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I swear, some people can't be helped

Yeah, those folks need to go back to Windows where such a simple task is easy to accomplish in the control panel and doesn't require all that nasty editting of krb.conf and smb.conf.

I swear, some people can't be helped

Yeah, those folks need to go back to Windows where such a simple task is easy to accomplish in the control panel and doesn't require all that nasty editting of krb.conf and smb.conf.

I swear, some people can't be helped

Yeah, those folks need to go back to Windows where such a simple task is easy to accomplish in the control panel and doesn't require all that nasty editting of krb.conf and smb.conf.

I swear, some people can't be helped

Yeah, those folks need to go back to Windows where such a simple task is easy to accomplish in the control panel and doesn't require all that nasty editting of krb.conf and smb.conf.

I swear, some people can't be helped

I swear, some people can't be helped

I swear, some people can't be helped

I swear, some people can't be helped

I swear, some people can't be helped

Ubuntu is an impressive distro for reasons many have argued here before. Karmic is actually a great improvement over Jaunty, and I think it's heading in a positive direction.

I might not have seen it, but I think Ubuntu's server area needs professional, detailed, Ubuntu-specific (if needed) DOCUMENTATION on everything an Ubuntu admin would need to use. http://doc.ubuntu.com/ has the most up-to-date version of the Ubuntu Server Guide, which is a decent start. It pales in comparison, however, to the FreeBSD handbook.

Where's the documentation on
GRUB 2?
Upstart?
UEC?
Building your own repository?
Setting up mass deployment via Kickstart/preseeding?

These are all things integral to the operating system and its deployment. I'm not saying Ubuntu has to have the definitive guide to Nagios or other 3rd party software.

Some things are well covered in the Ubuntu Server Guide, "Pro Ubuntu Server Administration" and Prentice Hall's "The Official Ubuntu Server Book". I would like to see more enterprise tooling and documentation for Ubuntu Server before I expect them to make a significant trench in the enterprise space.

And for those who might say Ubuntu is a desktop-oriented distro,
1) You haven't seen the work or the marketing Ubuntu has done on their server side, and
2) I think Ubuntu could succeed if they can market themselves as THE operating system for an organization.

You can ask, but I doubt it. OOo 3.2 isn't even done yet, and Ubuntu 9.10 is going to be released Thursday next week.

As I mentioned in an earlier comment, there are several distributions which are specifically designed to give you a good audio creation environment out of the box. Ubuntu Studio is probably the most well-known:

http://ubuntustudio.org/

but there are others. If you want to do audio production, you do not want to be using PA. You want to be using JACK. This may change in future, but that's the situation right now. Ubuntu Studio's documentation on getting going with JACK: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/JackQuickStart

So, what you're saying is, OSS4 doesn't work? I sure hope you don't tell my computers that - they seem to think that it DOES WORK.

Seriously - try it, you'll like it.

Oh - bluetooth? Don't own it, can't see the point in it. USB seems to do everything that bluetooth claims to do.

http://www.opensound.com/ [opensound.com]
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenSound [ubuntu.com]

You should be using OSS4. I put up with the Pulse idiosyncracies until my virtual machines spazzed out. Started researching my options, and found that Open Sound was moving past the deprecated OSS3, which wasn't much better than Pulse.

Since I've compiled and installed Open Sound, I have no more sound problems, period. Everything works the way it's supposed to.

If Pulse and Alsa get their shit together, fine. If not, I'm a devoted OSS fan. Before anyone runs off to experiment, be warned - you will probably have to spend a few minutes purging Alsa from your system. There is no co-existence of the two, at least not on Ubuntu. If you're not a Linux guru, plan on following a how-to, and plan on spending a couple hours getting it right.

http://www.opensound.com/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenSound

You bet. In fact, my laptop came with XP on it and so that's exactly what I did.

You may find free and secure alternatives to Windows at http://ubuntu.com/ or http://opensuse.org/

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Full - Retail: $299.99

What! people actually pay MONEY for an operating system? Yes, and worse still they can only use it on one computer the way M$ say they can. Find sanity in an insane world.

Does it come on a live CD?

How much will it cost the Windows PC user to run it?

For someone with a CD burner in their computer the cost to download and burn a linux CD is anywhere from 30 cents to 2 dollars.

