I've recently been having a play with a Linux and am a complete noob. I've installed Puppeee on my daughters Asus Eee which she loves and seems quick and I've [dual boot] installed Ubuntu 9.1 on two old laptops and 10.04 on my newer desktop.
I'm finding the change from XP very very nice and I'm hoping it's going to be faster as well. Am I right in saying that Linux is generally safer then windows from a virus/malware perspective?

The laptops are mostly used for internet and email – should I use the netbook version on these or is the desktop version just as quick?

On my desktop (which is also for work) I'm getting a few crashes – is this probably because it's still early days for this version or does it need a newish system to run?

I guess that's 9.10 rather than 9.1 ?

The netbook version is basically the same as the non-netbook version, but with the addition of a few extra packages (eg for the GUI and maximised windows with no borders etc). Indeed if you install the desktop version, you only need to install 1 meta pakage to turn it into a netbook version.

I prefer the Netbook version on the eeePC just because of the reduced screen area, and the ease of controlling it thru a tiny mouse trackpad. Speed is identical for desktop & netbook version.

Am I right in saying that Linux is generally safer then windows from a virus/malware perspective?

Yes; partly because you have to 'sudo' stuff, and partly because there are less threats I think.

should I use the netbook version on these or is the desktop version just as quick?

I personally don't like the Netbook remix, and just the the desktop on everything, (laptop, Netbook, Desktops) then I know where stuff is.

On my desktop (which is also for work) I'm getting a few crashes – is this probably because it's still early days for this version or does it need a newish system to run?

Can you be more specific? Do you have an ATI card, the drivers are often crap, this might be an issue.

They should have fixed the EXT4 issue by now.

Can you be more specific?

Ahhh, this is where my Linux noob-ness comes to the fore…… all I know is that the screen has locked a few times (sometimes with the bottom half of the screen black) and I've had to reboot.
Can't remember what card I'm running and will have to pop back into XP to check (as I don't know how to do it in Ubuntu 🙁 ), but it's a PCI card and the built-in card on my Dell Optiplex GX 280 doesn't seem to have been detected as my second monitor (I run dual monitors in XP) isn't working.

I'm loving the simplicity and seemingly low resource requirements of Ubuntu though

Next time it does it, try ctrl + alt + backspace to try to restart X (Or ctrl + alt + f2 to get into the back end, then ctrl, alt f7 to go back to X).

If fixes it then it's an X problem, try graphics card as a blind guess…

Try look at your card try

sudo apt-get install sysinfo
*password*
sysinfo


And use the GUI to have a look

I've had no problems with the previous version of ubuntu but nothing but problems with 10.04, and I've several years experience working with it – it's just a bit fresh IMO. The netbook version is very much stripped down and will undoubtedly be quicker than the desktop version by having fewer services running in the background etc, but it won't be a million miles off. You could just remove those services yourself at a later date if you wanted.

Thanks guys….. I guess that 'fear of the unkown' is possibly stopping a lot of people going for Linux. I'm pretty good with Windows but I have to say I'm not enjoying booting back into it for work (I doubt my scanning apps are going to work under Wine).
CK: will they issue updates to 10.04 as they correct problems or do we have to wait for the next big release in 6 months-ish?

Thanks for the help I will be back for more I'm sure!

Can anybody suggest a good [online] source for learning some linux basics as I'd like to get more familiar with this.

You get get updates using either the update manager or

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Mostly Google is your friend, until you have a really specific problem, then it's forums, most of which aren't always helpful.

O'Reilly has a huge book…

I think it's the fact it's a pain in the arse to get stuff to work that stops people using it, and the fact everyone else uses MS Office and Open Office isn't always compatible, you can't game easily, some hardware has no drivers.

Why do I bother again?

Thanks TH, I've already had a play with the update manager – simple enough. Not sure why the on-board graphics card isn't working as the system DOES see it:
ted@ubuntu:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:02.0 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82915G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
04:00.0 Modem: Broadcom Corporation BCM4212 v.90 56k modem (rev 02)
04:01.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)
04:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

Look at me with my Linux commands 😉

CK: will they issue updates to 10.04 as they correct problems or do we have to wait for the next big release in 6 months-ish?

It's continuously updated, pretty much daily, but it had too many show stoppers for me to bother with initially, but then I have pretty specific requirements and Fedora didn't do them either, but was easier for me to make work. In order for it to be fixed you need to report the bug and see if it's already being worked on, or if it's new. If no-one knows of it yet there wont be a fix 🙂

What's the contents of your X logs?

sudo cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

IIRC.

Cheers CK, I'll have a look if/when it falls over again.

The differences between UNR and Ubuntu Desktop really are not that much at all. I don't know why people say that UNR is a cut down version, when both install to about 2.5Gb.

For Karmic (9.10), UNR +Desktop are identical except for the following packages:
UNR: cheese, go-home-applet, humanity-icon-theme, maximus, netbook-launcher, ubuntu-netbook-remix-default-settings, webfav, window-picker-applet, firefox-3.5
Desktop: gnome-icon-theme, xscreensaver-gl, brasero, gdm-guest-session, gimp, libwmf0.2-7-gtk, openoffice.org-math, tsclient, vinagre, vino, xsane

Only know this because I wrote my own metapackage to create a real pared down version of UNR/Desktop with my own preferred apps starting from the mini.iso netinstall (but in reality doesn't save that much).

Although I have Ubuntu on all machines (2 PCs, 1 Media Centre, 1 MacBook, 1 eeePC), I don't recommend it for very old machines with little RAM (you'll never get the installer running with <256Mb). Anything more and it is pretty good.

</geek>

Can't help with the weird "crashes", nor anything ATI related (never got my ATI stuff working in Windows 😯 )

Just plug the scanner in and go to Applications -> Graphics and there are a couple of scanning tools in there

10.04 is awful. Its rushed and buggy imho. I have had nowt bit trouble with it i am thinking of downgrading until it gets fixededededed.

I use Nvidia cards and have a pain free Ubuntu experience across several PC's.

I'm really happy with 10.04, only issues are I need to rewrite my fstab entries as slave drives aren't always mounting at boot, and on my server the HD light is permanently illuminated – maybe connected issues. Bet I'd have far more issues upgrading a Windows installation! But fact is, all new software is more buggy than established software……..

After 3 days of graphics card-related issues it's all plain sailing now. Nvidia of some sorts here, no worries at all.

Also have to say 10.04 is the best upgrade so far for me:) No issues yet

Thanks for the info guys. On my desktop (10.04) I pulled the Nvidia card out and Ubuntu worked just fine so I dunno why it wasn't capable of running dual monitors 🙁
Maybe it was having an issue with the two cards installed?

Anyhoo I'm going to try it like that tomorrow and see if it stabilises, if not I'll go for 9.10 instead which I'm now installing as a dual boot option on pretty much any PC I can (about 6 in the home office) 🙂
Shame as 10.04 looks very cool, but I suppose they'll get it sorted sometime.

mikewsmith: The scanners we use here are production document scanners running at about 160 images/minute – I doubt Xsane Image Scanner is going to be up to the task 😉

Oh, if anybody knows of a free package that can produce 2d PDF417 barcodes please let me know!
Seriously enjoying this OS! Funny thing is that my 3 little girls have now sat down in front of Linux for the first time and are completely unfazed by it for their heavy duty internet 'girls games' usage 🙂

Both our Acer notebooks are running on 10.04 (notebook) now. Neither has any problems.