Slashdot Mirror

It's actually Ubuntu Linux customized to run Firefox in full screen mode like a kiosk...

It's actually Ubuntu Linux customized to run Firefox in full screen mode like a kiosk...

you can even order them for free (as in beer) https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

TFA states "You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it." Pretty self explanatory. People don't have the expertise and training. And before you self-glorified Africa experts of /. start going "All of Africa isn't dumb you know" No shit Sherlock, that doesn't change the fact that people need to be trained to use the technology. Where are the linux user support in Africa? Oh that's right only in Kenya and South Africa. Wow sounds like the whole of Africa can use Open Source. I can see it now ... The monkey from Lion king holds up a Mozilla browser to the animal kingdom and the happy little animals spread cheery open source across the land. Of course the evil Scar Gates will try stop him in the minds of animal community but that won't stop MUFASA TORVALDS from stopping him in a climatic battle on the Serengeti complete with backing soundtrack from Toto.

Don't go about raving about paying for a so called "free" OS.
Parent is right, it's free as in speech, not beer.

But,
ubuntu linux ships a cd for Free (as in beer) to anywhere you like.
https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
It has a nice cardboard sleeve, and contains 2 cd's.
One is a live cd, to test it.
The other is the Install cd.
It furthers explains why ubuntu is free, and what free means.

Ubuntu is my favorite distro for a desktoplinux for "beginners".

I use stock Debian-SARGE myself.

This is not true. In fact, the distros are each trying to beat the others silly by making package management such a breeze.

All Debian derived systems (like ubuntu) use apt/dpkg, Fedora/RedHat uses yum (or apt4rpm), Suse uses YaST and Gentoo uses portage. All of these will find dependancies for you and generally do the right thing - if the package is available, it will be installed and configured properly.

The only place where this is not true is when there are legal roadblocks (like DVD playback) to using the software in a free OS. Most commercial distros are able to bypass this however, since they pay a fee to the IP rights holder for the use of that IP.

In any event, you can't have checked software installation very recently. Today it's easier on linux than it's ever been on Windows.

Soko

Ubuntu (request for inclusion)

Debian (request for inclusion)

Alternative APT source maintained by Sam Vilain:
deb http://apt.utsl.gen.nz/debian <distname> all
# where <distname> is one of woody, sarge, sid, warty, hoary or breezy

or another APT source maintained by bougyman:
deb http://debian.bougyman.com/ unstable main

"We were impressed. My wife ran it as her OS for a few months, but ultimately relented and switched back to windows. We simply run and play too many windows games for linux to be a real solution for us."

The simple solution would be to dual-boot; Windows for games and Ubuntu for everything else. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WindowsDualBootHowTo

That's how I have my computer set up... but I'm not a gamer, so my Windows partition takes long naps (I boot Windows on Patch Tuesdays to make sure I'm up to date :)

APT should take care of dependencies. Read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AptGetHowTo

For example:
apt-get install apache2

Will install Apache 2 and ALL its dependencies.

Or you could also try Synaptic:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SynapticHowto

If you want to avoid package downloading, you could try the DVD version:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/


Ricardo Arguello

APT should take care of dependencies. Read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AptGetHowTo

For example:
apt-get install apache2

Will install Apache 2 and ALL its dependencies.

Or you could also try Synaptic:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SynapticHowto

If you want to avoid package downloading, you could try the DVD version:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/


Ricardo Arguello

APT should take care of dependencies. Read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AptGetHowTo

For example:
apt-get install apache2

Will install Apache 2 and ALL its dependencies.

Or you could also try Synaptic:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SynapticHowto

If you want to avoid package downloading, you could try the DVD version:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/


Ricardo Arguello

http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/breezy/ubuntu-5.10-i nstall-i386.iso.torrent

Thanks have ordered the cd.

Have updated the wiki entry with size.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BreezyUpgradeNotes

Thanks

I've yet to read anyone posting about the fact they ship free CDs too. Not the free except for shipping crap, but actually at no direct financial cost to you. More info here: http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Actually it does have a modular xorg

And you filed a bug, right? =)

On the serious side, I have had a bug report about problems with SATA drives in a couple months now, so I expect it will work. If not, please be clear whether it's failing at first install to see the drive at all, or whether it's failing after it reboots.

http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/

Tks,
Jeff Bailey

For breezy they have made a faq based on ubuntu guide, but for breezy.

http://doc.ubuntu.com/gnome/faqi386/C/

All the ubuntuguide goodness, just kept up-to-date :D

First, double-check you have ubuntu-desktop installed, otherwise some new packages might be left out.

