Got Linux to boot
Ok, I finally got Linux to boot on my system. Had to find a third party burner to be able to burn the ISO image for reasons I do not understand... but, hey, it worked.
OK, some initial thoughts on my rather limited experience with a modern Linux: Ubuntu-PowerPChoary
1) Wow... they sure manage to shove a lot on that one CD. Really very impressive - the whole OS, Firefox, OpenOffice, the Gimp, GAIM, Evolution, etc. Lots of relatively high quality apps... while I have used OpenOffice and the Gimp and find them lacking in relation to MS Office and Photoshop, still cool that they can fit them on one CD and there is no doubt that the applications are good - very good even... just not top of their clbutt.
Some of my later complaints may be from them having to make some concessions to get everything on one CD... and just from being a LiveCD
2) Had some continued trouble boot - I have dual monitors and Hoary does not seem to like that. Had to boot with the option "linux video=ofonly", which is kindly suggested right on the initial screen. Still, for a computer novice this would have likely been far more stressful than it was for me. The first thing you see is a bunch of text telling you how to deal with possible problems... I can see why, but not sure novice computer folks would be as happy with that as they could be.
3) Once it did start its boot process it went into a bunch of "DOS" looking text screens with a bright red background. Not sure that was the best choice of color...
4) When it gets past that it shows little icons of what it is loading... sort of like OS 9. :)
5) The mouse was smooth - very smooth. No complaints there! Did not play with the options, but did not feel the need since it was set up by default to be just right. Hmmm, did not test opening tabs in Firefox with my middle mouse button. Presumably that worked, too, but I will test it later.
6) I like the date and time with the calendar... nice touch. I needed to get shareware to do that on a Mac, it did not come with it. The time, though, was incorrect. When I went to the ...um.. whatever they call the control panel it was right there! Could not get them to match up... that is odd!
7) Icons and window elements are somewhat clunky. The menus are flat and the whole interface was sort of blah. I asked my wife what she thought of the look and she said "It looks old". Maybe there are better skins and they just used that one to save room? I sure hope so...
8) Windows are very Windows like... min, max, close... even the menu on the left... not impressive to see them copy Windows like that.
9) To make changes I had to use my root pbuttword... but I had not set one up! Did not see in my quick look in help or docs what the default is. Guessed it on my third try (yeah, I am a freakin' genius, it is "ubuntu").
10) The help system does not have a search! What the heck! That is silly...
11) It did not recognize, at least not that I could tell, that I had inserted my thumb drive. Disappointing.
12) There are dual menus... they have a menu on the top sort of like the Mac, but each window is like Windows. You can move and even remove the "panels", which is what they call the Mac like menu area... and you can add more of them if you like.
Snit poked his little head through the XP firewall and said: It is nice to see someone try Linux, even if they say it ain't perfect You can also use "date" and "cal" from the...
13) Played with applications... they took a while to launch, but, hey, they are all on the CD. Hard to complain. Actually, considering that, they did just fine. Have used OpenOffice before and use Firefox often. They seem just as good in Linux as they do elsewhere.
14) Oh, man... forgot to play with save and print dialogs. Oh well... next time.
15) Decided I had played enough and wanted to reboot. But how. Looked for a bit and could not find the option. How odd. Decided to at least log out.. and lo and behold the option came up... sort of like how Windows combines all the reboot shut down log out type options. Not a huge deal once you get used to it, but I do not see the logic.
Just a few thoughts... I am sure I am leaving things out. Will play with it more later.
It did not work with the mostly likely tool for it to be used with. I do not know who did or did not follow the spec. Very cool... Well, FF does not require it...
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