Using Ubuntu: Week 01

Officially Week #1 of an Ubuntu only system.

Goal:

My goal is to commit using my Ubuntu Netbook as my primary source for productive use. I am currently using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and will describe each weeks issues and praises.

On Booting Up

Its been almost 2 years since I’ve used this Gateway netbook, the reason for the gap in usage was the fact that I could no longer charge the laptop. Initially, I believed that it was actually the laptop finally giving in after many years of hard usage but a few months ago, a friend of mine had an Acer Netbook similar model and on a whim, tried to use his charger cable and it worked. There was a few months I was on the fence wondering if I should even revive my netbook, especially since my Surface RT experience has been good, why should I even bother? After a few months of deliberation, the price of the charger cable was in an all time low and so I decided to purchase it. Its been 3 days now since reviving this netbook, here is its story.

The Experience

Ive dual booted this laptop with Windows 7 Starter and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, when I was still at college and have never used Ubuntu before, this netbook kept crashing and was a horror to use. It was slow and inconsistent. It took a few peeks in youtube to discover this OS and I haven’t looked back since. When turning on this netbook, I was greeted with the choice of which OS to use and it reminds me to research a way to fully delete Windows from this Netbook, by partitioning this already weak hardware, I wonder if this is why there are those moments of slowdown.

One of the first things I needed to to do was download all necessary updates, this was made obvious due to the OS was running extremely slow and most Firefox/Chromium websites reminding me to update.

First Problem:

Upon approving all 128 updates, there was “Network Error” message informing me that it was unable to download needed updates. I went to my usual websites to figure out what could be the issue but after a few attempts at the Terminal commands with all the “Suda” typing and about an hour of research it was finally able to update. The next thing I wished to do was then upgrade the OS from 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS, which leads us to…

Second Problem:

I was unable to upgrade from 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS.

There were several resources that say that it should be automatically be available on the update manager yet the update manager only offers 12.10 and when I try to update to that, it says that 12.10 is no longer supported and that I should try a more recent OS. I’ve tried reinstalling a new one but it doesn’t seem to work, something about the metalink not being found. This has been a big source of frustration and I have yet to try to figure it out. Who would’ve thought that upgrading Ubuntu from Ubuntu would be such a difficult and complicated task.

Third Problem:

This issue may actually be more about my Gateway Netbook than Ubuntu but multitasking in this device has been slow to start up. Example: Firefox takes a while to come up but when it does, simple searches to websites has been solid but viewing youtube has been a bit of a struggle. This and the inability to watch Hulu.com has been a bit irksome. I am actually debating if I want to try Netflix on this device because of what it might do to it. Ultimately, I believe I need to reassess my expectations on this netbook and be mindful of its limits.

First Praise:

Libre office has been a great office program. It functions perfectly and is constantly capable. This is where this netbook really shines, this is a productive beast. I wish I had this program when I was still in college instead of using the horrible MS Office Starter that was offered with this netbook. I enjoy typing on this netbook and I miss the clamshell design, I can actually type on my lap rather than feeling handicapped with my Surface RT, meaning the Surface is not useful when you do not have a table handy.

Second Praise:

For my career, I need to post articles in my companies website. I was worried that there would be issues using Ubuntu and to my surprise, everything worked. This was the largest obstacle I feared, especially if I want to have this as my primary mobile productive device. I feel more confident now knowing that I can at least do my job.

Third Praise:

Although I have not yet fully utilized this program, but I am really excited to explore the Gimp photo editing program. I am really excited to be able to do professional grade photo editing with such a light netbook. I just need to be mindful of this netbooks limitations.

So far, with my first week in full use, I have one issue that I still need to figure out. I am glad that my OS is supported till 2017 so I am in no real hurry. Because of these experiences, I am still optimistic and excited to continue my challenge of using this old netbook with a unique Operating System.

Ubuntu or Ubundont

For the past 3 years, my wifes old 17 inch HP Laptop has become a full time Ubuntu running OS. In those 3 years, I have spent a little over 2.5 of it on this device until I got my Surface RT, then dedicating my time with Windows 8.1. I actually enjoyed the 8.1 through the Surface but on my desktop non-touch device it was clunky and unpractical. With windows 10 now available to upgrade and such, I had this sudden strike of nostalgia with my old trusty Ubuntu 14.10 LTS OS.