Then you need to change your sources.list. Instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BreezyUpgradeNotes. Just search and replace hoary with breezy, really.

Then you'll need to apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade (not upgrade, which won't install new dependent packages - you'll get a message saying some packages have been held back). Make sure you look at the list of packages it's going to remove, just in case. Then...wait, and you should probably reboot as well :-)

Read the upgrade instructions on the Ubuntu wiki

Which is nice.

For those upgrading from a previous release, instructions can be found on the official Ubuntu wiki.

But yes, essentially "apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade" is it.

Actually Mark Shuttlesworth's Community Ubuntu 5.10 is released *Ahead* of time.

Go Breezy! http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/5.10/

The release page is running very slowly; the official Ubuntu Bittorrent tracker (complete with copies of the .torrent digests) is here: http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/

I'm using it right now, and apart from a new splash screen that resembles the forums theme and the replacement of the GNOME foot with the Ubuntu logo in the top left corner, the most immediately obvious changes to the end user are the features introduced by GNOME 2.12. Namely, the menu editor, disks manager, clipboard daemon, Evince document viewer, drag-and-drop preview, type-ahead-find for Epiphany and GNOME's help browser, and so on. That stupid gedit focus bug is fixed. The switch from OpenOffice 1.1.3 to OpenOffice.org 2.0 (Beta 2) is a substantial one as well; xine 1.1 and AbiWord 1.1, unfortunately, were released too late Breezy's dev cycle and aren't included. Similarly, 5.10 has shipped with GStreamer 0.8, which is still unusable for video, so you'll want to install totem-xine over totem-gstreamer as soon as possible. Under the hood, Ubuntu is now using the 2.6.12 kernel, modular X.org and GCC 4.0.1. Ubuntu has also updated their ATI fglrx drivers to 8.16.20, which gives a significant performance boost (from crap to less crap) for those cursed with ATI cards.
 
Overall, my end user impressions are that this is a worthy and welcome upgrade to my distribution of choice, but apparently I'm only really scratching the surface. According to the release notes, the major features of 5.10 are advanced thin client integration, an OEM installer, the Edubuntu project for deploying Ubuntu in schools, and Launchpad integration ("Launchpad.net is the new infrastructure that Ubuntu and its derivatives use for translation, bug tracking, sharing code patches, fixes and technical support."). So, in short, I like what I'm seeing, but what I haven't seen looks even better.

Here is a list of updated mirrors as the main site is very slow.

I find it interesting that it is "leaked" the same day as Ubuntu "Breezy Badger" 5.10. Is MS trying to subvert its toughest FOSS competitor?

It's simple: Chairman Bill pulls the chain and y'all bark.

Most programmers I know aren't too keen on using their free time to discuss legalities and philosophies.

Indeed that is correct. But what most people fail to see are the people in open source. Philosophies and tools are all fine ... what really makes a difference is the way developers interact. Point out the way email address of individuals are present in manpages, in the source files ... or how one can simply join a mailing list and start contributing to a project pretty fast.

You could also include stuff about how a huge amount of importance is given to "Doing It Just Right" instead of simply "Getting It Done" ... that what gets you acceptance is quality code.

A good resource will be this dissertation that uses Debian as a case study: http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2005/08/msg 00206.html

Mark Shuttleworth's page on the Ubuntu wiki is also a good starting point to try gaining an insight into "open source". https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarkShuttleworth

Let's see here:

Ubuntu, which is spelled with a "u," not an "a" is pronounced "oo-BOON-too." [source]

SUSE is not "confusing," but it is German. It's typically pronounced "Soo-sah," or "Soo-zah" depending on your dialect, but is often massacred by those who think that proper names are subject to the rules of their own language. Either way, it is most definitely NOT "Sooz" or "Susie." [source]

This will probably get modded down as trollish, or as flamebait

"Redundant" would be my pick, as I can't remember a distro article in recent memory that didn't have at least one post raising the same old issue as yours.

Look at Ubuntu and Debian - another fine example of counterproductive BS where they fragment, have different ideas about how things should be done, and wind up not really helping each other like they should be.

The perception of some weird kind of "rift" between Ubuntu and Debian is way overblown. Read this for more information: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarkShuttleworth Suffice to say that Ubuntu obviously makes excellent use of Debian, and also contributes plenty back.

Want to amaze me? Invent a new desktop that doesn't suck, and actually works without all the glitchiness I've come to expect from the two (KDE and Gnome) most popular desktop environments. Do something different! Innovate! Change the way I look at my computer! Don't give me *yet another* search tool. Or, at the very least, don't make it the *focus* of your new release.

