New guy to Ubuntu

[redchevy]

Hey Guys.. well obviously Im new to the Linux Os so. Ive got an Hp dv6000 laptop I'm running Ubuntu's latest version on it. It has a 100 gig HDD and 2 gig ram. I was just wondering what should be the first thing i should do to it any replies would be helpful I just dont know what i should do first soooo many things i can do Help me out bros

[arochester]

10 Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 11.10 - 10 Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 11.10

[redchevy]

So think i should switch to linux mint? or stay with ubuntu?

[arochester]

Which distro you use is entirely up to you and your choice. Have you fully and properly tried Ubuntu? Or do you want to distro -hop like a butterfly? Why do you think you should go to Mint?

[redchevy]

Well my bro is a big Os Guru and he suggested Linux mint when i told him that my wifi wasnt working on ubuntu so i just did a wired connection for now. I dunno Ubuntu looks too much like Mac OSX

[arochester]

my wifi wasnt working on ubuntu

Unless you mean LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu. You can get rid of Unity if you want to and use classic Gnome.

Open a Terminal and tell me the output from: lspci (or possibly lsusb)

That's l for Lemur and not I for India

[yagolf]

Simply put, if you are coming from a Windows environment, as you are, and you don't want to have to battle with your desktop environment so as to make it look more familiar, the Linux Mint idea is great.
I am not such a newbie any more but I understand the frustration you may experience when people who know a lot start talking about how you can tweak this with such and such bit of code or with "this little script I made myself" and all that malarkey, when really, what you want is a system that feels comfortable to you and works right out of the box so that you can then start learning from there.
So I suggest you try Linux Mint 11. It is true that it's based on Ubuntu, but that doesn't mean it is Ubuntu. It preserves the good all Gnome 2.x desktop environment (it looks a lot like windows) and is packed with other stuff that will make your life easier.
and if you want, a very easy and useful tool that allows you to tweak many things that may not be immediate is called 'Ubuntu Tweak'
- google 'ubuntu tweak download' and click on the page called 'Download - Ubuntu-Tweak.com'.
- follow the instructions that appear under "How to add the source of Ubuntu Tweak (The easy way, work since Ubuntu 9.10)".
- update your system so that the new packages get included in the software manager and
- install 'ubuntu tweak'.

Alternatively you can run the following command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

which is the same thing but doing it all from the command line.
to run it you can just search for it in the main Mint Menu.

welcome to your freedom!

[cynwulf]

It preserves the good all Gnome 2.x desktop environment (it looks a lot like windows) and is packed with other stuff that will make your life easier.

I'm just wondering why you think gnome looks a lot like windows, and why you would think that's a good thing?

[elija]

Mint Menu could be said to look like the more recent Windows menus although not when compared to something like GnoMenu. Mint also has a single panel by default which is at the bottom of the screen. The menu is to the left with the window switcher and then the notification area. All very familiar to Windows users. I would say familiar rather than better as better is too subjective a term.

As I have to use Windows at work, I like to keep a similar layout so as to prevent literally minutes of confusion every day.

For real Windows familiarity KDE seemed to be closer back when I last used it which was in the days of 3.something.

[yagolf]

I'm just wondering why you think gnome looks a lot like windows, and why you would think that's a good thing?

basically elija answered your queston better than I would have Linux Mint's own tweak of Gnome 2.x does look a lot like windows in terms of what you see when you turn the machine on.
The reason why I think it is a good thing is because I am of the opinion that too radical a change can backfire for a complete newbie to Linux, specially if he/she is not such a computer savvy. Let's remember that Linux users are becoming less and less computer-savvy since it's becoming easier and easier to use a Linux environment, which is as it should be, IMAO.