Noble Ubuntu

Atlast the machine is now working fine, the issue was with the graphics card and it was replaced. But I am still not sure with which Operating System should I go with. One thing I am sure is that in some capacity I will be using Vitualization to host different Virtual machines on my Computer, but there are many options and architectures I could adopt such as using the basic Virtualization model of Microsoft Virtual PC or VMWare Player based Virtual Machines on a Windows 7 Host platform or go for a more advanced Hypervisor based model of Microsoft Hyper-V Server or VMWare ESX technology. I will post more about virtualizaton in my coming posts. Well until I make up my mind about it I thought to have a go at Ubuntu which my friend told me about few months back.


Ubuntu is a Linux(Debian) based operating system created with a very noble moto "Free software for everyone" derived from its literal meaning "Humaity to Others" from an African languauge. Its a full fledge GUI based Operating system, the setup (ISO file) is a mere 650 MB which is downloadble from its site. Download this file and burn it on the CD, boot the machine using this CD and the setup will start, The OS installation is very simple and with a few clicks the OS is ready for use. One thing I ll like to add here is Ubuntu is based on Linux File System which is inheritied from UNIX. Its a very powerful File system quite different from the ones in Microsoft Operating Systems (FAT, NTFS). The best part of it is that the file system hides the underlying storage devices & partitions from the OS and the applications. The root of the file structure is "/" unlike in Windows where there is no top node in file strucuture, And different hard drives, partitions and CD Drives or even remote storages goes under this Root Node e.g. /cdrom is the path for CD Drive, This makes it very easy for the OS and applications to traverse through the file system. and also makes it possible to change the underlying storage of a particular folder without affecting the related applications

I was really impressed with the range of Software packages that comes with the default installation. such as OpenOffice which is a complete Office Suite, Mozilla Firefox browser, GIMP an Image editor with feature set similar to Adobe Photoshop, Music Player, Email Client, Instant Messanger client, DVD burner, Movie player. The UI was very simple and was to some extent similar to Windows. I had few problems with Graphics resoultion & WIFI but in the end it all worked fine. There are loads of other software packages available through a Ubuntu Software Center application.

Ubuntu is a great noble effort by its creator to provide a complete operating system for everyone which is absolutely free. Hats off to them.