| |
|
Can Java Developers make Ubuntu - Linux their primary work OS? - Part 1 |
|
|
|
Written by Harshad Oak
|
|
Jan 24, 2007 at 12:15 AM |
|
Page 1 of 3  For quite some time I have been planning to make Linux my primary work environment. So I setup a Ubuntu - WinXP dual boot machine and have since been gradually trying to make Ubuntu my primary OS. The idea is that by the time people start moving to Windows Vista, I will be on Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a user friendly flavor of Linux that enjoys great community support through its forums at UbuntuForums.org . Installing Ubuntu is straightforward if you are installing on a new machine. However for a dual boot Windows + Ubuntu installation, you would encounter some steps during installation that are very good at scaring you and making you wonder if you are losing all your Windows data.
Several popular software like Firefox, OpenOffice and Gimp work fine on Ubuntu. OpenOffice and Gimp actually perform better on Ubuntu than on Windows.
However the list of software that won't install is also quite long. - Yahoo Messenger :(
- Google Talk :(
- Google Earth :(
- Skype :| A basic version is available
- Sea Monkey :(
- Opera :| Installation through software channel doesn't work. .bin file works
- WYSIWYG HTML Editors support :(
- No Internet Explorer :| All web development has to be tested on IE, irrespective of whether you like it or not.
- Sound and Video players :| Few options
- FTP client - GFTP which is the most popular is not that good. Filezilla 3 is supposed to work on Linux (currently in beta)
You can use Wine, which is a Windows implementation for Unix. Wine will simulate Windows and a Windows directory structure, tricking the Windows application installer into thinking that it was being installed on a Windows machine. But making applications work by simulating Windows on Linux is no fun, especially if the primary reason you are using Linux is to move away from Windows.
Apart from issues with availability of software, I had some trouble with file sharing between Ubuntu and Windows machines on the same network. Also you can read files from Windows partitions on your machine using Ubuntu, but the driver to write back to the Windows drive is still in beta.
Ubuntu is based on Debian, and to install software on Ubuntu you don't just download and run installer files. It is recommended that you look for the software in the Ubuntu repositories and install it from the repository. Coming from the Windows world, it takes time to get used to this approach. Also at times you need to add a new repository before you can add a software in that repository. Once you have a basic office machine setup, you would now want to make it a developer machine and get it setup for Java development.
Page 1 OF 2
<< Start < Previous 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
|
|
|
Home | 