If you don't want to download and burn it, you can get a linux CD for anywhere from free to 13 bucks

Free https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
$3.80 http://www.osdisc.com/
$5.99 http://shop.cheapbytes.com/
$6.05 http://www.linuxcd.org/
$6.30 http://linboo.com/
$13.00 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3937514775

As a Ubuntu user, I can say precisely 0% of the software on my PC is pirated AND I have no issues with malware, viruses, trojans, etc. (according to ClamAV anyway). In fact, probably 99% of the software I run is free & open source. The only proprietary software I use for the time being is Adobe Flash and the ATI Radeon driver, both legally obtained.

I know we'd all like to say that there is no link between illegally copied software (I refuse to use the word "pirated") and malware, but I'm sure we've all seen instances where relatives' PCs got infected by software downloaded from Kazaa, etc.

What really surprises me is that, when given the choice between maybe catching viruses or getting prosecuted for downloading/installing illegal software and using the free and legal open source equivalent, so many people still choose to download their software illegally. I have to say, as a full-time user and software developer, Ubuntu's offering is really, really well put-together and a pleasure to use.

By experimenting with starter edition, non-technical users will conclude that MS Word is unstable (software with ads usually hangs while trying to load them), lacks essential features and of course looks junky. We can then take pity on them and offer to install "new Windows that comes with no ads and fully functional software".

You would think Microsoft would learn its lesson after shipping with a media player that doesn't play DVDs and can't rip/burn your own CDs to standard MP3s. Apple, take cue for a new "I am a Mac" ad featuring a comparison to iWork.

Then they should provide an executable binary which upon execution upgrades. No need for an iso.

Because full-blown system installation/upgrades that are run from the same system that's being upgraded works so well? Makes you wonder why Linux can't do it without booting from a CD/DVD/other media too.

Linux man and his sidekick GNU boy, two cybervigilantes who fight day to day internet trolls with links of wisdom. KAPLOW! BOOM! HREF!
 
Oh and yes, I have tried it, for 6 dists in a row now. :-)

As a past employee of a Retail store, I know for a fact that they always find a way to make customers pay much more then is necessary for everything they can, up to and including OS's. I don't know how many people were sold on "Media Center" functionality they never used and that's just scratching the surface. As for the Obligatory Open Source comment, our licensing is much more simple. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/licensing

There are cheaper variants to get Vista away, for example: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.debian.org/

I prefer to get my operating systems for free!

Ubuntu is available free of charge and we can send you a CD of the latest version (9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)) with no extra cost

I've been running Ubuntu as my only OS on my MacBook for over 18 months now, without an OS X install and without rEFIt. Neither is essential for using a MacBook, and anybody who says anything to the contrary is clueless.

You're right rEFIt isn't needed, nor did I say it was. Neither is a bootable OS X needed to run Ubuntu. It is needed to download and install firmware updates from Apple though. Here's someone asking if it's possible to get firmware for iSight without having OS X. It was posted two weeks ago yet there's no answer. Perhaps you can tell the person how? On the other hand even the Ubuntu MactelSupportTeamAppleIntelInstallation says "It is recommended that you keep an install of OS X, even if you do not plan to use it as a primary environment, so that you can install firmware updates in the future. (Such updates may be required for your Mac to continue to operate properly.)"

Back when I bought my MacBook it didn't cost much more than a comparable high-end Windows notebook, like a Sony Vaio, with the added benefit that it's not a Sony (bah) and didn't come with a Vista tax (double-bah).

Oh, I agree. When I comparison shopped both a Dell and an HP with similar specs to the MBP cost about $300 more. I said in another post the cheapest laptop with similar specs was only $50 less. I still can't see buying a Mac but not using OS X. Mine only had an 160 GB harddisk, and almost all of it was used, so I looked for the biggest internal replacement drive which was only 320 GB. There are bigger ones now but because I don't want to void the warranty, it's still covered under Applecare, I have to have an Apple authorized service provider install it and all those I know of in my area require upgraders to buy the disk from them. I upgraded it so I can run both OS X and Ubuntu.

On the other hand, I don't have much love nor any need for OS X.

