Installing Ubuntu
Installing Ubuntu should be as easy as one, two, three. One being click this link and download it, two being run the installation, and three being start using Ubuntu.
As we all know though, things don’t necessarily go as smoothly as they should. My first Ubuntu experience was difficult, and perhaps a little original, so I thought I would document it here.
The process started when my fiancé brought me the Ubuntu disk. This is one of the easiest, and definitely the cheapest way to get Ubuntu. It’s free. And you don’t need to download it.
However, this is where my problems started. My computer is old, and for one reason or another, the CD drive no longer works. Its sucks, I know, and it has caused me much grief. I searched a little while on the internet and found that I could download it. Due to my poor internet plan, downloading it would have sent me way over my limit, and so it really wasn’t worth it. I waited and downloaded it at my fiancé’s house, on his bill.
This could have, and should have been simple, except that we thought it would be a good idea to have a working copy of Windows on my 30 gig hard drive as well- for the programs Ubuntu doesn’t support. My main concern was not being able to use iTunes and Market Maker. The external hard drive I had attached wasn’t being picked up at start up, no matter what we tried, but when I accidentally bumped the computer the disk started to install. For a second.
My computer was taken apart by my more than capable fiancé in the hope of getting to the CD drive to tighten some loose wires. It didn’t get that far- my Toshiba is incredibly hard to take fully apart. We were late for a party anyway, and so we took a rest.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!” he said the next morning, “Why don’t we just use someone else’s computer with a working CD drive and put your Hard drive into it!”
I couldn’t think of a reason, and it sounded like it would work, so that’s what we did.
All the laptops at my house had a trip to my fiancé’s hands (where all broken technology must go to be repaired) which meant that my computer, and every other laptop at my house was taken apart and hard drives swapped. Hayden and Amon’s computers didn’t work because they was too slow, and therefore too stressful to use. Rhys’, however, did. He freaked out when he saw his computer missing it’s insides - we forgot to ask permission - but I bribed him with a book that he has been desperately seeking and all was forgiven and forgotten.
The installation worked after a while, and our slip up then was that we ran the set up and so it configured Ubuntu to the settings on RHYS’ computer, not mine. Easily fixed though - and thank God it was, because I think I would have thrown my computer out the window if it hadn’t have been.
So that was my first Ubuntu experience. Not as enjoyable, or as easy as it should have been- but an experience none the less. I feel a lot smarter having had a hand (even if it was a very small one) in all of this taking apart computers and installing new operating systems. My experience with Ubuntu after this though has been nothing but incredibly enjoyable. I am loving Ubuntu and all it has to offer. There are certainly a few things to get use to, but I am up to it, and looking forward to that challenge.
Look for future blogs about Windows vs. Ubuntu and Getting Use To Ubuntu. Should be good fun. 
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January 30 2007 05:18 pm | Tech
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