Woo - another desktop. Won't that be grand! As for innovation, check out the plans for KDE 4. Also, if you're not going to whine and offer up interesting and new ideas rather than vauge accusations of glitchiness, I can think of no reason at all why distros maintainers (who, incidentally, are not responsible for inventing brand new desktops) would wish to "amaze" you.

If people wanted to help Linux mature, they'd stop fragmenting in to dozens and dozens of distros, and focus on *one* of them. Imagine what could be achieved if we weren't all pulling the same horse in different directions at the same time.

Very well - if it were up to you, *which* distro would you choose to dictate that people focus on? If you say "SUSE", ten people will say "Mandriva". If you say "Mandriva", ten people will say "Ubuntu". If you say "start a brand new one from scratch" - well, why do you think there are 200 distros already available? Fact is, rallying all developers across the globe - many of which contribute purely voluntarily, remember - to One United Cause is an impossible dream. The only thing we can do is let nature take its course.

If it so happens that a handful of distros attain such a degree of superiority that developers drop their tools and flock to work on it, then great. If it simply transpires that the constant flow of code causes all distros to become completely alike in terms of capabilities, then that's fine, too - somewhat wasteful of resources, yes, but there's nothing you can do about it, certainly not by posting Tired Old Arguments Against Fragmentation v2110 on slashdot.

Finally, a word about distros themselves. Here's my theory - distros aren't important, or at the very least, they are far less important than the body of open-source software available is. The function of a distro is to package a bunch of code together into a whole for consumption by the end-user who has no time to do this for themselves, and to improve the end-user experience as much as is possible - after all, a distro that fails to do the latter will quickly descend into irrelevancy, at which point it ceases to be either a "confusing" additional choice, nor a waste of significant man-power. This improvement often comes from improving the desktop environments, or productivity software offered. Here's the crucial point - all of these types of improvements can (and are) adopted by other distros. For example, Novell have put a lot of work and effort into Beagle, and this work can be and is harnessed by other distros. Put like this:

The fragmentation of distros, and really the distross themselves, are almost wholly irrelevant, as each produces code th

(Mentioned in the Release Candidate annoucement)

Is this telling us something?

this is a good start, too bad they're including FreeDOS disks and not free Ubuntu disks though. But I'd guess that the people who would buy this sort of machine already have access to some distributions.

If you want to try a desktop Linux that 'just works' pretty much all the time, download an Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/

My computer is dual-boot Windows XP, Ubuntu Breezy but I rarely boot into Windows anymore.

Speaking of packaging, I have to say that a system like Synaptic is an amazing improvement over Windows installers. You want software? Find it in the list, mark it for installation, press apply. You want all of the software on your system kept up to date? Ubuntu periodically checks automatically and the upgrades are just as easy to install.

Interesting, because I just reported this for Ubuntu as it was also displaying "Taiwan, Province of China":

http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=16314

methink there is a definite concerted effort out there from mainland Chinese to do this. It is also quite easy to do with OpenSource and it's wilfully politically ignorant geeks...

While Desktop Linux has been improving, it is stuck because of a lack of interest and motivation to make it a desktop replacement. If you look at this article with Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarkShuttleworth, it's fairly easy to see that people don't particularly care about the perspective of Linux for anyone except developers and those to whom "source code" even means something. It's generally the same thing with the GPL, where it's written from and for a programmer's perspective. Sure, I as a "user" like the source code and completely understand the "freedom" in that context because I actually appreciate and use the source code.

From a real "user's" perspective, however, source code is useless. Unless they have the technical knowledge to change something, or the resources to hire someone to change/configure something for them, it's a total non-starter. From that perspective, Windows, while bad in many respects, actually offers more "freedom" to an end user in terms of what it allows them to do by themselves without having to go through a steep learning curve and specialize in something that should be a tool.

I have been using Linux for well over thirteen years, and I absolutely *loathe* how hard it is to do simple things. I want a fully integrated GUI. Sure, I can do it the hard way, and I like that the power of the CLI is there when I *choose* to go into it, but for the most part, it completely sucks. Apt-get my !@#$. ./configure your way to hell. I want something where there is a standard way to install something.

If source code is the way, then make a completely GUI-oriented, extremely simple, build tool that will take the source as a package and install it without having to type a single command. I would say that perhaps Gentoo was on to something, but from what I understand the community is even more elitist than most.

Hi, I'm on the laptop testing team for ubuntu, and i also have an inspiron 9300. For the most part, things just work in breezy. Check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/DellInsp iron9300. I'd be interested to hear if you have any issues that aren't on that page. Thanks, Steve

Go to the official download page.

