Full Circle Magazine FR

The Ubuntu saga continues. Yes, it is a saga with new twists and turns every now and then, many unexpected and unknown, but then Linux was never planned in the first place. I bumped into Ubuntu in late 2007 when I bought a local magazine called CHIP about computing here in India. The magazine had a CD of Ubuntu's latest release at that time, with the CD in the sealed cover. Also the editor ran a story about how to use it, and also shared the experiences the staff had after using it. I tried it off the CD boot and was impressed. I then placed a request for a free CD & DVD of Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu to try all, since the shipping was free and there were no hassles. I got the Disks in 2 weeks time and I ran all the versions. I was impressed and amazed at how open source worked and what a huge contribution was made resulting in a new OS. Some months passed and I kept playing with Ubuntu, and then, one day, the nightmare of Windows Users arrived. In simple words, my PC crashed. The PC which contained my whole family's data crashed, sending shivers and tension across my house (well, that was 80GB+ of data of more than 4 users, to say the least). I was first shocked and tense as how to get back the data, since recovery options are money matters here, and very few know how to recover the data from a damaged Windows disk. But then Ubuntu came to the rescue. All I did was boot the CD from the CD drive, and run a Live session, and copied the data onto another disk borrowed from a friend on which there was enough disk space.

Le saga Ubuntu continue. Oui, il s'agit bien d'un saga avec, de temps en temps, de nouveaux rebondissements, dont pas mal étaient inattendus et inconnus, mais, il est vrai, au départ, Linux n'a jamais été un projet planifié.

J'ai rencontré Ubuntu par hasard vers la fin 2007 quand j'ai acheté un magazine du coin appelé CHIP (puce) qui parlait de l'informatique ici en Inde. Le magazine contenait dans sa couverture scellée un CD de la sortie la plus récente d'Ubuntu, à l'époque, bien entendu. En même temps, le rédacteur a publié un article sur son utilisation, tout en partageant les expériences des employés qui s'en étaient servi. Moi, je l'ai essayé en démarrant sur le CD et il m'a favorablement impressionné. Puis, j'ai envoyé une demande pour des CD & DVD gratuits d'Ubuntu, Kubuntu et Edubuntu pour pouvoir les essayer tous, puisqu'il n'y avait ni frais de port ni inconvénients. J'ai reçu les disques deux semaines plus tard et j'ai lancé toutes les versions. J'ai été impressionné et, même, époustouflé, par le fonctionnement de l'Open Source et les contributions énormes dont le résultat était un nouveau système d'exploitation.

Au cours des prochains mois, je continuais à m'amuser avec Ubuntu, puis, un jour, le cauchemar des utilisateurs Windows est survenu. Mon PC s'est bloqué. Le PC sur lequel il y avait toutes les données familiales est tombé en panne, faisant trembler et stressant toute la maisonnée (normal - au bas mot, il y avait 80+ Go de données appartenant à plus de 4 utilisateurs). Au départ, j'étais très choqué et tendu : comment récupérer les données, puisque les possibilités de restauration ici sont payant et très peu de gens savent récupérer les données d'un disque Windows endommagé. Mais, alors, Ubuntu est venu à la rescousse. Il m'a suffit de démarrer sur le CD et lancer un session Live avant de copier les données sur un deuxième disque avec assez de place, emprunté auprès d'un ami.

The next thing I did was coax my family to start using Ubuntu and replace Windows. First there were raised eyebrows, questions asked (which were answered thanks to the community since even I did not know much then), approvals were rejected, but then finally everyone agreed. I gave them the word that data would not be lost and/or hampered; the only thing that would change was the OS. Then every user was provided some basic knowledge along with user specific application training. Thus Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was installed in 2008 and my PC was now alive and rocking with the new OS. Updates came in from time to time but these were to be monitored since unlimited plans for broadband were still too pricey, and we were still using limited broadband data plans. A year passed and things changed. New versions of Ubuntu released, updates created some mess since new updates would either cause some old function not to work or had to be tweaked, but the community support kept flowing in (forums were helpful and so was the documentation). Also in the meantime the unlimited data plans in India became affordable and I switched to one. Now the system was always fully updated, and no user had any issues since now everyone was habituated to Ubuntu and would do their own customising.

Tout de suite après, j'ai essayé de convaincre ma famille de commencer à utiliser Ubuntu en remplacement de Windows. Au départ, cela a provoqué des froncements de sourcils et des questions (auxquelles j'ai pu répondre grâce à la communauté, puisque je ne savais pas grand chose à ce moment), certains étaient d'accord, d'autres pas, mais à la longue tout le monde fut convaincu. Je leur ai dit que les données ne seraient ni perdues, ni entravées ; tout ce qui changerait, c'était le système d'exploitation. Puis des connaissances de base furent données à chaque utilisateur, ainsi qu'une formation sur les applications particulières à chaque utilisateur.

