Corfy's Corner My little corner of the web.

I am a proud user of Ubuntu (or, more specifically, Kubuntu, which is basically the same thing but uses the KDE desktop manager instead of the GNOME desktop manager), and have been for many months, so much so that I set a New Year's Resolution in 2007 to remove Microsoft Windows completely from our home computer (which may or may not happen, but I can try).

Does it work to surf the Internet? I am using it right now. Specifically, I'm on Firefox. Quite frankly, I don't see a difference between Firefox on Ubuntu and Firefox on Windows. The default email application for Ubuntu is Evolution, a rather nice Outlook replacement that only works on Linux, but I prefer Thunderbird, mainly because I like using programs that work on both Windows and Linux, so when I have to use Windows (like at work), I have my familiar programs.

Can you view downloaded videos? Yes, but this is a bit trickier in some ways. Ubuntu, by default, only includes "open" codecs, drivers, and programs. Some codecs, even some that are "free", aren't really "open", so you have to work a little to get them. That includes MP3 and DVD. Fortunately, it isn't hard to install. I must say that Adobe releasing Flash 9 for Linux has helped considerably with watching online flash videos. Flash 8 was never released for Linux, and Flash 7 on Linux had audio/video synch problems with flash movies (often the video would be 2-3 seconds ahead of the audio, which was annoying). But 9 works wonderfully.

Does it play Windows games? Simple answer... no. For the most part, Windows software will not run on Linux, and this includes games. In fact, many hard-core Linux users keep Windows on their computer specifically and only for games and tax software (the two big things missing in Linux).

Now, that is the simple answer. There are more complex answers. A program called WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) will allow several Windows programs to install and run on Linux, but it takes some work getting it configured properly (or so I have heard... I haven't tried it to be honest). WINE is free. There is another program, called CrossOver, that does the same thing, only it does a much better job and is easier to use. CrossOver is not free, however, and I haven't used it, either. For more information, you might want to start with "The easy, Wine way to run Windows apps on Linux".

There are several games available on Linux, but for the most part, Linux is not a gaming machine. Of course, that depends on what you are referring to as "games". If you are thinking of Solitaire, MineSweeper and Tetris, then you are in luck. Linux has more of those types of games than you know what to do with.

I don't play too many games anymore (not because of Linux, just because I don't), but I like to fiddle around with SuperTux (similar to the original SuperMario Bros.), LinCity (similar to SimCity), and Wormux (similar to the Worms series). I also play a few games of Mahjong and Sudoku.

As for more advanced games, I saw a recent review for Nexuiz, an online FPS, which looked interesting (I haven't tried it). Other games I have heard good things about, but I haven't tried, include Flightgear, a flight simulator game, FreeCiv, similar to Civilization, and Vega Strike, a space combat game.

I'm not saying that there aren't others that aren't good, or that those are the only ones I have heard of, they are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head (with a quick search for the URLs).

But one of the nice things about Ubuntu is the install disk is what is referred to as a "LiveCD". That means you can boot off the CD and run Linux completely off the CD without installing it first. That gives you a good feel for how well it will operate on your computer, although it will be a bit slow since a CD drive is much slower than a harddrive. The Ubuntu CD has a nice selection of programs on it (Firefox browser, OpenOffice.org office suite, GIMP photo editor, Gaim IM client, Evolution email program, and others), but as I pointed out, I'm not that impressed with the actual desktop manager (there isn't anything particularly wrong with it, it just reminds me of Mac OS 8). Kubuntu, in my opinion, has a better desktop (reminds me more of Windows, but there are still differences), but the default applications aren't quite as good (Konquerer web browser, Krita photo editor, Kopete IM client, although it also has OpenOffice.org).

Of course, once (if?) you install it on your computer, you can add whatever programs you want, but the CDs are limited by space.

And there is also Xubuntu, which uses the Xfce desktop manager, but that is mainly for older computers. I have never used Xfce. Edubuntu is also available, but it is a tad different. Like Ubuntu, it uses the Gnome desktop manager, but it has more "edutainment" programs and more parental control programs and is designed more for education/student/youth use.

I could go on and on and on, but that should get you started. Of course, if you have any questions, you know where to find me, and I will do my best to answer them (although don't mistake me for a Linux expert... in many ways, I am still a Linux newb, but an enthusiastic advanced newb).

A co-worker asked me the other day why I used Linux at home (especially since I am the IT department at my office, and we are nearly entirely Windows with a couple of Macs). I told them, "I deal with Windows problems every day at work, sometimes one or two, sometimes a ton of them, sometimes really simple, sometimes extremely complex. When I go home, I want to use a computer that just works."

And if anyone out there says I should go with a Mac, I just want to point out that Mac OSX is built on top of Unix, which Linux is patterned after. So there are more similarities between the two than most people think.