Warriors Using Ubuntu/Linux?! My experience with Ubuntu 10.04

27 replies
Hi Warriors,

I am sure many of you will be using Linux on your computers for day to day IM operations.
It will be great if you can share some good productivity tools and utility names.

I have been testing Ubuntu on one of my PC and i am really loving it. It is better than Window7!

So far best things I have found:


1. System is faster, 1GB RAM is way enough for it (in VISTA it used to be the minimum!)

2. Many utilities built in like:
a. It did not have to install any driver.
b. It also picked up my DSL connection automatically !
c. Firefox & Open Office with PDF creation and viewer support built-in
d. Screenshot utility, Notes taking utility (TomBoy)
e. Built-in support to access server with FTP, SSH...
f. BEST text editor, gedit, really way better than commercial textpad or notepad++

Also I have discovered following programs light but awesome:


1. Artha (awesome dictionary! {works offline!})
2. OSMO (Crisp fast, PIM, calendar,notes, contacts and tasks manager)
3. Neverball (I love games!!!)


My Challenges (What I Miss from Windows!)
1. Video Editor & Convert like Camtasia, Yes we get weekly videos
recorded in .wmv format every week for a client which needs to be
edited and converted to mp4 for youtube for best size and quality.

I missing a good , easy to use, graphical software like Camtasia...
do you have any suggestions please...

My goals:
1. Can handle .wmv format as source
2. reduces size but does not damage quality for youtube
3. have built-in output template for youtube to produce video in
best format (reduced-size, but still good quality for youtube internal conversion)

2. Video Games:
1. Yeah I love racing games , I have not find a good racing game like N4S or
GTA or Any games with lots of lots good quality cars!

Any suggestions friends?


---

Also one thing i noted, Firefox is faster and lighter in Ubuntu than in Windows...
I am loving to browse the web using Firefox instead of Chrome.. (I use Chrome for
browing and Firefox for development in Windows but in ubuntu it is not the case...
firefox is just as speedy as i wanted!)

Oh yeah one other thing, I used to use double Display with Windows, now on Ubuntu,
Multiple Workspaces are just as good as adding another display!
---

I have been using Linux machines here and there for development purposes,
but have not liked them for day to day business operations as it seemed lot of work..
with terminal....

But now it seems things have changed...

Just another day my friend came here and he said wow Ubuntu seems more user friendly,
as case-in-point...

Firefox asked to install flash-plugin to visit youtube... then it asked me to allow install..
clicking on install button it just did it... but in Windows i remember how Firefox will always
say "Install failed", do manual install...then Adobe guys will confuse with download of their stupid download manager and......

No I am not posting this to say Windows sucks (which sometime does )!
What I am trying to convey is that guys if you are starting out in IM, and
cannot afford or do not want to spend $500 here and $300 there to buy windows,
adobe photoshop, adobe acrobat professional (to create pdf), office 2007(to create reports..)... go with Ubuntu... It has everything you need to run your day to day
business operations...and it costs you nothing...

Even it does not ask you buy DVD writer and burn it... simply download .ISO file,
and then using their boot-utility put it into a USB, and wow you have a usb which you
can use to install OS to any pc.

It is very user friendly, does need much technical knowledge, very active community
to help you with any issue, awesome wiki tutorials and forums to show you any HOwTO...

Better try someday when you feel like to try something NEW, something different

Best Regards,
Mohsin Rasool
PS. to experienced Linux users, please share best programs to install which you use
everyday in your business and daily use. Thank you!
#1004 #experience #ubuntu #ubuntu or linux #warriors
  • Profile picture of the author Ryan UK
    I am a Linux user myself. I have Ubuntu Server 9.04 running as my file and web server, I also have Fedora 13 running on my laptop. I am web developer and although I can do a good amount of work on my Linux system, I still have to turn to my Windows 7 PC for Photoshop, Dreamweaver and my games.

    I just wish one day that Adobe will release CS for Linux then I will be able to scrap Windows altogether. Don't mind too much about the gaming, I have a PS3 for that.
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    • Profile picture of the author kavi
      Hey Mohsin,

      Check recordMydesktop and Recorditnow for screen capture (you can install it through the software center). If you have the compiz effect installed, you can even zoom in and out while recording.

