Posted: 7/15/2009 12:41:11 PM EDT
| This is slick. I had a laptop with a Tits-up windows issue, so I reformatted and installed Ubuntu. So far this is pretty slick, and a lot less intrusive than Windows. What are some cool things I can do on this style of OS that can't be done on Windows? |
|
I'd suggest getting down and dirty with a shell. You can learn a lot about *nix by playing around with the command line interface. A lot of people, including me actually find the command line interface a little more quicker and efficient than a graphical environment. Good thing most desktop environments include their own console emulator.
You're probably using Gnome. There are other desktop environments like KDE, XFCE, fluxbox. KDE is very customizable. You can go from a theme that looks like Windows to a theme that looks like OSX complete with the scrolling launcher bar. XFCE is nice and clean and more no-nonsense than Gnome and KDE. Fluxbox is one of the more minimalistic desktop environments. Some other cool things you can do with a little configuration is use your computer as a server for all your files. You can even log into your Linux box remotely with the right software. Linux is pretty POSIX compliant, good if you're a programmer. |
|
Quoted: double click on a window's title bar to make the windows minimize. I would suggest NOT mucking with the shell unless you need to. Hogwash. I learned more about computers since installing Linux (and "mucking" with the terminal) than I did my whole life leading up to that point. Hang around Ubuntu Forums and all your questions will be answered (they probably already have! –– do lots of searches). @OP: Lots of youtube vids showing Ubuntu desktop bling. Here are a few from a quick search: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPH32M_U2D8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmYIoXMA8nA Search for Compiz and Beryl. |
|
Enjoy. A good start might be fooling around with all the user options you can find and firing up a bunch of programs just to check them out. Odds are pretty good something will catch your fancy that you want to know more about –– and there you go.
FWIW, dropping down to a command line and learning just to cruise around your system looking at where stuff is can be interesting. |