I like both Linux and OS X. And though I don't know for sure now I may need OS X. I need, er want, a photo editor and GIMP does not cut it. One, it does not work with 16 bit colour depths never mind 24 or 32 bits. Gimp 2.6 supports some 16 bit stuff but not much, I already tried it. It does not work with CMYK, monitor profiles, or other things that well that print photographers need. While CinePaint does work with some of these, Ubuntu dropped support for it back at 7.4 I thing, so it is no longer in the repositories. I'm willing to try KDE's Krita, so I'll install both Gnome and KDE, but if it doesn't work then I'll need Photoshop and CS4 does not run in Linux. CS3 does partially and CS2 runs pretty good in WINE but CS4 doesn't.

Using OS X I can also test with it too. As I posted earlier, with Windows you can only develop for Windows. With Linux you can develop for Linux or Windows. And with Macs you can develop for Macs, Linux, and Windows.

Falcon

You don't need to log in to run level 1. You are already in. Edit the kernel parameters by adding 1 to the end. Do this from the grub screen before booting the desired kernel . It's called single user mode. Or follow this.

They showed up within 24 hours of her getting broadband. I downloaded this utility that fixed her right up. It only took 20 minutes. I did have to reinstall her Picasa though. At the same time we upgraded her printer to one of the newer HP multifunction things so she can print and upload her digital photos, and scan recipes - her old one was a broken Lexmark. The utility seems to be 100% effective against all of these things. Grandma really likes it - it's been a year and now when I visit it's only to chat, not to fix her computer.

Anyhow, the utility is called "Jackelope" for some odd reason. It's available here.

Now those freeloaders are given a choice: a pirated OS and paid-for AV, or a paid-for OS and a free AV.

Or they could choose a free OS with no need for AV and plenty of free software. But that's the kind of a crazy idea that I'm sure would never work.

There already is a method to keep malware from attacking a system.

Canonical seems to disagree

What happens if Cyanogen, or some other person, decided to modify the Talk so that all numbers dialed were reported to third party advertisers?

I am very sure that most would hold cyanogen liable. The others are complete idiots.

... and I don't trust those who don't control distribution.

What, like those guys ?

Read the ubuntu wiki on that one

A quick search for "Shockwave via wine on linux" produced the following thread...

http://www.ubuntux.org/shockwave-player-ubuntu-linux

Looks like there are a few options for you. Firefox.exe over wine with shockwave installed or a plugin called mozplugger, also recommended in the Ubuntu support page for Shockwave on Linux:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Shockwave

>Shuttleworth should be talking with money. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2005-July/000025.html Shut the fuck up.

Oh, you mean gamers.

Except for the 'technical' audience stuff. Oh, gotcha.

Another myth - everyday users aren't technical. Except for the ones using laptops,WiFi, and Ubuntu.

If they can get through this, then they are technical. And if you're thinking this isn't much worse than Windows, well, now that we've set the standard, we know what you're aiming for.

Well, last time I did it, it went like this.

One of the grad students in the lab decided he needed to use Linux, but he only had experience with Windows. No problem, a good first step is to install Linux at home so he gets lots of exposure to it.

Okay, install Ubuntu. Not bad (the install process has come a LONG way - proof that UI improvements can be made). Okay, everything is going fine, but how come the second monitor doesn't work? Now there's a good question: Windows and OS X both would have autodetected the monitor and just made it work. Strike 1.

But sure, let's just open up the System->Preference->Display. Oops. Second monitor isn't there. Hm. Strike 2.

All right, Google it. Here's a utility that's supposed to do the job. Install, run. Wants to install a driver. No problem, do it. Which one? The latest one. Fine. Uh oh, X won't even start. Strike 3.

Okay, fine, it's been a while since I've edited an Xorg.conf file, but let's dive into it.... That's the point where the guy decided to wipe Linux and reinstall Windows, and I can't really blame him. It turns out later that after two strikes we almost had it, except you had to pick the next to latest driver because the most recent one dies a horrible death when used with more than one monitor.

By the way, I'm not at all sure you know what you're talking about. If you type "multiple monitors" into the Ubuntu help webpage you don't get "just go to System>Preference->Display. You get this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/XineramaHowTo

So either you're wrong, or the Ubuntu help web site is crap. Either way, strike 4.

I hope Shuttleworth's emphasis on usability pays off. There's no reason why Linux CAN'T deal with the myriad little problems like this one, and Ubuntu has not only fixed a bunch of them in the distro but also spurred other distros into fixing long standing, stupid issues.