Now what do you find there?:

Download the latest Ubuntu!

Ubuntu 5.10 "The Breezy Badger" Preview Release

Ubuntu 5.04 "The Hoary Hedgehog"

MS never put their codenames on the boxes

Please give a daily build of the live CD (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/) a whirl if you have time, and be sure to update your packages using System> Administration> Update Manager. A slew of GNOME 2.12.1 packages were uploaded today (including Evolution updates). If you can still reproduce your issues, please file bugs in Ubuntu's Bugzilla. Thanks!

Upstream development in the open source world moves at a tremendous pace. Many developers like to keep up to date with specific upstream products, but the work involved in building from CVS every day is substantial. With The Grumpy Groundhog Project, Ubuntu provides those developers with a ready source of packages containing the latest upstream code.

These same packages will allow cutting-edge developers to keep track of changes in the upstream codebase that might affect the distribution later down the line. For example, these packages can be auto-built with the latest compiler and toolchain packages to test compatibility with the versions that may be used for the next release of Ubuntu.

The problem with traditionally high costs, is that means you can probably find someone else that offers cheaper support.

Take Ubuntu's support for example. For $100 USD I can make 10 online requests for help for one year, or I can pay $250/year for up to 25 support requests, which includes phone support as well.

I have used ubuntu as my desktop os of choice over FC3 and FC4. I haven't really checked out the "other" distros. Slackware is awesome as usuall and so is Gentoo.

I am of the opinion that Ubuntu is going to start gaining a lot of ground because of a $10 million dollar commitment by a Linux lover. When you throw money into a project, you can hire people to pour their heart and soul into making Ubuntu totally awesome - instead of only getting these people's leftover time after the soul sucking required of them from their other job. We are going to start seeing a lot of improvement (hopefully they will start picking better names) in the future. I believe that Ubuntu is one of the better distros to install as a desktop os. That $10 million started the Ubuntu Foundation. On top of that funding, they are backed by canonical...

For many people (though not all), Ubuntu *just works* out of the box. That's something else that few distros can claim.

Hmmm maybe I should have included that as a reason for healthy en masse uptake as opposed to a personal reason for using it. Seriously though their combined message/artwork/general packaging is very well done. Everything they release is coordinated by color, photographs, logo, typeface, etc - from their gnome theme to their website to the free CDs you can request. The importance they place on appearance is underlined by the fact that they maintain a 20 person art team

ubuntu came around at a time when (a lot of) people were getting frustrated with the delays in getting sarge out the door. ubuntu took what was in testing, mixed in a little sid, switched over to xorg & the latest desktops, and got a (good) product out the door before debian could even turn around.

even though sarge is stable now, it's still rather dated compared to ubuntu. if you're wanting a debian-based desktop, just the time savings of having a single-cd install, is worth looking at ubuntu.

and, ubuntu's going to really give debian stable a run for it's money, the april 2006 release is set for 3 and 5 years (desktop and server, respectively) of updates. http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2005 -September/010876.html

ubuntu deserves the attention and popularity it's been getting: "it's debian done right".

Get a freakin' help system in place so that I don't have to waste time clicking at stuff, getting annoyed, and then decide to give up altogether because it didn't work.

Well, for a Unbuntu end user there is always just paying for real techsupport. I know Redhat can help out with getting Wine to work (saw it happen), dont know about Canonical.

For a business I would never even consider using a specific distro unless there was a live person on the other end of a phone line. It just wouldn't happen otherwise.

Redhat, Canonical, and Novell all offer excellent support for Linux, you cant go wrong.

I have no idea how your post was marked interesting.

The difference between Microsoft and Linux is that it's FREE. If you want a single distro to do everything M$ can, go to a site that will provide just that. I suggest this one or possibly this one. Both are just fine as distros go.... And interoperable. If you want more, go pull it from the distro that has what you want. Not many are selling 'licenses' for basic Linux distros ATM, and they're CERTAINLY not going to sell you ten versions of the same thing - if you pay for it, you get a LOT more and that includes support.

Yes,
and bootable Linux CD's like Knoppix http://www.knoppix.com/ and Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/ are also good tools. The CD's can be loaded toward Windows, or Linux/BSD tools depending on the system in for repair.Essential for out of the office repairs and analysis but also useful at the bench.

That's strange, because I don't know anyone who doesn't.

My goodness. Where have you been hiding?
To quickly come up to speed, you might like to start here.

For those who want the latest 2.12 goodness nicely prepackaged, Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy) will be released with 2.12 on October 13:th, about a month from now.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BreezyReleaseSchedule?high light=(release)

http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

I think the distro you're looking for is Ubuntu.