I’ve installed Ubuntu

HoneyBadger · 23 Sep 2017 at 15:12

Now what?!?

I’ve setup a Win10 x64/Ubuntu dual boot. Configured boot order, installed Google Chrome, Open Office and a couple of other bits (on Ubuntu) - now what?

I’m a sysadmin by trade, so any app recommends, particularly system tools, tinkering and what not.

I haven’t had much exposure to Ubuntu or *ix at all but ready to learn.

Steveocee · 23 Sep 2017 at 15:19

Try doing whatever you normally do but with Ubuntu. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how easy you can transfer over.

AmateurExpert · 24 Sep 2017 at 14:24

Ubuntu is nice to start with as you can do most things without having to tweak, configure or build - just get things done with GUI applications to start with, and gradually get deeper into learning and managing the system. If you're a novice, the Ubuntu forums are a good place to start, but when searching stuff from Stack Exchange in the results tends to be quite useful.

OMG Ubuntu has some useful articles on it for beginners, such as this one - in particular, as you have an Nvidia graphics card, you'll want to make sure you've installed the proprietary driver. That article should be enough to get you started, but off the top of my head these are my suggestions for other things to look at:

Experiment with different text editors (command line and GUI) - if you like something similar to Notepad++, try Notepadqq.
Have a nose around /var/log to see what crops up in what log file.
Bookmark commandlinefu.com
You'll probably want to know how to search for files on the command line at some point rather just use a GUI - useful for scripting and whatnot
If you're a sysadmin, you'll want to dive into shell scripting - Bash is the usual interactive shell in Ubuntu and I find great for scripting. I learnt shell such a long time ago I used a book (this actual real dead-tree edition) to learn.
System tools - lm-sensors (should be OK with your motherboard, but if you're missing anything you might need a more recent kernel)
If you want to set up a firewall - start with UFW rather than going straight into iptables.

I think LibreOffice is more up to date regarding features than OpenOffice, but of course very similar.

HoneyBadger · 24 Sep 2017 at 14:43

Thank you for the comprehensive reply!

opethdisciple · 21 Oct 2017 at 20:44

The latest update to Ubuntu 17.10 is really nice!

Hades · 22 Oct 2017 at 12:58

opethdisciple said:
The latest update to Ubuntu 17.10 is really nice!

Is this the release where they nice from Unity to gnome? I must try it at some point. I moved from Ubuntu to Mint when they introduced Unity.

opethdisciple · 22 Oct 2017 at 13:30

Hades said:
Is this the release where they nice from Unity to gnome? I must try it at some point. I moved from Ubuntu to Mint when they introduced Unity.

Yep.

It's a big improvement in my opinion. OS is nice and snappy now. Much much better.

There is a way to get the OS to push it out to you automatically making it easy to update.

After the football I'll fire up my PC and show you how.

---

To get new version pushed out to you automatically as an when Ubuntu release then do the following:

1. Open up 'Software & Updates'

2. Go to updates tab

3. Notify me of a new Ubuntu version - Change this too: "For any new version"

After this, run the Software updater and you should get a pop up for the new 17.10 version.

LabR@t · 25 Oct 2017 at 18:29

use fedora

pete910 · 25 Oct 2017 at 20:50

LabR@t said:
use Antergos

FTFY

TheSkateyBird · 27 Oct 2017 at 13:42

LabR@t said:
use Arch

pete910 said:
FTFY

FTFY

On another note, welcome to Linux OP. Enjoy

Schnippzle · 27 Oct 2017 at 18:47

LabR@t said:
use fedora

My preferred distro

@op Welcome to the Linux community

gpuerrilla · 31 Oct 2017 at 22:33

Using Linux Lite but thats because I installed on a disgarded laptop with a spare Solid state drive. On an old desktop I tested a few and preferred mint over ubuntu at the time. Trouble is I get taken away from actually using the machines as my main desktop - must break the habit!

Steveocee · 2 Nov 2017 at 08:15

Been using Ubuntu for years now but just made the cut over to Gnome desktop in anticipation of 18.04 (I only use LTS). It feels so much better and like it is supposed to feel this way.

bhawani · 4 Nov 2017 at 04:32

Use CentOS for speed.

opethdisciple · 4 Nov 2017 at 15:09

bhawani said:
Use CentOS for speed.

Centos doesn't look half as pretty. It's not for home/desktop users.

opethdisciple · 4 Nov 2017 at 15:10

I've just noticed that out of the box Ubuntu doesn't have it's firewall turned on!

Personally feel this is bad practice.

Linux or not noob end users will have no scooby doo this is off and browse away.

memyselfandi · 4 Nov 2017 at 17:09

Most of them are NATed behind a router so it really isn't that much of a big deal in the real world as it's not as if they are going to have lots of ports forwarded through to them.

Installed Ubuntu 17.10 on a Dell SFF desktop earlier (i5/8GB) with an SSD and BD drive upgrades. Runs an X desktop rather well over all with a couple of docker containers thrown in for a couple of tasks. Did find it a bit irritating that the installer wasn't able to create a custom LVM configuration (although it was possible to work around the limitation).

Steveocee · 5 Nov 2017 at 10:08

opethdisciple said:
I've just noticed that out of the box Ubuntu doesn't have it's firewall turned on!

Personally feel this is bad practice.

Linux or not noob end users will have no scooby doo this is off and browse away.

Really not an issue for most people. Who puts a public IP on a home desktop?

AmateurExpert · 6 Nov 2017 at 22:52

opethdisciple said:
I've just noticed that out of the box Ubuntu doesn't have it's firewall turned on!

Personally feel this is bad practice.

That was my initial thought too. It can be helpful as one of your security layers providing it's set up (and maintained) correctly; the defaults on UFW are secure, though Ubuntu has no ports open by default anyway.

I'd recommend turning it on (there's also a GUI frontend available), and tailing the ufw.log; if it stays empty, then congratulations at least this part of your life is uncomplicated

.

For anyone interested, here's a discussion about why it's not on by default (askubuntu.com).

memyselfandi said:
Did find it a bit irritating that the installer wasn't able to create a custom LVM configuration

Were you using the desktop or server image? I think the Ubuntu Server installer supports LVM configuration, but not used it recently myself.

Steveocee said:
Really not an issue for most people. Who puts a public IP on a home desktop?

True. Though one might be on a laptop and have to use an untrusted WiFi LAN - though a VPN is highly recommended here, it's also good to have another defence should something go wrong with the VPN software or configuration.

memyselfandi · 7 Nov 2017 at 07:40

AmateurExpert said:
Were you using the desktop or server image? I think the Ubuntu Server installer supports LVM configuration, but not used it recently myself.

Desktop as the machine I was installing is running as a desktop. Yes if I had used the Server installer then I think it is possible but that doesn't seem to be the case with the Desktop.

For reference the work around is to boot off the media to the try it out live environment and use that to configure the disk setup before starting the installer. The installer is then able to make use of the, already configured, LVM configuration using the custom settings interface to assign mount points to the already configured logical volumes.

Regarding firewalls, yes they are a good idea as part of defense in depth but for the average home user sitting behind a NAT router it isn't as big a problem as some make out as the system is not directly exposed to the internet.