Stan Beer
Wednesday, 23 April 2008 18:21
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
After installing Hardy Heron using Wubi, upon rebooting
my computer, I was presented with the Windows Boot Manager screen
giving me a choice of booting up Vista SP1 or Ubuntu 8.04.
First up I chose to boot up Vista. What I found
was a new folder sitting on my hard drive called Ubuntu, which
basically includes all the information you need to know about your
Ubuntu installation, including the documents and applications you have.
It also includes an uninstall program, which can also be found in the
Add/Remove Programs folder of the Windows Control Panel. In summary,
Windows now recognizes my Ubuntu installation.
Next, I restarted my computer and booted up Ubuntu. The first boot
actually completes the installation, configuring the system, which only
takes a couple of minutes. Once complete, you have fully working
version of Hardy Heron that shares the same partition as Windows and
from what I can tell runs very fast. It also recognized the wireless
network seamlessly and while I didn’t try it, I know there would no
hiccups with the printer since it worked under Gutsy Gibbon. That’s all
very good but there’s a problem. It’s the same problem that Ubuntu and
all other Linux distributions have had from day one.
Some Linux enthusiasts have mentioned that their computer illiterate
grandmothers have been able to use Ubuntu (and other distributions)
with little problem. That’s not particularly surprising because their
computer illiterate grandmothers haven’t been using Windows for the
past 10 years, in the process collecting gigabytes of data, while using
applications, some of which don’t run on Linux.
For a brand new computer user, the Hardy Heron user interface presents
little problem. It’s as clean as a whistle. There’s just one icon and a
simple menu across the top of the screen. In an instant, you’re up and
running on the net with Firefox, sending and receiving emails via Gmail
and making appointments using Google Calendar (or if you prefer, using
the Outlook like client Evolution). You’re also using Open Office to
write letters, create spreadsheets and develop Presentations. It’s easy.
