Recently, I've heard so much about ubuntu ("linux for human beings"), and Linux LiveCD. So, I decided to give it a try. Why Not? Especially, the word around was that they give out ubuntu CDs for free, and even pay for the postage.
By the way, a Linux Live CD is where you can run Linux completely off a CD like a RAM DISK, without having to install anything on a hard drive.
Order those free CD sets here
After about a month, the CDs arrived - to my great delight (who says there is no free lunch in this world). The shipped version was ubuntu 5.04 (codenamed Hoary Hedgehog) for Intel x86. Each set comprises of 2 CDs - a LiveCD and an Install CD. Use the LiveCD unless you want to install ubuntu the traditional way - on your hard drive.
The boot up using the Live CD took about 5 minutes on my computer (AMD Duron 850MHZ, 256M RAM). This was a little bit too long for me to use regularly.
One interesting note was that you should connect the computer to the Internet (plug in your LAN cable) while you boot up the LiveCD. For one, I noticed that it connected to some ubuntu server to synchronize the time.
After booting up, I was in Gnome desktop. I could immediately use some familiar and some useful applications like Firefox, OpenOffice, GIMP. Good!
The screen resolution was set by default to 640 x 480, and I could not change it using the gnome tool. I guess the install somehow had trouble with my graphics card.
The time was set to the correct GMT but not adjusted to my particular time zone (the install never asked about what time zone I was in). I used the clock display to specify the time zone. However, the correct time was not reflected in the clock display.
I wanted to sign on as root (default is ubuntu account which was empowered to sudo). This simple task was apparently made difficult by design. You cannot login as root directly to the desktop. You can open a root window while logged in as ubuntu. You can also do sudo.
All in all, the ubuntu LiveCD is definitely a no risk and pretty good way to feel out Linux as a Windows replacement. As a power Linux user, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, ubuntu is really geared towards the Linux desktop. If you are looking for a Linux distribution to run as a server, look elsewhere again.
3 comments:
"Linux Live CD" would be very convenient in terms of setting up a Linux OS platform for people who would like to try out or learn Linux/Unix commands, and they don't have to touch their HD partitions.
Another alternative to learn Linux commands (without HD re-partitioning) is to install cygwin on windows; but cygwin is pure command line, no graphical user interface (no X-Window nor Gnome desktop).
I wonder if the "Linux Live CD" has PERL pre-installed.
I can't wait until my order arrives. Thanks for the info!
Clara,
I have never run cygwin although I am tempted to do so in # of situations ... came across some open source tools which require you to "make" it yourself, and on Windows, having cygwin may be the only way.
Since I had mentioned cygwin & PERL in my earlier comment:
cygwin setup program can be downloaded from here (www.cygwin.com), no compilation nor build required. One just needs to select packages/components one wanted. Of course it can be updated later due to additional requirement.
One can download binary distribution of PERL from here (www.perl.com), and skip recompilation and build. If you like, you can also download corresponding source code distribution for personal modification. One may also incorporate specific PERL module to fulfill specific needs.
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