Linux Community Magazine

Since its launch five years back, Ubuntu has turned into one of the most popular Linux operating system. After the launch of Windows 7, a major update of Vista, Ubuntu 9.10 or "Karmic Koala" has launched on October 29th. At present, Linux operating system has about 1% market share for desktops as compared to 92% of Windows, whereas it is popular for servers or embedded systems. Ubuntu, based on the Linux's Debian flavor has focused to bring Linux OS to the common people.

Here, the article compares some of the features of Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10:

Installation and upgrades

Users can easily upgrade their PCs with the new version of Ubuntu and it can also installed on your vintage PCs. Further, like Windows 7 and Mac OS X, Ubuntu 9.10 automatically keeps users' operating system up-to-date. While, Windows 7 will update only the Microsoft software and the OS, Ubuntu updates itself with any other software installed on users' system.

Multimedia

Due to their own terms and conditions, Ubuntu does not ship with the ability to play commercial DVDs. However, you can download the commercial DVD support via Ubuntu Restricted Extras in the Software Centre. It has Rhythmbox player for music and the Movie Player for video.

Microsoft's Windows 7 come preinstalled with Windows Media Player and Media Centre, which take care of your personal files. Further, if your hardware permits, you can also watch live TV on the PC.

Software and applications

According to developers, Ubuntu is like Apple's iPhone and supports vast softwares and applications. Users can have instant access to thousands of free and open-source applications. It comes with free OpenOffice.org 3.1 installed by default as its office productivity suite through which you can create professional documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The suite is compatible with all office apps including MS Office.

Windows 7 users have to buy Microsoft Office, or they can download OpenOffice and GIMP. While Windows users will have Outlook for their email, Ubuntu comes with Evolution, its emailing and calendaring software.

Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8 and MSN Windows Live messenger, Ubuntu 9.10 ships with Firefox 3.5 and Empathy multiple protocol IM client.

Cloud Service

The new Linux version offers cloud storage to the masses with its Ubuntu One service, where users can store upto 2GB of data for free, but will have to pay for more storage. Ubuntu 9.10 can also take advantage of Amazon's EC2 cloud computing service.

Microsoft also provides a cloud storage application called Live Mesh that offers 25GB of storage for free, but the service is not integrated with the OS as in Ubuntu.

Speed and hardware

In terms of speed, the latest OS of Microsoft is definitely lighter on hardware than its predecessor, Vista and it will run well on older hardware. However, Ubuntu 9.10 also works well on a wide range of hardware.

Security

According to various analysts, Linux OSs are more secure than Windows and are not easily infected by bugs and viruses. In Windows 7, Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center, which covers both security and maintenance of the computer.

I have to tell you, the more I run Ubuntu, the more I love it.

Now, this is from a guy who has run too many OSes to count. I've used every single version of Windows, from 3.11 to Windows 7. I've dabbled in Mac OS, fro the mid-90's to today. I've tried them all, and I just find Ubuntu spectacular.

Why? Am I just a rebel? Some guy who just likes to feel superior? Nope. Ubuntu just works for me. The sound works, when I plug in my USB headset. The browser works perfectly. My wife logs in, and used my Ubuntu laptop without incident, the first time.

That, my friends, is why I love Ubuntu. On the rare occasion that a program freezes, all I have to do is open the console, check the process number, and kill it. It ends instantly. It doesn't ask if I want to help improve Ubuntu by reporting the crash. It doesn't try to fix the problem, while tying up my system ram and processor for an eternity. It just does what I tell it to do.

Ubuntu does what you tell it to do. Need an application? Tell it to download. Want to mess with your configuration files? Ubuntu figures you are an adult, and can deal with the consequences of your actions. It doesn't ask me whether I am sure 1000 times. It just does what you tell it to do.

I appreciate the fact that the machine is cognisant that it is a machine, and should be inclined to obey the owner. I love the choices that Ubuntu offers, as well. If I want a different window manager, all I have to do is download a new one. If I think that a feature is unnecessary, I can delete it.

Ubuntu (and Linux in general) offers you the freedom to make mistakes, and choose a different path. MAC and Windows don't allow me that option.

Now, there are a few things that people seem to really hate about Linux, but to be fair, many of them are the same things that people dislike about MACs:

1. Generally, Linux is not considered a gaming system. This is gradually changing, as independent developers continue to produce content, and broaden their purchasing base. Penny Arcade has released their latest game, at launch for the Linux OS. Like anything in the free market, the greater the purchasing base, the greater the chance that the game gets made.

2. Linux Driver Support: People consistently complain about Linux driver support, or a lack of support for their peripherals. With the latest release of Ubuntu, this practically became a non-issue. The only thing that I have to manually configure has been my built-in laptop webcam. I haven't done it, simply because I don't use it that often. That may be a deal-breaker for some. Other than that, driver support continues to improve, and in many cases, exceed Window's quality of support, with each release.

