Almost converted but need a bit of support

1) You could buy a computer with no OS
2) You could buy a computer with Linux preinstalled

Just put in the CD, make sure it will boot from CD and away you go. Partitioning can be automatic. Answer about 6 questions.

Can you put a program on a USB stick? Alternatively you could put the install on a pendrive using the app called Unetbootin which is available in Windows or Linux. Make sure it will boot from USB first and similarly away you go... https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

Could advise you about sources for buying, but that would depend where you are in the world.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

Hello Janine, I will try to answer some of your questions ....

- If I don't have an OS will I be able to turn my computer on to access BIOS to ensure the computer boots from CD to install ubuntu?

Of course. When your PC boots up you can access your BIOS configuration menu. There are some variety of BIOS models (Award, Phoenix, WinBIOS,...) so the method can change from on PC to another; the most common is to press the “Supr” (usually you will see some kind of message like “Press del to enter setup”. In other models, it can be another key or keys combination like F1, Esc, Control+F1, etc.

Once in your BIOS menu you have to set it to boot from CD.

- If I don't have an OS will I be able to turn my computer on to access BIOS to ensure the computer boots from CD to install ubuntu?
- What about drivers for the motherboard, audio and graphics, do these drivers need to be installed after ubuntu is installed or are they installed before?

If you want to download the latest stable version, you can do it from this web:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
One of the best things of Linux OSs is that you can test it even before installed. Once you set your BIOS to boot from your CD you can run your Ubuntu as a LiveCD ("Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer" defaults option)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Install2StartUp.png
You can see a more detailed and graphical video:
http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/08/25/Ubuntu_Live_Installer_Boot_Screen

You can test it without install anything as many time you want (you just need to power-on your PC with your Ubuntu LiveCd on your CD-ROM, so you can check if everything works fine.
If you decide to install you will find an icon on your Desktop that will launch the process.

- Is it just a case of putting the disk in and following the instructions?
- Is there a link to step by step instructions for installing on an OS free new machine?

I would recommend to read some docs with step by step instructions like this one ...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall

Maybe the most critical part of the installation is the partitionig. Take some time to know what you are doing if you have a previous OS with documents in order to not loose any of your precious data.

If you have no OS installed this video would help:
http://static.screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/09/03/Ubuntu_Partitioning.ogv

If you have another previos OS installed on your system watch this video:
http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/09/02/Ubuntu_Dual_Boot_Install

Hope that helps.
Greetings.

Thank you arochester and Tom for your help.

I am in the UK.
I am able to buy OS free computer. If I am going to use ubuntu I don't see the point of paying for an OS.
I am currectly looking at computers from novatech.co.uk and powerc.com. Both offer bundles or complete packages, and will build computer to your own spec. Both offer OS free computers. Both offer free life time support on their hardware regardless of not having bought an OS preinstalled (and they also don't mind if you open the case to add memory etc). I have used novatech before and can vouch for good service and tech support. Power computer is a new find for me but appears to have a good track record and a good indicator was an email I sent today to sales asking a few questions, answered within the hour and a further email answered within a minute. Hardware has 2 year warranty. Obviously they don't support operating systems or software problems unless you buy from them but the hardware is still supported.

The reason I can't make a CD at the moment is because my computer died (several weeks trying to fix that before finally realising it's time for a new one) and I have a botch job made out of bits on loan at the moment which has 'lost' its CD ROM drive - I mean it was there to install XP and office which are on disk and then suddenly it disappeared so I can't put a disk in to either read or write. so it's not band width thats the problem, it's hard ware problem.

I might be able to burn a disk somewhere else though - possibly - so will try that.
I thought it might save me a bit of time an effort buying the ubuntu disk. £1.95 plus post and package and it would be arrive within a couple of days rather than waiting several weeks.

