Thursday, March 29, 2012

Do you Ubuntu?

It's like we're on another planet... A planet where things appear similar in size and shape, but they don't quite behave in a manner you've become accustomed to over the years.

We are now operating our home computer on Linux.

It seemed like a good compromise at the time. We couldn't get our new (to us at least) hard drive to work with the motherboard with an older version of Windows XP, so we decided to switch to Ubuntu, Linux's operating system.

Why do I feel like I've just fallen down the rabbit hole?

There are file and folders (like Windows) but it's hard to get them to open like before. That's not a problem we're told. Just use some "Wine" and it will help lubricate them. Nice name for a program, "Wine", I thought. 

But so far, nothing seems to be working. Skype no longer will recognize our web cam, and Windows Word isn't installing like "Wine" said it would. Will I ever write or edit a manuscript again?

There are support groups and sympathetic techies out there, so I know eventually we should be able to work things out, but for now... I'm lost in a strange new cyber world.

Do you Ubuntu? And can you help translate things for me if you do?

3 comments :

mike3point2 said...

What version and what flavor of ubuntu are you using?, and if its the newest version i recommend using libreoffice over trying to get win office to run under wine.

Cindy said...

We have a "bare bones" version of Ubuntu we were told. I'd use the libreoffice for my everyday things, but I have to use Windows Word doc files for professional reasons. (My publishers will only accept manuscripts in MS Word docs.) That's the challenge! Any and all help for laypeople struggling with Ubuntu is welcomed!

mike3point2 said...

Libreoffice will save in that format if you use the "save as" and choose the file type to save as.

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