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"Try to help"? Here is examples of them "trying to help":

-blatantly ignoring what I said in the first post (like about how I tried to install multiple times and verified the install CD was burned correctly)

-asking things obviously irrelevant to GRUB error 25 (like what version of Windows) and then pretending like not giving them that information makes it impossible for them to give advice on how to fix the boot loader

-despite what you say, they DID claim I was in error to fail to take precautions I could not possibly have known to take (I "should have known to" download a Live CD, "test install" it on a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COMPUTER, not trust its suggestion that install GRUB, have my Windows CD ready, and so on -- yes, they actually recommend finding MS software before installing Ubuntu. UBUNTU!)

-they didn't answer direction questions, like those here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=690130#po st690130

and here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=686369&post count=5

Plus, they deleted many of my posts, the ones more critical of their OS and attitudes.

When Linux users actually *see what it's like* from a newcomer's perspectives, maybe they'll "get it".

And the only support I got in the forums was, "you idiot, why didn't you [perform precaution mentioned nowhere in the install instructions]".

It's ok to say that "Distro X sucks cause it didn't work for me". Badmouthing volunteers who try to help is not.

* http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=122473

... I certainly could be wrong.

Wow, you weren't kidding there. Here are some things of which you should take note:

• It is called Ubuntu
• There is a company behind Ubuntu, and that company is Canonical
• Certification for Ubuntu on the horizon

And I want to know the name of the idiot who is responsible.

He's called Colin:

    http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=818037& postcount=61

That's true, but not a very good description of what happened.

He patched it within hours today, and posted to osnews with a description of what happened. He also posted a copy on the ubuntu forums page including details of what happened. It affects clean installs of breezy, and dapper upgrades from a breezy install, but not hoary or a clean dapper. hoary = 5.04 breezy = 5.10 dapper = not officially released yet

Yes, there's an automated installer called Automatix. It's only for Ubuntu Breezy, but there should be a new one when Dapper is final.

I think that's great. Just a while ago Dapper got a new urine-colored Human theme, and - all due respect to the people who put their efforts into making Ubuntu better - frankly, it's just horrible. If the release is delayed, they have a lot better change to fix the theme.

Another thing i'd really like to see in dapper is the new NetworkManager 0.6 with its WPA and OpenVPN goodness. "Automatic network detection and configuration management" is high-priority target for dapper, and the new features in n-m 0.6 are needed by many users.

505 users in favor of the delay, 50 against at last count.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=142536

Dapper is coming along nicely, but there are a number of bugs that might not get the attention they deserve if Dapper is released on schedule.

Their Flight 5 CD is out. It should be quite stable for normal use.

Ubuntu can use Klik. Most Debian based distros can. There's nothing else for Ubuntu to do.

Linky.

But there's still the problem of obtaining completely legal DVD playing and such.

And let me say, it's damn slick. Not everything is working (or at least not enabled by default), such as trasnparency, and the top and bottom of the desktop cube are simply white. I'll try to figure out if they're broken or disabled. But what is working, is everything else.

Performance isn't the best. Theres some lagginess to DVDs, but only minor, and even less then expected when doing a wobbly-window move.

As a plug for Ubuntu, this is by far the best distro I have played with. Every other time I have tried to get myself to Linux I ran into unmovable road blocks. This thing, (a damn BETA release!) boots up first try with all hardware detected and running (even my Dell-supplied Broadcom wireless NIC). Then, I go install the nVidia 3D driver and an experimental windower and stuff works perfectly. Honestly, I don't think it could get much better than this.

The instructions here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=13126 7

provide a better way of passing options to Xglx, and with the -accel params I no longer have the "smoothing" issues I had before, and peformance is much faster. Xine video is still messed up, but glxgears (and hopefully other OpenGL) work.

Even with Ubuntu.

Works fine for me on a native AMD64 Ubuntu flight-4 install, admittedly I had to get some community debs from the Ubuntu forum to get compiz to work on AMD64 but it should be easy x86 I hear. Since I got it working it's fast and fun. It certainly rivals OS X in some ways and this is only the beginning ;)

You should probably ask people for help in the right tone ... and try not to say how bad ubuntu is in every other reply you make.

When people(who use ubuntu), are trying to help others in whatever way they can (for free), read posts like that with all the negativity, they won't really feel like helping.

The funniest thing is that the conversation ends when they all realize that the problem is a faulty hard drive. Flaming Ubuntu for hardware failure, that's rich.