I've read quite a bit about hardware compatability but thank you for suggesting this and I will look into it more. I'm considering the ubuntu 9.04 because it seems to include installation/supports my HP officejet all in one copy/scan/fax/print (definitely a contributing factor into my wanting to break from the whole XP, vista, windows 7 thing as I refuse to buy another scanner just because someone decided that home users don't need all the functions they originally bought). So I have gone some way into checking the hardware compatability but I'm looking at three different (but similar) computers at the moment and will check the spec against compatability info again before I buy.

I will also come back and read through all the links you have provided - thank you!

I am almost conviced I'll go ahead with my plan and hopefully I will be able to come back and report from a fully functioning new machine that the installation went smoothly.

Thank you for the guidance and advice and for giving me the confidence to do this.

Thanks also to pablitofuerte
I will follow the links you provided.

Thanks to everyone for your support.

Thanks Tom, that solved my question.

Hi :)

With Windows Ram is a critical part but with Linux uses Ram much more efficiently. I would be tempted to keep as many of the mbord ram-slots empty as i could but make sure of getting at least 2Gb of ram. 32bit Desktop Ubuntu only uses the first 3.2Gb (ish) of Ram. However, a lot of ram does work better if bought as a matched pair using dual-channel. Ideally i guess i would have an mbord with 4 slots and only use 2 of them or perhaps one with 3 slots and just use 1 slot. I am not sure it's even possible to get less than 4 slots nowadays. With ram it's much better to buy fewer larger ram sticks and aim at getting about the fastest ram your mbord and cpu can handle. Much later on, in a few years when yo want to upgrade your machine even faster and much larger ram will probably be available much more cheaply than it is now and will give your machine the biggest performance boost for the least cost so building a system that allows you to do that without having to throw away ram that was once quite expensive seems a good plan. When you first start using linux you'll be impressed with the speed even if you were using flaky small dodgy slow old ram. So now is the best time to cut that expense down to size a bit :)

Pablitofuerte's last 2 links were superb, the first of them
"If you have no OS installed this video would help:
http://static.screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/09/03/Ubuntu_Partitioning.ogv
"
was absolutely exactly right for this question. Well worth watching soon just to get a glimpse of linux since you can't get a LiveCd of any distro right now. Also it shows exactly the 'right way' to install Ubuntu on your machine, assuming you have 2Gb of ram or perhaps more.

For 1Gb or less of ram i would arrange the partitions slightly differently but even so this video is superb and i have bookmarked it :) Thanks Pablitofuerte :) I bookmarked the 2nd link too but it didn't really suit this question except that it showed the whole install rather than just the partitioning section. Again it's worth watching but the first one is the key.

Less than a £5 for an Ubuntu Cd to get there so fast is well worth the money. Windows is over £100 and then you'd probably get Vat and stuff added lol. Hopefully you will be able to try Ubuntu on the 2 machines you have there, just in case it coaxes life back into the dead one. If the dead one gets as far as the bios then there will probably be one distro somewhere that can get it working as quite a fast and respectable machine, almost certainly Puppy would but hopefully we could find something a bit more full featured. Having a 2nd machine available and usable really changes things :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thanks for the added info Tom.

I've been checking out compatibility which is taking me some time (I expect that, I'll never learn unless I start somewhere eh?) but I can't find info about the motherboard I'm looking at so I'm still uncertain about the computer I have my eye on. I'm looking at this one because it seems good value for money and I'm on a budget but perhaps I need to look elsewhere? I did read that 'all recent motherboards should work fine'

The spec is:
ASUS M2N68-AM plus (but this only has 2 memory slots, not the 3 or 4 you suggest)
AMD Athlon II x2 245 duel core (or the Athlon II x2 250 duel core. Ubuntu 9.04 works with both I believe)
2GB DDR2 800mhz
250GB 7200rpm SATA II (or the 320GB 7200rpm SATA II)
22x DVD RW SATA

I've learnt more about how computers work in the last few weeks than I have in the last five years...but I'm still pretty dumb actually and it's a long process getting to grips with all the different specs etc.

Hi :)

Looks kinda ok but my neighbour and i were surprised about the 250Gb hard-drive when 1Tb or even 500Gb isn't much more expensive, certainly nothing like twice as much. I think the sweet-spot for drives (cost/Gb) is around 1Tb at the moment. Above that you start getting a lot less Gb/£.