3. Sound - Hey, Linux has buggy sound. Ummm..not so much anymore. While the Pulse Audio server has created a few issues, the bugs continue to decrease with every passing day. Now, I have, in the past, found it annoying when Pulse didn't integrate properly with my apps, and I had to uninstall and add ALSA base, back in. That, too me, would be a dealbreaker if I was the average Windows user. As things stand, I'm willing to wait it out.

Is the future bright for Ubuntu? I think it is. In fact, I think Linux adoption rates will rise in the near future, thanks to the iPad. Why? Because Steve Jobs has demanded that HTML5 video support be made available for the iPad. Linux users are big on standards, and as more and more web apps are developed in HTML5, it really won't matter what OS you run.

Currently, Adobe has improved application usage for Ubuntu, via the AIR platform, and flash in general. AIR runs flawlessly on Ubuntu. Flash is buggy on Linux, and often suffers from frame rate issues, and general video bugginess. HTML5 will not have that problem.

Eventually, all of the problems people have with Linux will be solved via the delivery of applications via the web, or a cross-platform software API that is more robust than AIR. Games will be delivered simultaneously to all platforms at once.

This is when Ubuntu adoption will go through the stratosphere, as it becomes apparent that linux doesn't demand as many resources, as MAC and Windows do. Applications will be fast and secure, and we will see people move to open source software in droves.

In the meantime, I will continue to love and support the development of Linux and Ubuntu, even if it doesn't get the respect that I feel it does.

1 Easy installation:From the only text installer of the initial editions, to the click&ready installer of these days, linux ubuntu always had a very easy and simple installation. Every action of the installer was explained in a brief, yet clear style that produced it simple for every person to go along with the stages of the installation process regardless of their knowledge with computers.

2 Functionality Several linux distross are built upon the potent Debian linux distro, with its numerous software packages. However, ubuntu linux is far more technologically advanced than other distros as it very quickly adopts newer innovations. It has a very interesting GUI. The computer's desktop is eye-catching. ubuntu linux is also quite simple to use mainly because of its awry similarity to Microsoft windows 7. ubuntu linux is suitable of performing a lot of the same things that Windows 7 is able to do. These functions can include word processing, spreadsheet, calculating, video editing, and many more.

3 Reliability Reliability is a very large worry for the large majority of Linux systems. Due to the fact of the freedom that Linux system offers to its customers, Linux system is not the most stable operating-system. End users may simply modify the source code on a linux OS and that could induce irreversible harm to the operating-system and that could trigger a loss of information. linux ubuntu, nonetheless, is a very stable operating system in comparison to others distributions or windows systems simply because it supplies a safe system recovery procedure. If the user by accident leads to harm to his or her computer, they can easily reverse the previous operation and retrieve their information

4 Neutrality ubuntu is a non-profit organization. Canonical does deliver commercial services, but they do not spent the 10 million that Mark put into the linux ubuntu organization. Features that have a strong commercial advantage for Canonical are kept split and are not included in the main distros. What they include to ubuntu is normally open source and the competition are free and encouraged to pick it up. (and usually they do)

5 Users marketingubuntu is based mostly heavily on the marketing it receives from it's users. Almost every person that uses linux ubuntu nowadays has beed suggested to try it out by someone else who had tried it prior to them and etc. This, mixed with the strong influence of linux ubuntu to the world wide web community forums related to ubuntu, has driven to a huge improve in it's adoption .

6 ubuntu discussion boardsThe linux ubuntu community was, and still is one of the most important aspects that improve the growth of ubuntu. The discussion boards are very energetic and old users are very helpful and patient towards novices. Possibly it has to do with the actual philosophy of "ubuntu".

7 SynapticIf you consult to a first-time ubuntu user to tell you what fascinated them, most probabilities are that the response will be "synaptic". Indeed, this application moved APT much closer to the regular user and made software installing in A linux systemunix a lot easier. Users did not have to lookup for DEBs or be afraid that they may needed to deal with dependancies, compile from source etc, synaptic solved every thing using a very simple user interface.

There are without a doubt several different good reasons why linux ubuntu managed to achieve to the top, and stay there.

