Page 4 of 4 If you have an unmetered broadband connection, you can find a download site for the 600MB ISO install CD image here. Note that Ubuntu is available as a Live CD download for all three architectures as well. You also have the option (via BitTorrrent only) of downloading a combination Install/Live DVD.
You can also request that Ubuntu send you CDs at no charge, an unprecedented gesture in support of Ubuntu's philosophy of widespread distribution. You can request numerous copies and give some to your friends, or simply copy and distribute the CDs yourself.
Figure 5 Ubuntu's free CD package
When you order CDs from Ubuntu (you can specify any or all of the available architectures), you'll received a nicely packaged 2-CD set containing the one-disk installation CD as well as a Live CD, which can be used to demo Ubuntu without affecting any of the files on your system. The Live CD runs slower than the installed version, of course, but it is a wonderful way to get a feel for the distribution or demo it for someone else. I think Ubuntu has done a fine job with its Live CD; I find it at least as good as Knoppix in terms of hardware detection and usability.
Figure 6 Ubuntu's CD set lets you install the software, or simply sample it
No particular instructions are necessary for running the Live CD — just pop it in the drive, reboot your machine and go. If you're running Windows, you'll notice that Ubuntu offers you the option of installing Windows versions of many popular open source programs.
Figure 7 Ubuntu's Live CD offers Windows users a range of open source software
Again, this reflects Ubuntu's desire to distribute free software to the widest possible audience. It also reflects another project of Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical: TheOpenCD. Chances are you'll already have some of these programs (Firefox, Thunderbird) installed, but the others make a nice bonus.
I tested the Ubuntu Live CD on a few different PCs, and also on a Mac. It works well: if you have wired broadband Internet access, the Live CD will give you a good, albeit somewhat slower, indication of what using Ubuntu is actually like. Ubuntu cannot recognize many wireless access cards, due to the proprietary drivers involved. However, I was delighted to see that Ubuntu did recognize a D-Link wireless card and could use it to browse the LAN and the Internet with no further effort on my part. If your wireless card doesn't work with the Live CD, chances are you can overcome this limitation fairly easily by using your Windows drivers with something called NdisWrapper if you decide to actually install Ubuntu.
On the Mac, the Live CD didn't correctly identify my graphics card, something every Linux distro I've tried has had trouble with. Again, though, this was easy to fix once Ubuntu was actually installed.
I have to add a note about fit and finish here. Ubuntu is enormously impressive in this regard, from the muted brown and gold touches that characterize the default "Human" theme to the snappy drumbeat flourish that announces the login screen — this is a class act throughout.
A further note, on the PPC version: Ubuntu is easily the best Linux experience I've had on my Mac. I do like Debian, but Ubuntu simply offers better hardware support and thus a much smoother installation. Even so, I did have to edit a config file to get the GUI working properly, and there were also a few necessary tweaks for system sound. But it was easier to get everything working than it has been with any other distro, and once everything is enabled, Ubuntu works flawlessly and reliably. It turns my quirky eMac into an ideal dual-boot developer machine.
With the right wireless card, Ubuntu is also a superb experience on notebook PCs. Using the D-Link card (a DWL-G630), everything worked flawlessly via the Live CD on both an IBM ThinkPad and a Dell Inspiron — video, sound, networking, everything. Very nice.
If you try Ubuntu and decide you want to install it, you'll probably need to brush up on the basics of dual-boot installation — the alternative, installing Ubuntu as the only OS on your computer, is a step most new users are not prepared to take (it does make installation much easier, though). Dual-boot installs needn't be terribly complicated, but a full, step-by-step guide to the process is beyond the scope of this article. However, you can get some excellent upfront help from the support pages on the Ubuntu wiki. Check here for installation on an Intel-based PC, and here for installation on a Mac. You'll find additional pointers in the Ubuntu documentation as well.
In a nutshell, the first thing you'll need to do is partition your drive. I have had good luck with PartitionMagic on many PCs over the years; it has been easy to use and quite reliable. (I haven't tried the product since it was acquired by Symantec, though.) On the Mac, I simply started from scratch and used the built-in Disk Utility to partition the drive. There are newer products such as iPartition which claim to offer non-destructive partitioning, however. I've yet to try these, but they are definitely worth checking out for the convenience factor.
You can also decide to partition directly from the Ubuntu installer; see the wiki instructions referenced above for details.
Give yourself plenty of room — a basic install will take 3GB or so, but you'll want room to grow and to perform plenty of in-place updates and upgrades. I'd allow a minimum of 10GB for a starter system, and preferably more. You'll need to create a root (/) partition as your default for the OS, and also a scratch partition (1GB or so for this, depending on your system configuration — the rule of thumb is to create a scratch partition that is roughly twice the size of your installed RAM). Then, during the installation, select the "manual" configuration option to map Ubuntu to your newly configured partitions. Choosing the manual option is very important, as the default option is to erase and automatically partition an entire disk!
The installation itself is possibly the weakest feature of this distribution. It is not overly complicated, but it is text-based, and it does require a minimal level of expertise. The user friendliness and polished fit and finish of the distribution itself are missing from the installation process. Experienced Linux users will have no problems, and beginners should be OK with just a bit of up-front research, but Ubuntu needs to make installation smoother for every class of user.
That said, don't let this qualification stop you from investigating or installing Ubuntu. It is more than worth the minimal effort it takes for a successful installation.
Everything considered, Ubuntu may be the best version of Linux yet, at least for use on the desktop. It has certainly generated enormous excitement and interest (and not merely because of the nude desktop photos). If you're a web developer on Windows or Mac who has thought about trying Linux, this is the Linux you want to try.
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Keywords
Ubuntu, Debian, Linux, open source, Canonical, APT, dpkg, Synaptic, nude desktop photos
