First Problem - LinkSYS-N WMP300N and ndiswrapper

Ran into one of my first "linux-y" problems today. I installed a Linksys-N WMP300N PCI wireless card into my new computer and Ubuntu failed to recognize it. :(

I jumped back to my old laptop (still running Windows) and searched the forums for about an half an hour until I can across a post that walked me through how to get this card working.

For the most part, the good people at Ubuntu, has really good hardware support. I guess that when "newer" hardware does come out it does take some time to catch up and get Ubuntu to automatically recognize it. So I am not discouraged at all by this.

The post I found said that I had to use a little piece of programming called ndiswrapper which apparently is a wrapper (hence the name) for a lot of window drivers. Which is good to know since I can easily foresee this problem coming up again perhaps for a video cards or something. Here is the link to the post that I had to follow:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=340689

Of course, the post calls for me to download some files off of the net.... and of course, I CANT! But it worked out because the file that I needed, ndiswrapper, is also located on the LiveCD so it was just a matter of finding the file and installing it.

One thumbdrive later, I had all the files that I needed and the step-by-step forum tutorial worked like a charm.

I did have to use the command line and it wasn't too bad to be honest. I still need to find a good tutorial on the subject of commands so if anyone knows of one the please leave a comment.

I had a very complex and strange run of emotions during this process.... it was part terror that I would complete screw up my OS, frustration of not really knowing what I was looking for, confusion in wondering if I was doing anything right, and pure exhilaration!!! I was having soooo friken much fun.

For those of you who are on the fence with Linux..... come on over the water is warm and inviting and the community is absolutely awesome. I kindof feel like I am part of a club, group, society... whatever you want to call it.

This is just awesome! Can't explain it any other way. :)

Installing Ubunutu

Over the Easter weekend I installed Ubuntu and I must say that it was a fairly straight forward and easy process. I am glad and relieved to be honest as I thought Linux will be more problematic simply because many of the hardware drivers a designed for Windows and not Linux. Kudos to the Ubunutu team for all of the hard work in making sure that a lot of the hardware will work with this awesome OS.

My first impression of the Ubunutu system is that the default desktop is awful! Just plain ugly! So my first order of business was to change the background pic to one of my daughter. Once I did that I was very impressed with the layout of my new open-source non-Microsoft operating system.

What I especially like is how clean the desktop is with no "trial" software to be found, unlike the Windows. Sorry to get back on my Microsoft-bashing soap box, but don't you find it ridiculous that you pay a huge amount of money for MS Windows and then spend at least an hour removing all the trail software off of it. I mean really... talk about greed! Anyway, back to Ubuntu.

The next thing that I really like is the layout of the menus... very simple and straight forward. One for Applications, Files, and Settings. It was very easy to find and setup my new operating system to how I wanted things as well as to see what type of applications I could immediately begin playing with. I played a game of "Robots" to break in my newly installed OS and quickly got addicted to it.

I only got to play with my new system for an hour or two before my in-laws rang our doorbell, so I wasn't able to dive deep into the OS but so far the speed is outstanding as it only took about 30 seconds to boot up and the responsiveness of the programs, in my opinion, is far superior to the Microsoft driven computers that I have used in the past.

Two thumbs up. :)