Also the 2Gb Ram is the same story. For very little more added on top of the price you get 4Gb. Although 2Gb is plenty for linux and buying 2 sticks of ram to dual-channel them does bring large performance bonuses it does mean that if/when you want to increase your ram you'll have to throw both old sticks away, although you might get some cash back if you sell them on ebay or something. So as 1 stick of 2Gb you would have the ability to upgrade by just getting 1 more stick but that might not bring such a huge bonus with dual-channel. So, i think this is a tough call.

Sorry i just seem to be pushing you into spending a bit more on everything and not really giving options to cut back in other areas :(

I tend to use the hard-drives out of older machines and then buy a better hard-drive a while later but it's not always a good tactic because the rest of the machine might be held back by the relative 'slowness' of the old hard-drive. I just got a new drive about a month ago and my machines performance leapt up a few levels.

My neighbour was just having a look at the specs and suggested that an intel chip might be better but when we hunted around
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/processors,6.html
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLB9T
it was difficult to see but appeared that Amd were superior at this level. Possibly why i got an Amd in this machine and my last 2. Intel do make great top-end chips and are supposedly very supportive of linux but i keep finding Amd seem better. Just promise not to get an intel graphics card! nVidea graphics cards seem pretty good or a 4xxx series ati. Don't get intel or ati 3xxx or 2xxx series and 1xxx series (like mine) are toooo old now and lack support (even tho they seriously rocked especially compared with the later series'). So ati 4xxx or nVidea graphics tend to be great, almost everything else isn't - there doesn't seem to be a half-way house.

I'm not really too good about hardware but my neighbour seems to really know his stuff. The last 2 machines he built for me have been superb and he's been great for advice about other systems.

Hopefully something there helps?
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thanks Tom.
After all my head scratching I have finally ordered the computer and it should be with me by wednesday. Then I'll need to set up, install Ubuntu and get everything running. I'll be back at some point to report as whether it all works (and possibly earlier than that if I come across problems but any difficulties I have I'll put under a different question post). Having already confirmed with some other users that the motherboard I've selected is compatible and having checked out lots of other things too, I have finally gone for

ASUS M2n68-AM plus
AMD Athlon II x2 250 dueal core 3.0ghz 2mb L2 cache
4gb (2 x2gb) DDR2 800mhz
500gb 7200rpm SATA II hard drive
22x DVD RW black SATA
nVidia GeForce 8400 GS 512mb
built in audio

and will use with my existing monitor, keyboard, mouse, web-cam, graphics tab, HP officejet 5510 all in one print/scan/copy/fax, etc.

Fingers crossed.

I considered going with a different motherboard, one with 4 ram slots rather than just the 2 in this one, however it was bumping up the price and this was intended as a budget build and when I really thought about it I realised that in the 5 years I've had my last computer I never upgraded anything, that's 5 years on 512mb of ram and 120gb hard drive...so the chances of me ever upgrading to use another 2 ram slots are limited. For that reason I decided 2 ram slots would be suitable for me.

The mobo has built in nvidia graphics, but I chose to go with the upgrade to the 8400 GS partly because of the slightly better spec graphics and partly because it has it's own 512mb memory, therefore frees up some of the system memory which would otherwise have been used by the on-board graphics.

total cost £290

thanks for your help and advice.

Wow, good price!!
I think that covers all the things that usually worry me :)
Nicely done and fingers crossed indeed :)
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi
Just thought I'd come and report back on how this all went.

First - Whilst waiting for delivery of my new computer I tried Ubuntu (the i386 34 bit version) on my old broken useless computer. I thought I have nothing to lose. It worked, I was astonished. For a couple of hours I did wonder why I'd bothered to buy a new computer at all. Although I probably did need to update and I doubt the old one would have had enough memory or power to do what I want to do. The good thing about trying it on the old computer was it gave mea chance to get to know Ubuntu a little and find my way around a bit. For example I discovered that the HPLIP info I read (to configure my all in one printer/copier/fax/scanner) wasn't as clear as I had at first thought. The directions of how to install this on the HP site didn't work for me and I needed to ask a separate question to find out what to do (which was then easy).

