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Oh, wow, I didn't notice that the first time I went over the images.

Also, I saw this image, and I was briefly confused when I saw that oblique image of the screen. For a minute, I thought there was a picture of a Mac with this wallpaper for some reason.

I hope I don't boot up the liveCD to find a dock replacing the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Ubuntu (or I guess GNOME) should be creating its own look, not ripping off of Microsoft and Apple.

Dust theme is the way to go.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/DustTheme

Rebranding almost never helps.

And make the people who just bought some official merchandising very frustrated.

But there is more to it than that. PCs are a Pain. Really one or two are not bad but when you get to 100 or more then trying to keep them all working and configured is just not fun.
First you don't have to use EC2 Ubuntu offers a cloud solution that you can install on your own machines. http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/private.
One use for using a cloud based system would be security. Suppose you want to allow your people access to the internet but you don't want to worry about all the latest exploits.
Block the internet on their machines but give them the option to run a browser on your cloudserver.
They get to use the internet but on a Linux box isolated from their production machine.
Or if you can migrate to Linux completely "Not an easy task" you could have people running simple nettops with flash drives and use a cloud server to run the actual desktops. You can do much the same with Citrix.
In the end it comes down to ease of management. If you have a bunch of folks that only need too run 3 or four programs all day long there is no reason to support hundreds of full PCs and all the crap that means.

Yeah, some of them are a little bit funny. This would make a good humor post. But it's hard enough to stay on good terms with your neighbors as it is, so consider saying something nice. Like in driving, it's often stupid and dangerous to fight *ssholes by acting like one yourself, thinking you're going to teach them a lesson.

I run an open AP named "nohup", since it's on a UPS and is often the only one still running when the power goes out. (Unfortunately, Verizon FIOS's upstream UPS goes out after 5-10 minutes nowadays -- not the ONI in my house, which can putter along for a few hours, but something upstream of that)

Work with your neighbors to get a wifi mesh going: http://www.olsr.org/

If you still really want to dick with people, at least do something more technically interesting with transparent proxy hacks, such as https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Upside-Down-TernetHowTo or running it through a Swedish Chef filter or the ilk.

The list is custom and generally written on-the-spot based on what the user says they do. However, there are some lists already made by others:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsApplicationsEquivalents
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

The list is custom and generally written on-the-spot based on what the user says they do. However, there are some lists already made by others:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsApplicationsEquivalents
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

Hi! I wanted to discuss this for a long time, so thank you for asking this question! I have been thinking a lot about the question, if Linux is ready for non-techy people. I came to the conclusion, that it is not. I lately started writing two wikis about installing Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Aspire1810TZ/Karmic and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook4-1/Karmic Both the MB and the Aspire Netbook are very popular laptops. The size of the wikis tells you, how much tweaking you have to do, to get it half-descent to work (The mic of the netbook won't work anyway). After discussing the subject "documenting Linux installations" in the Ubuntu forums, I had the impression, that most people (or kids?) really think that a discussion thread in a forum serves as a installation documentation. What makes Linux not recommendable for non tech-interested people is for example, that when you have to compile drivers manually into the kernel (like for the Intel GMA 450 on the EeePC), your system will be broken after a kernel update. Also, the quality of Linux software is often not that good. This is true for both free and closed source software (Flash is lame, skype has a lot of problems with audio and video devices, the login screen after hibernating the system is buggy, ...) In conclusion, I am not recommending Linux at all to the real world people. Friendly regards, beauman

Hi! I wanted to discuss this for a long time, so thank you for asking this question! I have been thinking a lot about the question, if Linux is ready for non-techy people. I came to the conclusion, that it is not. I lately started writing two wikis about installing Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Aspire1810TZ/Karmic and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook4-1/Karmic Both the MB and the Aspire Netbook are very popular laptops. The size of the wikis tells you, how much tweaking you have to do, to get it half-descent to work (The mic of the netbook won't work anyway). After discussing the subject "documenting Linux installations" in the Ubuntu forums, I had the impression, that most people (or kids?) really think that a discussion thread in a forum serves as a installation documentation. What makes Linux not recommendable for non tech-interested people is for example, that when you have to compile drivers manually into the kernel (like for the Intel GMA 450 on the EeePC), your system will be broken after a kernel update. Also, the quality of Linux software is often not that good. This is true for both free and closed source software (Flash is lame, skype has a lot of problems with audio and video devices, the login screen after hibernating the system is buggy, ...) In conclusion, I am not recommending Linux at all to the real world people. Friendly regards, beauman

Lubuntu is very easy to figure out if you're a Windows user, same layout, etc. Plus you get all the benefits of Ubuntu. Super-fast boot as well, even on old hardware. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu

Well, there's a Chinese distribution that I believe is made to look like whatever Windows look and feel you want right out of the box. I'm pretty sure it supports English so don't let the Chinese characters scare you away.

