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Ubuntu Linux is free
to download and includes everything needed for basic desktop productivity tasks.
The latest release, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support), will be supported with
security and bug-fix updates for three years, unlike earlier versions.
Ubuntu Linux is free
to download and includes everything needed for basic desktop productivity tasks.
The latest release, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support), will be supported with
security and bug-fix updates for three years, unlike earlier versions.
Ubuntu ships with a number of key applications as standard, notably the
OpenOffice.org productivity suite,
Mozilla
Firefox browser, the
Evolution
groupware client, and a rather spartan desktop courtesy of the
Gnome
user interface. Technical support is available from Canonical, the company
that sponsors the Ubuntu project, and there is also online community support.
We found Ubuntu 6.06 easy to install and equally easy to use. Its menu bar is
configured in a simple and intuitive fashion, and Ubuntu installs OpenOffice.org
and other productivity tools by default, with the OpenOffice.org applications
configured to open Microsoft Office documents. The Evolution client can also
link to Exchange Server 2000/2003 email accounts.
Recognised file types including Acrobat .PDF files are displayed as a
thumbnail instead of just an icon, and we were impressed with the way Ubuntu
handled USB Flash disks, opening a File Browser window to display the drive's
contents. Users more familiar with Windows will quickly feel at home.
Other similarities with Windows include a Software Updates service that
alerts the user to bug fixes and security updates, and lets the user select
which ones to apply.
We found we could connect to Windows servers and access files on shared
volumes with little difficulty, so organisations should be able to fit Ubuntu
systems into a Windows-based infrastructure. We also found it easy to link to a
network printer and output documents from the OpenOffice.org applications.
The simplified user interface of Gnome 2.14 in Ubuntu puts all applications
into a single menu for ease of access. There is also a Places menu that shows
recent documents, links to the file browser, and lets users search for files.
For our tests, we downloaded Ubuntu 6.06 LTS as an ISO CD-ROM image. This
creates a "live" disk that allows the user to run Ubuntu while installing it to
the hard disk. However, users can choose to perform a more conventional install.
Ubuntu is available in 32bit and 64bit versions for PCs, as well as
UltraSparc and PowerPC systems. It requires a minimum of 256MB of memory and 3GB
of disk space.
Read the original article: http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/software/2163350/tested-ubuntu-linux
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