Next - the new computer. Trouble free installation of Ubuntu (the amd64 version). Took about 20 mins from putting the disk in to having an almost fully functioning system. Two mins later I had an internet connection. installing and configuring my all in one was easy because I'd already done this one the old computer. Worked a treat - good.

There have been, and still are, some difficulties though.
1. I haven't been able to install avast anti-virus. This installed fine with the 34 bit version on the old computer but won't install with the 64 bit version on the new computer. Not sure what to do about this. I've got a heap of files saved to memory stick which were recovered from the old hard drive. I know there were trojans in there, I hope they are cleared out but without a virus checker installed I can't be sure.

2. I couldn't install Adobe flashplayer with the 64 bit version either. Now, I've worked around this (looking for alternate solutions in the forum) and flash works fine...but it has made me wonder if there are lots of things that are much easier to set up with the 34 bit version rather than the 64 bit version? I'm wondering if I might be better off using the 34 bit version (is it easier for newbies like me?). Think I need to do a bit of reading around to find out more about this.

3. I've been able to quickly and easily set up pidgin to msn chat but haven't been able to set up to access my yahoo account. Reading various solutions for this didn't help and asking my own question hasn't resulted in an answer either so it looks like I'll have to give up on accessing yahoo.

4. I don't know how to configure Ekiga so I can webcam and phone chat. Following the links for manual configuration didn't help, my router wasn't listed so I've come to a dead end with that at the moment. I've seen that other users have skype set up which I'd like to do but don't know how. So there are some things that are a bit tricky for newbies like me.

5. I haven't yet discovered if I can open all my old files and documents. It will be a pain if I have stuff that won't open (different software) but I won't know if they do or don't until I can some how virus check them.

Some other teething problems too - mainly to do with not knowing how all this stuff works...but on the whole I'm happy and have been singing Ubuntu praises to family and friends.

Thanks again for the help and support in getting me started :-)

Hi :)

Mostly i would say congrats and superbly well done :) Remarkably few issues considering how little time you have had with linux so far. Time is definitely on your side here as you will find things do get sorted more easily after a while. Just don't expect miracles straight-away :) Really do not worry about malware (virus & trojans & stuff) in linux so much. Windows viruses don't work in linux (except for 1 or 2 specially written carefully developed ones but i think you have to deliberately tweak and compile those for a specific system lol)

Taking your points in order. Lol, yes it's incredible how well Linux OSs cope so well with 'older' hardware - even distros that are meant to be for top-end machines, such as Ubuntu. However, it is great to have a 2nd machine because you will find that multi-tasking is so much easier, faster and more responsive that you really get in the habt of having more and more going on. Sometimes it's good to shelve long-term downloads or bit-torrenting tasks onto a 2nd machine.

It's good to see you are posting new questions about some issues because it helps keep threads vaguely sensible for people looking through for answers in the future. Also different people get attracted to different headings so your new question attracts the right sort of people better. Some things might not quite work for a very long time. This is usually because some hardware manufacturer or something decides to insist that you use Windows. There's a lot of dodgy dealings and bullying going on at very high levels. Hopefully linux will make the IT industry less paranoid and more open to "fair market forces", on the whole perhaps bringing honourable practices back into the IT industry.

20mins install is impressive. I think that's fairly normal on a decent hardware set-up such as yours. Win7 is proud of 45mins on carefully selected set-ups, also quite impressive although obviously that doesn't include all the extras such as installing an office-productivity suite such as OpenOffice or Microsoft Office.

