Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meercat

[Barnowl]

I've been meaning to ditch Windows for years. My poor old bloated and heavily burdened PC gets slower and slower ever day struggling to defend me against a plague of spotty herberts, malcontents, and criminals.

With this in mind, earlier this year, I ventured forth into the often considered nerdy realm of Ubuntu and version 10.04. Better this I thought, than the trendy and expensive bite of the Apple. Well it was not a good experience. The wireless wouldn't work, I had problems with the video, CPU utilisation went citical, my hard drive was delared decrepid. I ditched Ubuntu and trudged back to Windows.

So along comes Ubuntu 10.10 the Maverick Meercat. I like Meercats - who doesn't - so naturally I tried it. It loaded 1st time, everything worked. It's a great success. I've been running it for 3 weeks now and everything I want works and works fast - result. One version running on the laptop and one dual boot (with windows - for the odd game and other) running on the desktop. Thanks Ubuntu.

PS. For those interested in heavenly bodies, as indeed I am myself, I can heartily recommend the amazing and free download Stellarium (planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars). Google it. It scores a whopping 10 out of 10 from me.

 

[Pedalo]

I tried it back at version 6 or possibly 7. I couldn't get the wireless to work so gave up. Perhaps I'll try again soon...

 

[Barnowl]

yeah worth a try. I believe it's come a long way since versions 6 & 7. I haven't had to use the the terminal panel once to enter those strange Unix sudo commands etc. It's not far off Windows in terms of ease of use and GUI. Not much use for game players and it doesn't look quite as slick but it's free, fast and secure.

 

[Phil the drill]

Hi
I've been using various versions of Linux for several years, including Mandrake, Debian and Ubuntu. I love it. I used both ubuntu v9.0x and currently 10.04 - haven't upgraded to 10.10 yet. I have to say I've not had the problems you have had, but it is generally true that Linux requires more in the way of tinkering and background knowledge to get round certain issues. On the plus side there are numerous forums dedicated to various versions of Linux and there is a vigorous one for Ubuntu. These are invaluable resources and incredibly helpful. I posted on these at all times of the day and night and had virtually instant helpful, very knowledgeable and polite help - you'll pay a fortune for help of similar quality for Windows....
Phil (Big Linux fan. Did you know that Linux based software is the MAJOR player on internet servers - NOT Windows )

 

[HarryB]

I came to Ubuntu via Macs. I am a big fan of them (since 1996) but given the choice between £800+ and under £300 for a notebook I went for the notebook. I use Windows at work but it drives me mad. The main problem is the virus checking, slow start-up, constant upgrades so I downloaded Ubuntu and a year down the road I have never been happier. For surfing/emails it is great but there are obviously limitations like itunes so if I need to I boot up in Windows again.

I should add that it did take a bit of fiddling to get it to work, mainly as I wanted to maintain Window. I am glad to hear that the latest version is much easier to use off the shelf.