[Seeker]

In the never ending quest for frustration and #2 in the "How not to ..." series, I decided to load Ubuntu (18.04) onto a 140Gb drive.

Actually, it is reasonably straightforward and I didn't encounter any installation problems. Once installed (on my old Toshiba C655 laptop) it booted quickly (shuts down even quicker) and comes loaded with Firefox and a few other programs. I use FF and Chrome and I happened to have my bookmarks for the latter, so loaded Chrome. I also added skype, there was a "word" style writer so I haven't bothered with Open Office.

It is quick which is good.

What isn't so good is when you encounter a problem because you rapidly enter Nerdsville and I don't have a passport nor speak the language. Each step requires you to google more steps just to be able to type in the first instruction. Getting ubuntu to talk to my Win10 desktop was entertaining because 1) there seemed to be a few different methods which contradicted each other 2) it varied depending on what version of ubuntu you were using 3) a certain amount of knowledge was expected and you soon get tired of typing sudo, grep, lscfg and a host of other obscure words some of which yielded error messages others that did not. You will be expected to keep loading different software packages with no explanations of why and what they do.

My main problem is that my wifi no longer works, my laptop is stuck in airplane mode (which I have never had the option of before), the wifi won't turn on and the wifi network adaptor is disabled. This is not an uncommon problem (judging by google) but it appears there is no easy solution because each manufacturer is different. The Toshiba's wifi can be turned on/off by the function key and F8 but this now seems to be able to turn it off but not turn it back on. I did find another obscure command (note to self: make a note of them next time!) that echoes the keys and it told me that the Fn/F8 was connected to the wlan but didn't change anything whereas the Fn/F6 and F7 change the screen brightness and they worked when running this command. There is also a suggestion that "secure boot" can disable the wifi but I can't find how to disable that because most of the instructions 1) give me a headache because it's unclear whether the secure boot is in the Toshiba or in ubuntu or in both, 2) generate an error and 3) don't seem to match up with my laptop (there is no secure boot option in my bios)

Fortunately, I don't need wifi at the moment and I have win7 loaded on another SSD so I can switch back easily.

So, is ubuntu worth it? It's significantly quicker in start up/shutdown and is quicker (than win7 on an SSD) at web browsing but not by much. It is allegedly virus resistant which is good and there are a/v programs available (if you're a doubting Thomas).

I was curious but I don't think I will be staying with it. There's a pioneering feel to it because you have to drop into command line instructions so often, a bit like Windows 3.1 and dos (if you're old), I've asked for help on a ubuntu forum regarding the wifi and I'll give it a couple of days and see what happens.