1. First don't worry about the trojans you might be carrying on the usb stick. They were designed to run in Windows and will almost cerainly be completely lost in linux. This guide might help
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus
I haven't used Avast. In linux i tend to stick with "ClamAv" and i find the best way to install it is to open a command-line
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal#Starting%20a%20Terminal
and type in

sudo apt-get install clamtk

as Clamtk is a nice gui front-end so that you don't have to operate the antivirus from the command-line. Installing it will draw in all the things it depends on to function, we call these "dependencies". In Clamtk's case that will include the powerful and easy to use antivirus called "ClamAv" which includes a couple of libraries of Windows viruses to watch out for and the basic "clamscan" package and a few more bits&bobs, i think about 7 or 10 packages in all.

2. 64bit desktop edition can be a bit awkward at times. On my 64bit machine i find 32bit desktop edition much easier to use. Some people such as Adobe with their "flash-player" haven't really worked out a decent stable 64 bit release yet. If they made it OpenSource rather than trying to hide possibly dodgy code then they might have had a lot of help getting the code nice and tight and secure. <shrugs> More eyes on the code gives malware less chance of finding hiding places. Check the Antivirus link from the link i gave in the last question tho - ie don't worry too much ;)

3. I access yahoo directly from their website. It's still a bit clunky but getting better. I avoid IMs at all but think that you will eventually fix this on your set-up. There's usually 1 or 2 things that are not quite so easy and take a bit of gettting used to before they work properly for you. Not bad that you have so much running well so fast with so little experience of linux yet. Time helps.

4. Install "cheese" and work through all the steps in this guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
except the optional step. i have a feeling though that getting this functionality from the 64bit desktop edition might be tricky. Hopefully this will gradually get sorted through updates.

5. Most formats are standardised and even Microsoft's attempts at doing quirky things doesn't prevent most formats from working just as easily in linux, in some cases faster, easier and more secure - for example try opening a pdf file and see how long it takes lol. There are a few proprietary formats and files saved in Microsoft Office 2007 (their ultra latest new one that's just been released) that can be a problem. Mostly these are also a problem for most of the rest of the world, such as people using older versions of M$ Office, so it's fairly normal for a Win7 or microsquish office user to get a lot of complaints and requests that they save in the standard ".doc" formats rather than use the newer ones. On the whole if you can't open a file then you probably just need to add-in the right functionality by hunting around in Synaptic for something to do the job
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto
and that usually adds the functionality to all other relevant programs automatically :) Again even if you do open a file that is riddled with malware then the chances of the malware being able to do anything at all in a linux system is extremely remote. Mostly you open stuff as a normal user in linux, not as a SuperUser or Root User. In Windows it keeps slipping you into SuperUser mode without bothering to warn you and this is a key security flaw even in Win7 - that security is an after-thought added on top of an existing system. Linux was written with very hefty security right from the ground up and right from the start. It might be one of the reasons linux has developed so slowly in desktop markets, because it's only been the last few years that people have really started thinking about security for desktops - and mostly only to try making money from selling products that will need to be constantly upgraded with newer versions. Linux was based on Unix which is a server OS and so security was pretty much the number 1 key issue.

Sorry for how long it's taken me to reply!
Great to hear that you are having so few problems and that mostly things are going really well, hopefully you'll start having successes with those problems soon

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi again :))

Just got to the end of your email and then realised i had read your email in the wrong tone! Lol, sorry about that! Thanks for the compliment, it's good to see someone enjoying Ubuntu nearly as much as i am. So soon after starting with it is very impressive! :)))

The main guide you might find useful is this one for looking thing up in
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

You will need to work all through this guide (copy & mouse paste is good)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
just skip the optional step until you are advanced enough to cope. I'm not quite ready for that leap myself yet but i've only been using Ubuntu about 9 months, i think, and haven't really bothered looking into any of that yet as i keep getting distracted :))

Also you might like to have a little laugh at this article
http://librenix.com/?inode=21
That should help you stop worrying about viruses and malware in linux :)) If you do manage to find anything then it's might be worth keeping as a collectors item. Linux viruses are very rare and fragile, needing a lot of coaxing to try to help them stay alive at all!

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom
Thank you so much for your detailed response.

