Slashdot Mirror

First off, putting a launchpad link on the frontpage of Slashdot is bad form. Launchpad is for discussing and resolving bugs, and we're not helping by swamping that page. It might be better if people read the wiki that has been set up to summarize the issue.

In answer to your question about how this isn't Ubuntu's fault, apparently the problem is that the manufacturer sets certain default values for "aggressive power management" and enables this aggressive power management by default. Ubuntu's policy is to not change the manufacturer defaults, and simply uses them. Unfortunately these defaults are "too aggressive" and cause the hard drive to park/unpark too frequently.

But Ubuntu is not blameless. First of all, if Ubuntu can push out a patch that resets the manufacturer defaults to sane values (and this will save some people from hard drive failures), then it definitely should. Also, there is some discussion that perhaps an Ubuntu daemon is probing the hard disk too frequently, so that the hard-drive can't sit in the parked state for long enough to actually make it a useful feature.

Regardless of who is to blame, it would appear that the Ubuntu devs should push out a patch that forces systems to ignore the manufacturer values, and use settings that will protect the drive lifetime.

I wonder why Vista sales remain flat, if not damn small, despite the gutsy efforts of Microsoft's marketing department. Surely a newly minted OS from the same folks that brought us notepad.exe would make consumers as excited as a new puppy.

I'd love to try out Linux more than I have but until there's a better way to actually download the cd images, I really can't.

You can have a Ubuntu cd sent to you for free. It's a Live CD you can tryout Ubuntu before installing it.

Just A Hint

You know, just in case you run out of patience.

There are solutions to some of your problems. For the quicktime problem, go to Medibuntu's help page and set up the medibuntu repository. Then, install mplayer, the firefox plugin, and the w32 codecs. (In a terminal, type: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mplayer mozilla-mplayer w32codecs) Mplayer usually has no problem with quicktime files. If you install the mozilla/firefox plugin, you should be able to view quicktime trailers on the web.

I don't use IM clients very often, so I don't have any advice there. As for WOW, I would suggest checking out Cedega. It's very user friendly and well worth the money. I run several older Windows games with it.

You should try it out by grabbing the DVD Install/LiveCD off of bittorrent here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/dvd/current/

Disclaimer: My download will get faster if you do this.

Unless you're with Comcast. Then your screwed :D

You should try it out by grabbing the DVD Install/LiveCD off of bittorrent here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/dvd/current/

Disclaimer: My download will get faster if you do this.

You may want to give Gutsy Gibbon a try. It has a new GUI-based screen configuration utility that handles dual screens. http://www.ubuntu.com/files/GutsyImages/Screen-and-Graphic-Preferences.jpg This is a feature that I've been waiting for :-) Yes, mucking around with xorg.Conf isn't too hard, but this makes life easier for new comers.

On ubuntu you run

sudo apt-get install rapidsvn

Output of this command:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0
Suggested packages:
    libgnomeprintui2.2-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0 rapidsvn
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3817kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libsvncpp0c2a 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [73.1kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxbase2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [567kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxgtk2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [2875kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe rapidsvn 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [303kB]
Fetched 3817kB in 16s (237kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libsvncpp0c2a.
(Reading database ... 157987 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libsvncpp0c2a (from .../libsvncpp0c2a_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxbase2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxbase2.6-0 (from .../libwxbase2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxgtk2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxgtk2.6-0 (from .../libwxgtk2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package rapidsvn.
Unpacking rapidsvn (from .../rapidsvn_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libsvncpp0c2a (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...
Setting up libwxbase2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up libwxgtk2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up rapidsvn (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...

Wow! That was so easy! Took me 30 seconds to install including downloading. Would have taken longer to install on windows just to find the rapidsvn website, download the files, click the install button and hit the next button on the wizard. Geez people start using Ubuntu or at least a Debian based distro. It's not 1997 anymore.