"apt-get install" is fine if you like the typer box terminal thingie. It's totally retro, and I respect that. Me, I just like to click the apt-url thingie. Some nice person built us a search engine so if you only know you want CAD or whatever, it will find you some without you know the package name. Then you click the "install it now" button and it installs. Wipe hands on pants.

http://torrent.ubuntu.com/

Canonical agrees. They announced their intent to develop a moblin remix for Ubuntu back in June.

1. Everything Ubuntu can offer is available for ARM: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/arm

4. W32Codecs is obsolete since FFMPEG does WMV & Quicktime. Real player is in Helix. All these are distributed by source and should work on ARM.

That's because significantly more work was put in to it then a simple recompile. Which was the whole point of the GP.

Try again. The Debian build system probably creates the Arm architecture releases from much the same sources as x64, i386, mips, ..., ..., ...

Ubuntu could do similar, to go back the grand-grandparent posts point, and you might find they already have: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/arm

Careful - talk like that will get you flagged a troll around here :)

This was my last post on the Ubuntu forums that really outlines what I'd gone through trying to install Ubunut 9.04...

I know this thread is getting pretty long so I thought it might help if I consolidated everything into a single post so that people who see this don't have to read through all 4 pages of posts.

Ubuntu 9.04 Install Problems Summary

1. Download the Ubuntu 9.04 i386 ISO
2. Burn ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn
3. Reboot, try to install Linux
4. Install fails - I see an error message about ACPI and find myself at a command prompt.
5. Read - Edit BIOS - I'm directed to https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/install...ios-setup.html - I read and find that I didn't disable my 'Memory Hole' so I do that.
6. Reboot, try to install Linux
7. Install fails - I see an error message about ACPI and find myself at a command prompt.
8. Read - Edit BIOS - After visiting this and other forums, I found that by enabling AMD Quiet N Cool the ACPI error would be resolved. This information was not included in the 9.04 installation-guide linked to above.
9. Reboot, try to install Linux
10. Install fails - I see *no* error message - so that's a good sign (I think) - but I still end up at a command prompt.
11. Read - At this point, it seems like the install disk itself is the most likely source of my problems. I'm told to check the md5 of the download and the CD itself though the install screen.
12. Install winmd5sum And use this to verify that my download was correct (and it was).
13. Reboot, try to have the Ubuntu installer verify the disk.
14. Disk Check Fails The same as with the install, I end up at the command prompt. Unsure of what to do next I...
15. Re-Burned ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn on a separate PC, hoping that the burn was bad. As recommended, I use a low speed burn to reduce the chances of errors. IMG Burn 'verifies' that the burn was successful (I'm not sure if that means anything or not).
16. Reboot, try to install Linux (with the new disk)
17. Install fails - Same as before, no error message that I can see - just the command prompt.
18. Read the forums and end up directed to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions - without really understanding the boot options in the F6 menu
19. Reboot - Install fails Same sort of fail as before, did this a bunch of different times with the different options.
20. Read the forums again. I end up at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto - I have three hard-drives two are configured in a RAID 0 though my BIOS. I'm unsure if the FakeRaid would impact the installer or not (I'm trying to install to the un-raided hard-drive).
21. Read the forums again. It's suggested that I try the alternate download.
22. Download the Ubuntu 9.04 i386 alternate installer ISO
23. Use winmd5sum To verify that my download was correct (and it was).
24. Burned ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn
25. Reboot, try to install Linux
26. Install fails - This time I end up stuck in an infinite loop. The text based installer says it can't mount the CD and to insert the CD, but the CD is in. My DVD drive seems to be functioning though - I used it to install Windows 7 two days ago without any problems.
27. Read the forums again. No suggestions, and without an

Careful - talk like that will get you flagged a troll around here :)

This was my last post on the Ubuntu forums that really outlines what I'd gone through trying to install Ubunut 9.04...

I know this thread is getting pretty long so I thought it might help if I consolidated everything into a single post so that people who see this don't have to read through all 4 pages of posts.

