OK, so I went ahead and switched to Ubuntu. Everyone's talking about it and all the cool kids are using it, and I've wanted to start using it all the time after I tried it out a year or so ago--but my desktop system was just so comfortable, with all the apps I liked and all the bookmarks and so on. But, the time came to upgrade the hardware and, as usual when I do anything with hardware, I more or less bricked my old PC within about 15 minutes of doing the migration.
No problem, though, since all my stuff is backed up, just not all that easily accessibly. But the good news is that now I'm running Ubuntu! The bad news, I'm running Ubuntu. Which means that I've got to start from scratch with setting up Linux to access data in proprietary formats. Like watching YouTube, for instance. It's going well, if slowly, but I thought I'd log my discoveries (like good Ubuntu-oriented software, blogs, and tips about how to get Ubuntu usable for everything) here, in a nice and easy to read page. So, here are the links:
- Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu but incorporates the extra stuff you want to get access to multimedia data. I kind of like it, and have booted this from CD quite a bit for testing systems (and using them to access that groovy multimedia stuff), but I'm not sure I'd trust my desktop to it. Yet.
- EasyUbuntu helps you get you the stuff you want. They use Medibuntu (see next).
- Medibuntu has nothing to do
with medicine but everything to do with "Multimedia, Entertainment
& Distractions In Ubuntu)". It "is a repository of packages that
cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons
(copyright, license, patent, etc)." For a good understanding of what's
in it, check out the Medibuntu documentation page (hosted at the Ubuntu documentation site).
Ubuntu Geek is an Ubuntu-oriented blog with lots of tips for getting Ubuntu to do what you want. They're soliciting new content, too, so I expect them to get even better.- What should you do as soon as you install Ubuntu? Here's one set of suggestions: 10 Things To Do Just After Installing Ubuntu 7.10. But that may be too complicated; according to the first commenter, there's an easier way to do the same, but in three steps, starting with Automatix. Or, keep reading those comments to get some other ideas that don't complicate matter quite so much.
- I like this idea: the Ubuntu Home Server Project is meant to be the version of Ubuntu you use to run your home network. I've liked the idea of having something like this for a long time, but we'll have to wait and see if there's any demand for such a thing, but more important, we need to see if the project is compelling enough to get enough clever people working on it. I hope it happens!
- Automatix is worth a mention all its own, too. Here's the Automatix FAQ: "Automatix2 is a graphical interface (written in python and bash) for automating the installation of the most commonly requested applications in some Debian based distributions."
- Ubuntu Customization Guide v2 A lot of information here.
