Ubuntu Video - Office Functionality
Posted by John Bradbury on 11/27/07 in CBT Training Videos, Linux
Yesterday’s video seems to have gone down well with the vast majority of you which is really great. I also seemed to have peaked the interest of aldenhg who suggests I’m not a Windows Systems Administrator but best chums with Linus Torvalds himself, lol
Just to answer his question - Yes I am aware of BartPE but I don’t think you can seriously compare it to the Ubuntu LiveCD I was using in yesterdays video. For a start most normal users wouldn’t be able to create their own BartPE CD, it’s difficult to get working across multiple machines, and it’s against the terms of your licensing agreement with Microsoft.
Further more I seriously doubt that an awareness of BartPE can be used as a measuring stick by which to gauge if someone is actually a Systems Administrator or not. Go back to fixing grandad’s PC ….
In today’s video I looked at the office functionality availble in Ubuntu, hope you enjoy.
tag this
wischwasch | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Hi, i really hope you will make another video about the customisation Features and the standart 3d Effects( with the compiz manager you can customize the effects easily)
You can styl a Linux PC ( in ubuntu very easily) how you want it to look like. Thats a big Part of ubuntu.
btw. your videos are going arround in the Ubuntu Communitys all over the World
ffreeloader | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Well, I can put aldenhg’s mind at ease. John is NOT buddies with Linus. I’m one of the “Linux nuts” that’s been giving him a bad time about the uninformed opinions he had about Linux, and telling him that Linux is NOT what he thought it was.
To John’s credit, he has been very even-handed in his reviews here. He really has been surprised by what he’s seen, and he’s been honest about the entire situation.
I have to agree with him in assessment of BartPE too. That is no where near what a Linux LiveCD is. A LiveCD includes an entire OS and enough software to make it a working desktop for a lot of situations. I wouldn’t put BartPE in even the same ballpark as a LiveCD.
The range of LiveCD’s out there range from what Ubuntu has to complete security suites built for doing penetration testing, forensic work, file recovery, etc… to LiveCD’s designed to do system recovery work. All current Linux LiveCD’s will easily read, NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 partitions. Some/most will easily write reliably to NTFS partitions. If the creators have included the ntfs-3g driver the CD will both read and write reliably to NTFS. BartPE can’t even begin to read a non-MS partition, thus relegating it to the scrap heap for recovery of a non-MS OS.
Another thing you will find is that many times a Linux LiveCD will read failing hard drives that Windows can’t even see anymore. Why, I don’t know. I just know I’ve done it, and I’ve seen it reported quite a few times by guys working as PC techs. It won’t work every time, obviously, but it works often enough to make it a must-carry tool for any PC tech.
Thy | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
About the same, you are expieriencing in those Videos, i was going through, a few Months ago.
It brings back Memories
ffreeloader | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Just one comment on the wish for a video on compiz.
I dont’ believe that will be possible in a VM. I don’t think the VM drivers will support compiz as they are too basic. My guess is that they wouldn’t support anything more than 2D graphics.
Thy | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Thats right. Compiz needs 3D Support.
lilith2k3 | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
bart PE is and was never meant to be something like a ubuntu-live-cd. ok, it runs in a mode you could call it a live-system. nevertheless, i am wondering if bart PE is not illegal according windows licences.
@john: did a great job here :]
wischwasch | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
What i wanted to say was, that he should show in his video a little bit how you can customize Ubuntu. The standart look ist… öhm… ok… A normal windowsuser loves the bling and blang, the design. He should look on gnome-look.org and customize his ubuntu a little bit, so the people see, that ubuntu have not to look like in the standart Design.
The 3d effects would be nice, but if they don’t work, i don’t know, its no problem. That was not what i wanted to say.
De-pro9 | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Please, please keep up with what you are doing! You really are the only person on the planet who is doing Ubuntu how to videos @ this quality & easy to understand clarity. I hope you don’t mind I will be converting your 3 videos to dvd & giving it away as a companion to the official Ubuntu disk.
Thanks from the community.
De-pro9 | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Don’t forget automatix
http://www.getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ
http://www.getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installation
Damien | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
John, these videos are fantastic, they are being ‘passed around’ the workplace down here in Australia, and quite a few people are now interested in getting hold of an ubuntu install CD and doing away with MS on a home desktop. For internet and email this is all we need.