      For note taking I use BasKet Note Pads

      I dropped Windows too about 1.5 years ago. It almost broke my laptop due to making the cpu overheat. Now the same machine is working flawlessly.

      Cheers!
      Kavi
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohsin Rasool
    Thank you for your responses and input my friends.

    --
    Yes Ryan i miss photoshop too.
    But many people says GIMP is there...
    Oh yeah i will keep Windows at one pc for that reasons..
    until it is resolved...

    ---
    Kavi thanks for your suggestions I check them out...
    Well for camtasia recording is not my issue as our client records
    with web-cam.. i want video editing and output functionality of camtasia
    for youtube uploads... any suggestions in this regards?

    Thanks again,
    Mohsin
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Mohsin Rasool View Post

      Thank you for your responses and input my friends.

      --
      Yes Ryan i miss photoshop too.
      But many people says GIMP is there...
      Oh yeah i will keep Windows at one pc for that reasons..
      until it is resolved...

      ---
      Kavi thanks for your suggestions I check them out...
      Well for camtasia recording is not my issue as our client records
      with web-cam.. i want video editing and output functionality of camtasia
      for youtube uploads... any suggestions in this regards?

      Thanks again,
      Mohsin
      There IS a hack for gimp! Actually a FORK!

      GIMPshop.com - A GIMP hack by Scott Moschella

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author tylerdrun
    I was running ubuntu before I went back to vista for SENUKE. Now, senuke is gone... So I want to run ubuntu.

    But I also intend to purchase those INCANSOFT products which means I'll need windows again... That sucks big time, you know.

    My system always crashes with windows whenever i run an interent application or game like nfs most wanted or gta.

    As for video creation, I think i'll be better off with animoto.

    My most productive time was when I used ubuntu.
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    • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
      Originally Posted by tylerdrun View Post

      I was running ubuntu before I went back to vista for SENUKE. Now, senuke is gone... So I want to run ubuntu.

      But I also intend to purchase those INCANSOFT products which means I'll need windows again... That sucks big time, you know.

      My system always crashes with windows whenever i run an interent application or game like nfs most wanted or gta.

      As for video creation, I think i'll be better off with animoto.

      My most productive time was when I used ubuntu.
      Why not stick with Ubuntu and use the VMware player to run windows in a virtual mode for your other products? You can stay with Linux as your host OS and run everything in Linux and just pop open Windows when you need to run those apps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rukshan
    I also use Ubuntu 10.04 in my desktop PC and Windows 7 in my laptop.
    You can use "Wine" application to install windows based software in linux. But all softwares will not work. But try it. You may lucky!
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  • Profile picture of the author scubasteve-cr
    I love running ubuntu. I love how easy it is to install new software. For instance, the 'Neverball' game that Mohsin talked about in his first post, it was as simple as going to the software center under applications, typing in neverball, then clicking install. I love that feature so much!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohsin Rasool
    Thanks for the input and suggestions my friends.

    So using WINE we can use Adobe photoshop, camtasia and other win products?
    Will this process slow the work or effect performance(like slow work?)... Like with Video production,
    producing lots of 10 min videos for youtube takes lot of time, using WINE if it slows the work it is going to take even more time...

    BTW i am going to try this.. thank you.

    Mohsin
    ps. so not any single best racing game on Linux setup?
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  • Profile picture of the author dika
    I'm using linux too but under VMware, because I have some specific software that need Windows to run.
    I just installed the very nice Ubuntu 10.10 although it's still in development stage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohammad Afaq
    I just installed Ubuntu last night and I am loving it

    I have also installed both Ubuntu and Vista on my laptop because if I need photoshop or other tools, I can use windows and if I need speed and focus I can use Ubuntu
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  • Profile picture of the author Aegir
    My servers are debian, my linux desktop + notebook are ubuntu and i have 1 computer that is simply for games & adobe products running vista.

    Any windows IM app i own is run via a virtualbox windows image.