I don't know where my install disc is. Again, I thought -- probably because of all the liberation/openness rhetoric of Ubuntu -- I wouldn't need Microsoft software to get Ubuntu to work. Guess that's not the case.

Like I said, you didn't need MS software to fix Ubuntu, it would have gotten you into Windows. I quote from you again:

I don't have a Live CD. Naive me, I thought that by downloading just the install disc, I wouldn't be locked out of both Windows AND Linux. But it's my fault, really. I should never have believed all that crap about "providing access to all".

Again with the mean saracasm. Go ahead and admit you were looking for defeat so that you could rant about it not working and prove to us all that it's terrible. I installed Windows and then Visual Studio and then Windows would give me nothing but a blank screen after a reboot. No seriously. It really happened. Pardon me while I make an announcement...

Windows should never be used because it never works with their own software!!!"

My one experience should do it. I expect the MS empire to start crumbling any day now.

What's that you say? It's only one experience? How about this: The first time I tried dual-booting I was unaware that you should install Windows first. I installed RH 7.1 and it worked fine so I went ahead and installed Windows on a seperate Hard-drive in the computer. A totally seperate hard-drive. And when I rebooted I got...wait for it...Windows only. Where did RH 7.1 go? I later found that Windows doesn't like to play nice with other non-MS OS's and share a boot record or even to bother looking for them. I hope you don't mind, but I will borrow a quote from you. It reads:

Sorry, but any OS that locks you out of all OS's for installing it does not have high "usability" and so forth.

There's more proof that Windows suffers from serious "usability" problems.

See, isn't it fun to be sarcastically mean to others. See what kind of wonderful responses it gets from people, especially those who honestly try to help you out with no recompense? That concludes today's lesson.

You should probably ask people for help in the right tone ... and try not to say how bad ubuntu is in every other reply you make.

When people(who use ubuntu), are trying to help others in whatever way they can (for free), read posts like that with all the negativity, they won't really feel like helping.

I spend, unfortunately a large amount of my time in DimWoes because of school, however, I have gotten Broadcom Wireless to work with the ndiswrapper and it seems to work very well. You should check the Ubuntu forums for specifics: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=31926 Best Regards, Kalecomm

I dual boot my notebook with both DimWoes XP Professional and Kubuntu 64-bit Edition. Under Kubuntu, I use the ndiswrapper package for wlan support and the install was amazingly straight forward, didn't require ANY compiling or reconfiguring of the kernel, only finding the 64-bit Windows driver, which I have if you need it. Added benefit: the wireless light on my Compaq Presario R3000 notebook blinks under ndiswrapper when it's being accessed. Under DimWoes, it just stays on all the time. I like the behavior under ndiswrapper better. It lets you know when data is actually being transmitted/received. Anyway, here's the instructions that I followed that got me up and running in about 1/2 hour: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=31926 Hope that helps. Best Regards, Kalecomm

If you want wireless now and can't get your AE card to work, there are few options. The Linksys WUSB11 USB 802.11b card works "out of the box" under Ubuntu PPC. You can get that for $10 or so at CompUSA. That is the only USB wireless adapter that I have gotten to work natively in Linux on PPC so far.

BTW, ndiswrapper is x86-only at the moment, so that is why it is such a pain in the neck.

good quality control while at the same time keeping up-to-date software in the distribution

Here's a perfect that totally disproves that statement:

I used Ubuntu 5.10 for a few months. The problem with Breezy Badger is the version of Firefox that ships with it is just awful. Aside from the terrible memory leak, it randomly segfaults on different links. Here's the problem: Ubuntu won't backport 1.5 to Breezy Badger. Why? Because that repository that they're always bragging on kicks you in the teeth. All those plugin packages are broken by the upgrade to Firefox 1.5. In fact, since the upgrade breaks so many packages (somewhere in the neighborhood of 50), Firefox 1.5 won't be backported. All this just to upgrade a simple browser. Don't waste your time reporting the bug to Firefox, because they'll quickly close your thread and tell you that it's fixed in trunk. Of course you could easily install it yourself, but isn't package upgrade and availbilty one of Ubuntu's biggest selling points?

ps. Is that how CmdrTaco wanted us to link to stories ;)

Someone mentioned on Groklaw that the exploit also exists in wine which just implements the WMF spec.

No idea. But I did a quick google and came up with this. Hope it helps.

Just in case you did not know, there is a way to get (mostly) stable composite effects in Linux without Xgl.