Lucky i have a few Gutsy CD’s on me, what a coincidence!
Thanks.
-Damien.
Damien | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
Sorry for the double post mate, but i must add, if you need ubuntu support go to the official ubuntu support forum rather then the Suse support forum
http://ubuntuforums.org/
And once you get compiz up and running you may be suprised all over again. I’ve only been using linux less then 6 months myself, and it has really grown on me. Great to see you take the plunge as well. Enjoy.
Cheers,
- Damien.
ffreeloader | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
Do not include automatix. That’s a system crash waiting to happen. Ubuntu devs say to treat it like the plague, and there are multiple stories on the net about it completely hosing systems.
If someone has been using it and not had problems, well, you’re one of the lucky ones so far, and your time is probably coming.
Anything you can install using automatix you can install by editing /etc/apt/sources.list and adding the appropriate urls. Then let apt-get, aptitude, or synaptic take over and do the installing. That way all dependencies get taken care of correctly both during install and uninstall of packages.
I use Debian, and install all the multimedia and video goodies through apt-get. It’s a much better option than automatix. It’s reliable, it’s safe, and that’s always the best option. Apt doesn’t have the reputation it does by being unreliable.
De-pro9 | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
That was the old Automatix ffreeloader, it’s all good in 7.10.
Armandh | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
so far I have only had to use the command line twice once when an old monitor was not communicating such that only the default 600×800 was available and once to circumvent a problem that has been since fixed.
both were copy and paste from advise in the Ubuntu forums.
caution; for advise to be given one must be able to describe the problem.
Peter | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
Hi John,
great work you are doing there. Keep it up. These Vids are the best thing i ever saw when it comes to Linux tests.
I was myself greit impressed by ubuntu comparing it to my XP - to be honest, I decided to leave the Windows community after the first week of ubuntu, not least because of I don’t see a point to be forced to buy a new computer just because of Vista…
Greetings from Germany
PS. Windows is a great OS - but it is not the only one that does work and its not the one that works best for me…
ed | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
hey john, great videos btw. i can guarantee that if you actually installed and used linux for 30 days, you would start to question why you use windows. i used to be the biggest windows fan on the planet.(i still fix win machines for a living) but once i realized that i can do pretty much anything in linux, and much more securely, i was sold. the only reason i have a 20gb partition for xp is for gaming. i see absolutely no need for windows other than that. i dare you (john) to do a 30 day ubuntu only trial. i bet you’ll never look at windows the same.
King Hajj | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
I also advise against Automatix. The Ubuntu devs don’t support it and generally hate it, and anything it does you can do yourself and more safely by following various guides on ubuntuforums.org.
ecartman | Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
I have been reading the ubuntu forums for months now and the latest I’ve read is in agreement with what ffreeloader said about Automatrix avoid at all cost. Please check the forums yourself.
http://ubuntuforums.org/
Cart
stefano | Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
Automatix is a real bad program and nobody should use it. canonical has released a paper on that issue. if you start to use linux, try also to get rid of your “noobieness” and try to think about your pc as if it would be your car. you dont let anybody turn screws at your car right? so, only use the official repositories.
Scatto | Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
This is the wrong place for discussions about Automatix, keep that in the related forums, folks!
John, thank you a lot for your fair and neutral presentation!
I agree with Ed, try Ubuntu a bit longer and you´ll love it.
p.s.: I had to smile every time i heard the positive surprise in your voice. Reminded me of the time i changed to GNU/Linux
Thanks again and Greetings from Germany!
droebbel | Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
De-pro9,
while automatix has improved a lot and the worst system killers seem to be removed from it, it still uses evil things like –assume-yes when installing packages. This shows its approach does not really work - no helper tool should assume that the silent removal of random software (just a possible example) is anywhere near acceptable for any user, let alone a newbie.
As a matter of fact, automatix can only be used on a freshly installed system without risking severe damage.
So I too strongly advise
***not to use automatix***
There are reliably tools for nearly all of the tasks automatix was made for. Use them.
@ John: great videos, really. And I am really glad to see how linux actually does impress rather unbiased people with technical background who just want to use it for their work