I bought and assembled my parent’s new PC yesterday. I got them a 19in widescreen LCD, which looks gorgeous. I want one!
This was the first time I’ve installed Ubuntu onto a completely fresh machine, no Windows here. Almost flawless setup, except for my bungling of the partitions, and it took next to no time.
Downloading updates over ADSL was not so quick.
Now all I need to do is identify and install any packages that they may need. First important thing is to setup the ability to browse a Windows network, as that is how they will be getting their old data off their old PC. I’ve never done that before, so I will need to work on that. SAMBA I guess??
The only other thing I need to consider is their printer, a problem which I have never had, seeing as I almost never print things out (only PDF printing).
I’ve already installed all the necessary codecs and things to play .mp3’s, .avi’s and DVD’s. Other than that Ubuntu seemed pretty complete for applications. I don’t want to install too much, so I can give my parents a demo of how Synaptic works.
I also think I’ll install some different window managers to give my parents the choice. With the release of XFCE 4.4.0, I think I’ll install xfwm at least (love that native transparency).
I recently went through some RSS feeds checking out some new Beryl features, which look rad. I think my dad was quite interested in Beryl, so I might include that too.
And I also am thinking of putting Metisse on there as well. I’m hoping to give the Mandriva 2007 One Live CD a go today.
Hopefully I’ll have everything just working by the time I take it over, for a seamless transition from Windows to Ubuntu.
Samba is more for sharing files. To access a Windows share, you need libsmbclient at the minimum. There are also some additional tools available to make it easier to connect to SMB shares. You can find those tools by opening up Synaptic and searching for Samba.
Your updates were most probably slow becuase you :
a) didnt check to see if your ISP mirrors ubuntu for unquota’d downloads ( as does mine- internode we have a few terabytes of linux mirrors that dont count towardsour monthly download quota – which also comes down at the full speed of our internet account agreement…mine is 180kb/s down 128kb/s up.)
b) and as a result of neglecting A…..you left the original http urls in the /etc/apt/sources.list
when i do an initial update after first install it wants to grab around 300-400mb which takes about 40-60mins.
note: this size may have something to do with me using the install dvd….which would offset some of the initial updates…but not all.
out of the box ubuntu will be able to read windows shares.
not sure about xubuntu
with gnome(ubuntu)…when you first choose to share a folder, it will ask how you want to share the folder(nfs or samba)…it then gets the packages for you.
please contact me if you need more help or opinions(of which you may quite a few of your own)
ps : people who aren’t microsoft fanboys are becoming increasingly hard to find….either they totaly love windows and fight for M$ or they are totally apathetic and still use windows….bit like broken convicts on devils island. sigh
ohh woops….forgot to clarify point B….
becuase you most proly left the original sources file intact( maybe you uncommented some of the lines…maybe not) it means that you were doing updates from the original ubuntu apt servers.
these are limited to 50kb/s outgoing speed.
this is the reason your updates were slow…most probably anyway, im making alot of assumptions here mind you.
have fun and may server protect you. (to quote the afternow radioplay series from rantradio.com)