Setting up an Ubuntu PC

[Stewie]

My sister just got an old outdated pc with a cracked version of xp on it and is having all kinds of issues.
I was thinking of taking one of my old pc's (Still newer and better than hers) and putting Ubuntu on it for her.
She would mainly use it for internet, facebook, getting pics from her camera and email.

I am assuming that this should be pretty simple and headache free and still cover all her needs.
Any advice doing this?

[caladein]

Technically, you were home free until you mentioned the camera.  You should be fine, but it's worth a check.

On her end, it comes down to software more than anything else.  If she's pretty much doing everything through Firefox/Chrome, you're golden.  If she uses a desktop IM client... as much as I love Pidgin, it's a nightmare in terms of consistently supporting each protocol's feature-set.

[Stewie]

With the camera couldn't we set her camera to just save as jpg and then I would assume that we could just transfer the files from the camera to the comp and should need much else, correct?
I don't think she will be using a desktop im client, she was using MSN but I don't think she does anymore.

Is the set up easy, what about video and soundcard drivers. Are these generally easy to find and get installed? (no, I'm not sure what specific video card or sound card it is, can't remember)

Is there any hiccups that I should be expecting?
 

[Lounge]

If she uses a desktop IM client... as much as I love Pidgin, it's a nightmare in terms of consistently supporting each protocol's feature-set.

The latest ubuntu removed Pidgin as the default IM client in favor of Empathy.

[MahrinSkel]

I put Ubuntu onto an old Dell (early P4) when AT&T decided to break all my gateway routers with a DHCP hack designed to force me into buying their "Home Network" service (for another $25 a month).  It was pretty painless, the hardest part was figuring out how to configure Firestarter to bridge two network interfaces so the DSL modem would never see my real network (and even that wasn't hard, especially compared to old-school linux command line hell).  Since then, it just *works*, I haven't needed to touch it.

Generally if it's older hardware, especially if it's a grey-box generic from Dell or some other brand name, it will just work, more easily than with Windows.  It does a good job of locating drivers, if they're available.

--Dave

EDIT: When I say "haven't needed to touch it", I mean that until this week when the power blinked, I literally had never touched it since setting it up.  Now I have needed to touch the power button.

[Stewie]

Sounds good then, I might give it a go this weekend!

Thanks for the input.

[Righ]

With the camera couldn't we set her camera to just save as jpg and then I would assume that we could just transfer the files from the camera to the comp and should need much else, correct?

You could. It depends what she's used to doing. You may as well use RAW if she's used to shooting that - dcraw/UFraw are usually the most up-to-date and probably the most accurate RAW handlers out there. There's some very good, simple to use photo management and editing software on Linux these days. Just in the last year it has got to the point where Linux can support the needs of all but the most demanding photographers.

http://www.digikam.org/
http://f-spot.org/Main_Page
http://www.gimphoto.com/

More here:

http://wiki.osphoto.org/index.php/Main_Page

As for hiccups installing Ubuntu? No, it should all be amazingly easy. That's why Ubuntu is popular. If you have any problems, post. It probably won't be anything that can't be fixed easily.

[lac]

You should absolutely go for it, your situation is undoubtedly different from mine but I've had some disappointing experiences with setting up various linux boxes for the more computer illiterate members of my family.
At first they only wanted to surf, e-mail and do some office work. Fine, no problem.
Then they drag in scanners, camera's and whatever. Ok, I can do that.

A bit later they need to use the windows accounting software their hobby club uses or run some other windows program a friend recommended.
I ended up putting in a crapload of work into those boxes and it just wasn't worth the hassle.
They wanted to install the software that came with their magazine, the kiddie games the grandchildren are used to at home...

You get the picture. It never stopped and whatever they wanted, it was never linux native. At first you try to convince them to use alternatives and while they indulge you, that's not what they really want.

I ended up installing XP and made a habit of creating restore points when I visited them so I could revert the os whenever an nightly excursion onto the interwebs went horribly wrong.

It made my life as the family computer guy a whole lot easier.

[Soln]

you can easily install Ubuntu by partitioning the drive and keep XP.  The linux boot manager should allow you to boot either Win or Linux.

