Mandriva Nil Ubuntu 1

Here's one for all you geeks out there.

I wanted to log-in remotely to the Linux computers in the office, and decided that I would try the Mandriva Linux Live CD which came with a computer magazine.

In one sense, it did exactly as it said on the tin - it ran Linux without any installation. However it would not use my wireless card (the files needed were not included in the free version, something which I think goes against the grain of OpenSource software). I could download them, but having found a wired network connection I was unable to save the files (it hadn't mounted my hard-disk).

I then tried installing the distribution, but having partitioned my hard-disk and made a fuss of copying files across it installed nothing in the way of a bootloader. So there was no way of actually running my shiny new Linux.

I then decided to download Ubuntu. Not only did it run successfully from the CD, identifying my wireless card and all, but when I opted to install it it turned out to be the easiest and quickest installation of an OS I've ever actually done. Everything works, and it's not messed up Windows either.

The only mystery is that it did not need my encryption key to log on to the wireless network; the only explanation I can think of is that one of my neighbours has an unencrypted network and I was inadvertantly piggy-backing it.

I said that this post was for the computer geeks, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'mn glad you've discovered Ubuntu - I tried it out when looking for a Linux distro for my laptop, and I've never looked back. Now to work up the energy to convert my main Gentoo box to Ubuntu...
Tue Nov 21, 08:28:00 PM GMT
Anonymous said…
Do you regularly piggy-back your neighbours then?
Wed Nov 22, 11:27:00 AM GMT
Anonymous said…
you didn't say it was for computer geeks, james! you said it was for geeks! i may be a geek, but not a computer geek! warn me next time!
Thu Dec 07, 10:43:00 PM GMT
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