I use Xcompmgr daily with no problems since the last Nvidia driver.

Yes, because letting the package manager handle all the little details is just so hard?

Just who are you trying to kid with those lies?

Had to "manually update libraries"? In Ubuntu, I think not.

Woah buddy... I guess I'm not with you so I'm against you, right? All I know is I had to find a precompiled version of Mplayer for Kubuntu, install 5 libraries which asked for about 20 other libraries to be updated. I didn't have the address of the repository I needed so I had to go download them and install them manually.

Ubuntu at least had a package for Mplayer that just installed and ran properly. Except that when I wanted to update Firefox I had to manually remove it and manually install 1.5 and a week later, I just said 'screw this' and reformatted in XP.

When a very common program like Firefox requires an entire forum thread to install without fucking up your entire system (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=79283) there is obviously an ease of use issue with the OS. Windows/MacOS users can start to install a program 99% of the time with two clicks. That is your target market if you want more market share.

PS: Ubuntu was unstable and would shut down programs at random when I either clicked into or out of their windows.

With Xorg 7 comes the chance for the first stable composite extension! So Xcompmgr will stop crashing (as much)! Also, by using my own guide I can get an accerated desktop with a ATI 9250 card that uses EXA (which is more stable than Nvidia's renderaccel)! So maybe...just maybe...I can get a Windows 98 level stable accerated desktop before 2005 ends, thereby beating Vista out the gate by a year. And since the KDE compositor is near stable, I can enjoy menu transparancies now when I log into Kubuntu without fear of crashing!

Also the new driver interface will bring improvements to the closed Nvidia driver once they get their head around it, and my 6600 GT will hopefully give me decent performance with Skippy-xd by the time Dapper comes.

Of course, this won't help most users because composite won't be turned on by a major distro for at least a year or two but for those of us on the Linux Eye Candy edge there is a whole new world open today.

By far Xorg is the most primitave part of the Linux desktop compared to the alternatives (especially with Openoffice.org2 out there) and this release is the first step towards the wonderful desktop that OSX people have now and Vista people will have next year. I can't wait soon enough for drop shadows, real transparancies, and minimize effects that do not suck!

There is a way to update kernel AND keep your Nvidia drivers working.

This thread from the ubuntu forums might be of interest to you. I couldn't figure out why I was getting stuck this morning, so I wondered if it was just an ubuntu issue (or all firefox on linux). Apparently someone with FC3 was also locked out, so it seems they've locked out linux users.

I strongly recommend this controversial ( http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=98912 ) thread for those interested in security comparison between Linux and Windows... Basically, it seems there is no real difference between Linux and Windows when it comes to security...

okay, i really hate the subject line (and emeril's show) but here goes:

i work in a very small environment... say roughly 25 employees and at least that many desktops with about 20 servers. i've been pushing to move away from being a microsoft shop. luckily, the guy before me was also very pro-Best Solution (note i didn't say pro-linux or anti-microsoft) and set up a number of linux servers.

i have taken hold and attempted ot push the idea of linux desktop solution for people that don't need windows (i.e. sales people). i actually set up a second box for myself before deploying a test box for a sales person. being a ubuntu user for 3 releases now, i choose it for it's polish, shine, and my comfort level. my experiences have been mostly good. anytime anyone needs a package, i just grab it from apt-get (or find a repo first if need be). i can take care of the whole box via ssh and never have to bother the user. it works GREAT except for a few small problems in a windows network:

1. setting up active directory authentication is a PAIN. it's not hard, but time-consuming and requires a lot of manual tweaking (see my request for an automated tool)
2. evolution-exchange connector is horribly in need of work. the basics work, but it's not fast or efficient - or stable. it gets the job done, albeit not eloquently
3. (i belive the following is a problem with nautilus, but idk) when accessing a shared windows folder, authentication gives a prompt for credentials, but it doesn't matter when you put here. the second prompt for credentials is the important one. in fact, you cannot get the first box to go away unless you click cancel
4. sudo & AD groups. for the life of me i can't figure out how to get sudo to recognize %domain\linuxadmins as a valid group. `groups` shows me as being part of it, but it's almost as if sudo doesn't like the slash. i've tried escaping it, and tried it without the domain to no avail. ideally, i'd like to set up a group to allow certain users to perform updates when ubuntu notifies them stuff is in need of updateing.

my gripes aren't HUGE, but they're annoying to me. of course i haven't touched on management needed for a 20,000 pc environment (pushed software & updates), so ymmv

I hear Automatix is pretty good for settings things up on Ubuntu Just Right (tm): http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563

Since I'm running mostly KDE-applications and didn't hear of it before too late, I didn't use this. So I've followed the various HOWTOs for installing proprietary codecs and compiled kmplayer (which is The best player for Linux right now, do yourself a big favour and forget all others), installed Real Player for Linux (found a utility that converted the install-binary into a deb IIRC). My Linux box now plays more formats than my Windows-boxes (mainly because I don't really care about all those formats, it was just so that people would not complain about it).

