Activity
Windows XP
Ubuntu 8.04
April 24th - May 24th 2008
One Month of Ubuntu 8.04- Impressions
First off, I'm usually my own worst critic and I must say that I really, really wish I had done more computing this month. (i.e. used Ubuntu more) The good news is that the severe drop off in my computing over the past month had nothing to do with Ubuntu.
Now, since this first month included installing Windows XP on one computer and Ubuntu on another, I think it is appropriate to compare the two...
|
Activity |
Windows XP |
Ubuntu 8.04 |
Summary / Explanation |
| Installation |
|
This one wasn't even close. Ubuntu 8.04 was extremely easy to install. Although in XP's defense, it is a much older operating system and thus a much older install procedure. | |
| Configuration (of new Install) |
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Once again, this wasn't even close as I had to do a lot of work to install drivers to get the XP machine running properly, whereas with Ubuntu it appeared that any drivers needed were installed automatically during the install. I should add that Ubuntu 8.04 starts with more robust and up to date programs as well. In XP's defense, once again, it is a much older operating system, so maybe if I had installed it on older hardware, maybe things would have been smoother. | |
| Updates |
|
I ended up giving Ubuntu 8.04 the edge here for two reasons. One, the 'Software Updates' for Ubuntu seem to come constantly, whereas XP seems to have a schedule where they seemingly always come on a Tuesday. For security reasons, I would think that the updating at frequent unpredictable intervals is more secure. The second reason that I give the edge here to Ubuntu, is that the 'Software Updates' were for not only the Operating System, but apparently for all the apps I had installed, whereas with XP the 'Updates' were just for XP and a few select Microsoft programs, like Windows Explorer. | |
| Software Installation |
|
This one was a bit of a mixed bag, as I did have an easier time installing Flash on the XP computer. (Although admittedly, I went about attempting to install Flash on Ubuntu in an ill advised manner.) Also, when I had purchased a Windows program, it did install perfectly, like Microsoft Office. (Although, I hated having to constantly enter the product activation codes, or whatever those codes are called.) There are two main reasons Ubuntu gets the check here,... 1) Ubuntu started with more robust programs, (for instance OpenOffice.orgs Presentation, Spreadsheet and Word Processor) 2) I could download and install other programs for FREE from the internet through Ubuntu's Synaptic Program. (Although I did have some problems early on when Synaptic was hitting a repository that apparently has crappy uptime.) | |
| Unzipping files |
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I find it odd that Ubuntu was not able to unzip my zip files 'out of the box'. I am quite sure that I will be able to fix this easily by downloading and installing a compression program through Synaptic and I feel really bad that I still have not even attempted to do so. That being said, I was stunned when I couldn't unzip something with Ubuntu, as Puppy Linux has no problem with unzipping, nor did Windows XP. |
| Working with HTML |
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I feel really bad that I still have not tried downloading and installing another HTML editor since trying Quanta Plus. It was so easy to just fall back on what I knew on Windows XP, that I ended up doing all my HTML work from the Windows XP computer. Technically, this has nothing to do with Ubuntu (I don't think) but with all the checks lining up in Ubuntu's column I decided to throw Windows XP a bone here. |
| Coding |
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O.K., I realize that my coding experience in Ubuntu has been limited to some Perl script. Nevertheless, I absolutely LOVE that fact that Ubuntu's default text editor opens up Perl scripts like an IDE. I feel bad that I haven't done more coding on Ubuntu, but so far I'm still using Puppy Linux for that. (Although based on the limited Perl experience I've had so far, I'm guessing the experience with coding on Ubuntu will be just as good as it is on Puppy Linux.) Free compilers are sweet. |
| Number of bugs, errors. |
|
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If you've read the whole Ubuntu Diary up to this point, you already know that I've run into a few bugs/error messages, like... Gnome Settings Daemon Error, Synaptic Freezing, Unable to boot into Xfce, Display Resolution Locked at 800x600, An error occurred while loading the archive. What I haven't mentioned in the diary, is that as best as I can recollect, I've only encountered 1 error with the Windows XP computer since the Install and configuration was completed. |
| Severity of bugs, errors. |
|
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O.K. Technically, I may have to change this if my theory that I can easily fix the unzipping problem doesn't come true. And, I totally realize that this one is completely subjective. However, so far, except for booting into Xfce, unzipping and the Synaptic Freeze, the problems in Ubuntu only happen upon boot up, and in the case of 'Gnome Settings Daemon', I haven't really noticed what the problem is besides the generation of the message box that tells me of the error. With Windows XP the error is in the ability to 'Save As', when attempting to 'Save As', I'm constantly getting an Error that says, 'There is not enough Memory', it then suggests closing other programs, but that doesn't help so a reboot is necessary. Since a reboot fixes it, it may sound no more 'severe' than the errors I've encountered in Ubuntu, however I must say that it is much, much more frustrating as it seems I can never get much done before I have to reboot, so I can 'Save As'. In Ubuntu most the 'errors' occurred on boot-up and once rebooted they did not appear again, unless I was booting up. In the case of the Synaptic Freeze, once I changed the repository it was hitting, the problem disappeared. Xfce, is something completely unnecessary, and if I hadn't been writing this 'Diary' I may not have even attempted to install it in the first place. |
| File / Partition Permissions |
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O.K. I hate giving Windows XP a check here, because I have another XP computer that was once hooked up to a company network that has files on it that I still can not access with XP. (Although I'm quite sure I could delete them with Puppy Linux.) However, I'm comparing this Ubuntu 8.04 install to the XP computer that I got up and running on the same day. And compared to that XP computer, this Ubuntu 8.04 has been much more stingy with files, even locking me out of one of my partitions all together. Sure, it didn't take me long to figure out how to use sudo chmod 777 however, nothing pisses me off more than not being able to access my own damn files on my own damn computer. |
Well, I guess that's it. I do think my biggest disappointment was in myself for not computing more, for instance when I encountered a problem (like unzipping) I often just fell back on something I knew would work like XP or Puppy Linux rather than finding the Ubuntu answer. So, next month, I will try to make a conscious effort to fix some issues in Ubuntu instead of using the easy workaround of doing the activity on a different Operating System that I'm already intimately familiar with. Also there are some things I only did with one computer, like watch movies, since I only watched movies on Ubuntu, I didn't have the 'Windows XP' experience to compare it to.
Having said that, I'm actually shocked at how much easier the Installation and Configuration of Ubuntu is compared to XP. But, as mentioned, XP is much older than Ubuntu 8.04. I was also surprised at not immediately finding an HTML editor that I liked on Ubuntu, especially considering how easy I've found other coding programs for other languages on other Linux distros in the past. But, as mentioned, and didn't spend any time on that, besides my Quanta Plus escapade.
Next month I hope to clean up a lot of the loose ends from this month, like, unzipping, killing processes, getting rid of the 'Gnome Settings Daemon' error message. Also, I hope to at least explore some more HTML editing programs.
Day 33 (May 26th 2008) - Unzip Problem Solved.
Ubuntu Diary - Menu for 2nd Month
Ubuntu Diary - Menu for 1st Month
