[Opensource] Getting rid of Windows on your R61 Lenovo

[Brett Groves]

Greetings all,

Luckily I'm already bald or I would have torn out any hair left since I 
got my new R61 Lenovo a few months ago and have had to struggle with the 
joys of Vista. Blue screens, slow, "Windows has detected the cursor has 
moved, would you like to restart now" type messages.....I had had 
enough. So I set aside some time over the hols to look at Ubuntu.

Tried the alpha version of the new 9.10 release and it was lovely and 
very easy to configure but doesnt yet support virtualbox (more on that 
in moment).

I loaded as a final option instead version 9.04. I actually really 
didn't need to set aside much time at all. It was unbelievably easy to 
configure for EduPaSS wireless, the network share drives are 
ridiculously simple to map, in fact the whole process has been quite 
pain free...a revelation!

So now my laptop runs at least twice as fast, never blue screens hasn't 
crashed yet, and installing programs like Rolands suggestion of Kdenlive 
was trivially easy.

I also installed a program called virtualbox. This is a very nifty piece 
of software (IT teachers take note if you want to build disposable 
servers with your students, much easier than VMware for a pseudo IT 
teacher like me) that allows you to install a 'virtual' copy of Windows. 
Windows and Ubuntu can be seamlessly integrated using an add on called 
guest additions. So now I have XP and Ubuntu running side by side for 
those programs like Markbook, FirstClass, VBnet etc that don't have a 
Linux version but are needed for the day to day life of a teacher.

The one and only grumble is I have had little trouble getting Flash to 
work in Firefox, handy for youtube, teachertube etc. I am confident 
though this can be sorted or if not I know it works out of the box on 
Ubuntu 9.10 which is available as general release in 17 days.

Overall I'm incredibly happy with the project and the change, so if you 
are as frustrated with MS as I have been don't just put up with it, 
there are many better alternatives out there and I expect that Ubuntu is 
just one possibility.

If anyone would like assistance in making the switch just drop me an 
email, would be very happy to help.

Brett Groves - ICT Coordinator - Croydon Secondary College

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