Any Ubuntu experts?

[wilderness]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I don't want to appear to be a complete dork by asking a couple of questions on the Ubuntu forum so I thought I'd get a more sympathetic audience here

I'm in the process of setting up a spare laptop with Ubuntu (11.xx) as I'm fed up with Windows.

Q1. Can you import MS Outlook contacts into Evolution? If so, how?
Q2. I want to have 2 email accounts for me and the OH but keep the messages separate. I've set up 2 accounts but both sets of our email end up in one "view". In MS Outlook there is a drop down choice of account before you get into Outlook. Anything similar in Evolution?

Thanks for your help.

 

[SimonB]

Q2. I want to have 2 email accounts for me and the OH but keep the messages separate. I've set up 2 accounts but both sets of our email end up in one "view". In MS Outlook there is a drop down choice of account before you get into Outlook. Anything similar in Evolution?

I'm not an Ubuntu expert, in fact my Linux knowledge is limited, but I would imagine that Evolution settings are OS account level based? So that if you both have different logins you will be able to configure Evolution for one email account per login account.

The MS Outlook option you refer to is really a Profile, you can potentially have multiple accounts within a Profile. So my analogy would be that an OS login is somewhat equivalent to an Outlook Profile.

 

[Brosville]

I'd guess that you can "export" your address book, probably as an "ldif" file, and then "import" it into your mail programme in Ubuntu - I use Thunderbird for my mail (available from the software centre), and I'm sure you can configure that to do several email accounts. You should be able to import the ldif file into either programme...

 

[Brosville]

ps, I've used Ubuntu for some 4 years and can confirm that it's excellent, but now prefer "Mint" (which is another "flavour" of Ubuntu) as the newest Ubuntu interface (Unity) is not to my liking - Mint also comes with loads of "extras" built in. If it's your first try with linux, go for Mint, it'll be less of a shock to the system. (If not, logout of Ubuntu, and log back in avoiding "Unity")

 

[keithgrimes]

I thought Ubuntu was a tribe in Kenya. I'll get my coat.

 

[Brosville]

Right continent! - Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu offered a definition:
"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed"

Tutu further explained Ubuntu in 2008:
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.
We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity"

Which is rather an apposite name for free, open-source software, being as it is the product of thousands of people's work, who have given their time and expertise for nothing to co-operatively develop arguably the best operating system the world has ever seen - it is free for everyone to use, and enables people in third-world countries to join in the internet without paying the odious Bill Gates for his virus and crash prone bloatware!

 

[drstitson]

as is traditional in these threads - get a mac.

good advice on 2 levels today!!!!

 

[wilderness]

Thanks Bros, I'll give Mint a try. .......and I thought this was going to be so easy

drstitson, was the mac reference associated with keithgrimes comment of getting his coat? Perhaps he should have said "I'll get my Mac"

Bringing the topic back to bees, are KDE, Gnome, xfce just down to personal preference like National, Top Bar, Langstroth etc. They all do the same job but differently?

Right, I'm off to do some more reading but I'll be back

 

[Poly Hive]

You will find the beginners Ubuntu forum very helpful.

However none of them could get my Vodaphone dongle to work with 11.

Sadly by reason of necessity I had to scrub Ubuntu and put Vista back on... I know I know... but this was essential for the business. I cannot afford to miss bookings whilst on hols.

Ubuntu is very good but... movies will not play instantly for instance... so it still needs a fair bit of work.

PH

 

[Brosville]

I've no problems with videos at all, prod the button, up it fires.... Sounds like you may have had a "codecs" problem (Mint comes with all of them built-in)

Incidentally, I use Ubuntu/Mint for editing video....

 

[drstitson]

wilderness - not look out of the window yesterday (thurs)?????

 

[Brosville]

"are KDE, Gnome, xfce just down to personal preference" - pretty much - mostly it's down to the "interface" and there are different releases, some suited to lower powered computers. (Xubuntu for instance), but they all share a common "engine". What you should notice is that with an "old" Windoze machine running on something like Mint is that it's had twin turbos, superchargers, AND nitro boost added.... It'll boot fast, and then "just do it".