Like an old 1940’s mechanic…
Its often understood that men need to work with their hands. In the old 1940’s films, we often see men tweaking and adjusting their muscle cars. There was something about working with ones hands and completely understanding their cars. These where the days when engines and vehicles were modular and things can be fitted with the right product, dads and teens would spend their weekends in the garage and attempting to amp up their roadsters another one horse power and that was already an accomplishment. I believe that culture is alive and well with the hard core computer community, the ones that build, modify and code. I’ve always been interested in this world but the learning curve is extreme and once you enter, you play a high stakes game. With this, I am so glad Linux distributors like Ubuntu makes this possible to guys like me.

Beginner Wizardry
Having Ubuntu forces its users to an uncomfortable position. Imagine you are in a party of adventurers, you are off on a quest to find the fountain of youth and and each step you take challenges your skill as an adventurer. This is how it feels to use this OS. Not all paths lead to challenges and struggle, most paths must be waked differently like the difference between walking on a side walk (Windows) to a nature trail (Ubuntu). Each surface has its own slight challenges but when the path splits is like the difference between a sidewalk intersection to a forest fork in the road. In a windows system, whenever there is a problem, more often than not its because there is an update in need of a download or a pesky virus whereas in Ubuntu its a patch, or a research on what “Sudo” wizardry you must find in order to move further. The threat of the sidewalk intersection are cars and the threat of the Forrest Fork is getting lost. Personally, the Forrest Fork sound more exciting and fun rather than the sidewalk intersection, but thats just me.

The Weakness of my Experience
If there is anything that bothers me most in my Ubuntu Experience is more on the Hardware I’m using. I have turned my 5 year old HP G72, 6 pound, 3 hour, 17 inch laptop into my Ubuntu Laptop. For the past 2 years now, my primary mobile device has been my Surface RT; 1.5 pound, 10.1 inch laptop with a battery life of 8 hours. Lugging this laptop around has been laborious and its build quality shoddy. The laptop squeaks, the fan is loud and the bottom gets really hot. The biggest issue I have is the insanely sensitive and randomly disobedient touchpad. Because of the touch pad, I have to bring my own mouse so that I can have a proper experience without going mad. I would really wish to have Ubuntu on a smaller ultrabook experience but that would weigh the terrific balance of spending $1000 (USD) on a Ubuntu OS, hence my deeper question. Ubuntu has saved my old laptop and helped it feel new again, but is it something I would actually spend money on and invest in? I’ve been praising this system but in my heart, if I was to spend my hardworking money on a laptop that costs $800 to $1000 then I key elements like a solid Steam library, video/photo editing, and full access to all video streaming sites is a must. Again, most of these desires have answers through the Ubuntu community but ultimately, these are patches and not accentually developed by the actual developers. This is where Apple OS really is successful, you pay so much for something that does everything you need without patches or workarounds, its all about ease and comfort. There are times where you want to stand on an airport conveyor belt (Apple OS) over Sidewalk (Windows) and Nature Trails (Ubuntu). With this in mind, how much am I willing to spend on a laptop with Ubuntu? Well, something like the one I’m already using I guess. Something under $400 would be a large, bulky, and heavy laptop and so I am pretty much stuck with devices like this, which is highly unfortunate.

The Weakness of Ubuntu….
The weakness of this OS is not the OS itself but the minds of its users. Its us users that hold back on a $1000 Dell XPS 13 Ubuntu laptop because we are thrifty shoppers and this is our “Part Time” passion. A Greaser never rides his Hot Rod as a commuter, thats why they have a Toyota Camry or Honda Civic as their primary vehicle. Now I know that there is the option of “Dual Booting” but this is an article about full conversion, from a Windows person to fully convert to a Linux/Ubuntu system and the sad reality is that most, even a very vocal Ubuntu apologist like myself, need my Toyota and saftey net. This is the real challenge Ubuntu and other Linux distributors face, and because of the “Open Source” nature of these organization, I don’t believe its something they can actually tackle at least in the foreseeable future.