kubuntu at last

Well I have installed kubuntu on the desktop PC. I have dithered long enough and after the install party at the Pessac mediathèque last week I thought I should get on with it or resign myself to forever being Microsoft fodder.

Step 1 - look at how much space you have on your hard disk. Answer - not enough !

Step 2 - look at prices of bigger hard disks to add to the machine. Here I got a spot of providence. In our supermarket they have a little section where they sell ex-display electrical things. They had a 250Gb hard drive for 20€. OK - that'll do.

Step 3 - move My documents from the C drive to the external hard disk - this takes all my photos (there's so many) and all my music files with it.

Step 4 - see how much space that has freed. Answer - LOADS ! Defragment and chkdsk the disk to ensure its integrity.

Step 5 - pop in the kubuntu live disk I downloaded last week, boot off it and click install. It partitions the disk for you and then does the install. Easy-peasy.

Windows still works. iTunes forgot that my music is called "Ma musique", so I had to fix that. But so far so good.

And so far kubuntu is great.

Comments

minternational said…
Forgive some dunce questions from a linux newbie....can you still boot into Windows? And at what stage do you get the option? And why is kubuntu good? What can you do now you couldn't do before? What about anti-virus: do you need to install a new one? Why do you like it so much? The people need to know!
12:41 pm
Alan said…
From one newbie to another !

Yes, I can still boot into Windows. You get the option when you turn the PC on. It says "So what do you want to boot into, then ?"

kubuntu is good because it works OK on my machine. ubuntu went into a strange loop, perhaps because of my graphics adapter.

it isn't a question of what I can do now that I couldn't do before. When you think about it for nearly 20 years now I have used the PC to do the same stuff - emails, Bible software, word processing, store and play music and photos, make leaflets, internet. To keep doing that I have to keep upgrading PCs. Why ? Because Windows keeps adding features that I neither want nor need (3d gaming, strange effects, etc. etc.) None of our PCs is powerful enough to run Vista while even the little eeepc with 4gb of storage and 512Mb of memory will more than adequately send emails, do a spot of word processing, access bible software on the internet and blog.

Linux ( ubuntu, kubuntu are types of linux ) can be a good way of opting out of the "PC arms race".

Anti-virus ? You need those with Windows but not with Linux.

I like it because it is free and comes with free office software and free music and video playing software and there's lots more software you can download and it is all free.
3:06 pm
minternational said…
But why bother with Vista? Why not stay with XP and opt-out of the arms race that way? And running XP I also have free office software, free music-playing and video-watching software etc.

I guess I'm still unclear of the true benefits....

nb: my eee seems to be running anti-virus (natively) - does it need to?
3:24 pm
Alan said…
Yes, you could, though you'll still need to do the antivirus thing and keep having security updates and stuff. As long as it's supported.

I don't think your eee needs to run anti-virus unless you have put xp on it, of course.
4:11 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor...
Read more

Good news from my sermon buddy

Yesterday we went over my script from August 13. There really wasn't much she had taken exception to. Once or twice she wondered quite what I was getting at (they had the same problem at Deeside, I think...) and I do have difficulties with the word " de ", but then she said "Who doesn't?" So I felt very encouraged. I also took the opportunity to ask her about one or two things: 1) Direct preaching. Like I used to in Britain, I preach saying you - using "vous" when I am talking to the whole wide world and "tu" when I want it to feel as if I am addressing each person individually. French preachers tend to say rather "What will we do, what will one do". So I asked her if she felt my way was too direct, too brutal for the French ear. She said "I think you can get away with it with your English accent". In fact several people have commented on how much they appreciated being spoken to directly in preaching. 2) Liaisons Last...
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I...
Read more