Ainsi Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy Heron) fut installé en 2008 ; mon PC revivait et fonctionnait à merveille sous le nouveau système d'exploitation. Des mises à jour arrivaient de temps en temps, mais on devait bien les surveiller, puisque l'accès illimité à large bande coûtait encore trop cher et, de toute façon, l'ADSL que nous utilisions était limité. Une année s'est écoulée et les choses ont changé. De nouvelles versions d'Ubuntu sont sorties, et des nouvelles mises à jour ont causé quelques dégâts : une ancienne fonctionnalité ne marchait plus ou l'on devait la bidouillé, mais le soutien communautaire était toujours là en cas de besoin (les forums, ainsi que la documentation, nous ont beaucoup aidé).

Then came 2011, when mobility became a factor for computing. This year saw India shifting towards mobile devices, and so did my family. Now emails, social networking and consumption activities were done right from the cell phones since data connectivity across the country along with smartphones, esp Android phones, provided a good option to be connected 24×7. This period saw a decline in PC usage. One thing never changed which was the creation of content. It was still done on the PC since on mobile devices it was a cumbersome task – though typing is possible, but presentation & excels are still good on a computer. Ubuntu, too, changed a bit in this period. My PC still ran Hardy Heron and I did not upgrade it to the new LTS. Since the PC usage had declined, the PC was not used much, though the data was still stored on it. June 2011. On a fine Sunday morning I switched on my PC and a new bolt fell. No, Ubuntu did not crash, but the hardware did. My PC went into a coma with multiple component failures. I had to replace the Motherboard, power supply and the RAM. The Hard Disk was still intact. I now started looking for options but could not reach a single decision about what to do. Moving data of the whole family to the cloud would mean some good amount of spending. I suggested that data be backed up on multiple devices and each user should take care of his/her own data. This was promptly accepted by all, and each user did take a backup of the data. Months passed and I too was unable to arrive at a good solution. Since laptops had the backed up data, and mobile devices were used on a larger context, the family was not disturbed as had happened in 2008. But still I had to find a solution for backups since even Laptops are prone to crashes – be it in terms of software or hardware. A viable and logical solution that came to my mind was storing data on an external hard drive. All I did was buy a portable hard disk and transfer the data to it. But then if I just did that there was an imminent risk of virus and trojans. Hence, I decided to install Ubuntu on it. Yes I installed Ubuntu on my new portable hard disk. Why portable? The reasons are quite good to make you do so. First, since it’s Ubuntu, data is safe (at least safer than Windows). Second, when the system is on a portable disk, you can carry it anywhere (the hard disk is hardly bigger than your palm size). Third, you have everything in one place (if you work on multiple machines, transferring data is a task). Fourth, almost all PCs & laptops support the USB HDD boot so no worries of any hardware boot issue (I did come across some PCs whose BIOS had to be tweaked to activate US HDD boot). Fifth, technology today has improved to the extent that these are more rugged and safe and equivalent to internal hard disks. ===== 4 ===== Now the install had to be done. First step was to download the LTS (I normally jump from one LTS to another) of Ubuntu, so I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). Before starting the Install, I was clear about how many and how big partitions I wanted. Also I did refer to issue 15 of FCM since it had an article to move your Home partition to a separate partition. After booting from the CD, I clicked on the install shortcut which is there on the desktop of the live session. Since I wanted a custom install, I chose the custom options and made three partitions: one was the root, second was home partition, and the third was a FAT32 partition for data which is cross platform along with the swap partition. The partitions were now in place and I just followed the steps which came when one pressed the Next button. One thing to remember is that while the partitions are made, please be sure of the sizes since their extension and/or deletion and/or creation is a risky task. Also I would advise to keep the home partition as a separate one since in case of an upgrade via a fresh install, the data will be safe. Also keep the FAT32 or NTFS partition of reasonable size since a large partition may not be of much help as the data copied might be moved ultimately to your Home Folder. Finishing the install I reboot the device and voila! The system was up and running. The next step was obvious – get the data into my Home sub-Folders and that is what I did. I transferred all my data – from documents to pictures to audio and video files. Simultaneously I ran the new software manager Ubuntu Software Manager for updates. Since I was a bit uncomfortable with it, I installed Update Manager which was there in earlier versions. This was installed – with some more programs which are not in the standard install – and then updated. Customisations were made and the system was ready for use.

As of this date, the system is working fine (in fact I am writing this article on it). My data and work is safe. Also I am trying to coax people to try my new strategy of keeping data on a portable device running Ubuntu. Hope my experience shared here will be of use to you all. Till the next twist and turn, keep rocking!**