Ubuntu Linux allows you to setup a desktop or a server. The server  configuration installs minimal software but beefs up the server  specific software. The server boots up to a text-based console window  instead of the full graphical interface. Makes sense since it is a  server anyway... unlike some other OS out there that eats up a lot of  your server's resources by drawing fancy graphics on your screen.

The default Ubuntu desktop provides all the applications one need to  work with the computer. You get Mozilla Firefox as the default web  browser, Evolution as your email client and OpenOffice.org 2.0 as  your office suite. Your get an audio and video player as well as a  photo viewer. However, Ubuntu does not give you the flexibility or  the complexity, depending on how you look at it, to determine what  applications to install.

Although Ubuntu can automatically partition your drive, we opted to  manually partition the hard disk instead. From there, there are two  other configurations that need manual intervention - the network  configuration (it is automatic if you have DHCP server on your  network) and user account. One user account will be created with  admin privileges. Ubuntu desktop disables the root account, similar  to Mac OS X, I guess for security reasons.

Being an aspiring software developer himself, my brother downloaded  Chix, an open source application to interface with the Chikka  servers, and tried to compile it. Ubuntu failed - it failed because  it did not install the developer tools. Most desktop users do not  need to compile applications anyway, right? He finally completed the  download and installation of the tools and Chix now works with Gaim.  Perfect!

Installing applications is easy using either the command-line 'apt- get' or the GUI-based Synaptic application. From the development  tools to the openssh server for secure remote access, samba (for  sharing with Windows computers), vlc (to replace the default media  player) and firestarter (firewall). Downloads and installs took  several minutes and get this - NO REBOOTS! If I remember correctly,  the only time it will ask you to reboot is right after it asks you to  eject the CD during installation.

Now that we have the Ubuntu Linux-based computer running, next is to  connect it to the Macs. First thing is to get openssh up and running.  This is my default method of remotely accessing the Linux computer  from my powerbook. Transferring files is also achieved using ssh.  This works great. However, it may not be ideal for everyone.

To make it easier for my wife to transfer files to and from the Linux computer, we configured samba and shared a couple of folders. We  could have opted for other methods of sharing files such as NFS or  WebDAV but samba is far easier to configure and if there is any chance that you have a Windows-based computer connect to your  network, it will interoperate perfectly. So, downloading and install  samba is easy and all one needs to do is to invoke Finder-Go-Connect  to Server on their Mac to connect to the Ubuntu Linux computer. Cool,  huh?

Now we have a fully connected network of computers, if you know what  I mean. File transfers between computers, regardless of platform, is  flawless. I can even transfer files to an external hard drive  connected to the Linux computer - thanks to Ubuntu's automatic  detection and configuration of the external drive.

So, don't be afraid to use Linux on a Mac network - both will work  together like Apple and Disney! :)