Yes, the install time is amazingly quick. Although I am not familiar enough or educated enough in the Linux system and ubuntu to be converting others I can't help but keep going on about it to friends and family - I spent WEEKS trying to get my old computer working again (going from totally ignorant 'just plug it in' user to 'not quite so ignorant that I don't realise how rubbish XP is' in a matter of days.) Every time I tried to install my old XP OS it took all day, the recovery disk, the chipset drivers, searching the web for more updates to drivers, drivers not working, corrupt installations, unknown hardware exclamation marks in device manager, and so on and so on, it was a never ending battle and took up huge amounts of time. And throughout all that I knew that even if I got the thing working again i would still be at a basic starting position of having little or no hardware and software installed and therefore needing to install yet more disks, taking up yet more time etc etc. The few teething difficulties I've had with installing ubuntu are a breeze in comparison (and as you said, and as I have been saying to anyone who will listen, the difference of the installation is great, once the one ubuntu disk has done its thing all that software is just sitting there waiting to be used).

I do think though that one of the reasons I have been so impressed is due to my earlier frustration of trying to fix the old computer. What I mean is that I was a relatively easy convert because I was already so frustrated by my old OS and all the hard work involved so that now, when I have a (comparatively minor) difficulty with ubuntu I am more than willing to put in a bit of time to find the solution. I can't see other windows users converting until they too come up against a similar level of difficulty with their current OS because users who are at the 'just plug it in' stage would/could find getting going with ubuntu daunting and not quite as easy as it could be. Although there is a whole heap of documentation and forums to look for info I have found myself going around in circles and some things have taken me much longer than they actually needed to.

I think it would also be difficult for people to convert if they are not willing or are unable to read as much as I've read. I personally find it quite easy to quickly scan read lots of pages to find what I am looking for, I might not understand the info (struggling with understanding command lines etc) but I can find it. But for example my brother is dyslexic and certainly wouldn't be able to find the information as quickly as I have. Even with a read/write package enabled it's a long slow process listening to pages of text when looking through documentation for answers and scanning pages of text or many links to previously answered questions etc would be very very difficult for him. The screencasts that are available are very well produced and very helpful, it would be great if many more were made to cover various topics.

Even with my very limited experience I know that I have already dispelled some Linux myths, for example:

myth 1. From a friend who works in I.T. a database administrator. When I said I was changing to a linux operating system, this friend told me it wasn't wise, it is a very very old system and wouldn't work. I replied that the version I was going to use came out this year and is updated every 6 months. This person then discovered that she didn't have administration rights to her new vista computer which made her rather angry...and then one of her son's games wouldn't install because it won't work on vista. I think she is now secretly jealous that I have a system that out works hers.

myth 2. From a friend's husband. When he was told I was changing to ubuntu/linux said 'not possible, it's too hard for girls and anyway it's for big businesses who want to program cash tills'.

myth 3. From my boyfriend who was given an ubuntu disk off a mate ages ago but didn't try it out because 'it's for geeks'. Said boyfriend is highly impressed with my current 'geek status' and considering converting to ubuntu too. I think the main bonus for him is that ever since I started reading about ubuntu I have stopped asking him to help me with my computer problems. He was more fed up with my old system than I was and had washed his hands of it. He is totally impressed that I have been able to learn about, install, and use ubuntu completely single handedly (although it's hardly single handedly as I have everyone in the community to ask for help lol). He is also very impressed with the eye candy which blew away one of the other myths that 'linux geeks like it to look like geek stuff' (ie clunky command lines and no pretty stuff that us 'normal' people like to use).

Back to those numbered points...
1. yep I've read tons on anti virus, not needing it, etc etc. As with many people I want the antivirus for added peace of mind, and mainly because I might send some of those files from my usb memory stick on to other people. They were scanned when they were recovered and trojans were deleted, but even after that found another had managed to get through, so I do need to scan these files again before feeling secure that I won't affect someone else's computer if I send them on.

