@FIRST_LIGHT

I got VMware Fusion installed on my MacBook Pro on Friday. Some of the tools I need to use at work don't run (well) on the Mac yet, so I installed Win XP. While fiddling around with VMware, I noticed Ubuntu as a supported option so I decided this might be a good opportunity to give it a try. I've heard good things about it - that it's very friendly to newbies like me.

The initial install went just fine. I was able to figure out how to install Flash Player, though it brought me dangerously close to the command line. The Adobe Reader download page you get to from the home page of Adobe.com only offered the .rpm package so I downloaded that hoping that Ubuntu would accept it. Wrong.

I Googled around and found this helpful blog entry to figure out how to install a thing called Alien that turns .rpms into .deb packages. But before embarking on that command line adventure (I don't know Unix at all), I decided to search for a .deb package that someone had already created. That led me here, which led me here, which is where Adobe.com should have sent me in the first place. Bad Adobe, bad!

If Adobe Reader for Linux had a code name, it should have been Chunky Monkey. 47MB is about double the size of Reader for Windows and about 50 times larger than Flash Player. After the monster download, I was able to get it installed just fine.

So far, I've found Ubuntu to be serviceable, but it hasn't blown me away with features. I'll keep poking around on it though.