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drew’s journal

Paul inspired me

· · 🌡️ 37°F

I've wanted to try Linux for the longest time. Now I really have. I downloaded an Ubuntu live CD last night, and am making this post right now from my home computer running it.

@janelle is more fond of windows than I am, so we will not install it on the home computer, but I do anticipate that I will install it on my laptop sometime soon (I have one windows game that doesn't work on the home computer--I've got to wear that out a little, first)

Everything works great, everything looks great. It's fast and its easy and there is all kinds of stuff for free.

My only beef is that the internet looks different. I think it's the fonts.

I don't know if you can see the difference in this screen shot:

hmm. can't upload the screenshot. nevermind.

That's the other thing you can't tell from the live disk--how the plug-ins and other necessary downloads work. I am still growing in my confidence though.
167 words

💬 9 comments

  1. jim ·

    Drew, after you install (if you're using Ubuntu?) it pops up a question and asks if you want to also install non-free software like Flash, etc. That's free as in open source, so the not-free software is free of cost.

    File uploads should work after that.

    As for as web page rendering in Linux, that's due to a different set of fonts. They are mostly similar to the Windows/Mac font set but aren't quite as nice.

    Open a terminal/command line window and type: "sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts"

    You'll need to enter your password. After that web pages will look more 'normal'.

  2. jim ·

    If you also want the operating system's display to use more windows-like fonts (not just the contents of web pages), you can additionally take other steps: :::link:::

  3. mrmike ·

    I have too much crap that is Windows based on my main pc (as much as Vista just flat out blows) but I have an 80 gb box just sitting, a shell of its formal xp self.

    Might be worth an experiment, once I finish cleaning the files off.

  4. paul ·

    This is so exciting. Ya the file uploads work fine with the flash player.

  5. tinypliny ·

    WAY TO GO! *Applause* I want to switch as well... (But I am way too wimpy).

  6. tinypliny ·

    In fact, last month I switched from OpenOffice to MS 2007. I couldn't handle the format disasters and general disarray between work and home any longer. Plus I hate the fact the OpenOffice still doesn't have soft shadows.

  7. uncutsaniflush ·

    Welcome to Linux. I've been happily running Linux (various distros) since about 2001 almost exclusively. I hope that you have lots of fun with linux and that the learning curve isn't too steep and frustrating for you.

  8. paul ·

    I also have used linux pretty much every day since 2001 and I have to say, if you are using the main flavors (fedora, ubuntu, suse) they have gotten significantly easier to use. I mean I am sure a lot of it is because I have learned more about it but the last couple installs have required almost no significant tweaks to get the major stuff going (sound, video, wireless, fonts, web). A big change from when I first started.

  9. uncutsaniflush ·

    @drew - some distros such as Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) :::link::: and PCLinuxOS (originally based on Mandrake) :::link::: can automatically import Windows fonts from existing Windows partitions in a dual boot scenerio. They also can import Windows fonts manually from any partition. Of course, the legality of this depends on what rights the EULA or license that the fonts were distributed with.

    I would suspect that there are other distros with similar something similar to drakfont.


    There are also a number of cli (command line interface) methods of importing fonts depending on the desktop manager (kde, gnome, etc) and the distro used.

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