Just installed Ubuntu the other day on three desktops. One old Dell got a fresh install, but I'm dual booting it on a newer Gateway laptop and Systemax desktop.

All of this started with a HD crash that almost wiped out my data. I've been amazed at the tools available for Ubuntu. Gparted is awesome. Also using 3d desktop and the AWN dock on the computers that can handle it.
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Compiz is getting so many new updates. I run the dev version of Compiz. You will need a beefy Vid card though.
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My vid card can handle compiz just fine but it didn't seem to play nice with the kernel or KDE or something and would crash when I was switching virtual terminals. Maybe they have fixed that by now.
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Compiz goes crazy on my old P4 desktop with an Nvidia Geforce3 Ti 200. I think it's a conflict with that driver.

Seems to work with much fewer issues on the newer desktop and laptop.
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What in the hell are y'all talking about????

Sincerely,

Technologically Illiterate

:-):-)
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I'm with you! I love Gparted and I keep Ubuntu on a flash drive for doing partition work. Sudo Gparted baby! Also, Ubuntu on a flash is great if someone comes to me with a virus infected windows machine that needs everything backed up. It works 99% of the time and loads any external drive to do a back up. Just a few quick easy steps before performing a complete restore.

Another way Ubuntu is great on the flash drive is if you have to reinstall Grub after making changes to your MBR.

I haven't ran AWN dock in a long time. I should give it another shot!
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Yup Gparted is awesome. I burned the LiveCD and partitioning takes seconds. Being that I didn't end up losing any data, the crash ended up being a good thing.

I need to get a new USB drive. But are older systems compatible? USB boot is a bios setting, correct?

AWN dock is pretty cool, but it is very buggy. But if drag and drop into the dock works, then you're good!
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Bingo! It depends how old the machine is an if they have brought out any bios revisions. Being that you need Windows in most cases to flash bios most of the time this may be difficult if these machines got hosed or had a hard drive failure.

I would make a wild guess and say anything over than 6+ years might not have the usb boot feature. I just found something interesting. Seems you can boot into a CD that will boot from USB without BIOS support. Sounds kind of crazy to me, but it might be ideal for some:

http://www.slax.org/forum.php?action...parentID=10682
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I was about to mention that you can upgrade flash from a boot floppy (what's a boot floppy?)
LOL
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As I think about it, yes... USB boot would be very cool. But booting to a CD just so you can USB boot doesn't really seem to efficient. I would bet that most of the computers I may encounter will be USB bootable, but if it's not, I'll just throw in the live CD. But if the computer is USB bootable, it's pretty sweet that you can have the fix on your keychain.

Got to show off Ubuntu during a meeting at work this morning. I was showing a sales rep and sales manager of a furniture company various ad's we've used, and I flipped the cube to open a new desktop. First a "whoa", then an "is that Windows 7?" I told them it was Ubuntu, which they had never heard of.

What kind of bugs are you finding on 9.10?
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My internal wireless card in not compatible with Ubuntu, So I got to thinking (scary, I know) I have a Rosewill RNX-G100 USB Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g
Could I simply plug that in or perhaps load drivers for it?
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I searched for that Roswill adapter and found one mention of it working with Ubuntu after loading with ndiswrapper (which loads the windriver). Spotty reception was mentioned. :-)
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A google search imiplied it can be done with ndiswrapper. Never had any personal experience. Give that a google and see what you can come up with.
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I use altavista still. Even though it's a stripped down yahoo.
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I've been trying out Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my Dell netbook (booting off a "live cd" on a jump drive). It's really great!
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Who's stoked about 10.04? Looks like it's going to be an improvement for those with Nvidia graphics and who want a faster boot time! I'm hoping they solve hd video playback and digital audio output issues!
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I don't like how they moved some buttons to the left ala OSX, but lots of little improvements I like. Looks like they pushing social integration, Facebook, myspace, and twitter right up in the desktop. Which is cool for people who use them I guess.
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The new PCLinuxOS 2010 is freakin awesome.
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I just looked over PCLOS's website. I like their upgrade philosophy better than UBUNTU's.
Continuous long term upgrades vs. version replacement.
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:-) I'm a fan. I always go back and forth between PCLinux and Sabayon on my desktop. I always use some form of 'buntu of my netbook though.
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