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A chronicle of my experience with Ubuntu 7.04 -Feisty Fawn – released in April 2007. This is a very popular Linux based platform. It is currently being installed on a number of ‘Dell’ computers. This decision followed a customer survey done by Dell where customers indicated that they would like open source software on their PC’s instead of the Microsoft products. In my case, I used a Dell PC that had previously been used for installations of Windows 98 SE to Windows XP for test purposes.

1. THE PC USED

I used an old Dell OptiPlex GX1 PC to run Ubuntu. It has a Pentium III 500 GHz processor,10GB Hard Drive and 128MB memory. This met the ‘minimum’ requirement’ for running Ubuntu. The system however kept ‘timing out’ when I attempted to boot from the Ubuntu CD. After a significant number of attempts, I decided to bump the memory up to 256MB and eureka, it worked.

2. THE TEST RUN/GETTING STARTED

The instructions were simple enough, you either run a scaled down Ubuntu demo from the CD (in which case no changes were to your current system) or you installed Ubuntu on your PC . Installing Ubuntu on the PC gives you the option of replacing you current system or alternatively , installing Ubuntu in  a separate partition thus facilitating the two operating systems. As I am a conservative person, I chose to run the demo from the CD first.

3. THE EXPERIENCE

Customizing:The Ubuntu desktop is arranged in a fairly organized way. The equivalent of the ‘Quick Launch’ bar in Windows (called panel in Ubuntu) is located at the top of the desktop. This gives easy access to ‘Applications’ the Windows equivalent of the ‘programs menu, ;places, the equivalent of the Windows directory and ‘System’, the equivalent of the Windows control panel. There is also a panel at the bottom of the screen. These panels can be easily customized by either ‘right clicking’ the panel and adding the icon for the applications from the various groups available or by dragging the icon and dropping it on the respective panel.

Login on to Ubuntu

On a number of occasions the login screen process was corrupted as my user name and password was not recognized. After several rebooting of the system, the problem was solved.

Pictures and Graphics

The software was able to recognize my digital camera and imported my pictures without the use of the manufacturer’s software CD. I thought that it handled this well but a number of the pictures needed to be edited before they were ‘picture perfect’. I had already viewed them on my Windows Vista PC so I was able to make an easy comparison of the two.

Networking

The original installation of Ubuntu did not include the files for ‘file sharing’. This required the installation of Samba or NFS. This just adds a little complication to someone who is not comfortable with setting up networks. This leaves a lot to be desired as you know with Windows there is a wizard that makes setting up a network a breeze.

Internet Browser

It is noteworthy that the Firefox Web Browser is the choice here. This is the most popular Web Browser after Internet Explorer. It is probably more popular in Europe where recent surveys have suggests that it enjoys support in the range of 30%. If you follow the literature, you will notice that there is a wave of anti-Microsoft sentiments in Europe in recent days.

Games

The games menu includes the usual card games (Solitaire, Free cell) but it also includes some exciting games such as Mahjongg and Sudoku among others.

4. THE VERDICT

After a reasonable exposure to Ubuntu I decided to install the program and replace my current operating system. This was done with the full realization that I could lose the functions of some of my hardware. I am please to inform you that after the installation I only lost the use of the sound card. The PC on which I installed Ubuntu was a PC that was used for test purposes. This problem was fixed by cannibalizing a recent computer and removing and installing the sound card in my ‘Ubuntu PC’. This made it possible for me to explore Ubuntu while enjoying music in the background.

Not being able to send faxes is a major shortfall as potential small business clients from developing countries are seeking solutions that will enable them to save costs. If they adopt Ubuntu, they would have to consider investing in a conventional fax machine.

It was pretty easy for the ‘Ubuntu PC’ to recognize other PC’s on the Windows network, but in the absence of a ‘Network Wizard’ that we are accustomed with in Windows, configuring the network required more detailed knowledge when compared to the process for setting up a strictly Windows network.

The system ‘help’ needs to be more elaborate. People from the developed countries often forget that access to Internet is not as pervasive as it is in ‘first world’ countries. If Ubuntu is to be adopted universally, then the help screens have to be comprehensive enough as most users in the developing world does not have access to the other means of obtaining help which are largely Web based.

It is going to take a long time for people in the developing world to gain easy access to the Internet as the main players that control the infrastructure are multinational companies and it would appear that they are all on a ‘get rich quick’ mission as despite using the same Internet technology that they deploy at home, they are charging the developing countries several times more for Internet access than they do at home. The consequence of this is that although the technology is present in the developing world the vast majority of the population cannot access it. These companies are being myopic as there are numerous Internet based products even some developed by some of these same companies, that will not take off as people are not able to afford the access to the Internet in the first place an so cannot take advantage of the products. I am referring to products such as all VOIP based products, bill payment systems offered by a few Jamaica based companies, Western Union money transfer system (the Internet side), e-commerce generally, all WEB 2.0 products etc.