Ubuntu 9.04 Install Problems Summary

1. Download the Ubuntu 9.04 i386 ISO
2. Burn ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn
3. Reboot, try to install Linux
4. Install fails - I see an error message about ACPI and find myself at a command prompt.
5. Read - Edit BIOS - I'm directed to https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/install...ios-setup.html - I read and find that I didn't disable my 'Memory Hole' so I do that.
6. Reboot, try to install Linux
7. Install fails - I see an error message about ACPI and find myself at a command prompt.
8. Read - Edit BIOS - After visiting this and other forums, I found that by enabling AMD Quiet N Cool the ACPI error would be resolved. This information was not included in the 9.04 installation-guide linked to above.
9. Reboot, try to install Linux
10. Install fails - I see *no* error message - so that's a good sign (I think) - but I still end up at a command prompt.
11. Read - At this point, it seems like the install disk itself is the most likely source of my problems. I'm told to check the md5 of the download and the CD itself though the install screen.
12. Install winmd5sum And use this to verify that my download was correct (and it was).
13. Reboot, try to have the Ubuntu installer verify the disk.
14. Disk Check Fails The same as with the install, I end up at the command prompt. Unsure of what to do next I...
15. Re-Burned ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn on a separate PC, hoping that the burn was bad. As recommended, I use a low speed burn to reduce the chances of errors. IMG Burn 'verifies' that the burn was successful (I'm not sure if that means anything or not).
16. Reboot, try to install Linux (with the new disk)
17. Install fails - Same as before, no error message that I can see - just the command prompt.
18. Read the forums and end up directed to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions - without really understanding the boot options in the F6 menu
19. Reboot - Install fails Same sort of fail as before, did this a bunch of different times with the different options.
20. Read the forums again. I end up at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto - I have three hard-drives two are configured in a RAID 0 though my BIOS. I'm unsure if the FakeRaid would impact the installer or not (I'm trying to install to the un-raided hard-drive).
21. Read the forums again. It's suggested that I try the alternate download.
22. Download the Ubuntu 9.04 i386 alternate installer ISO
23. Use winmd5sum To verify that my download was correct (and it was).
24. Burned ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn
25. Reboot, try to install Linux
26. Install fails - This time I end up stuck in an infinite loop. The text based installer says it can't mount the CD and to insert the CD, but the CD is in. My DVD drive seems to be functioning though - I used it to install Windows 7 two days ago without any problems.
27. Read the forums again. No suggestions, and without an

Careful - talk like that will get you flagged a troll around here :)

This was my last post on the Ubuntu forums that really outlines what I'd gone through trying to install Ubunut 9.04...

I know this thread is getting pretty long so I thought it might help if I consolidated everything into a single post so that people who see this don't have to read through all 4 pages of posts.

Ubuntu 9.04 Install Problems Summary

1. Download the Ubuntu 9.04 i386 ISO
2. Burn ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn
3. Reboot, try to install Linux
4. Install fails - I see an error message about ACPI and find myself at a command prompt.
5. Read - Edit BIOS - I'm directed to https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/install...ios-setup.html - I read and find that I didn't disable my 'Memory Hole' so I do that.
6. Reboot, try to install Linux
7. Install fails - I see an error message about ACPI and find myself at a command prompt.
8. Read - Edit BIOS - After visiting this and other forums, I found that by enabling AMD Quiet N Cool the ACPI error would be resolved. This information was not included in the 9.04 installation-guide linked to above.
9. Reboot, try to install Linux
10. Install fails - I see *no* error message - so that's a good sign (I think) - but I still end up at a command prompt.
11. Read - At this point, it seems like the install disk itself is the most likely source of my problems. I'm told to check the md5 of the download and the CD itself though the install screen.
12. Install winmd5sum And use this to verify that my download was correct (and it was).
13. Reboot, try to have the Ubuntu installer verify the disk.
14. Disk Check Fails The same as with the install, I end up at the command prompt. Unsure of what to do next I...
15. Re-Burned ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn on a separate PC, hoping that the burn was bad. As recommended, I use a low speed burn to reduce the chances of errors. IMG Burn 'verifies' that the burn was successful (I'm not sure if that means anything or not).
16. Reboot, try to install Linux (with the new disk)
17. Install fails - Same as before, no error message that I can see - just the command prompt.
18. Read the forums and end up directed to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions - without really understanding the boot options in the F6 menu
19. Reboot - Install fails Same sort of fail as before, did this a bunch of different times with the different options.
20. Read the forums again. I end up at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto - I have three hard-drives two are configured in a RAID 0 though my BIOS. I'm unsure if the FakeRaid would impact the installer or not (I'm trying to install to the un-raided hard-drive).
21. Read the forums again. It's suggested that I try the alternate download.
22. Download the Ubuntu 9.04 i386 alternate installer ISO
23. Use winmd5sum To verify that my download was correct (and it was).
24. Burned ISO to a blank DVD using IMG Burn
25. Reboot, try to install Linux
26. Install fails - This time I end up stuck in an infinite loop. The text based installer says it can't mount the CD and to insert the CD, but the CD is in. My DVD drive seems to be functioning though - I used it to install Windows 7 two days ago without any problems.
27. Read the forums again. No suggestions, and without an

