We have... arrived?

This week I successfully loaded Linux Ubuntu on my third machine here on my home network. For those of you who are not geeks: Ubuntu is an alternative operating system (like Windows XP, or Macintosh OSX, for example) that is "open source" meaning it is not copyrighted (sp?) like Windows and Apple operating systems are.

Unix and Linux are often used interchangeably to refer to this operating system, which (since it is open source, and therefore can be changed/improved by anyone) is often released over and over in different versions called "flavors." Ubuntu is a flavor of Linux which has gained recent popularity because of its user friendly reputation.

I installed Ubuntu as an experiment. Since I am studying networking, and since a big part of networking is getting different operating systems to recognise and "talk" to each other, I thought it would be a great hands-on learning experience. I've had it on the machine just a few days now, and I have two initial reactions:

1) disappointed

2) impressed

Now, those two may sound like opposed reactions, but let me explain. i am disappointed because I was all hyped-up and excited to experience this "new" operating system which I thought was going to be like nothing I'd ever seen before. That was not the case. Ubuntu looks just like the Apple Macintosh operating systems that I used back in 2005-2006 when I worked for a company up in Utah that only used Macs. For those of you who are familiar with Macs, and their recent operating system releases, my initial impression of Ubuntu's look and feel is that it resembles a cross between OS9 and OSX. I think I have read that Apple's OS was based on Unix (I may or may not have that right, since I am new to Unix/Linux), but I can tell you that the similarities are obvious. So, having said that, I was disappointed to discover that there really wasn't anything "new" to see in this operating system.

I am impressed, however, in it's ease of use. I installed it in about a half an hour, and it immediately was up and running on its own with little need for any interference on my part. Not only was I surfing the internet and sending e-mail right away, I also discovered (to my pleasant surprise) that networking with it was a breeze! Everything that I had been reading in my textbooks on the subject of networking alluded to a difficult process I'd have to walk through before I could get these different machines to communicate with each other. My Ubuntu machine, however, immediately recognised the two Windows machines on my network, and (to my surprise) was pulling documents, spreadsheets, images and even video off of the Windows computers right away! Very impressive, Ubuntu!

My two Windows machines, however, have yet to "see" the new Ubuntu machine on my network.

So far this has been an exciting few weeks for me, what with fixing a broken computer that my Dad sent me, installing a new operating system, and getting the network up and running. I am certain that this experience will be a benefit to my studying, and look forward to learning more as the weeks, months and years roll on.