On ubuntu you run

sudo apt-get install rapidsvn

Output of this command:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0
Suggested packages:
    libgnomeprintui2.2-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0 rapidsvn
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3817kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libsvncpp0c2a 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [73.1kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxbase2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [567kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxgtk2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [2875kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe rapidsvn 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [303kB]
Fetched 3817kB in 16s (237kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libsvncpp0c2a.
(Reading database ... 157987 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libsvncpp0c2a (from .../libsvncpp0c2a_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxbase2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxbase2.6-0 (from .../libwxbase2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxgtk2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxgtk2.6-0 (from .../libwxgtk2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package rapidsvn.
Unpacking rapidsvn (from .../rapidsvn_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libsvncpp0c2a (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...
Setting up libwxbase2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up libwxgtk2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up rapidsvn (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...

Wow! That was so easy! Took me 30 seconds to install including downloading. Would have taken longer to install on windows just to find the rapidsvn website, download the files, click the install button and hit the next button on the wizard. Geez people start using Ubuntu or at least a Debian based distro. It's not 1997 anymore.

On ubuntu you run

sudo apt-get install rapidsvn

Output of this command:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0
Suggested packages:
    libgnomeprintui2.2-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0 rapidsvn
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3817kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libsvncpp0c2a 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [73.1kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxbase2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [567kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxgtk2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [2875kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe rapidsvn 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [303kB]
Fetched 3817kB in 16s (237kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libsvncpp0c2a.
(Reading database ... 157987 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libsvncpp0c2a (from .../libsvncpp0c2a_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxbase2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxbase2.6-0 (from .../libwxbase2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxgtk2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxgtk2.6-0 (from .../libwxgtk2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package rapidsvn.
Unpacking rapidsvn (from .../rapidsvn_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libsvncpp0c2a (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...
Setting up libwxbase2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up libwxgtk2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up rapidsvn (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...

Wow! That was so easy! Took me 30 seconds to install including downloading. Would have taken longer to install on windows just to find the rapidsvn website, download the files, click the install button and hit the next button on the wizard. Geez people start using Ubuntu or at least a Debian based distro. It's not 1997 anymore.

On ubuntu you run

sudo apt-get install rapidsvn

Output of this command:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0
Suggested packages:
    libgnomeprintui2.2-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
    libsvncpp0c2a libwxbase2.6-0 libwxgtk2.6-0 rapidsvn
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3817kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libsvncpp0c2a 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [73.1kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxbase2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [567kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe libwxgtk2.6-0 2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6 [2875kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ feisty/universe rapidsvn 0.9.4-1ubuntu3 [303kB]
Fetched 3817kB in 16s (237kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libsvncpp0c2a.
(Reading database ... 157987 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libsvncpp0c2a (from .../libsvncpp0c2a_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxbase2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxbase2.6-0 (from .../libwxbase2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libwxgtk2.6-0.
Unpacking libwxgtk2.6-0 (from .../libwxgtk2.6-0_2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package rapidsvn.
Unpacking rapidsvn (from .../rapidsvn_0.9.4-1ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libsvncpp0c2a (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...
Setting up libwxbase2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up libwxgtk2.6-0 (2.6.3.2.1.5ubuntu6) ...
Setting up rapidsvn (0.9.4-1ubuntu3) ...

Wow! That was so easy! Took me 30 seconds to install including downloading. Would have taken longer to install on windows just to find the rapidsvn website, download the files, click the install button and hit the next button on the wizard. Geez people start using Ubuntu or at least a Debian based distro. It's not 1997 anymore.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/putty/

My trolldar is beeping but just in case you're serious, you'd be better off at the official download page, where everything is spelled out in plain English.

Burn the CD and put it in the drive, then go to "System->Administer->...

I checked the release notes --it looks like there are a few areas where Gutsy is still rather rough around the edges.

For example, what's this about, when you add a new user, suddenly all the old users don't belong to any groups any more, including the administrator group, so that you can't even sudo any more? Compiz conflicts with the "remember currently running apps" feature, so to get around this, the user is advised to just turn off Compiz? If you have an ATI screen, you might be SOL? If you have a Dell Latitude L400, you *are* SOL?

It looks like everyone was scrambling toward a release deadline, and then suddenly when the clock struck midnight, Shuttleworth yelled, "FREEZE!" and everything froze in place, including this pile of component parts that was spilling onto the floor but got frozen in time, suspended in mid-air.