Vixta does a good job of looking like Vista.

Of course, these pale in comparison to the standard Ubuntu as far as support goes. Screw the Windows look and feel, that'd be my recommendation. Depending on how much time you want to sink into customizing this for them, there are tutorials for making Linux look like Windows 7.

Hope this helps. I also hope they don't need this distribution to do more than surf the web, get pictures off their camera and create documents ... hate to see them pick up a game or some funky peripheral/hardware that don't have drivers in Linux and then keep bugging you about why their GenCorp Brand Wal-Mart purchased Mickey Mouse USB LED Display toy doesn't have software to make it light up on their desk.

I ask because your name is wrong, it should be a P not a p.

My nick is not wrong. You should drop the habit of assuming "Linux" every time you see something Unixy.

Which doesn't preclude me from having an Ubuntu install on my desktop. So, back to my original question: how do you play BluRay on Linux? So far as I can see, there is a messy workaround, in the best tradition of Linux HOWTOs circa late 90s, but it seems like a temporary solution at best (until the keys are revoked).

You still have to load the same memory either way, and wait for the same delays.

Cached data does not have to be written back to disk, but running processes do. I think the complaint is that the virtual memory manager is incorrectly evicting processes instead of cached data. On some machines, such as some SSD-based laptops, writes are significantly more expensive than writes, so you want more reads and fewer writes. At least on Linux, an administrator can change the balance between the two by adjusting swappiness. Does Windows 7 have a corresponding tuning option?

Generally speaking you will get much better performance having RAM full of stuff you might need

Which falls down when the operating system incorrectly gauges what I "might need", thinking that I "might need" files that I copied two minutes ago more than the process whose window I'm about to bring to the front.

Will Ubuntu avoid unnecessarily fiddling with applications as part of the default install [OK Pidgin/Empathy is the only case I can think of]

Already solved: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

Minimal install CD: download and install only what you need.

It may not be a troll but it's a sign of not knowing what you're doing. Hell, one of the first things I did when properly moving over to Linux was install Opera on Ubuntu. I don't think the process could have been any easier.

You'll need to speak to the developers of Nesticle and Stella as to why their ports may be interior.

System ->Adminitration -> System monitor will give you all sorts of stats on your CPU, memory, processes running, etc.

Not sure why the hell you need to go down to 640x480 but holding the Alt key allows you to move the window. You'll find this sort of problem on any OS. When I remote desktop into my work machine (dual screen) which is XP, if I need something that was on the second screen, it can be a nightmare to get it when Windows don't move things to fit my laptop screen.

I haven't used dial-up in ages let alone attempt to use something like Netscape ISP but searching for ubuntu netscape isp returns a few results form the wonderfully helpful ubuntu forums

Not sure about your file issue but sometimes I lose ownership of my drives when re-installing Ubuntu so I ust make my new username the owner of them and it's sorted. Look into using the cli command chown ( https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions ) or do it through the GUI by right clicking on the the folder, clicking properties, going to permissions and modifying permissions.

> Now, why all those people suddenly have to adapt to the way of browsers totally dominating different region of the world?

Because Opera cares enough about customizability to allow you to create your own shortcuts. In that light, the inability to remap ctrl-click is a bug (a limitation in the remapping system), not a philosophical discussion about whether Opera should adapt to others needs or not.

Also, (not being sarcastic or trying to be funny) dear Opera users: please learn to take constructive criticism. When someone tells you about a feature request, try to understand what's being asked for instead of using the standard responses of "why does anyone need that", "you can use $far_more_cumbersome_alternative instead" or "buy the right kind of hardware" or (even better!) "opera had it first, why should opera change, everyone should change to match opera". Don't make up excuses for the dev team. If you frequent the Opera user forums, ask them why the limitation exists in the first place -- it may be easy to fix.

I realize minority computer groups quickly adopt a bunker mentality (see also: Amiga, Be and pre-1997 Apple) but really, the attitude doesn't help. Opera is a good browser and can grow market share, but not if its community ignores what potential new converts are saying.

(FWIW, I've used Opera off and on since 2000. But it still bugs the hell out of me that using Opera is a little bit different from using my other regulars -- Firefox, Chrome and Safari. In terms of user experience, it's a papercut. This is especially ironic because Opera is so customizable.)

Here's a better solution.

