it’s called “Windows XP”.. Does bring back memories, huh?

I did have some small problems (mostly video card drivers and odd things). I’ll have to try the newest version to see if they have improved things.

Although I was really impressed with Ubuntu, there was one thing that just killed me. I couldn’t stand the fonts. I felt like they all looked really bad. After working on OS X all the time, this was just a naggy little detail that I couldn’t live with.

Despite my issues with the fonts, I really do hope that Ubuntu continues to improve. I think they are really hitting on an important market. There is nothing bad to be said about competition.

My setup isn’t exactly typical either. I run dual screens with an odd resolution (1680×1050) and my Gfx card (Radeon X1650) isn’t officially supported either so far (which I hope will change soon). So hopefuly the alternate CD will get basic VGA going for me ; ).

My general tip to those who have tried older versions of Ubuntu and encountered problems is to download Feisty Fawn and give it a try. Many previous problems seem to have been solved.

Jeff,

Not sure, but hopefully it’s better in Feisty Fawn. Perhaps BluetoothSetup helps too.

Georges,

Well, not sure I’d want it to look like Windows myself, but you can Make Ubuntu Feisty Fawn look like Windows (Vista style).

OJ,

Hopefully it works better with Feisty Fawn then. Haven’t tried 64-bit myself.

Harmen,

I can relate to the fear of not knowing where to fix things (I feel it myself all the time :-)). But luckily, there are a lot of great guides online, so searching Google might help you find your answers.

However, someone is waiting for a reply from you.

Andreas,

It is indeed!

Morgan,

Maybe this thread about EVE on Linux is something for you.

Ced-le-pingouin,

Good to hear! I think once one gets settled with it, you will indeed get happy. It’s just, as always, a small transition phase to get through.

Mei,

Hmmm. I haven’t tried Bluefish a lot, so I can’t really help you. Can it be some kind of access rights problems on the file, i.e. that you need to be root user to view/edit them?

Jens,

Well, personally I think Ubuntu has done a great job at getting away from being geeky. That being said, of course there’s still job to do.

Personally, I prefer GNOME over KDE, but as always different operating systems affect how others look, so sometimes the resulting is a bit divided.

David,

I’m sure that that can be done with Ubuntu, but I just don’t know how (unless you manually create cron jobs etc).

Felix,

I can say that all my installs, mentioned in the post, were made through the alternate CD. Reason for that is that my Dell seemed to have some problem with the Live CD, so I took that route and since then everything has been working out just fine.

Anyway thanks for the post and I hope I’ll get the OS up and running in the next couple of days.

Damned if I can find that info about Ubuntu! Any ideas?

P.S. The comment preview is painfully slow (about 1 character per second on Suse 10.2/Fiirefox 2.0).