Unit 2: Installing and Using Ubuntu

Today I install Ubuntu, my first taste of working with Linix on my VMware workstation (virtual machine). The installation was very easy. The YouTube video on how to install Ubuntu to VMware was excellent and I didn't have any issues along the way.

Ubuntu’s GUI desktop is very easy to adapt to. It’s almost a cross between a mac and windows. Instead of the quick task bar on the bottom or buttons generated from a start menu it has its task bar on the left side. Like a mac it also has a system menu always available on the top of the screen. For my assignments I was asked to:

Install software

I love games so I looked in the Ubuntu store and browsed for a free game to install and play. I found a game the called Freedriod RPG and clicked install. I was prompted for my user passwords and the installation directly began. After installing the game I tried to play it and it was fun, but part of the games screen was cut off. I tried to fix the games resolution in the settings but instead broke the game. Now if I click on the game the VM just turns black. It’s a lesson to be careful playing with settings you don’t understand. I had to restart the virtual machine just to get out of the program. Needless to say I’m not playing that game anymore, but I may try to download a different one in the future.

Create Three Documents (One from each of the of freeware office suite)

LibreOffice Writer was just like using word, including the red underlined misspelled word automatic spell check. Just like in word if you right-click on the red underlined word a list of possible correctly spelled words are given. I wrote some nonsense and saved the file in the documents folder (I called the document Jim).

LibreOffice Calc was just like using Excel. I played with the spread sheet software and tried out a bunch of elements I knew from using Excel including auto numbering and creating read outs (using the sum feature). I called this file Spreadsheet in the documents folder.

LibreOffice Impress was pretty much identical to Powerpoint. I create two slides playing with the feature. Since I hadn’t downloaded or added any pictures to the VM I took a screen shot and added it to the picture folder so I could add a picture to the slide show. My presentation was just gibberish and I saved the file as Dogs.

As I went through the Tutorials it was apparent that the Linux the tutorials were about and Ubuntu have many different placements when it deals with location and sometimes file name. The guided tour referred to a file called ‘vmlinuz’ being in the boot directory, when in Ubuntu it’s in the main directory. The system configuration file either has a different name or it’s not located in the etc/ directory. I like how the tutorials started showing some of the really neat tricks you can use in the command line. I especially liked using ‘*’ and ‘?’ to replace names and files types. My favorite command prompt command was: mv *.o?? unit2 (moving all of the office files with any name to the unit2 folder).

Unit 1: Ubuntu’s Interface

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system. This week I both downloaded the desktop and server ISO’s for Ubuntu. I also got a basic introduction to Linux from my virtual Learning Center. We were asked to search through Ubuntu’s ‘New to Ubuntu’ forum to find something interesting about the software. At first I was having issues finding interesting things because a lot of this section is about issues people are having with the software. On the other hand hearing about issues is a great way about hearing about some of the features you would never have thought of.
So apparently Ubuntu’s interface was made to look like a Mac interface. In the forum "New to Ubuntu Forum" a user was asking about the accessibility of changing Ubuntu’s appearance.

 I have been working with both macs and pcs for years now and I definitely think that’s an interesting choice. But based on simplicity I can see that making sense. I’m merely talking about the appearance and not the system behind the scene. Continuing my read I found that Ubuntu can look like any type of operating software appearance you want. It merely involves clanging the GUI (graphic user interface) feature in the software. I did a couple image searches and found this to be totally true. 

Here’s Ubuntu’s GUI set to look like Windows 8:

Or Windows 7:

Needless to say I thought this was something interesting because appearance is a very important feature especially because the appearance may be based on how you use your computer.