Remove it with Ubuntu Desktop.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Several weeks ago, I worked on a PC that was probably infected after doing a few Google Image Searches or browsing DeviantArt or something of that nature. I tried multiple virus/malware programs (AVG, Avast, Adaware, MalwareBytes, Spybot). I thought I got rid of the infection...then a Windows Update caused her computer to blue screen on boot.

My solution?

http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

Or you don't pay for the OS, and you don't have to pay for antivirus.

Isn't free software great?

Except you have to have the recovery console installed first... And the instructions are to install from the CD (before your OS BSOD's of course) which most users don't have, and if anything like my last 3 systems (HP, Acer, Lenovo), attempting to access the recovery partition where those files might be results in explorer.exe crashing.

Time to boot onto a live CD, copy important files onto usb stick or nas and decide if you really want to reinstall windows so you can have the privilege of doing it all again next patch tuesday.

You're already booted to the live CD and there's an icon right there that says "Install"...

Looks like I'm going to need to update my article on problems with non-free software

I read your article. It already mentions WGA, and the auditing explained in the article is Son of WGA. But as far as I can tell, one of the big reasons to run Windows 7 instead of Brown Debian is video games. As I understand it, free software developers have historically not done a good job of making those as proprietary software developers. Part of that has to do with the lack of a high-profile free meshes/textures/audio community.

Lets not forget things like Big Buck Bunny (http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/) the whole video was made with FOSS tools. Hell, here's the list of every program/software they used:

Blender http://www.blender.org/

GIMP http://www.gimp.org/

Python http://www.python.org/

Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/

SVN http://subversion.tigris.org/ (I think thats the right link)

Ubunutu http://www.ubuntu.com/

Harder solution: Install an operating system that they will actually have applications for.
Windows wins again.

Wrong. Please take a look here : http://packages.ubuntu.com/

You can also repair the computers by installing software that's free, technically superior and reasonably more secure than Windows.

You can download yours from: http://www.ubuntu.com/ http://www.debian.org/ http://freebsd.org/ and so on.

I wasn't aware that QuickTime, Real, and WMV are H.264. I'm not arguing against H.264 (it was not mentioned anywhere in my post). Lets take a look at how a popular distribution handles proprietary codecs:
MediBuntu/Ubuntu.

Notice the w32codecs need to be downloaded seperately due to legal issues. The win32 codecs provide support for WMV, RealMedia and other formats which have been bundled into the w32codecs package. The package is not available from the Ubuntu repositories due to licensing and legal restrictions.

Of course having to play ball with these restrictions depends completely on your morals and where you live (for them to be law).

Brainstorm

This would allow a list for specifying default choices while setting up your install.

Ubuntu 9.10 and later come with UbuntuOne which does more or less the same thing: https://one.ubuntu.com/
So yeah, I agree that this negates at least one of the GD advantages.

http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-370-1

Burned by that. Prolly fixed now, but that doesn't mean I am eager to resume :D Call me old fashioned.

If I can put ubuntu on it I will be interested.

To a limited extend, Ubuntu is already available for the ARM architecture; see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM for reference. I have a ARM based BeagleBoard which runs Ubuntu *nicely* (I don't do fancy GUI stuff, though). Installing Ubuntu on ARM is not hard, but it's not (yet) as trivial as on PC - I'm confident this will improve once more ARM based netbooks, etc. become more common. Also, some of the packages are (yet) missing, but like my previous point, that is only a matter of time too.

Actually, there's a minimal iso image for a net install and you can install a command-line-only system from the alternate install disk. Both use a modified version of the Debian ncurses installer. I've used it both options a few times and found them to be very useful for building a lightweight system from the ground up.

Actually, there's a minimal iso image for a net install and you can install a command-line-only system from the alternate install disk. Both use a modified version of the Debian ncurses installer. I've used it both options a few times and found them to be very useful for building a lightweight system from the ground up.

If you have one already (even if it's still the default profile from an older Ubuntu install), you won't have Google replaced by Yahoo in it - it will respect the existing choice of a search engine.

Actually, it will explicitly change the system-wide default. Therefore, if you didn't change the setting from its default (Google), it will stay at the default (now Yahoo). It won't respect your existing choice if that choice was "Yes, I want Google, so I won't mess with that".

Our open source project is a new an exciting social network, Pokebook.

You can check out our website at http://www.pokebook.co.uk/

You can clone our git repo from: git://libreapps.com/pokebook.git

Code Licence: MIT/X11

And here is our API documentation: http://paste.ubuntu.com/364225/

How should we improve and grow our project?