Modern versions (like the current Mint) make it really easy and safe to install too - just download it, and burn a dvd or cd, then boot your computer up from the CD drive - probably the easiest way is to go for the "try it out" option - "Mint" will load, and you can "play" with it to your heart's content (it'll run relatively slowly) - then press the "install" button and it'll walk you through either partitioning the hard drive to give you "dual boot" of either Windoze or Linux, or just to use the whole hard drive - then when it's fully installed the speed increase is really noticeable.

My suggestion is to try very hard to "stop thinking Windoze" - you'll have inbuilt programmes that will do almost everything you'll ever need, but they aren't Windoze ones - Open Office is instead of Word and several others, the Gimp will give Photoshop a run for it's money (and is far more intuitive), and there's thousands of other free programmes available - just go into the "software centre", pick the ones you want, and just leave them to install....

I've added "Chrome" for web browsing, "Thunderbird" for email, "Digikam" for digital photos, "QBittorent" for file sharing, and "Open Shot" for video editing.

At first you'll panic at the lack of "warnings" and apparent lack of anti virus and firewalls - it's all built in! In four years I've never had the slightest problem in that direction, and it's very refreshing to realise it's your computer, not Microsoft's!

I've heard several people (including my daughter) have had the most dreadful problems with the latest "service pack" for Windoze - all the Ubuntu derivatives update virtually daily, seamlessly and without hassle (a little "tell tale" says, "there are updates, would you like to install them?" - click on it, and "it just does it" - no hassle, no lockups.........)
Enjoy!

 

[wilderness]

wilderness - not look out of the window yesterday (thurs)?????

that went straight over my head

Bros, thanks for your help. I tried Thunderbird and it does what I need.

Yes, the latest service pack for Win7 broke lots of important bits and it won't uninstall to a version before the update. I can't re-install as the Win7 version I've got is not strictly kosher

 

[wilderness]

Bros, took your advice and installed "Mint". So far it looks OK.

What do you do about drivers for things like microscopes? I have 2 USB ones.

 

[nelletap]

Incidentally, Ubuntu is available for the Mac and comes with open office as standard (and of course is totally free)

 

[Brosville]

Drivers? - often things "just work" without having to add drivers - otherwise try the excellent Ubuntu help forums (Google helps find what you need)

ps, had a quick rootle - use "Cheese" (available from the software centre) which should do the trick....... (it's a webcam programme)

 

[Hombre]

Bringing the topic back to bees, are KDE, Gnome, xfce just down to personal preference like National, Top Bar, Langstroth etc. They all do the same job but differently?

As Brosville said, largely a matter of choice on the one hand and the size of the footprint on the other.

For many years the main contenders were KDE and Gnome. KDE being perhaps less intuitive but a lot more powerful than Gnome which was more Object Oriented in it's approach. XFCE and others address the netbook market or older computers where a small footprint is either desirable or essential due to lack of memory etc.

There are of course many more desktops out there - How many does MS Window offer you?

My preference under SUSE Linux is KDE where I choose to have four desktops to play with and clutter up as I go through my day. The configure option suggest that I cn have up to 20, but I think that a bit more than 2Gbyte of DRAM memory and a lot more of mine might be needed to manage that little lot.

DrStitson obviously likes being shafter by Steve Jobs and his pals - who recognise the attributes of blind loyalty and money to burn in their customers and abuse them regularly.

 

[mbc]

If I open mate my pc (which currently runs windows), will it automatically run Ubunto mint if she mates with the appropriate drones ? Shes never swarmed but I'm hoping for supercedure this year

 

[Hombre]

If your queen is called SUSE, then maybe. Was that OpenMate or AttachMate, which was/is now a Novell suggestion?

 

[Drew]

If your queen is called SUSE, then maybe. Was that OpenMate or AttachMate, which was/is now a Novell suggestion?

Ahh Token(ring) humour on the (ether) net my what a twisted-pair we are!!

PS Do bees forage on Banyan Vines?