I'm one of the many homeless folk who seriously use computers. At this moment I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on an old HP Pavilion dv6000 - not so much a laptop as a tank-top.
I've been an Apple Mac user since 1990. In 2012 I turned to Linux, only because my MacBook Pro had been stolen. My older PPC G3 iBook couldn't cut it. I'd read how Ubuntu could revitalize an old computer; I tried it on a junker PC laptop; the results were impressive.
Ubuntu was not the daunting Linux I remembered from 2000. The live CD was a great idea. Ubuntu seemed to blend best practices from a number of operating systems.
My first serious install was Ubuntu 12.04. I played with all the Unity bells and whistles, but eventually settled on the Gnome Classic environment. Unity was a hog and not so flexible. I found a semantic launcher like Synapse was so much faster than the Dash or the H.U.D.
I've tried a variety of other desktop environment and Linux distros. But whether Linux Mint with Mate and Caja, or the cool Puppy Linux, or Fuduntu with it's lovely Gnome 2 DE, I have always come back to Ubuntu.
One reason is software availability and compatibility - Ubuntu gives me more freedom to install more software that works than any other distro I've tried. The other reason, it turns out, is the file manager.
Turns out the reason I Liked Linux in the first place was first-and-foremost because of Nautilus, the Gnome file manager used by Ubuntu. As a long-time Macintosh user, I was impressed to see Ubuntu mounted volumes on the desktop and used an expand/collapse folder toggle in directory windows, just like Apple's so-called "disclosure triangles." I was more impressed by Nautilus' Mac-like touches, when I saw how Windowsy the rest of the Ubuntu interface was.
Imagine my surprise to discover that Nautilus was originally created by Eazel, a company full of former Apple employees. The original Nautilus icons were designed by Susan Kare, the legendary designer of the core Macintosh icons. No wonder I like Nautilus!
Thanks to Nautilus, I actually kind of prefer file management in Ubuntu over Mac OS X. I love the F3 split-screen view in Nautilus. Boos and hisses to Gnome for doing away with that feature in Nautilus 3.6, and cheers to Canonical for sticking with the older 3.4.2 version of Nautilus for Ubuntu 12.10.
I've been an Apple Mac user since 1990. In 2012 I turned to Linux, only because my MacBook Pro had been stolen. My older PPC G3 iBook couldn't cut it. I'd read how Ubuntu could revitalize an old computer; I tried it on a junker PC laptop; the results were impressive.
Ubuntu was not the daunting Linux I remembered from 2000. The live CD was a great idea. Ubuntu seemed to blend best practices from a number of operating systems.
My first serious install was Ubuntu 12.04. I played with all the Unity bells and whistles, but eventually settled on the Gnome Classic environment. Unity was a hog and not so flexible. I found a semantic launcher like Synapse was so much faster than the Dash or the H.U.D.
I've tried a variety of other desktop environment and Linux distros. But whether Linux Mint with Mate and Caja, or the cool Puppy Linux, or Fuduntu with it's lovely Gnome 2 DE, I have always come back to Ubuntu.
One reason is software availability and compatibility - Ubuntu gives me more freedom to install more software that works than any other distro I've tried. The other reason, it turns out, is the file manager.
How Nautilus tricked me into liking Linux
Turns out the reason I Liked Linux in the first place was first-and-foremost because of Nautilus, the Gnome file manager used by Ubuntu. As a long-time Macintosh user, I was impressed to see Ubuntu mounted volumes on the desktop and used an expand/collapse folder toggle in directory windows, just like Apple's so-called "disclosure triangles." I was more impressed by Nautilus' Mac-like touches, when I saw how Windowsy the rest of the Ubuntu interface was.
Imagine my surprise to discover that Nautilus was originally created by Eazel, a company full of former Apple employees. The original Nautilus icons were designed by Susan Kare, the legendary designer of the core Macintosh icons. No wonder I like Nautilus!
Thanks to Nautilus, I actually kind of prefer file management in Ubuntu over Mac OS X. I love the F3 split-screen view in Nautilus. Boos and hisses to Gnome for doing away with that feature in Nautilus 3.6, and cheers to Canonical for sticking with the older 3.4.2 version of Nautilus for Ubuntu 12.10.
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