[Chimpy]

you can easily install Ubuntu by partitioning the drive and keep XP.  The linux boot manager should allow you to boot either Win or Linux.

Shit, you can install Ubuntu while still inside windows and not reboot until everything is finished.

[MahrinSkel]

You can install Ubuntu to a DVD-R and not touch your hard drive at *all*.  I think you could install it to a thumb drive, if your mobo supports booting from USB devices.

--Dave

[naum]

On Ubuntu: netbook (hardware) recommendations for < $300?

And anyone with experience with Ubuntu Netbook Remix?

[Yegolev]

I would rank the OS installations I have done by ease like so:

Win7
Ubuntu 9
AIX
WinXP
cat scoot
SLES 9

I put Ubuntu on a partition on my PC and let grub handle my booting.  It survived the Win7 install, too, and is still managing my boot images.

As for additional software, I find Ubuntu to be almost ridiculously easy to manage.  I wanted it to read my ntfs partitions so I went into the package manager, found what I wanted and it downloaded/installed for me.

Have not explored the lower depths of what hardware it will run on.

[Engels]

You installed Windows 7 after Ubuntu and it didn't hork your grub loader? That's pretty awsome. If I recall, WinXP writes to the boot sector and you can get locked out of your linux unless you reinstall grub from a cd.

[Yegolev]

You installed Windows 7 after Ubuntu and it didn't hork your grub loader? That's pretty awsome. If I recall, WinXP writes to the boot sector and you can get locked out of your linux unless you reinstall grub from a cd.

I was pretty impressed myself, like "this is voodoo" impressed.  I don't know if it is due to grub living in a place that Win7 can't see or what, but it's nice to have a customizable boot loader under Win7.  When I first put Ubuntu on this rig, I had Win7 RC installed and I recall that it stuck a Win7 option in the conf file; I did go in there and set Win7 as default but otherwise it was very automatic.  I later did a clean install of Win7 retail and grub survived as the boot loader.

[Soln]

it's trickier to install Ubuntu via USB but ya

I do not recommend WUBI (windows installer) for 9.10 Koala.  It's buggy as fuck. 

[raydeen]

Make sure the old machine has enough memory as well. If it's on the low end (<256 megs), you might want to look at Xubuntu or Fluxbuntu as those have lower memory requirements for the desktop. As for the camera, I'd think it would register as an external drive which you can then just pull the photos from. And frankly, I'd stay away from 9.10 altogether and stick with 9.04. 9.04 seems to be a bit more stable and still uses Grub. 9.10 uses Grub2 which I've seen act weirdly from time to time.

And as a side note to any of you with netbooks who were thinking of using 9.10, don't. Grub2 has been reported to be an SSD killer. It won't murder it outright but might give you some trouble trying to get it back to a normal working state.

Edit for grammer.

[Soln]

excellent advice all round Raydeen

anyone have any experience with EasyPeasy the Asus EEE distro or general distro for notebooks?  It has some proprietary junk like Skype, but it seems optimized for notebooks.  I will give it a spin and nuke Xandros on one of our EEE's this week.

[raydeen]

I haven't tried any of the remixes but I can say that stock 9.04 worked like a charm on my eee 900. It found EVERYTHONG. Web cam, sound card, graphics card (I can has teh Cube!), etc. And I'm running it off of a Sandisk 8 Gig Class 2 SDHC. Runs better than XP on the built in SSD. Hardly ever touches swap. My Dell running 8.04 with 2 Gigs or ram is constantly using swap. The Ubuntu team really gave 9.04 the netbook love.

[Ookii]

The most important thing you have to know is that patience is a virtue. You'll have to do a ton of reading, but you'll be a better person in the end.

Linux can be a joy and a pain at the same time.

[Soln]

yeah I love Ubuntu.  After years in school of being pushed around by POSIX gurus I love the openess.  I used RHEL3 for years at work and I don't feel half the affection as I do for this distro.  Just a great community. 

I will try that Raydeen -- run 9.04 off an SSD, great stuff.  Cheers.