[tlug] Networking two Linux computers harder than Linux to Windows?

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

TLUG,

This is crazy, but it seems like networking to a Windows computer from a 
Linux (Ubuntu) computer is way easier than getting two Linux computers 
to talk to each other.

When my girlfriend's laptop was running Windows, I could find it from my 
Ubuntu machine by going to "Places->Connect To Server...", then in the 
"Connect to Server" interface, I could either punch in the local IP 
address (which is usually 192.168.11.4, assigned by my router), or 
"Browse Network" and find it. Done.

But now that my girlfriend's laptop is Ubuntu... I can't find it now 
matter how I look for it. I've tried connecting by FTP, SSH... I looked 
up on the web and there's all this talk about setting up DHCP servers or 
sshfs...

Is it really that tough? Is there not a fairly straightforward way to 
set this up?

ï--
Dave M G
Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft
Kernel 2.6.17.7
Pentium D Dual Core Processor
PHP 5, MySQL 5, Apache 2