Ubuntu 10.04 out now

Canonical has released the latest version of their flagship linux OS product, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. The LTS means it is a long term support release, which in practice means that it should be very stable and Canonical will continue to release updates for it for at least 2 years.

You can read more about its features at
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/1004features.

There are also the variants, including Kubuntu, the Netbook Remix and Ubuntu Studio. I am currently trying them out in virtual machines on my Ubuntu 9.04 PC and am considering installing Ubuntu Studio 10.04 as my main OS, as I want more features for things like audio and video editing and creation.

http://ubuntustudio.org/

Switching From Windows to Linux Can Take Time

I remember when I made the decision to switch from Windows XP to using Linux. It was not an instant changeover. I had used Linux in the past briefly, when it still did not support most hardware like soundcards and modems, and had stayed with Windows for a long time. But I then bought a second-hand computer and decided to give Linux another try, as there were times when Windows was becoming frustrating to use.

I installed Xandros 3 OCE on it and enjoyed using it. I still ran my Windows XP PC and was comparing the two. Eventually Windows XP got so bad, although a reinstall of it would probably have helped, but I got fed up with having to reinstall Windows yet again (at least once a year for several years).

So I decided to give up Windows XP as my main OS and go for Linux. I bought Xandros 4 Home Premium (no longer available) for less than £100 (considerably cheaper than an XP licence), and installed that and enjoyed it, until the hard drive it was installed on decided to die.

I then wanted to try something else. I discovered Linux Format via the Internet and decided to subscribe (I never bought a copy in a shop) and read about Ubuntu and other distros. Eventually I chose Ubuntu and have been happy with that ever since. I have recently bought an Asus Eee PC 901 with Xandros and enjoy that too.

The point is, I changed over gradually. I think we need to get Windows users to try out Linux first. Live CDs are great in helping do this, as they make no changes to a computer, and thus the Windows user can try out Linux without fear of messing up Windows.

A gradual changeover is the least painful way, and either people who start to use Linux will either like it right away, or have reservations by eventually get fed up with Windows and go for Linux, or be won over by its ease of use (as is the case with some distros) or other plus points.

For me, the real advantages over Windows include:
- no licence fee (for most distros)
- regular free updates
- the latest cutting edge technology (e.g. Compiz)
- free open source software which does not have built-in spyware (Windows has its Genuine [dis-]Advantage Tool which is spyware)
- very unlikely to get a virus or spyware installed in Linux, so much safer to use
- not likely to need to reinstall the OS every 6 months due to OS getting bloated and slowing down as Windows gets.

To a certain extent I think Linux is already there as being better than Windows. But Microsoft has a bigger marketing budget and powerful infuences over the PC industry which pushes Linux out.

kB for kilobytes

Linux Expo Live

The Next Generation of Open Source Event
Thu 23 - Sat 25 October 2008, Olympia, London

LinuxExpo Live will focus on the benefits of open source to all companies from large enterprises through to SMEs, showcasing just how much the technology and service levels have developed over the last two years.

LinuxExpo Live is uniquely positioned to raise the profile of Linux and Open Source and add far more to the mix, in order to encourage new adopters of Linux and other open source offerings, for their business solutions, rather than preach to the converted.

Is your PC running slow?

Recently on a forum, a person said they were given an old PC running Windows and it was getting very slow. If you are in that position, read on.

If you have an old Windows XP PC, there is probably a lot of defragmentation on the hard drive, and lots of files from software that was installed and then uninstalled as well.

You should defragment the hard drive. Also scan for viruses and spyware, and rootkits. If it is still slow, then it might be best to back up all your data, make sure you have installation files/disks for all your software and OS, and then reformat the hard drive.

I always find it best to have a separate partition for the pagefile/swapfile, following the Linux model. This is because if the pagefile is mixed in with the Windows files and your documents, etc., it will get very badly fragmented. And as Windows uses the pagefile as an extension to its RAM, it needs to be in one contiguous file rather than lots of smaller files scattered all over the hard disk.

Decide on the size of pagefile you need. For example, if you have 1 GB of RAM, you might want a pagefile of 2 GB. Although if you have 2 GB of RAM you might want a max of 3 GB pagefile, I do not think there is a need to go larger than that. Now, assuming you are using Windows XP, you need to make sure that there is going to be at least 10% free space on the partition for the pagefile. Even though nothing else is going on there, other than one large fixed-size file, Windows XP complains if any partition has less than 200 MB of free space. So make your pagefile partition 2.2 GB if you intend to have a pagefile of 2 GB.

If you do not know how to create partitions, then you can use a program like GParted. Go to http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php to download a live CD of the software, and then burn the ISO file to a CD as a disc image (not as a file on a disc). When that is completed, you should (after backing up all your data, etc.) then reboot the PC from the GParted CD. (Remember to change settings in the BIOS if the PC will not boot from a CD, to set the boot priority to CD before HDD).

It will then allow you to erase your existing partition and create new ones. Or you could just resize the existing partition and create a new one for the pagefile in the space created. More instructions on using the software can be found at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm. Remember that for Windows XP you will need to make any new partition an NTFS partition.

Also, the first partition on the hard disk should be a primary partition. The second partition should be an extended partition, with a logical partition inside it for the pagefile. You can have several logical partitions if you wish. I tend to prefer to have a separate partition for my documents and data, away from the partition where the operating system is installed. Then if you need to reinstall the OS, you can format the OS partition without touching your data files.

You might also want to consider creating more logical partitions for other operating systems. For example, you might want to try out Linux in another partition. Ubuntu is very good and nearly all Linux distributions are free. You can download it for free from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download or request a CD completely free from https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ (choose the desktop edition, unless you really want to set up a server and know how to do that).

The Ubuntu installation CD is also a Live CD, i.e. you can boot from it into a full version of the operating system to try it out before installing it. The Live CD will do nothing to your hard disk unless you request it, so it is perfectly safe. If you like it you can install it. It also comes with GParted, so you could use the Ubuntu Live CD to run GParted and manage your partitions if you so wish. If you do install Ubuntu, it will need its own partition (ext3 format, not NTFS) plus a swap partition. Ubuntu can read and write to NTFS partitions, but Windows XP cannot read or write to a Linux partition.

Whatever you do, I hope you end up with a faster and reliable PC.