Love,

Tim xxx

On a related topic, people who pray for the end of x86 should be careful what they wish for, because their desire brings completely closed platforms and proprietary app stores. There is one reason why you can install software on your Windows machine without a "developer key" or Microsoft's explicit approval, and that reason is backwards compatibility.

yea, because we can't possibly be able to write programs for the ARM CPU. Oh wait, we can...

Of course we couldn't run linux on an ARM CPU. Oh wait, we can... Ubuntu on ARM

Oh I guess you must be mistaken.

Existing profiles that were using the default (Google) will, by policy, remain using the default (now Yahoo). Ubuntu's policy has always been that: if you changed something we won't touch it, if you are on the default config then the new default will apply.

I'm not sure what would be done if someone explicitly selected Google, though.

I was under the understanding that Gimp is still in the repository, but just not automatically installed.

Evidenced by:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/graphics/gimp

Mod parent up:

Patch levels don't start at 1 the day of release, they start the day they start working on the next branch. The kernel included in the installation CD was at patchset 14, the latest released one is 17 (However there were 2-3 updates that didn't change the patch level). And Lucid is already at -11 (see http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/main/l/linux-meta/linux-meta_2.6.32.11.11/changelog and http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/linux-image).

Mod parent up:

Patch levels don't start at 1 the day of release, they start the day they start working on the next branch. The kernel included in the installation CD was at patchset 14, the latest released one is 17 (However there were 2-3 updates that didn't change the patch level). And Lucid is already at -11 (see http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/main/l/linux-meta/linux-meta_2.6.32.11.11/changelog and http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/linux-image).

You can use this website to uninstall IE completely: http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

OpenBSD 3.3 hasn't had any security updates since 2004. Ubuntu 9.04 was released in April 2009. This is the user's only post.

Obvious troll is obvious.

There is a patch for not only this new bug in Windows, but every other bug, known or unknown. This patch will also boost performance and even removes all of those pesky Windows bugs that is erroniously attributed to open source software such as Firefox, Openoffice.org, etc. Click here for more info about the patch.

I don't use Ubuntu so can't say for sure but it looks like they do have packages for it, so I'd think if you used those packages it would keep current with the kernel (that seems to be how the Opensuse Nvidia packages work):
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

They even recommend not to install manually, probably for this very reason:
This is not the recommended way to install the NVIDIA drivers - please see BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia for the supported method.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaManual

I don't use Ubuntu so can't say for sure but it looks like they do have packages for it, so I'd think if you used those packages it would keep current with the kernel (that seems to be how the Opensuse Nvidia packages work):
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

They even recommend not to install manually, probably for this very reason:
This is not the recommended way to install the NVIDIA drivers - please see BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia for the supported method.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaManual

AMD is now supporting the development of Open Source drivers, and has released a lot of specification to make this possible. On the other hand, it is true that they have dropped support for older cards in their proprietary drivers. It seems they want to switch their Linux drivers from proprietary to Open Source.

Such Open Source Linux drivers are available by now for many ATI cards. For Ubuntu, see this list:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver
The older cards are well supported while the new ones still don't have 3D acceleration in the Open Source drivers.

Gee, I hope they're not using Ubuntu 9.10 by any chance: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910

There have been some reports of data corruption with fresh (not upgraded) ext4 file systems using the Ubuntu 9.10 kernel when writing to large files (over 512MB). The issue is under investigation, and if confirmed will be resolved in a post-release update. Users who routinely manipulate large files may want to consider using ext3 file systems until this issue is resolved. (453579)

The damn bug is STILL not fixed apparently. Some people get the corruption, and some don't. Scares me enough to not even try using ext4 just yet, and I'm still surprised Canonical was stupid enough to have ext4 as the default filesystem in Karmic.

Then again, perhaps Google knows what they're doing.

lol

actually dontzap doesn't work in 9.10 any more.. they've moved it to System->Preferences->Keyboard!

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/DontZap

kinda funny.. or ironic.. :P

Yep. Brainstorm: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

And I think I might just buy one of these: http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=440

That is simple sounding process, indeed. But i bet it took you more than just 3 minutes for the download alone, let alone creating a bunch of DBs, users etc.

Your fingers can type only finitely fast, and your hand can move the mouse only finitely fast, and your internet connection finite bandwidth, and your macbook is only finitely fast.

The reboot alone most likely took way more than the 3minutes.

Either all of the above, or i would like to know where to get the timebubble device you are using aswell.

Comparison CentOS, no gui installation:

Ahh, an unbeliever ;) No, my Mac reboots quite faster than three minutes. I got rid of my 1200bps modem back in 1992. I can type 140wpm. I can click with the best of 'em.

