My experience installing Ubuntu as a typical Windows user

I’m always looking for new software and gadgets to install and test, I’m not the type that can keep a Windows install for more than a few months without reinstalling a new version, cleaning the system and so on. Yesterday I’ve decided to install Ubuntu on an older notebook hard drive I’ve had. I was thinking of doing that for a long time but I didn’t want to dual boot with Windows from the same hard drive. After an hour of searching for a S-ATA cable (which I found in the last box) and installing the drive I’ve went on to install Ubuntu 9.04, the 64 bits version. What followed is described below.

Ubuntu is not for Windows humans

Installing Ubuntu on my desktop

The first thing I’ve seen after I’ve started the installing procedure was a hard reset. And the second and the third. Then I’ve tried something different (I have no idea why I sensed that might work): I’ve booted into Live CD mode and begin the installing procedure from there. This was a little better, as I’ve got to 80%, the the forth reset occurred.

After calming down with a beer I’ve burned on a DVD the 32 bit version and gave it a go. Needless to say I’ve ended up in the same place, with resets at various points. Then I’ve thought to give another chance to the 64 bit version and browsed through the advanced options before install, where I’ve found something about “no ACPI installation” plus other options I’ve had no clue about. At this point I’ve checked the options with no ACPI and install went fine and pretty fast I have to say.

I have no idea what caused the hard resets but after looking on some forums I’ve seen that I wasn’t the only one with this issue. Next I’ve checked that I didn’t overwrite somehow the Windows Loader, as I usually did in the past experiences with installing Linux. All fine here.

First few hours of using Ubuntu

The first thing I noticed was how fast Ubuntu boots, as from the loading screen to desktop it takes about 10 seconds on a Core 2 Duo 3GHz CPU. Then I’ve noticed the silence of my 500W speaker system, that’s because Ubuntu has a problem with my Realtek HD Audio sound card. After reading a few posts and installing a few drivers the silence persisted, at witch moment I’ve switched my attention towards the video driver of my Radeon 4850 which doesn’t seemed to handle a full screen HD movie. Needless to say that my efforts were useless.

I don’t consider myself an IT Guru, but I’m pretty sure I’m an advanced Windows user with at least 14 years on trial and error. Practically I’ve tried every Windows desktop version since 3.11. I’ve also tried a few Linux distributions like Red Hat and Ubuntu so I can draw a conclusion about both of them

The question: Ubuntu or Windows

Well, the answer is more complicated than it should be and relies upon another question, ‘What do you seek?‘. If you want something easy to install and use give Ubuntu a try, but if you have hardware or drivers issue you’d better stick with Windows. Ubuntu is also a good alternative when your budget is limited, as it comes with various software which provides similar functions like paid Windows programs, but similar is not the same with identical, remember that.

In the end I can’t describe the happiness I’ve felt going back to Windows 7, which is faster in every day use than Ubuntu (except boot time), Precaching being one of the most useful things introduced by Vista. The newest iteration of Windows 7 brings back new levels of performance, a new taskbar and easy to use and install devices. It’s hard thinking about Ubuntu as a Windows 7 competitor, even if it’s cheaper (or free if you don’t need support), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good, because Linux really made visible progress in past years, but so did Windows.