The Ubuntu Install

I'm going to keep this blog post as a running journal, editing it real-time as I install Ubuntu on my laptop. I spent a while looking through my laptop and backing up important files. Now that I'm recently certain this is done, I created the boot disk and restarted my computer.

Loading...
It's taking a while to load, but I'm impressed by the graphics already. A little eye candy can be very reassuring. "Look at me, I'm a high-quality computer program!".

Install Menu
It's asking me what language I speak again, this is the second time it asked. double-checking? Asks me what time zone I live in by showing me a cool auto-zooming map thing. It's nice, but the closest "city" that I can select is New York. Isn't it enough to have a map where the timezones light up as you mouse over them, and not have to select a city that isn't really "near" me? I don't know anything about keyboard hardware, but I'm still surprised when software can't tell whether I'm using a QWERTY or DVORAK keyboard.

Loading Again...
After entering my keyboard layout, the install starts "thinking". I know it's thinking because of the rotating mouse icons, but There isn't like a status box or progress bar here or anything to entertain me. I guess I'll have to turn around and watch TV, I think Law and Order is on.

Disk Partition
A sliding bar to set up the disk partition!?! This might be the best feature I've ever seen. Beat's having to enter in how many sectors and platters I want for each. I don't even know how big a sector is. It's cute that it gives me the option, but I want to delete Windows for good. 100% for Ubuntu.

And...
See a list of my settings, double check that everything is right, click the button to install. Now, we wait. By the way, now that I have an opportunity to take a look at it, the background artwork is pretty cool. To the artist: Kudos.

Still Waiting
I know, I know. I'm reformatting a 30Gb harddisk and installing an entire operating system. I just wish this process was quicker. Painless is nice, but if they could find some kind of "lightning" install in 10 minutes or less, that would really be something. Wait, the screen just went black! That means something must be happening, right?

No
No, the progress bar came back, although it's assuring me that there is "less than a minute remaining". It's been showing that message for at least two minutes now. It's okay, I like a little false hope every now and again. Plus, this install is still occuring remarkably quick, so I can't complain.

Configuring Hardware...
This isn't transformers, what's there to configure? I assume they are talking about "Configuring hardware drivers". It's a nit pick, but i'm that kind of person.

And Done.
The install is done, restarting, beginning my Ubuntu experience. Over all, this was very quick, painless, and easy. I'll probably post updates about using this system, but they will come later.