# Ubuntu, or something else? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285 "2008-10-10T04:04:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/21 "2008-10-11T18:28:01Z")
> [@whatami](#): > > In addition, I don’t seem to be able to see the kubuntu box at all from my windows machine. Much searching and tweaking hasn’t gotten me there yet. Hopefully, a little more trial will get me there. Apparently, there are some Samba settings that I don’t have right. > > I’ll keep trying and remember that this is for fun and learning… hopefully, this will keep me from taking a hammer to the box. Look at the bright side, at least you don’t have Vista in the mix. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/22 "2008-10-11T18:36:09Z")
> [@Unsquare\_Dance](#): > > I recommend Ubuntu. It’s incredibly easy to use. I even had my mother using it on her old laptop, and she had no problems navigating it, even with her Windows-only (at the time) knowledge of computers. You beat me to it. I haven’t done it yet, but the chances are pretty high that I’m going to buy my mother a used computer come the first of the year, and if I do, I’ll put Ubuntu on it for sure. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/23 "2008-10-11T19:32:17Z")
> [@whatami](#): > > Well, I’m typing this on the kubuntu box, but it wasn’t quite as smooth as I thought on the sharing between this and my XP laptop. > > I can see my Windows computer, and get to the root directory (I shared the entire thing for now, until I get it figured out), but when I try to enter a users folder through documents and settings, it asks for a username and password. Since I don’t have any set on windows, I’m not sure what it’s looking for and can’t get in. > > In addition, I don’t seem to be able to see the kubuntu box at all from my windows machine. Much searching and tweaking hasn’t gotten me there yet. Hopefully, a little more trial will get me there. Apparently, there are some Samba settings that I don’t have right. > > I’ll keep trying and remember that this is for fun and learning… hopefully, this will keep me from taking a hammer to the box. As to the second issue: do you have a firewall on your Windows machine? You may have to add the kubuntu box to the list of “allowed” computers. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/24 "2008-10-11T19:58:18Z")
The only downside I found with Ubuntu was getting wifi to work. The drivers were very limited and even when I finally got it going it was very unstable. This was about 6 months ago, so it may be better now. ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/25 "2008-10-12T21:57:33Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > The only downside I found with Ubuntu was getting wifi to work. The drivers were very limited and even when I finally got it going it was very unstable. This was about 6 months ago, so it may be better now. This will be hard-wired, so the wifi issues (which are discussed in depth on the forums), won’t apply to me. And just to follow up on my networking problems- I finally ended up re-installing the Samba program and that worked great for me. Now I really can go back and forth on both computers, so it should work great for what I’m going to use it for. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/26 "2008-10-12T22:10:21Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > If you want to have the full Linux Experience™ while having something “easy” Ubuntu is great, but be warned that if you like it and get used to it, most people switch out Ubuntu for something like Fedora if they use it as their primary operating system (see: [this](http://xkcd.com/456/) xkcd for a comical take on it). I guess “most people” have too much time on their hands. If you actually expect to use your computer to do stuff, Ubuntu is fine. If you want maintaining your computer to be a hobby in and of itself, you may end up switching. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/27 "2008-10-12T22:41:21Z")
[Ubuntu now powers Wikipedia:](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081009-wikipedia-adopts-ubuntu-for-its-server-infrastructure.html) > [@](#): > > The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the user-driven Wikipedia project, is in the process of migrating its servers to the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Wikimedia’s move to Ubuntu is part of an effort to simplify administration of the organization’s 400 servers, which previously ran a mix of various versions of Red Hat and Fedora. > > [snip] > > Wikimedia’s entire collection of web sites—which includes Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikinews, and several others—serves up roughly 10 billion page views per month. At its peak, traffic can sometimes reach 50,000 HTTP requests per second. The organization’s hardware budget to date is roughly $1.5 million, and it spends $35,000 per month on bandwidth and physical hosting. All of its technical infrastructure is managed by a small IT staff consisting of only four paid employees and three volunteers. This means that you aren’t going to grow out of Ubuntu. It isn’t _just_ a beginner’s distro, though it fills that role admirably. I also guess **Jragon** doesn’t know the Wikipedia people. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285/28 "2008-10-12T22:44:05Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > I guess “most people” have too much time on their hands. If you actually expect to use your computer to do stuff, Ubuntu is fine. If you want maintaining your computer to be a hobby in and of itself, you may end up switching. No, no, there’s plenty of room for the computer hobbyist in the Ubuntu land. 🙂 I’m a prime example: Ubuntu is more fun than Slackware because I can geek out about higher-level stuff, instead of having to edit config files by hand all the time. Being able to pull in O’Caml, Haskell, and Common Lisp with three commands is sweet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-or-something-else/467285.md?page=1)