Adventures with Ubuntu Linux Feisty Fawn

Okay, so I got a little behind! On June 26 I posted about Ubuntu’s current version of their Linux distro, 7.04 – Feisty Fawn, and how good the eye candy was re: the GUI, and promised to post once I had it installed on my lab system. Well, finally, this past Saturday, I installed it not only on the desktop machine, but a laptop that I had retired last year. I must say, I am quite impressed.

First I installed it on the laptop using a non-Live CD distro disk, as when I tried to install from the Live CD, my system kept locking up. The text-based interface was quite easy to follow, and it even sensed that I had Windows 2000 on it and automatically created a dual-boot system! Once it was up, I also noticed that it had correctly configured my wireless network card! I had an Internet connection! This had me wondering whether it might help fix the wireless NIC problem on my desktop that had been dogging me since June. I found the configuration info on the laptop, and when I went to find the same info on the desktop, I found significant differences in the menus. These differences made clear to me how extensive the changes were between Edgy Eft (6.10) and Feisty Fawn (7.04). This is certainly to Ubuntu’s credit that every 6 months (as opposed to 6 years with Microsoft) significant added value and functionality are added.

Initially, I thought I would have to install Feisty from scratch, overtop of Edgy, like you would with Windows. Au contraire! A quick check of the Ubuntu Forums gave me the info I needed. Although it involved a rather abstruse text command from the Linux terminal, the system upgraded to Feisty (including the neat desktop effects I talked about in my June post) without a hitch by simply swapping out components and keeping my settings. After rebooting, lo and behold, I had a network and Internet connection through my wireless NIC! I promptly downloaded system updates on both machines, along with some great apps I learned about on a Linux Blog called The Daily Ubuntu that features a different Linux app every day (including a wireless connection scanning utility, that was great!).

I can’t wait to play around with Feisty more on both machines, and am thinking about installing the server version on the desktop to create a little Linux network. That would be fun, but more about that later (and maybe much later, as I do have a life that does not include my inner geek).