Thursday, April 7, 2011

Karmic Koala Ride Part One


Still I remember the day that I have ordered the free Ubuntu CD.I just ordered it because one of my friends told me it is free and they deliver to your address with no cost. I don’t have any idea what Ubuntu is up to and why they give it for free. Why such a big community working on non-profit oriented purpose.I just only heard it is a Linux distribution. I was curious so then I installed it on my desktop. Pretty interesting, different look and feel, but I don’t know how to work with it. Frankly speaking, it is not user friendly like Windows at that time. After two days I decided to remove Ubuntu and then Windows XP becomes my OS in usual way. My first Ubuntu attempt failed and Bill Gates wins. I feel this is like really a confession that states how I finally become an Ubuntu user. Time went up; day by day I was getting stick to Windows.

Suddenly, I was called for an interview. It is a software company that makes ATM solution and banking applications. I have prepared for interview and it is my first interview. While I was interviewed, he told me we are using Sun Solaris in our server so do you have any UNIX knowledge. Ah God, I feel tranquility in my brain. I have no choice, I was thinking whether tell the truth or not. As I said before I don’t have hard experience in UNIX or UNIX like OS.I was trying to handle the situation telling I have studied Operating System in my degree course and we have installed Fedora 11 on VMware. Now, things were getting worse. He keeps asking a lot of smart questions. Eventually, I was failed the interview and they sent me the mail mentioning, at the moment we are unable to recruit you since you are not suit for our requirement. I was so frustrated and keep thinking why the hell this Linux is more important. I don’t want failed twice and try to keep things getting back on track. I have ordered Open Solaris 9. Installed, try to find a way to learn things, unfortunately abandoned again.Window is the only option that I have. I decided to drag with Windows XP.

By the way, things are getting change. Little by little I’m going love open source culture and the way it modeled and works. Seriously I love it now. I strongly believe internal working of software should not be closed from its users and it is also free as free beer.In my personal opinion, Open source community done a great job towards Software industry. At last I become an Ubuntu user not the hard core user as per now, want to be a powered one someday. It is pretty interesting throwing Windows and Gates away from my computer forever and ever. In reality, everything depends on your capacity. How hard you work and how efficiently you work. Converting form Windows to Ubuntu won’t be a hard task at all but your resistance to change will cage you in Windows. In my personal experience, another major reason why I abandoned Linux twice is I don’t know how to work around it at first hand. Sometimes, when you are going to use Ubuntu first time you really become frustrated even if there are forums support, community documentation out there. Finally practicality and experience always matters. Learning in hard way is much better but I would like to share my Ubuntu experience which will at least help you to begin your own Ubuntu journey with less effort and less frustration.

You may have experience installing Windows XP. Installing Ubuntu is same as Windows since it starts along with GUI. Nothing happens behind installing Ubuntu other than boot up the live CD and few mouse clicks. You are able to install Ubuntu without any sweat. After that think what you want to do....Simply I will point down what I need to do with Ubuntu 9.10.
  • First you need to install software on top of Ubuntu.
  • Removing software and updating installed software.
  • If you are a Java developer you need set up development environment such as installing JDK , Eclipse IDE and other required softwares.
  • If you want to be a better Linux user, your best friend would be your terminal all the way. I mean you should familiar with frequently used commands.

Up to now, I think most of hard part is over. Meaning that you don't want to shift from Ubuntu to Windows because most of the things that you do is possible in your computer now.
Stay tuned to follow the forth coming post that makes you Ubuntu journey as easy as pie. At first I will cover how to install packages(software) on top of Ubuntu 9.10(Karmic Koala).

© Nuwan Arambage-"transcending verge of life"

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