Windows 7: Ubuntu 10.04 Final

One of the nice things that most *IX did is 64bit and that was the norm in many cases. People would pick a *IX because there is so much support for (x64). Windows always seemed to lack in that area, all be it there is Windows XP (x64) but the OS never really took off. Why, mostly because of drivers if they were not built into the OS you really did not have much of a chance to make it work. I have run Windows XP (x64) for years on some production machines and for what they were doing it worked great. Microsoft tried to get users into x64 when Vista was released but Microsoft had bigger issues because the whole new way drivers worked meant that every vendor had to re-write their drivers. Since there were driver issues in (x86) there was no chance to push users to (x64). Along comes Windows 7 and most pre-loads are (x64) so many people believe this is the first (x64) Windows, when we all know it is not. Now that users are actually using (x64) it is putting pressure on the *IX community to do (x64) better. The issues in *IX (x64) are now more apparent because you have a (x64) Windows to compare it to. Now that Windows can do things a *IX (x64) cannot do we start to feel like *IX is broken. I am sure the *IX community will resolve all the (x64) issues as time goes on.

Have just managed to get this loaded on my main machine, using Wubi - looks quite impressive - one word of warning to a possible issue.

Make sure you disconnect any empty USB drives (basically card readers) or you will get errors stating that drive errors are present from WUBI.

If you cannot disconnect, (built in drives), ensure that the "display empty drives" option is switched off in explorer.

As a last resort you will need to select continue in the dialogue several times for each unrecognized drive.

Now to try and get my mobile broadband dongle to work - at least it sees it in 10.04

Yes I got that Nigel. I've put Wubi on my bedroom computer and I think it's x64.
I kept getting the "no disk in drive" error so I just kept clicking "try again" and it worked in the end.
It must check every drive before installing.
I've got internet connectivity straight away and have FF and Chrome on it.
Haven't really had a chance to play with it yet but it looks nice.

Two noob questions:

How do I work the compiz cube thing?
Can I network in my windows home group and play media from my main Windows 7 install in Ubuntu?

Thanks in advance, John

Glad it helped john

The compiz Cube is not as far as I know installed by default - checkout the software manager under themes and see if you can add it from there.

As for the networking - I believe you will have to share the folders you want to share via the old networking method - but they should then be available to you in Ubuntu

I put the script into an empty file and ran it in terminal, however it is still in french. I know very little french and had no clue what is was saying in the terminal. I tried to translate the script through word and Bing and redo it but the translation kills something in the script. Oh well still no love on emu 0404 on the English side. Thanks for trying to help.

Geeve

First, you will have to ensure that a 3d accelerated video driver is installed. You can check what is available by going to System, Administration, Hardware Drivers.

Second, turn on the desktop effects: System Preferences, Appearance, click on Visual Effects tab. Turn on either Normal or Extra.

Third. You need to install the extra eye candy components of compiz
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
Then make adjustments from System, Preferences, CompizConfig Settings Manager.

To spin the cube, by default, hold down CTRL-ALT and then click on the left mouse button and then move the mouse to spin the cube.

This release is certainly a great advance over the last one I tried 8.04 IIRC have tried each one since but found that there was always a deal breaker. (wireless or in one case bad support for my graphics).

This time I have even got the system on-line via my mobile broadband USB stick (about 4 hours altogether mostly research into some minor annoyances) a definite improvement over previous.

Not sure it's ready for the general user yet but it's getting there

Yeah I check in on them from time to time and am suprised by the advances they make. I figure in the next couple years it will be a great OS. They do need to work out the install and anoyance time. When ever I do a fresh install I count on about 3 to 4 hours to get things working right. That is just to long for the average user though.

Last install I did of fedora on my lappy went real fast and my wireless was up in running out of the box. I spent maybe an hour from start to finish. Alot of that was getting DVD playback, Flash and MP3 playback.

Geeve

Thanks pp. That's great