Will be installing Ubuntu (my first *nix experience ever) in a few days

[Sir Elderberry]

I was planning on installing Ubuntu on a second hard drive fairly soon. Note that I've never used *nix.

I'd like someone to tell me anything specific to watch out for with a second HDD instead of a separate partition.

Also, how long can I expect to spend on the install?

I know Linux is more secure, but will I still need (basic) AV and anti-spyware software?

Thanks. I'm really good with computers, but completely unfamiliar with other OS's.

EDIT: On second thought, I suppose that should read "I'm really good with Windows..."

[nephish]

great, and good distro choice !

the install usually takes me about 40 min to 1:15
depends on your hardware and bandwidth

i have used only linux for about 5 years, never used an anti-spyware, anti-virus, etc.. do run a firewall though.

stick to these forums. they taught me how to get up and running, and about everything else.

welcome aboard !

[Sir Elderberry]

Bandwidth? At the risk of sounding stupid, I don't mean the download.

[nephish]

after the initial install of most packages, ubuntu will fetch the updated packages from the apt repositories.

[Sir Elderberry]

Ah, like when I have to spend two hours running windows update and rebooting three times in the process? Hopefully this is a smoother operation.

[eskiled]

Ah, like when I have to spend two hours running windows update and rebooting three times in the process? Hopefully this is a smoother operation.
Heh well there will be little to no rebooting from now on. And you can generally go about your normal business while apt is updating things. hope your install goes well :)!

[je_fro]

yeah, it is....
the only reason you'll ever need to reboot is if you upgrade your kernel.

[Sepero]

After installing, don't expect any of the following to work correctly (or really even at all):
Java applets/programs
Win(software)modems
3D graphics cards (ATI or Nvidia, but you should get 2D graphics just fine)
Macromedia Flash
Mp3's don't play
DVD's don't play (unless they're unencrypted)

Just giving you fair warning. The software for these are proprietary (ie. closed source). The good news is that they can be installed. The bad news is that it's usually very difficult for a newbie. There are other distros that install these things automatically, but Ubuntu has a strong commitment to Free Software(open source).

Other distros that will install these things include(but are not limited to):
Suse, Xandros, Mandriva, Linspire, Pclinuxos, Mepis

I'm not saying bad about Ubuntu. I like Ubuntu (check my signature). I'm just being honest.

[Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about Java (or any of the others). I haven't seen Java's new license yet.]

[hard candy]

After installing, don't expect any of the following to work correctly (or really even at all):
Java applets/programs
Win(software)modems
3D graphics cards (ATI or Nvidia, but you should get 2D graphics just fine)
Macromedia Flash
Mp3's don't play
DVD's don't play (unless they're unencrypted)

Just giving you fair warning. The software for these are proprietary (ie. closed source). The good news is that they can be installed. The bad news is that it's usually very difficult for a newbie. There are other distros that install these things automatically, but Ubuntu has a strong commitment to Free Software(open source).

Other distros that will install these things include(but are not limited to):
Suse, Xandros, Mandriva, Linspire, Pclinuxos, Mepis

I'm not saying bad about Ubuntu. I like Ubuntu (check my signature). I'm just being honest.

[Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about Java (or any of the others). I haven't seen Java's new license yet.]

If you buy a distro, it can include proprietary stuff like java, Quicktime, etc because they have paid a license fee to include them.
For Ubuntu, after you get it installed, look in their FAQ/Howto section of their forum, they will have a thread telling you how to enable these things.

[Sir Elderberry]

I'll try and get those going then, hopefully I can do it without too much trouble.

[mrrangerman43]

I'll try and get those going then, hopefully I can do it without too much trouble.

TROUBLE us noobs must laugh at trouble. HA HA HA HA HA and then when we can't get something working we come here and with our bottom lip quivering we cry for help.

The people on this forum have been great, they have been very helpful, you will find out that what you know about windows will help you very little if at all with Linux. But if you have patients and are willing to learn you'll also find that Linux will do just about anything you need it to do. Good luck

[Sepero]

Oh yeah, many forms of movie files won't play either. Thanks for that hardcandy.

<rant>
For me, I had to learn things the hard way. But honestly, I'm tired of the hard way. Most of my first year with GNU/Linux, I used Slackware. Today, I use Debian (I love the huge number of available packages). I've been using Debian for nearly 3 years now and I:
-have never successfully been able to get my Nvidia card running (Twice, I spent several days trying to no avail)
-almost never upgrade my kernel, because it means I'll have to recompile for my software modem (Not an extremely difficult task, just boring and tedious.)
-have had java give out on me recently. Every time a webpage loads with Java, my whole browser crashes.

Note: Again, this is coming from someone who's: been using GNU/Linux since 2002, uses the commandline daily, and knew "justlinux.com" since it was "linuxnewbie.org".

