After said Ubuntu is safer than Windows, now Dell no longer sell Ubuntu machines on their online store. And according to Dell it's important to make the right OS choice and you choose Ubuntu only if :

• you do not plan to use Windows
  
• you are interested in open source programming
  

What I do know, I use Ubuntu not because of those two reasons. I use Windows application under Wine and virtual machine if I have to, and I am not into programming.
I use Ubuntu for so many reasons that apparently not listed in Dell's category :)
 

 
keyword : dell, ubuntu, windows

If you want to add your computer to Ubuntu One and somehow the page to add/connect new computer is not there, you may want to try this.
It works for me with Ubuntu 10.04. Open the terminal and type this :

• make sure your Ubuntu One client is installed :
  sudo apt-get install ubuntuone-client-tools
• authorize/add/connect your computer to Ubuntu One:
  u1sync --authorize
  it may take a while to actually open the page, just wait. It will open the sign in page, and then the confirm computer access page, like this :
  
  

I already made free 2GB Ubuntu One account for quite awhile, but only today decided to utilize it.


keyword : add, connect, sync, cmputer, ubuntu one

I have my brother's Toshiba M40 collecting dust in my working room. I don't have wireless router and this old laptop have wifi, so I  was thinking to turn it to a wifi ad-hoc server, I removed the aging prone to error hard disk containing Windows XP and replaced it with younger healthier hard disk and installed Ubuntu 10.04.
Why I didn't use the Windows XP? Simple, I don't want my server collecting viruses and eating the bandwidth downloading things on its own including upgrading antivirus. I choose Ubuntu.
It works well, my HP 540 and and my wife's HP Mini can connect to its shared internet connection via its wifi.
But then my curiosity got the best of me, Toshiba M40 comes with nvidia graphic card so I tried to enable desktop effects, which requires nvidia driver and that where the disaster happened.
After nVidia driver installation , I couldn't boot to the GUI, all I see is a terminal after "mountall: plymouth command failed" error message.
There was two factors in this error i.e. plymouth and nVidia driver. Removing plymouth will only bring more tears, so I read in forums. That left me with one option and that is to remove nvidia driver.
I don't feel at home with command line and I have no idea how to do that in terminal (command line interface). Fortunately this is not my working machine, so I used my main machine to google for help.
I did these steps, your mileage may vary  :

• this GUI-less interface still needs you to login, so login with your usual username and password
• uninstall all nvidia related packages, to find installed nvidia packages type this command :
  dpkg --get-selections | grep nvidia
  which will return the names of packages with nvidia on it, e.g :
  nvidia-173
  nvidia-173-modaliases
  
• uninstall each of these packages with this command:
  sudo apt-get remove change-with-names-of-nvidia-packages
  e.g :
  sudo apt-get remove nvidia-173
  sudo apt-get remove nvidia-173-modaliases
  the sudo needs your password.
  
• reboot
  

And now it is back to normal, doing its job well and I am a happy man. In a retrospection:

• I don't really need desktop effects enabled on a server,
• sometimes CLI is your only friend so knowing one or two of them is useful or have a internet-able device as a back up to google your way out

keyword : mountall: plymouth command failed, ubuntu wifi adhoc server.

Rubik is available in Ubuntu Software Center, not just one but two and they are : gnubik and kubrick. Kubrick has better appearance and features, but gnubik has rotatable 3D cube.
If solving rubik frustrates you, you may want to read this rubik howto.

Kubrick

gnubik

keyword : rubik, ubuntu,