But, who knows -- perhaps its more difficult in Linux then!! Lets test that theory, using an Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine I happen to have on my Mac:

brian@ubuntu:~$ time sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-8.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,957kB of archives.
After this operation, 18.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-common 101 [49.8kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-8.4 8.4.1-1 [811kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-common 101 [85.6kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-8.4 8.4.1-1 [4,010kB]
Fetched 4,957kB in 6s (764kB/s)

Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-common.
(Reading database ... 125720 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking postgresql-client-common (from .../postgresql-client-common_101_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-client-8.4 (from .../postgresql-client-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-common.
Unpacking postgresql-common (from .../postgresql-common_101_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-8.4 (from .../postgresql-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up postgresql-client-common (101) ...
Setting up postgresql-client-8.4 (8.4.1-1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode.

Setting up postgresql-common (101) ...
Adding user postgres to group ssl-cert
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
en_au
en_gb
en_us
en_za

Setting up postgresql-8.4 (8.4.1-1) ...
Creating new cluster (configuration: /etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data: /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main)...
Moving configuration file /

That is simple sounding process, indeed. But i bet it took you more than just 3 minutes for the download alone, let alone creating a bunch of DBs, users etc.

Your fingers can type only finitely fast, and your hand can move the mouse only finitely fast, and your internet connection finite bandwidth, and your macbook is only finitely fast.

The reboot alone most likely took way more than the 3minutes.

Either all of the above, or i would like to know where to get the timebubble device you are using aswell.

Comparison CentOS, no gui installation:

Ahh, an unbeliever ;) No, my Mac reboots quite faster than three minutes. I got rid of my 1200bps modem back in 1992. I can type 140wpm. I can click with the best of 'em.

But, who knows -- perhaps its more difficult in Linux then!! Lets test that theory, using an Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine I happen to have on my Mac:

brian@ubuntu:~$ time sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-8.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,957kB of archives.
After this operation, 18.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-common 101 [49.8kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-8.4 8.4.1-1 [811kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-common 101 [85.6kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-8.4 8.4.1-1 [4,010kB]
Fetched 4,957kB in 6s (764kB/s)

Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-common.
(Reading database ... 125720 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking postgresql-client-common (from .../postgresql-client-common_101_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-client-8.4 (from .../postgresql-client-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-common.
Unpacking postgresql-common (from .../postgresql-common_101_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-8.4 (from .../postgresql-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up postgresql-client-common (101) ...
Setting up postgresql-client-8.4 (8.4.1-1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode.

Setting up postgresql-common (101) ...
Adding user postgres to group ssl-cert
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
en_au
en_gb
en_us
en_za

Setting up postgresql-8.4 (8.4.1-1) ...
Creating new cluster (configuration: /etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data: /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main)...
Moving configuration file /

That is simple sounding process, indeed. But i bet it took you more than just 3 minutes for the download alone, let alone creating a bunch of DBs, users etc.

Your fingers can type only finitely fast, and your hand can move the mouse only finitely fast, and your internet connection finite bandwidth, and your macbook is only finitely fast.

The reboot alone most likely took way more than the 3minutes.

Either all of the above, or i would like to know where to get the timebubble device you are using aswell.

Comparison CentOS, no gui installation:

Ahh, an unbeliever ;) No, my Mac reboots quite faster than three minutes. I got rid of my 1200bps modem back in 1992. I can type 140wpm. I can click with the best of 'em.

But, who knows -- perhaps its more difficult in Linux then!! Lets test that theory, using an Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine I happen to have on my Mac:

brian@ubuntu:~$ time sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-8.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,957kB of archives.
After this operation, 18.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-common 101 [49.8kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-8.4 8.4.1-1 [811kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-common 101 [85.6kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-8.4 8.4.1-1 [4,010kB]
Fetched 4,957kB in 6s (764kB/s)

Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-common.
(Reading database ... 125720 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking postgresql-client-common (from .../postgresql-client-common_101_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-client-8.4 (from .../postgresql-client-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-common.
Unpacking postgresql-common (from .../postgresql-common_101_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-8.4 (from .../postgresql-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up postgresql-client-common (101) ...
Setting up postgresql-client-8.4 (8.4.1-1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode.

Setting up postgresql-common (101) ...
Adding user postgres to group ssl-cert
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
en_au
en_gb
en_us
en_za

Setting up postgresql-8.4 (8.4.1-1) ...
Creating new cluster (configuration: /etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data: /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main)...
Moving configuration file /