The Real Reason to Run Ubuntu Linux

There’s lots of reasons why people choose Linux over Windows.  I’ve been running Ubuntu since 7.04 for about two and a half years.  I had a couple reasons to choose Linux generally, and Ubuntu specifically.  First, as a learning experience.  In my work, I needed to gain some Linux/UNIX experience, as my company has launched products that potentially will play in this space.  Next, as a way to get more functionality without having to break the bank.  I have 10 computers throughout my house, and Microsoft fees could potentially break the bank.  Ubuntu was an easy choice since six months ago, Linux wasn’t offered by many PC manufacturers, but Dell had an affordable choice for me to start with.

A lot has changed in six months.  I now have three dedicated Ubuntu Linux machines, one hosting my mail server, one hosting my NAS storage via SMB, and one my “research” machine which, until recently, was running the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 7.10.  This brings me to the single biggest reason I love Linux:  Ease of reinstallation.

64-bit computing is still a long way away from being “user friendly”.  The Windows world has a much worse time of it purely because of the sheer number of programs that need to be backwards compatible in this space.  I figured I’d try Ubuntu 64-bit, and for the most part, it’s been a good experience.  I did start to see some strange happenings on that machine, that were not being exhibited by their 32-bit cousins.  After 3 months of dealing with it, and struggling at even basic web browsing, I decided to start over on my research machine with the 32-bit version of Ubuntu 7.10.  But I wanted to keep all of my data, so this, too, was an experiment.

I backup all of my files each night, so I ran a quick tar backup of my home directory to ensure I had the latest files, and copied that tar file over to an external HD.  The next step was the reinstall of Ubuntu 7.10 from the LiveCD.  This is probably one of my favorite features of Ubuntu;  ease of installation.  I have the base install done in less than 30 minutes.  I change my networking back to it’s static IP that I’ve been using (so I can access my machines remotely) and begin the long update.  This is probably the worst feature of Ubuntu.  There’s no way to download all the updates at one time before installation, so you have to install, then update.  The update was nearly 200 MB and took 2 hours.  But the best part was after the update.

I used the same user name, but the machine was different.  I copied the .tar file from my external HD to the root directory, and extracted the files.  I logged off and back on, and I had all my shortcuts and settings just as I had left them, even though I had changed from 64-bit back to 32-bit.  I had to tweak one backup script that I use, because it uses the machine name hardcoded, but that was it, I was back in production in less than 3 hours, and it really only took about 1.5 hours of my time.

Thus, I was able to test my disaster recovery procedure, and it is GOOD!  I’m eagerly awaiting the 8.04 version of Ubuntu, and will be among the first to upgrade, at least one of my machines.

There’s lots of reasons why people choose Linux over Windows.  I’ve been running Ubuntu 7.10 (and 7.04 before that) for about 8 months.  I had a couple reasons to choose Linux generally, and Ubuntu specifically.  First, as a learning experience.  In my work, I needed to gain some Linux/UNIX experience, as my company has launched products that potentially will play in this space.  Next, as a way to get more functionality without having to break the bank.  I have 10 computers throughout my house, and Microsoft fees could potentially break the bank.  Ubuntu was an easy choice since six months ago, Linux wasn’t offered by many PC manufacturers, but Dell had an affordable choice for me to start with.
A lot has changed in six months.  I now have three dedicated Ubuntu Linux machines, one hosting my mail server, one hosting my NAS storage via SMB, and one my “research” machine which, until recently, was running the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 7.10.  This brings me to the single biggest reason I love Linux:  Ease of reinstallation.
64-bit computing is still a long way away from being “user friendly”.  The Windows world has a much worse time of it purely because of the sheer number of programs that need to be backwards compatible in this space.  I figured I’d try Ubuntu 64-bit, and for the most part, it’s been a good experience.  I did start to see some strange happenings on that machine, that were not being exhibited by their 32-bit cousins.  After 3 months of dealing with it, and struggling at even basic web browsing, I decided to start over on my research machine with the 32-bit version of Ubuntu 7.10.  But I wanted to keep all of my data, so this, too, was an experiment.
I backup all of my files each night, so I ran a quick tar backup of my home directory to ensure I had the latest files, and copied that tar file over to an external HD.  The next step was the reinstall of Ubuntu 7.10 from the LiveCD.  This is probably one of my favorite features of Ubuntu;  ease of installation.  I have the base install done in less than 30 minutes.  I change my networking back to it’s static IP that I’ve been using (so I can access my machines remotely) and begin the long update.  This is probably the worst feature of Ubuntu.  There’s no way to download all the updates at one time before installation, so you have to install, then update.  The update was nearly 200 MB and took 2 hours.  But the best part was after the update.
I used the same user name, but the machine was different.  I copied the .tar file from my external HD to the root directory, and extracted the files.  I logged off and back on, and I had all my shortcuts and settings just as I had left them, even though I had changed from 64-bit back to 32-bit.  I had to tweak one backup script that I use, because it uses the machine name hardcoded, but that was it, I was back in production in less than 3 hours, and it really only took about 1.5 hours of my time.
Thus, I was able to test my disaster recovery procedure, and it is GOOD!  I’m eagerly awaiting the 8.04 version of Ubuntu, and will be among the first to upgrade, at least one of my machines.

Since this original post, I have upgraded all my Ubuntu machines to 9.10 and am still bordering on fan-boy.

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