Microsoft LifeCam VX-1000 does not quite work on Ubuntu and even worse with Skype.
To get video working on Skype, start it as :
env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

And to get the microphone working, run this in a terminal
sudo rmmod gspca_sonixj
sudo modprobe gspca_sonixj

Step 1.

Download the skype installer. The package for Ubuntu 8.10 works well on 9.10 as well.

Step 2.

When download completes, double click to run the deb file. This will launch the package installer.

Step 3.

Click the “Install package” button.

Step 4.

When the installation is finished, click ‘Close’.

Step 5.

Go to Internet section and run Skype.

Step 6.

Accept license agreement

Final Step.

Login and you are done.

It couldn’t be easier!

By sheer coincidence, I got my hands on an Asus EeePC just in time for the Ubuntu 9.10 release. Given the state of Windows XP on it, I was left with no option but to do a clean install of UNR.

Before

The netbook was virus infected and was crashing as soon as it booted. Not even the safe mode command prompt only worked! So I decided to wipe the factory installed Windows XP and install UNR instead. It did take a bit of time to find out what to be downloaded and how to install.

The guide at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR/Installation/Easy suggests that the img file be downloaded, but there is no img file for the Karmic release.

But when I landed on this page, then things got rolling from there.

Prerequisites for installing using Windows

1. Download UNetbootin. No installation needed
2. Download the UNR iso. Use the torrent file if possible.
3. Have a USB stick handy
4. Run UNetBootin and create a bootable flash drive.
   
5. You are ready!

Installing UNR

1. Insert the USB disk into EeePC
2. Press ESC when the EeePC splash screen comes
3. Select the USB disk to boot
4. Ubuntu boots up
   1. This was actually useful as I was able to back up the data on the netbook.
5. You can then click on the “Install Ubuntu 9.10″ icon to begin the pretty straight forward installation.

Mini pictorial review

The new interface if well thought out, but a few applications are still too big. Either they waste screen real estate or they have some dialogs that just do not fit into the tiny screen.

The favorites on the home view

NTFS partition auto detected

Painful to scroll using the tiny scrollbars

Installing Skype was OK. But not available in repository

The new volume notification looks good. Unfortunately other notifications were been shown too low.

Firefox was pretty usable.

OOWriter on the other hand did not fit properly.

The inbuilt webcam was detected. Above is cheese running with 2 effects on. Skype had no problems as well.

Movie Player did not come up in maximized state. A restore and maximize fixed the issue, temporarily.

The splash screen mentions the blue (?) button on the top of teh screen, which was missing.

Help screen had some problems filling the available space

Help was not of much help.

Same search on Google. The first link fixed the issue.

Final Thoughts

Although I have mostly highlighted deficiencies above, the truth is that it is a rock solid OS. I am very pleased with the polish that Ubuntu in general and particularly UNR has. The netbook feels fast and light. But the real test is when my sis uses it. Hope she leaves a comment soon.

Papa, ever since you made the computer a laptop, it misbehaves and crashes. Please make it a computer again!

Read computer = Ubuntu and laptop = Windows. My desktop ran Ubuntu for a long time until I installed Win7 on it. My laptop always had WinXP as shipped by the manufacturer. My daughter prefers Ubuntu to Windows, looks like I am raising a Linux fangirl

I wonder if Scott Hanselman will publish this on http://www.overheardathome.com