I agree, Ubuntu Netbook Remix running on my Acer Aspire One is just great. I was impressed that everything worked right out of the box, with no configuration needed. Wireless, sound, screen resolution -- even the webcam worked immediately after the install. UNR is an entire order of magnitude better than the Linpus distribution that came installed. I'm a slackware user on both the desktop at home and the servers at work, but for a netbook I just don't want to mess around with configuration. UNR is a perfect fit: it works out of the box, but at the same time allows me to do all the normal linux things a geek wants to do.

My only complaint is that the battery runs out quicker than the original Linpus install. However 9.10 is supposed to make some progress in this area.

I'm not going to do all your research for you. About five seconds of Googling yields this Ubuntu page: Ubuntu Security Notice USN-819-1. Debian's notices shouldn't be that hard to find, either. Of course, you can always just try the proof of concept code on an updated Debian system if you seriously doubt the maintainers.

This post caught my eye because I'm taking Biology online which is my first online class to take ever, and I just moved from a 6 year old iBook as my primary system to a System76 Pangolin Performance laptop running Ubuntu 9.04 which I bought last month. I figured I'd run into some problems with the online classes, but after some tweaks within Firefox everything seems to work great.

What I've found is even though the college or university 'proper' might support Linux as far as VPN access and such goes, the question is do the third party applications required for each course also support Linux? For example the Virtual Biology Labs I have to do with my online Biology class are written using Shockwave, and Adobe Shockwave isn't natively supported by Linux. I had to jump through some hoops to get Shockwave working with Firefox - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Shockwave - which got me going. Also Blackboard, which is my college's Student Information System, had a bug where it didn't support Firefox 3.5, but that's since been ironed out.

Unfortunately Linux is still in the realm where those outside of tech still know nothing about it, so unless a question like this is posed to the IT department most have either never heard of it or have no clue what it is if they have. And even some IT departments will simply say it's not supported or say to dualboot, which is what I've seen some do.

For me it's not about 'do you support Linux', but rather get a list of the applications they do use and find suitable clients for Linux. For example if they offer Cisco VPN access to the network, even if they don't support Linux the client is out there plus a few FOSS compatible clients as well. Likewise with the Student Information System whether it be BlackBoard, Angel, Moodle, or whatever. See how those work in Linux and go from there.

Even if Linux isn't officially supported, which I'd bet only the largest colleges have an IT department geekly staffed enough to say they'll support 100% of the Linux systems students come in with, I'd bet 99% of the applications they use are supported in one way or another. But not unlike most other things in Linux, if your household has been running Linux for years then you're probably used to that.

Take care --

Canonical does not provide a guarantee of regular security updates for software found in universe but will provide these where they are made available by the community. Users should understand the risk inherent in using packages from the universe component.

Unlike Ubuntu, Debian does support anything in their repository. There was a security update for wordpress last month. They also do remove packages in which security support is impossible. It sounds like Debian might be a better choice for you.

If that box and another both have serial connections, then use the serial console: Get a null-modem cable. Connect that to another box. Make sure the you add console=ttyS0,19200n8 or some variation to the append line in your grub entries. On the client side use cu aka tip, minicom or PuTTY to make the serial connection, making sure that bps, parity and stop bits match.

• The latest Ubuntu betas fix the i915 graphics problem that plagued a lot of low-end hardware(like the eee 900). https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks#Asus%20Eee900
• The work to keep page-faults from happening in the X-Server shows HUGE potential for lower-end hardware http://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/09/05/161230/Kernel-2631-To-Speed-Up-Linux-Desktop

The next major release of Ubuntu will be faster on low-end hardware.