I downloaded straight up Ubuntu. Ill see how I like it.
Was a professional unix admin in the 90s ...
You ought to do just fine then ;-)
Tools are better today than they used to be.
here's something you might like...
PS1=\w `if [ $? = 0 ]; then echo :\\); else echo :\\(; fi`
That will make your prompt a smiley if the last command succeeded, and a frowny if it failed. Take out the \w if you don't want the system name to preface the prompt
zeugma1:~ :) true
zeugma1:~ :) false
zeugma1:~ :( true
zeugma1:~ :)