Not taking away from the great accomplishments of the Ubuntu team, and kudos is due especially for the user-friendly way that proprietary software is handled, but since I did not have the urge to download the CVS, betas, and RC's, I think I will similarly wait a while for the rough edges to be smoothed out first.

Yes, but you can still get a semi-official PPC version here: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/7.10/release/

The first link is for an overview of the encrypting the disk for Gutsy, the second is the
page of installation CD links, look for "alternate":

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=873&num=1

http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10/

cc

Upgrading using the alternate CD/DVD Use this method if the system being upgraded is not connected to the Internet. 1. Download and burn the alternate installation CD. 2. Insert it into your CD-ROM drive. 3. A dialog will be displayed offering you the opportunity to upgrade using that CD. 4. Follow the on-screen instructions. If the upgrade dialog is not displayed for any reason, you may also run the following command using Alt+F2: gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade" Or in Kubuntu run the following command using Alt+F2: kdesu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade" http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

How come my Feisty (Ubuntu v7.04) update-manager doesn't know that there's a new distro upgrade available? There should be an icon in my Desktop panel offering a 1-click upgrade if I want.

Says here that the update frequency for the notification is once per day; perhaps it hasn't hit that automatic checkpoint yet? As a sibling post said, wait until later today or tomorrow and it will show up. My jump from 6.10 to 7.04 showed up automatically six months ago.

I just set up an Ubuntu machine to use solely as a multimedia center. I'm running MythTV with the ubuntu-mythtv-frontend package, it's pretty slick.

There's no reason for media junkies not to use Ubuntu. Just add the Medibuntu repo and you're good to go.

I just set up an Ubuntu machine to use solely as a multimedia center. I'm running MythTV with the ubuntu-mythtv-frontend package, it's pretty slick.

There's no reason for media junkies not to use Ubuntu. Just add the Medibuntu repo and you're good to go.

There are simple upgrade instructions for upgrading using adept on the ubuntu website. Also on the Kubuntu 7.10 release notes

I've got the MCE remote running already. Here's my desired setup: Cable -> DCT700 -> PVR500

I know I'll need a second box for the other tuner and that's fine. I'll have to figure out how to get another script working with the second IR port on the receiver instead of the first.Newegg picture for reference.

The script in the link I provided has a lircd.conf for the Comcast remote instead of the MCE remote .conf I'm using. The channel change script is a little more involved than what I need it for since we also have an HD box that we can use for most Comcast needs (on-demand, etc) and the script looks to be heavily tied into the Comcast remote. I went with the script here for the channel change. I then changed the words one, two, ... to 1, 2, ... That is what I hope will work. I'll try it out tonight.

"Hardy Heron" - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1099

We've just tried this one out as soon as it was released, and there was quite some differences in installation on our modern laptop hardware compared to 7.04 at least. Proprietary graphics driver installation couldn't really be much easier from what I can see -- besides by making it automatic, but I suppose there are reasons other than technological ones behind that.

After the few guided clicks to get that done, a reboot later and suddenly Compiz was also activated without any user actions needed. Hmm, so how do you configure those 3D effects then? No way we could find, but from reading an online computer magazine, we found out that the Compiz Config Settings Manager wasn't included. We installed that one, and it then integrated nicely into the Desktop Settings as a new "Custom effects" option. Why that one wasn't part of the distro by default is still unknown to us though. It seemed like an obvious choice to let the user customize the window effects?

Otherwise, I think Compiz didn't lag or anything even once when maximizing windows or rotating the desktop, etc, and this was on a laptop without a *that* hot graphics card. So we were impressed about how smooth the UI was. No interruptions from some service suddenly kicking in to work a bit like every user of Vista has no doubt grown used to take for granted by now with the SuperFetch, System Restore, Search Indexer etc services. They seem to kick in at the most inappropriate times -- not even when the computer is idle! Come on! Maybe Ubuntu's new desktop search indexer make it suffer too, but nothing we could see anyway.

After doing this, we unplugged the network card, and voila, it automatically discovered our WLAN. We didn't have to do anything, really.

So let's try open the (already mounted and ready) NTFS drive with Windows Vista on it? Oh, we can simply drag a file there now too -- cool! NTFS-3g apparently installed and ready.

