#TBT: Apt-get FTW or: How I learned to stop worrying and learned to love Ubuntu

This post originally ran in May 2008. I am reposting it now, as part of my throwback thursday project, to give some of my older quality posts some love. While I still like Linux and, as I have written about last year still use Linux, it is not my main working platform.

I love technology and fiddling with computers and gadgets dearly, and so, one of my long-term goals have been to has an operational computer running Linux, with which I can do most, if not all, of what I am able to do with my Windows computers.

Like most IT-professionals who has been working in the business for more than, say five minutes, I have got a pretty decent stash of computers laying around at home. One of these is a HP Compaq nc6000 portable computer – one of HP’s finer pieces of work in my opinion – complete with 1GB of RAM and an intel WLAN interface card. I’d tried to install this with Ubuntu earlier (version 6.06 – Dapper Drake), but found no joy when trying to get it up and running with wireless LAN. Since a computer with Linux without an internet connection is rather like a bicycle to a fish (in other words,not very useful), I decided to shelf the experiment.

Then, a friend of mine invited me to Linux installation evening hosted by OLUG – Oslo Linux User Group and PING, and told me to bring a computer to install Linux on. So, hoping to get my computer up and running with Linux and WLAN, I brought the aforementioned nc6000.

I booted the computer with the Ubuntu 8.04 Live CD, and chose the install option. The installer installed without a hitch; and when it booted back up, it got online, with wireless LAN, right out of the box.

If you know nothing about Linux; let me tell you this; the most absurdly useful set of commands I have found so far (within 48 hours of installing the computer) are the following three:

•apt-get update
•apt-get upgrade
•apt-get install

Respectively, they check for updates to the system; upgrade the system with said updates, and installs software.

The install command needs an operator, a command that tells the system what program to install. For example, if I want to install the program Amarok; the command would look like this:

•apt-get install amarok

Incidentally, the most powerful command in Linux is this one:

•sudo

The sudo command does whatever you put after the command in root mode. You can even place the entire console session in root mode, which is practical if you are going to perform many tasks that need root access. If so, the command looks like this:

•sudo su

Anyway, the laptop, dubbed WiseBuntu, runs beautifully, and I’ve had it connected to several wireless networks already, with no apparent problems. It has Amarok, complete with Mp3-support, and I’ve already run both a DVD-movie and a .avi-format movie file.

It works, and I have learned to stop worrying and love Ubuntu.

Quick note: this article was, in its entirety, written on the nc6000 computer, while running Ubuntu.