Thanks for the info of how best to install ClamAV this is VERY useful and I will try it. This is one of the examples of things not being quite as easy as they could or should be. I've read the antivirus documentation, I've tried to install various, I've looked at the ClamAV documentation plus read some stuff in the forum about it...and then when I went to install using the synaptic package manager I saw so many different files all related that I didn't have a clue which to add or what to do. Your advise that installing clamtk will draw in all the dependencies is exactly the sort of thing someone like me needs.

2. I'm considering doing a fresh install of the 32 bit version rather than continue with the 64 bit version. Reading the forum, I see that lots of people say if you have a 64 bit CPU then use the 64 bit version (makes sense and that's why I chose it), but just as many people seem to say there are added difficulties with the 64 bit version. I haven't really found anything I can understand about benefits of the 64 bit version, so if it's just added difficulty (because some stuff is available on 32 bit and not on 64 bit) then it seems changing to the 32 bit version might be a better option for me. This is another example of things being harder than they could or should be - if I'd known the added difficulty earlier I would have installed the 32 bit version from the off.

3. One of the reasons I'm keen on accessing IM on yahoo as well as msn is for contact with a family member living in China. Over the years we have worked out that when one system is down the other may be working, so we have a few different options to stay in touch. It's a bit of a pain having to access yahoo via the web site and not instantly on my desktop, but I think I'll find a way eventually and anyway the bonuses of ubuntu are worth the few difficulties.

4. Thanks for the advice, I think I'll try it out after I've changed to the 32 bit version.

Thanks again
Janine

Hi again Tom

Yes I am enjoying Ubuntu - it's a move I do not regret making (even though right now I'm thinking I ought to shut down and install the 32 bit version, then I'll need to take the steps I have previously taken to get stuff configured, working and looking the way I want etc. It's a little inconvenience and I would have prefered going with the 32 bit version from the start to avoid some of the small difficulties which I have encountered, but to be fair it is in no way the amount of inconvenience caused by XP!!).

In fact, I find I am trying to hold back when telling people about my marvelous discovery of ubuntu because I am all too aware that I am unable to support them should they choose to make the change. I find I am trying to tell them how great it is, but also that it needs a little work, time and patience, that the time is worth it, that the small difficulties are worth it, but that they would need to expect a little work to reap the benefits.

J :-)

Wow, it all sounds really positive :)) Much like my own experience although i started with Mandriva so some of the impact was a bit less - i had already experienced faster speed and a refreshing lack of worries about security lol.

It is a very good plan to hold back from being to over entusiastic with people because they begin to avoid you and call you "geek", "nerd" and stuff behind your back. Personally i see that as high praise, something i aspire to sometimes.

To deal with the 32bit issue perhaps consider installing the 32bit version on another partition, give it a separate "/home" partition, perhaps even set your current Ubuntu partition as your /home although that might get a little confusing when you navigate around the folders! Please feel free to post this as a new question and hopefully someone nice will guide you through ;)

For moving people over to linux it might be best to get them using OpenSource apps in Windows first - things like OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird have Windows versions and those 3 cover most of people's computer needs so it's a good start. Then encourage them to try a LiveCd of Ubuntu
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
and show how that hasn't harmed/affected their machine! lol. Finally encourage them to try installing as a dual-boot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
Note that Ubuntu makes this very much easier than installing a dual-boot alongside another linux. Ubuntu assumes linux users will be able to cope with partitioning but assumes that Windows users would be baffled. The proper dual-boot is very much better than installing Ubuntu inside Windows but this other guide is still a handy on to email to people
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu

As you pointed out the main thing is to try to get people using the forums to ask questions rather than leaning on you all the time. Although it seems you could also help in the forums which is fun and would be much appreciated :)

Regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

Have you been able to try the new Ubuntu 10.04 before it gets officially released?
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/testing/lucid/beta2
Trying it as a LiveCd or as an extra dual/multi-boot would be ideal. Developers and everyone are keen to try to iron out any problems before 10.04 gets officially released so you might find faster & more effective answers to your bug reports which would make 10.04 work better on your system for you

Thanks and regards from
Tom :)