    Linux IM related applications to checkout i can recommend are
    - Openshot to create and edit movies
    - gtk-recordmydesktop gui interface for recordmydesktop app
    - recordmydesktop downloaded from above link as well

    Roger
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    • Profile picture of the author dougp
      Ubuntu is good, but if you want to still use a lot of tools that are required for internet marketing, then its a good idea to partition your hard drive so that you can have a dual boot of both ubuntu and windows. With that being said, ubuntu is awesome, and like all flavors of linux, they are great programming environments.
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      • Profile picture of the author dika
        Originally Posted by dougp View Post

        Ubuntu is good, but if you want to still use a lot of tools that are required for internet marketing, then its a good idea to partition your hard drive so that you can have a dual boot of both ubuntu and windows. With that being said, ubuntu is awesome, and like all flavors of linux, they are great programming environments.
        Ubuntu is very good for beginners, well documented and very popular but if you try other distros you may find one that is better, personally I like openSuse. And I prefer a virtual OS inside the other OS rather than dual booting because you don't have to reboot each time you need to use the other OS.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alex Wayo
        Originally Posted by dougp View Post

        Ubuntu is good, but if you want to still use a lot of tools that are required for internet marketing, then its a good idea to partition your hard drive so that you can have a dual boot of both ubuntu and windows. With that being said, ubuntu is awesome, and like all flavors of linux, they are great programming environments.
        I completely agree. I've been using FreeBSD (another Unix clone) for like 8 years before I got stuck in internet marketing.

        Playing around with WINE and similar software won't provide you such software speed as Windows does. So, from my experience in order to get maximum results from Photoshop, After Effects, etc. you'll still need to use Windows.

        Moreover, I noticed that SENuke, LinkDozer and other internet marketing software that I use are still lack in speed.. that's why I use Windows for work and FreeBSD for fun

        Without any doubt, Ubuntu is very user-friendly and easy to learn. If you're new to Unix, it'd probably fit best for you. I wouldn't recommend install FreeBSD for people who are new to Unix
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    Most of what I do on the computer is just code and text, so I thought Ubuntu would be great to try out.

    Not at all interested in games. Just trying to make money involves enough games to keep me busy.

    So I got the cd install and tried it on 2 different computers. One running vista, one with xp. Both have put in years of work without serious problems.

    Ubuntu had serious problems on both of them from the start. Didn't have time to muck around, so just popped the cd out and slammed it in the can.

    I do like the idea and appreciate light weight systems. Might give it another try, as soon as I'm bored, lonely, and have absolutely nothing better to do...
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  • Profile picture of the author Folis
    My mother-in-law was always downloading stuff that had viruses on her computer running Windows. I set her up with Ubuntu about six months ago and no more virus problems!
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  • Profile picture of the author aandersen
    GIMP is pro! i love it and i have got to the point where i can switch my mind and reflexes from PS/GIMP mode with no problem. if I see PS on my screen my fingers naturally start hitting PS keyboard shortcuts and if I see GIMP on my screen they will start hitting GIMP shortcuts

    but at any rate, GIMPshop is cool if you dont want to get used to it.


    My Challenges (What I Miss from Windows!)
    1. Video Editor & Convert like Camtasia, Yes we get weekly videos
    recorded in .wmv format every week for a client which needs to be
    edited and converted to mp4 for youtube for best size and quality.

    I missing a good , easy to use, graphical software like Camtasia...
    do you have any suggestions please...
    you don't need camtasia. for recording recordmydesktop will do just find. from what you say you dont even need recording. you just want an editor amd the camtiasia editor is not even that good.

    check these 3 out, then install one and try it out. you will probably like it :


    open movie editor

    OpenShot

    PiTiVi


    all 3 will do what you ask. i like open move editor. there are others as well just do you an
    apt-cache search video and look through the results.

    i haven't used ubuntu in a while, but i know that by default they will only enable the fully supported repositories. you may need to enable the unsupported and backports repositories to find what you need (not sure)

    1. Can handle .wmv format as source
    win32 codecs are not available by default due to copywrite issues. previouly they were hosted in a place called the PLF repositories. I just did a good search and apparently that repository is no more. however, it has been replaced by something similar, you can read about it here :

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

    I dont know what all is included in that repository. If it is anything like the PLF repo, you will find a bunch of stuff. sun java is probably in there too (might be something you want ot install)



    its been a few years since i installed ubuntu so i am not up to date with all the ununtu specific stuff. its too bloated for me, though i do like debian. also, im not a big GNOME fan. personally, i like Arch Linux (pacman rules) w/ a *box window manager. keeps thing nice and zippy

    im not claiming to be a guru, but i know some stuff. if you have more questions you can post back and I (or someone else) will try to answer. but if you are new to linux (i am assuming you are, i apologize if your not) and plan to stick with it you need to learn how to find answers you self. That is the biggest thing of all.

