From XP to Natty

[lanternslight456]

Hello, this is my first post here and thought I'd comment. I've come from 2 decades of happy windows use. My computer caught a nasty virus which destroyed my innate copy of Windows. My only optional came down to:

1. Buy a new computer (this one is 6 years old)
2. Buy windows (I feel like that's a rip because I own the copy from my computer but can't get windows to send out a replacement)
3. Try Linux

A friend recommended Ubuntu 10.10 to me, even made me a USB stick. My only experience with anything Linux is Android (which I absolutely love, but I know its different) after much reading I decided on Kubuntu instead. I was going to go with 10.10 but figured, why learn on the older version when 11.04 will be out soon, so I downloaded beta 2 and installed it early this morning. I haven't been able to do much beyond installing Firefox 4. That was so easy I was stunned. I'm REALLY impressed so far though!

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

[kiraitachi]

Re: From XP to Natty

So happy that you decided Kubuntu, to be honest Ubuntu is great and more easy for begginers than Kubunut (KDE) cause most dependencies are for gnome, anyway that was old school cause now it has Unity instead of Gnome anyway you will love Kubuntu if you like to customize and get the max of your computer, that´s why I choose Kubuntu. So happy that you joined in, hope you enjoy as well.

Something else I wanted to share with you is that sooner or later you will have some questions or doubts, I wanted to say that this forum is great for sharing your ideas or doubts, I´ve been a Linux /Kubuntu user since Kubuntu 9.04 was out and been here since then. This forums is so helpfull and people are always wanting to help (lots of them got me out of my doubts when needed, hope same for you).

By the way something that made me laugh was

2. Buy windows (I feel like that's a rip because I own the copy from my computer but can't get windows to send out a replacement)

I thought all people bought a computer that came with Windows and if they ever got a virus they just downloaded a cracked version of windows and install it XD, never thought there were some people that actually thought of buying a new licence, just companies cause they were obliged to because inspections.

At least I´ve been doing that since I was 15 years old..lol.

[el_koraco]

Re: From XP to Natty

I haven't been able to do much beyond installing Firefox 4. That was so easy I was stunned. I'm REALLY impressed so far though!

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

installing software in Linux is different, but in many ways much easier than in Windows. There are so called repositories. You can think of them as software markets, like the Android Marketplace, except for the fact that everything in them is free of charge and free to change any way you want. The concept of repositories is one of the primary reasons as to why Linux is so secure. In the case of the Kubuntu, "packages" (binary software programs) are handled through several tools. I will explain it from the ground up.

The low level tool used to handle packages from the repositories is called dpkg (d package). It is the simplest tool which runs the donwloaded binaries and executes their installing on the system. A level above it is apt (advanced packaging tool). It not only installs the packages, but pulls them from the repositories and handles all the dependencies (sets of libraries, like DLLs) that the program needs in order to function properly. There's little need to worry about them in the beginning.

The high level, end user programs used to download and installed software in Kubuntu, are KPackageKit and Muon. KPackageKit is the default GUI package management system. You can find it in the menu. All you need to do is fire it up, search for a program you want, click install, and hit apply, enter your password, and there you are. No need to reboot your program, it's installed and ready to use.

All the programs in the repositories are in a "frozen" state. A month ago all of them that have been taken out of Debian (Kubuntu's grandfather) and no new ones have come in. That means that they are not necessarily the absolute latest and greatest, but the upside is that the package management system is responsible for handling all the bug fixes and updates to them. You can update your system through KPackageKit, in the "Software updates section".

This might be enough for starters, ask if there are any more questions. You made the right decision in going with 11.04, because most users say this is the best Kubuntu release to date. Keep in mind that it is new and there might be some problems, but nothing one couldn't handle.

[lanternslight456]

Re: From XP to Natty

By the way something that made me laugh was

2. Buy windows (I feel like that's a rip because I own the copy from my computer but can't get windows to send out a replacement)

I thought all people bought a computer that came with Windows and if they ever got a virus they just downloaded a cracked version of windows and install it XD, never thought there were some people that actually thought of buying a new licence, just companies cause they were obliged to because inspections.

