Then it took several hours to figure out how to get the dial-up modem connected, to find a dialer that worked for me, and to get it all configured. I needed alternate internet access to make this work.

Ubuntu can be installed dual-boot, which means that during the power-on sequence you can select either the Linux or the original Windows system. If you only have the one computer, you can get your alternate internet access that way, although it’s inconvenient having to shut down and reboot so many times.

The Firefox browser and Thunderbird email programs are readily available and look and act pretty much the same as the Windows versions.

Getting a video player to work is also something that doesn’t happen right out of the box. You can expect to spend some time researching and implementing that.

There are Linux analogs of just about any program you might be running in Windows, and for the most part they’re free. Being different programs, the look-and-feel is going to be different. Sometimes there can be significantly different capabilities.

A case in point is the media viewer program category. You will not find one pre-installed in Ubuntu due to various legal technicalities. You can install one, but you are going to spend at least an hour or two to figure it all out. Also, if you need cutting-edge video, (read HD), I’m not sure it’s even possible yet. Windows Vista is a megabucks investment of hardware and software implementing and protecting the copyrights and patents involved with HD. As far as I know, that just doesn’t exist yet in Linux.

My opinion is that Linux, and particularly the Ubuntu version, is a viable alternative to Windows, with some caveats. You have to be willing to spend some time to get it to work the way you want. You have to be willing to accept a different look-and-feel. Your programs will have different, sometimes lesser capabilities. The upside is that it runs fine on old (cheap/free) hardware, and the software is, for the most part, free.

It works, but it’s not for everyone. Yet.

IMHO,
Dave

Mark
Microsoft free!

The solution to the problem is very easy if you can find it. The solution is phone cable extension of two pair cat-5. Some phone companies will send you a 6 foot piece of this hard to find cable. It is the small gray round cable that comes in the modem box. However the builders tend to put phone jacks on the opposite side of room of where you want to put the DSL modem. Many times you want have to run 15-25 foot of wire to you modem. Plain and simple the DSL will not travel 15 feet down the flat wire you can easily find. You need a 15 foot piece of the round wire that your phone company might of sent you.

Of course I am complete geek, and have modular connector crimper, and I know the Belden part number for two-pair cat-5 cable.

Any more ideas on this one. Any sources for this cable?

Mark
Microsoft free!

once you burn the live cd iso which can be downloaded from ubuntu.com it will boot up and run as if you installed the linux o/s.

if you like it, you can click the install icon and install it on your hard drive. it takes about 30 mins total including updates.

it is rock solid stable, but no wonder with a unix back bone.

one major side benefit: it doesn’t phone home continuously like vista. (ie: it’s not spyware!)

give the live cd a try. i like it more each day.

bill