I put Mepis on my brothers computer recently, and he couldn't be happier. When I saw it for myself, all I could think was, "God... this IS nice... why the hell am I using Debian again?". I installed Mepis to an extra partition on my harddrive and it loaded: Java, my soft-modem, and MY NVIDIA CARD. All automatically.

Suffice it to say, at this very moment, I'm in the process of converting my system.
</rant>

Unless you enjoy getting your hands dirty, it's usually easier to pay a little cash and have everything automatically setup for you. Then again, I think there is a thing called "easyubuntu", that will take care of most of this stuff for you. Best of luck.

[Sir Elderberry]

Well, that was encouraging. I suppose if I find other distros I like, I'll just swap around until one fits. Hopefully.

[dkeav]

just keep in mind they are all basically the exact same thing

[mrrangerman43]

Don't let Sepero scare you away, I'm not what you would call a computer wiz, I'm self taught. In fact, most of these guy's have forgotten more than I will ever know, and yet I was able to get Nvidia working without pulling my hair out in Debian and Gentoo. Now I will say this much, Gentoo for a first timer was a challenge, it took me about 6 weeks to get a working system. I tried Suse and in about an hour I had a working system but didn't know any more about linux than when I first put the cd in. So for me at least, its the learning I want.

Just keep trying untill you find the flavor you like.

[Shep]

I use Ubuntu at work, and Kubuntu on a laptop. I even threw the server version on one of our development web servers. It is a good distro to learn with. Any time you have a question, just search google.com/linux with the specific error message. Nvidia stuff is cake to install on any distro IMO. You just need your kernel source or headers. I like to immediately upgrade my kernel after a fresh install. Ubuntu keeps pretty up to date with their kernel version though. Java hasn't ever been a problem to install for me, I just install it from source. Most of the stuff that you run into as a newbie has been discussed numerous times, so there is lots of info for ya. Have fun, you'll love apt-get!

[loopback48]

Go to the Ubuntu forums and work with this autoscript. It installs damn near everything you need. Here's the link http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138889 . I use it and it just works. There is another autoscript also. Its called easyubuntu. You'll have to look for it. I've tried it but I like the first one better. Anyway, check it out.

[Sir Elderberry]

Well guys, I'm posting now--and I'm not running Windows, hint hint. Had some problems getting my second HD to work (I was missing a jumper somehow) but now it works. Is it safe to have my DVD ROM as Secondary Slave, and not have a Secondary Master? I hope so. Anyway, the installation was pretty easy. I like the look of this so far.

[ladoga]

Glad to hear. :)

I also started with Ubuntu bit over a year ago and I was lot luckier than Sepero. All of my hardware worked "out of the box" and installing proprietary stuff (including ati drivers which people often ***** and moan about) didn't take more than few hours at most. Not that i would have really known what i was doing. I only followed instructions at http://ubuntuguide.org/ .


Basicly the first thing you need to do is to add repositories for non free software.

You can either do this by directly editing /etc/apt/sources.list and removing comments "#" in front of multiverse and universe repositories. (which contain non-free software) Then just save the file and run $ sudo apt-get update to make apt-get package manager aware of changes you made.

Or you can do the same thing thru GUI (synaptic is just a graphical front end for apt-get):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=171919

After that head to ubuntuguide.org and look up how to install java, flash plugin, w32codecs and whatever else you might need.

Good luck. :)

[GliderMike]

If you stick with Ubuntu a bit, I think you'll like it. For me most everything just worked properly, best of all the distro's I've tried (haven't done mepis).

As noted above, the proprietary stuff is easy enought to get done with the scripts / programs they have to install it all automatically (I did it by hand on Ubuntu before I knew about those ;-) )

Frankly, having an issue or two is ok since you learn vast amounts about Linux from fixing them. You just don't want to have mountains of issues, which could discourage many people. This is why I like Ubuntu, it's 95% there right off the bat. Take an hour or two or thrice to get the tough odd or end that might be left and then get to the longest part: Spend many a weekend getting your theme tricked out just right, search for nifty superkaramba widget doo-dads (yes, that's a technical term) and make it look uber cool. :-)

[ladoga]

Oh yeah, many forms of movie files won't play either. Thanks for that hardcandy.
To avoid misunderstanding I want to point out that this isn't there case after you get w32codecs and some decent player installed.

Also there isn't much need to install Quicktime on linux (unless you really really want to). We have codecs to play apple video formats on better open source players (mplayer, xine, VLC). If you need browser video plugin you might want to give mplayerplug-in a go.

I've had only good experiences with linux as a media platform. Playing video takes less resources and there's less hassle with codecs. It's the area where I think that linux is clearly ahead of any other OS. On windows i often had to reinstall conflicting codecs and use stick & glue measures to get some new codecs (ie. h.264) to work. With linux and mplayer, so far so good.

[ladoga]

@Sir Elderberry

I thought you might find this helpful:
http://help.ubuntu.com/starterguide/C/ch02.html