E-learning | Ubuntu

The full lesson is $50.  Not sure if that’s worth it or not.  I suppose that depends on your level of knowledge.  For someone like me, who already knows the majority of the stuff they would go over in the course, it seems like a rip-off, but for someone just starting out, it might be really helpful.  In either case, I highly recommend at least checking out the two free lessons.  It’s a great little introduction to Ubuntu!

Ada Lovelace

We as women need role models, people we can look up to and emulate, mentors and coaches; especially in male-dominated fields like technology. It’s difficult not to feel alone and out of place when you are a minority in your field.

I remember as a freshman in college, I was the only female in my computer science class. I had to be smart not only for myself, but for women everywhere, because unfortunately, this is How It Works:

How It Works

That is a lot of pressure! And it can be discouraging to girls who are interested in technology.

So to all the girls out there who take that computer elective, even though all the other girls are doing cheerleading, be proud of the fact that a woman started it all!

And to all the women who are in technology now, I hope and request that you seek out those girls, encourage and mentor them, because we are smart, and we each have an Ada within us, we just need to find her.

http://findingada.com

To quote (in my humble opinion) one of the coolest women alive, Ani DiFranco:

People, we are standing at ground zero of the feminist revolution!
Yeah, it was an inside job, stoic and sly.
One we’re supposed to forget and downplay and deny,
But I think the time is nothing if not nigh to let the truth out!
Coolest F-word ever deserves a fucking shout!
I mean… why can’t all decent men and women call themselves feminists?
Out of respect, for those who fought for this.
I mean, look around. We have This.

1. Insert your Ubuntu CD into the CD drive of your computer.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Most computers should automatically boot from the CD.  You will see the Select Language screen.  Select whichever language you prefer (English is selected by default).  Press Enter.
   
4. You will then see the Install menu.  The top option (selected by default) is “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer”.  You can navigate through this menu by using the arrow keys.  Navigate to the Try Ubuntu option.  Press Enter.
   
5. The Ubuntu Load screen will appear.  It will probably take a few minutes to load, so don’t panic if it seems to be taking a while.  Running Ubuntu from the CD is slower than it would be if it was installed on your hard drive.
6. Once it is loaded, you will see the Ubuntu login screen.  It should automatically login after a slight delay.  If not, you may have a problem with your CD, click Options and then Restart and try again.
   
7. Don’t you just love that startup music?  ^_^  Makes me smile every time!
8. There it is!  The Ubuntu desktop!  The shortcut to Firefox is up on the top bar.  Explore and try stuff out.  Visit http://ubuntuforbeginners.net and look at some of the tours.  There are a lot of great programs built in to Ubuntu.
   
9. When you are ready to exit and  go back to Windows (or install Ubuntu?!) just click the red power button on the top right of the screen, and select restart.  The CD will automatically be ejected, and you will reboot into your original operating system!
   

Before you begin, make sure you have a blank CD, and a computer with the ability to burn information to a CD (like a CD-RW drive).  If you don’t have those, you can request a free CD here: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ (click “Request a CD of Ubuntu Desktop Edition” and follow the instructions from there – you will have to create a Launchpad account).

1. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download.  (I am using Firefox.  If you are using Internet Explorer or some other browser, the page may look slightly different from what you see in the screenshot.)
2. The first thing to do on this page is to choose a version.  As of this writing, 8.10 is the latest version, and the one I recommend.  Most of the walkthroughs on this site will be based off of the most recent stable version available.
3. You will next see a drop-down list that says “Please select a location”.  You need to choose a location to download the file from.  It won’t make a huge difference which one you choose, but it’s usually best to choose the one closest to your physical location, because it will make the download slightly faster (I chose Michigan Tech, because that’s where I went to school ^_^).
   
4. Down below the green Download button, there is a Computer Architecture option.  The default selection should be 32bit.  Keep it there.
5. You’re ready to click Download!  It should start automatically, but if it doesn’t, the next page provides a link to click just in case.  I recommend downloading to your desktop, but anywhere easily accessible on your computer is fine.
6. On my internet connection (which is fairly good) it took about 12 minutes to download.  The file should be named “ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386″.
7. This next step is optional, but highly recommended.  You want to make sure that the file downloaded correctly.  If the file is incorrect, and you try to run it, it could mess up your computer, so please, please, please, check it!  To do that, you have to check the MD5 hash.  Luckily, there are programs you can download to do that for you.  WinMD5Sum is what I recommend.  Click here to download it.
8. Once it is installed, open it, and click the “…” button in the File Name section, navigate to where you have the Ubuntu file saved, select it, and click Open.  The program will look over the file, generate a code that describes it, and display it in the MD5 Sum section.  Copy and paste this code into the Compare text box:

   24ea1163ea6c9f5dae77de8c49ee7c03

   Then click “Compare”.  If the file you downloaded is correct, you will get a message saying that the Sums are the same, and you can move on to the next step.  If you get a message that says they are not the same, you may want to go back to step 3 and download the file from a different location. 

9. In order to copy the image to the CD, you will need an image burning program.  I like InfraRecorder (click here to download it), but if you already have one, or know of another one you would prefer to use, feel free.
10. Open up InfraRecorder and insert a blank CD into your computer’s CD burning drive.
11. Click “Write Image” in InfraRecorder, and navigate to where you saved the downloaded Ubuntu ISO file (i.e. the Desktop).  Select the file and click Open.
    
12. Make sure the “simulation” check-box is unchecked (see screenshot), and click OK to start copying the image file to the CD.  It took my computer about two minutes to burn the CD.
    
13. Voila!  Your brand-new Ubuntu CD will pop out of the drive ready to go!  (Make sure you label it! ^_^)

Next: Try out Ubuntu (without installing it!)

My Ubuntu Desktop

The first thing you will probably notice is that there is “stuff” on all four sides of the screen. The lightened strips where this stuff is are called panels. Panels are completely customizable in Ubuntu. I could make them any color, any opacity, even make them a picture from a file. Mine are all white – set at about 25% opacity. The “stuff” I referred to are called applets. They are all the little shortcuts and doodads that make Ubuntu’s desktop so much fun to use.

The second thing you probably noticed, if you’re used to Windows, is the lack of the traditional “Start” button. This is because many of the things that are stored on the Start menu are spread out over different panels. If you look up at the top panel, on the left side, you will see “Applications” next to the Ubuntu logo. This functions as “Programs” on the Start menu. This is where you can easily access any of your programs, and it works very similarly to the Program menu in Windows:

Example of the Applications Menu

I could do an entire post just on the Applications menu, but I’ll leave that for another time. Next to it is “Places” – this is pretty much just what it sounds like – places on your computer you might want to access. Here you can access your home folder, network, and mounted volumes (like CDs, Flash Drives, etc.). System is like the “control panel” of Windows – where you access all your preferences and administration tools. I could write an entire book on the System menu, but I’m fairly sure it’s been done, so I’ll leave that to the experts.

Moving on, in the middle of the top panel is my name. This is the User Switcher applet. When you click on it, it shows all the other users of your computer, and lets you switch users quickly and easily.

To the right of the top panel is my weather applet (it’s currently 45° and mostly sunny here in NW Michigan – very nice!), and the date/time applet, which is connected to my calendar program, so when I click it, I can see my appointments and tasks in a little mini-calendar.

Last on the top panel is the power button (far right corner of the screen). This is pretty self-explanatory – click it, and a menu comes up with power, restart, and log-off options.

Next post: the right and bottom panels.