The “Break it Down” Blog

NOTE: Ashton’s guide is for Ubuntu 6.06, a lot of things he disliked in the guide have been taken care of in either 7.04 or 7.10, the newest release. While the guide has some good information in it, please keep in mind that some of the “wtf” gripes he may have may not exist any longer. I have no idea why he wrote such a long guide for such an old version of Ubuntu personally.

Ashton Mills over at APC Magazine has put together an outdated super-guide of moving from Windows Vista to Ubuntu 6.06. The guide is 10 pieces, each piece multiple pages where he analyzes each portion of the Ubuntu experience and then gives it one of the following ratings:

• Optimal – Passes with flying colours. The task could not only be completed, but better or easier than under Windows.
• Pass – No problems. The task can be completed exactly as under Windows.
• Iffy – When a task could only be partially completed, or completed but not without issue.
• Flop – Not possible to complete at all. Probably not a good thing.

The sections of the Ubuntu experience that Ashton takes a look at are:

• Part 1 - Installing and updating Ubuntu
• Part 2 - Web browsing, security, media, DVDs and entertainment
• Part 3 - File management
• Part 4 - iPods, cameras and more!
• Part 5 - Email and office
• Part 6 - USB peripherals and plug’n'play
• Part 7 - Image editing and printing
• Part 8 - Video editing
• Part 9 - Gaming
• Part 10 - The verdict!

I would say the important parts to check out for folks that are planning on moving to Ubuntu are the following:

• Part 2, Media/DVD is an issue that a lot of people may just expect to drop-in and work, so read up here to understand what may happen and how to plan for it.
• Part 4, If you have a music device you really should get an idea of how that is going to behave/sync/buy-more-music/etc in Linux. Remember, iTunes goes away, so if that is how you buy music, you can’t.
• Part 9, For all intents and purposes just assume there is no gaming on Linux. There is *some* and you can use Transgaming’s Cedega software to provide an emulation for others, but not every game works and you certainly won’t be playing any games with copy protection as it’s illegal to circumvent it. So if you are a big Steam/TF2/Half-Life 2/BioShock/etc. fan, forget it.