Ubuntu is the most used distro of Linux with more than 12 million personal computer users all over the globe. Ubuntu Linux OS is also the most popular open source OS for desktops and is based on Debian GNU Linux distribution. The first ever release of Ubuntu OS was on 20 October 2004 and after that new versions of Ubuntu Linux OS have been distributed almost every six months. Ubuntu is supported by the UK based firm Canonical Ltd. owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Ubuntu is released to public as a free OS and the latest release of Ubuntu OS was Natty Narwhal which was released on 28th of April, 2010. The latest release focused on structuring the interface quite easy for users of the Windows Operating System and it has gained several reactions all over the globe. One of the problems of Ubuntu OS is that the backgrounds inbuilt into the Operating System are not that attractive and there are not many great backgrounds available either. So, in this tutoria l we will inform on how to install high quality background slideshow themes on your Ubuntu Operating System where the HQ backgrounds keep changing at definite intervals.

At the onset you require to download the Ubuntu Theme from a Gnome Art background site. High Quality Ubuntu Linux OS Background Themes are regularly released at UbuntuTheme.net and you can also download Background Themes from there. The Themes do not require any severe modification to the File System and are safe to be installed. In addition to Ubuntu Linux OS, the Ubuntu Linux Background Themes should work on any Linux distribution which supports Gnome Art backgrounds.

After you have downloaded the Ubuntu Background Theme to your personal computer, decompress it to extract the theme folder. Then you would need to transfer the background theme folder to /usr/share/backgrounds in your Ubuntu OS. But for that you would reqiure root permissions. So, open the terminal in your Ubuntu system and type:

sudo cp -R /home/YOURUSERNAME/PathToYourThemeFolder /usr/share/backgrounds

Replace YOURUSERNAME and PathToYourThemeFolder with the ones that are correct for Ubuntu OS setup on your PC. If you are not certain about the positioning of the decompressed theme folder then you can right-click with your mouse and see properties to derive an idea about the same. When you transfer the background theme folder you would be asked for the root password and you can type it and press enter. Then you need to browse to the /usr/share/backgrounds folder in your Ubuntu OS where you should the new Theme Folder if you have relocated it properly. If you see a cross mark on the theme folder or the backgrounds inside it and if permission is denied then please type the following command on your Ubuntu terminal:

sudo chmod 777 -R /usr/share/backgrounds/ThemeFolder

Replace ThemeFolder with the name of the background theme folder as you did previously.

Now go to System > Preferences > Appearance and click on Appearance to open the Appearance dialogue box. You can also open Appearance Preference by right-clicking on your Ubuntu desktop screen and then selecting Change Desktop Background from the right-click menu. You would then require to choose the Background tab in that box if it is not selected already. Now click on Add near the bottom right side of that tab to add the new background theme. A new dialogue box named Add Wallpaper would pop up where you need to browse to the /usr/share/backgrounds/ThemeFolder/ and choose the themefile.xml inside the ThemeFolder. You might need to select the file type at the bottom right of the Add Wallpaper window from images to all files {to be able|in order to view the xml file.Replace ThemeFolder and themefile.xml name with the actual theme folder name and theme file name. You would now see the new background on your Ubuntu OS desktop and it will alter every 15 minutes. The Ubuntu The me installation is finished now and once you get the hang of it, you should be able to install new Ubuntu background themes in less than 30 seconds.

Since most bingo websites run rigorously in web browsers, you don't have to download software. Downloading software would make it more complicated to play Bingo on the Ubuntu OS. If the web browser is able to carry the bingo games, then you'll be able to begin playing no matter which in-service system gets used. There is an array of casino games on Ubuntu bingo sites such as slots, video poker, blackjack and roulette.

Can all the Features of Bingo site be used on the Ubuntu OS?

Bingo sites will always include community features like the chat room as well as having other features along with actual games. The many chat rooms and features that are supported in the web browser, offer bingo games. This makes it great news for gamers. You will never miss out on any bingo site's features because Ubuntu bingo users will be equipped to play online bingo identical to anyone else. It will be the same experience that players can get spending the day chatting with players in other bingo rooms playing bingo. For the most part, any feature of bingo on other platforms can be found on the Ubuntu platform, too. Similar to the support of other programs that are on both platforms, you will find the experience to be very similar.

Check out Linux Bingo Websites

You can install Linux on a wide range of computers, gaming consoles, laptops, smart phones and tablets. It is a popular alternative to the Windows operating system. Computer users who cannot afford the expensive Windows operating systems tend to like Mac while also prefering to use Linux. It is free and an open source software program. Many sites are accommodating the needs of bingo players by upgrading their platform to use this operating system for Ubuntu bingo websites. If you enjoy games in general using Linux, you will likely enjoy the bingo experience as well.

Playing on Linux Bingo Websites

The only problem is finding Linux bingo websites that can download Linux compatible online bingo games. You can, however, play online bingo flash games through a browser if you already are a Linux user. Since the game options and features are limited, this option may not be so exciting. But regardless, you will win real money.

By using the Windows emulator download option, you can get a better version of online bingo to play on your Linux computer. This will increase online bingo website options, which work on the Linux operating system directly.