We seemed to have to install Windows Media Audio support though and as we're still quite some Linux amateurs, we have still not got around that part as the work day is over. It's been fun experimenting though, and getting up to date with what a modern "desktop Linux" distro can offer. Looking at the feature list of Ubuntu 7.10, and summing that one up with the new features of GNOME 2.20 gives one a mighty impressive list of new features compared to just 6 months ago.

Linux desktop development (GNOME, KDE, desktop distros, ...) really seem to be picking up some pace lately. And we're just months away from KDE 4. This is exciting times to follow for sure, and for the first time I'm starting to become a believer in "Linux on the desktop".

I have some pretty high demands of novice usability though, which makes me hesitate still as for some distros. E.g. SUSE Linux 10.3 had a few quirks on my home stationary computer. Its NVIDIA driver install having me to use the command prompt and special "SUSE for NVIDIA" instructions is unacceptable for amateur usage IMHO, although I finally got it done. It also even failed to install the distro to the hard drive the first time around, because it couldn't mount the SATA drive it had just formatted (??). A reboot, and then it could do it like it was no problem at all. *shrug* That also gave an early feeling of "still aimed for geeks" that I'd so much like it to see it move away from.

But back to Ubuntu 7.10 -- so far no problems here, and I was left with an excitement to play with it more after the day. :-)

Hardy Heron.

Unfortunately the summary doesn't link to a good list of features.

The release notes for the beta version give a good overview of what you can expect:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/gutsybeta

With 3D desktop effects and NTFS write support enabled by default, and fast user switching and improved X configuration, this is one of the most significant Ubuntu releases in a while.

I'm not really a Linux user but I was building a tivo box and the /. talk on Ubuntu spurred me to give it a shot (I like it a lot). I saw how much easier it is to install remotes in Gusty than in Feisty (not as terminal heavy, a preference thing). But how easy is it to get digital cable boxes integrated and working? I have digital cable and getting that working is a big thing for me.

I think I've got everything in Feisty where it needs to be but I just have to bum the coax to test if it works tonight. Otherwise, I'll have to try to figure it out. There's the guide on adding the DCT700 remote but it looks like I'll have to use the Comcast remote and I'd rather use the MCE remote that came with the Hauppauge card (thinking beyond Comcast).

I did some calculations from the torrent tracker statistics page

Over the first 3 minute sample I took, I calculated total torrent pool bandwidth at 6.5Gbps (gigabits per second).

About 10 minutes later (as of right now) I completed a 5 minute sample and calculated the bandwidth usage to be 7.2Gbps.

The tracker is going up and down a fair bit under the load, but those statistics should be fairly indicative of the number of people downloading Gutsy Gibbon via the official torrents.

Installing Tomcat on Ubuntu was a snap for me:
sudo apt-get install tomcat5.5

It has dependencies on either java-gcj, kaffe, or the virtual package java2-runtime. Since I already had sun-java6 installed (available in Ubuntu repos), which provides java2-runtime, I was all set to go.

Unfortunately, hardware doesn't always magically work as much as we'd like it to (this applies to Windows and well as Linux, OSx gets a bye because it runs on essentially 1 or 2 platforms). Due to this, there will be times when you need to manually install drivers when driver support is not available. Although this isn't convenient, this is no more incorrect than taking your car to an auto mechanic to install break pads, change the oil, etc.

Just because you don't know enough about how to do something, doesn't mean that it isn't possible or that it doesn't work. My first suggestion would be to look at the system requirements for software prior to installing it. You can find the system requirements for Ubuntu desktop at http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/desktopedition

I don't think Dell supports technical problems. I think you have to buy that as an extra. They'll cover hardware of course.

So your options are..
1) No technical support only hardware - free
2) Tech support from Canonical - Different prices

If you go to Ubuntu.com there's a link on the right side of the page to buy preinstalled Ubuntu systems from Dell, which sends you to Dell's site.

I know several other people have given various links, but I prefer Ubuntu's own link because it links to Dell's sites for the UK, France, and Germany as well as the US, making it more generally useful. It also provides an overview of the support options you can get from Canonical through Dell.

