Is there a way to search stuff in ubuntu ala vista ?
Not sure what vista has but there are several options for linux.
If you want to index your files and search them install begal, there is also a nice front end called kerry you can install.
If you just want to do hard searches for files and text in those files with out some process indexing everything install dolphin it’s the kde4 file browser, it has a tools option with search for files or text in files.
Or if you like command lines try the find command and to search for text in a file add egrep to your find command with the -exec option.
Right click on the top or bottom panel -> Add to Panel -> Search for Files.
Or…
Places -> Search for files
Both places and the search files panel option are searches for file name matches they do not actually look into the content of files like .pdf’s documents stuff like that.
If you are looking to search with in common document formats then begal is the most common option for linux. If you have used a mac this would be the similar option to spotlight which should be close to what vista has.
It does have some other options, and it will search inside files for text. It will not search (as far as I know) inside .pdf files, but file extensions such as .doc .rtf and .html are not a problem.
Yes it does search inside files including pdf’s see the supported files document:
http://beagle-project.org/Supported_Filetypes
What version of ubuntu are you on? In 8.10 I installed beagle with synaptic.
Then under applications -> accessories -> search brought up beagle (0.3.8)
Selected preferences, selected the option to start indexing services automatically then under the indexing tab selected the directories I wanted it to index.
I have many .pdf’s from the blender art mag, I was able to search text in all of them.