    use the man pages, use info, use ubuntu help,use the ubuntu wiki, use theunofficial ubutu wiki (in the past this was very good), use debian help, use the linux questions forum, use google, use everything you can

    the ubuntu forums are very active and the people are very helpful. if you need help also their IRC channel is very active. if you are going to stick with ubuntu i would install XChat (or similar) and go there when you need to (on irc.freenode.net in the #ubuntu channel).


    anyway, hope this helps some. good luck


    ps. - oh yeah, almost forgot. i dont know anything about games. sorry
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  • Profile picture of the author aandersen
    OK so im back

    I dont know how i forgot but you should check out tuxkart/supertuxkart. its not a very serious game, but it is fun!! both should be in the repositories.


    so i did a quick google search and it appeas that manidrive is very popular (and looks fun) then VDrift and TORX so there are a couple to check out


    but if you want to play more well known games (not open source) then you will need Wine. you can check the WineDB to see what apps (and games) have been tested succesfully

    WineHQ - Browse Applications


    ok thats really all this time. im going to bed
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    • Profile picture of the author zerofill
      I know you can run Photoshop CS2 and Dreamweaver 8 under wine no problems...

      Also you can run any newer versions in sun's virtualbox without an issues...

      Cinelerra and kdenlive are pretty powerful video editors

      for screen capture recordmydesktop sucks...

      Gaming your screwed on cause no one wants to support openGL they would much rather use DirectX... One of the main reasons I am guessing is because almost all PC Games are also on the Xbox and Xbox 360 which also use directx...There is not enough money in it for the game studios to go through bringing a title to Linux.

      Virtual machines like virtualbox and vmware won't work either...unless it is something that doesn't require 3D hardware. Think vmware used to emulate an old s3 virge chipset...forget. However they will run camtasia etc...

      Although Linux is still king of web servers and file servers in my opinion... It is also a great desktop OS as well. However most people who have been mainstays of windows don't like to convert to learning similar apps in Linux or play games with trying to figure out virtualbox or wine...

      Even though virtualbox and vmware are very easy to use. And when windows pisses you off you can close it like a window lol...

      I love Linux though... it powers the vast majority of everything we look at online.

      However even I lately do most things on windows. Because I need to make sure that certain things work in windows versus worrying about whether they work in Linux or not.
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      • Profile picture of the author aandersen
        Originally Posted by zerofill View Post

        for screen capture recordmydesktop sucks...
        i'd take don's word for it. i messed with before and can vouch that it works but thats as far as i can say. unlike him, i've never created a product so screen capture is not really my thing.


        its been so long since i gave a damn about games that i didnt even know that opengl had lost so much support. that really sucks


        back on the video editing thing, i just remembered that there is kino (or maybe it's keno), LVE, and LiVES as well. so you got lots of options in the video department

        i remember a couple years ago i did quite a bit of video editing from teh command line with mencoder and ffmpg using a very undepowered laptop. its pretty cool the kinds of stuff you can get done from a terminal

        of course i have a windows computer too. I use i a lot, but i still use linux more.

        sorry i talk too much, but i love linux too. its a subject i get excited about.
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      • Profile picture of the author Aegir
        Originally Posted by zerofill View Post

        Also you can run any newer versions in sun's virtualbox without an issues...
        I have the latest virtualbox from sun running windows7, win xp, vista as images it works fine on ubuntu 10.04 at least.

        I don't run anything that makes use of 3D, or anything that chews real resources like Adobe products in images.

        Each image is given 512 meg ram to use, and guest addons is installed.

        MS office 2007, MS Project etc all work well in virtualbox image.

        Note i didn't upgrade my ubuntu system to 10.04 i did a clean install on all boxes to avoid issues

        Roger
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohsin Rasool
    Thanks buddies for awesome suggestions.

    I got what I needed. Thanks again for recommending all those great apps.

    No problem games is not big issue as I have another pc with win7. By the way
    I found this Volley Ball Game everyone loves it LOL .

    Regards,
    Mohsin
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