If you go to Ubuntu.com there's a link on the right side of the page to buy preinstalled Ubuntu systems from Dell, which sends you to Dell's site.

I know several other people have given various links, but I prefer Ubuntu's own link because it links to Dell's sites for the UK, France, and Germany as well as the US, making it more generally useful. It also provides an overview of the support options you can get from Canonical through Dell.

Because nobody can find any documentation on upstart?

Because nobody can find any documentation on upstart?

Because nobody can find any documentation on upstart?

Because nobody can find any documentation on upstart?

My Inspiron Duo Core 2 (2 GHz) with 2GB RAM absolutely flies in Ubuntu, with Beryl and KDE running. What apps do you use? If there's nothing marrying you to Windows, I really suggest that you give it a try.

Go ahead and mod me a troll. Call me a fanboi. The truth is, Vista is a resource hog and I'm not afraid of some negative rep for suggesting alternatives.

I hate to agree with a so-called "troll" here but he really does have a point -- I lived in his "hell" for a month on this HP/Compaq notebook that came with Vista. When it spontaneously uninstalled its own hard drive controller driver last week, rendering itself unbootable (ironically, the bootloader could bootstrap the kernel, but mysteriously then the kernel instantly forgot how to talk to the disks -- the only repair option available? Blow it all away and reload the factory image), I removed Vista entirely and stuck Ubuntu 7.10 on this thing. I've been happy every since :)

Things run faster, are more stable, and I have more useful tools and software here. OpenGL (3D stuff) works great, I can still run all the apps I use (since they're cross-platform anyway :)), and I get my work done much faster. Strangely, I'm even getting *much* better battery life out of the internal battery on the laptop *and* on the external battery I use to extend the internal battery's life. Bluetooth *never* worked right in Vista, yet I'm tethered to a Windows Mobile 6-based phone wirelessly (via Bluetooth) for its Internet Connection Sharing right now to post this.

I think I'll take this idea offered by the original article here and go bug HP for a refund for Vista (or, if they won't do that, mebbe an "upgrade" to XP ... not that I'd use it :)).

Go ahead and mod me as a troll. The unhappy Vista users should give a serious look at Ubuntu. I've been using it for over a year on a Dell laptop, and I've installed it (and previously Fedora) for about 10 or 15 friends. With the exception of specific Windows apps (such as Solidworks), Ubuntu apps do everything that Windows XP (the usual old OS) applications do. Email, web browsing, office apps (OOo 2.3 is remarkable), and more. I could go on but I'm (seriously) not a zealot and I'll get a bad enough trolling mod as it is already.

Millions of XP machines are running just fine without this check. Do
you think any desktop user will try to understand why this check is
needed? Would you accept your car needing a 20min self-check before
you can drive, especially if you're late? Would you even care why this
check is needed if you see that some other car doesn't do this check
or has a more efficient checking method?

Seriously, the solution that Ubuntu has chosen is just an ugly hack
because nobody wanted to implement automatic checks in the background,
but there are quite a few people (as you can also see in the bug
reports) who don't like this situation. In any serious company that
cares about its users and the user experience the solution would be
very simple: Either it's implemented correctly or not at all.

I still am convinced that fsck is _not_ the right tool for the purpose.
Ext3 already has a journal that should (hopefully) avoid file system
corruption due power failures. What is the point in running fsck
periodically? If it's to check for disk errors, then badblocks is the
right tool and it can run read-only on a mounted filesystem. Moreover,
if the point is to check periodically, then we could check a small
amount of blocks at a time,using low disk priority like search daemons
(should) do, or even check random blocks.

Finally, I want to point out to those that say fsck defends your data: I
have a desktop machine which hosts an internal service, so it's
continuously up. I once rebooted, disk was damaged, and I couldn't no
longer boot or recover data (I had a backup, in any case, but it's not
so typical with desktop users). However, it had an uptime of months. If
I had an online check (e.g. read-only fsck, or smart, or badblocks) I
would have discovered the problem before, and would have been able to
recover some data. I know this by long experience, so don't tell me it's
not likely.

I don't know what the "Server Support package" includes but it sounds fancy.

This, perhaps

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/serveredition

Haven't tried it myself, anyone know how it compares?