At least I´ve been doing that since I was 15 years old..lol.

My children are home schooled and some of the software required attempted to verify windows and I started getting all sorts of nag screens about my copy being illegitimate. I got irritated dealing with that. It was cheaper to buy a good used computer off newegg.com than to buy a copy even of windows xp, so I let the corrupted one sit idle for a long time and just used the new computer. That's when a friend pushed me toward linux and I'm glad he did, what a cool looking OS! Now I just need to run power and set up wireless internet for it and I'll be off to the races!

This might be enough for starters, ask if there are any more questions. You made the right decision in going with 11.04, because most users say this is the best Kubuntu release to date. Keep in mind that it is new and there might be some problems, but nothing one couldn't handle.

Thanks for the great post! I'll make sure to frequent this forum to learn as much as possible. I've already hooked my HTC Glacier's Tapatalk to it. It's a little overwhelming at first, there is so much I don't know where to begin, but I'll get the hang of it. (IE My first smart phone was November of last year, now I'm helping custom ROMs and having a blast at it) I was so excited by the way Kubuntu looks I told my wife we should switch all our computers to it lol! (I'm an all or nothing sort of guy lol)

[kapil]

Re: From XP to Natty

welcome to KFN
even i started my linux venture with kubuntu (coz i just liked the look of kde )
but kubuntu never let me down

i still feel the only reason someone (read my friends) choose windows is because of the MS office. and now they have released a mac version also.

though libreoffice is popular.. it "looks" washed out in front of office 2003.
my fav is koffice

[GreyGeek]

Re: From XP to Natty

Welcome to KDE4 and KFN!

When you browse the repository with KPackageKit check out the educational apps and metapackages. There are a TON of educational apps ranging from TuxType,TuxMath, TuxPaint, gcompriz (for small children), through all levels of biology, chemistry, physics (STEP), astronomy, geography, languages (parley), electronic, and math... to programs for grad school work, like SAGE, etc.

There are "meta-packages" which control downloading and updating of entire sets of packages. In education there is
ubuntu-edu-preschool
ubuntu-edu-primary
ubuntu-edu-seconday
ubuntu-edu-tertiary

science-astronomy
science-chemistry
science-electronics
science-physics
science-geography
science-math


Touch typing: tipptrainer

You can pretty much load in EVERY KDE4 app by installing kde-full:

This metapackage includes all the official modules released with KDE Sotware Compilation that are not specific to development and as well other KDE applications that are useful for a desktop user. This includes multimedia, networking, graphics, education, games, system administration tools, and other artwork and utilities.

[GreyGeek]

Re: From XP to Natty

.....
though libreoffice is popular.. it "looks" washed out in front of office 2003.
my fav is koffice

I used OpenOffice from its first day, after Sun bought out its parent German company. In fact, they had a desktop+office combination which I used for almost a year. When Oracle bought out Sun and took control of OOo I decided to switch to LibreOffice. Now that Oracle has abandon OOo all of the attention and developers have focused on LibreOffice. However, about a year ago I decided to switch as many of the applications I use to those built with the Qt4 API (IOW, minimize my use of the GTK+ API). That step included switching from FireFox & Thunderbird to Konqueror/Chrome and KMail. I also installed KOffice. I was surprised to see how quickly KOffice apps come up and how compatible they are with the base document types: spreadsheets, graphics, word processing, PDF's, etcs...

Eventually I plan to have a Qt4 only desktop.

[kiraitachi]

Re: From XP to Natty

Never heard of Koffice but now that I know Im planing in taking off Open Office, althogh I dont get the bashing everyone is making to Open Office...Tried Libre Office but couldnt make it to work, anyway taking off Open Office and installing Koffice now that I know there is an Office specialy for KDE.