To compile kmplayer was just an 'apt-get install libkde-dev' (or whatever the KDE-dev package was called) and then 'make && make install'. There are some breezy deb's around, and I made some myself (I like to have everything a deb), but the links didn't work unfortunately.

For the future, the Penguin Liberation Front for Ubuntu is aiming to provide packages not provided in the free / universe / multiverse repositories: http://wiki.ubuntu-fr.org/doc/plf

They didn't have too many packages last time, but enough to put them in sources.list. I will submit my kmplayer deb's to the proper maintainers now that my box is properly set up.

For the simplest installation, I would recommend Automatix though. I've heard alot of good about it, and messing around with all of that yourself takes alot of time and frustration. I mainly see computers as a tool to relieve me of work, but I also like that tool as good as it can be, so I put up with it.

Don't expect an official Ubuntu package right away - it's seen as a complicated upgrade:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=96595

• http://www.ubuntu.com/
• http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
• http://ubuntuguide.org/

Capabilities:
1) Installs multimedia codecs
2) Installs all Firefox plugins (java, flash, etc) (except Adobe reader and mplayer)
3) Installs RAR, ACE and UNRAR archive support
4) Installs skype
5) Installs Acrobat reader 7 and firefox plugin for the same.
6) Installs Gnomebaker (CD/DVD burning s/w for GNOME)
7) Installs gftp (FTP client for GNOME with ssh capability)
8) Installs DC++ , amule and Limewire (file sharing progs)
9) Installs multimedia editors (Audacity (audio), Kino (video), EasyTag (ID3))
10) Installs DVD (dvdrip) ripper
11) Installs Mplayer and mplayerplug-in version 3.05 for Firefox
12) Installs totem-xine, VLC and Beep Media Player (with docklet)
13) Installs Opera Browser
14) Installs Debian Menu (shows all installed applications) (this kills and restarts your gnome-panel without warning u!)
15) Installs Bittornado and Azureus (Bittorrent clients)
16) Installs Avidemux (Video editing tool)
17) Enables Numlock on (turns numlock on Gnome startup)
18) Installs Programming Tools (Anjuta (C/C++ IDE), Bluefish (HTML editor) and Screem (Web Development Env.))
19) Install GnomePPP (Graphical Dial up connection tool)
20) Installs MS true type fonts
21) Configures ctrl-alt-del to start gnome-system-monitor (aka windows)
22) Installs Streamripper and Streamtuner
23) Installs NON-FREE audio and dvd codecs
24) Installs ndisgtk (WiFi configurator Graphical user interface)
25) Upgrades Open Office to 2.0 (final version), installs openoffice clipart and installs OO2 thumbnailer. (no support for AMD64 and ppc packages)
26) Adds 3 nautilus scripts (open any file with gedit as root; open a nautilus window as root in any folder; open gnome search tool in any folder (Right click in a nautilus window and look under "scripts")
27) Installs SUN'S JAVA JRE and JDK version 1.5
28) Installs wine (u need to run winecfg manually after installation)
29*) Installs firestarter (GNOME firewall frontend) and adds firestarter to GNOME startup
30*) installs gdesklets (GNOME eyecandy) and adds gdesklets to GNOME startup
31*) Gamepads (Makes USB gamepads work)
32*) Turns DMA ON on Intel and AMD machines (needs a restart)
33*) NVIDIA cards (Detects Nvidia cards and installs drivers) (Needs a restart)
34*) Adds midi capability to your Ubuntu box (test by playing a midi file with timidity or pmidi from terminal)

* --> These options require manual intervention and clicking. Please stand by!

PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL (23) IF YOU ARE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IT IS ILLEGAL TO DO SO.

Another little remark:

I've used Ubuntu since Hoary and I was always impressed at its quality over previous linux distros I had tried, FC4 most notably. I reciently installed it on a relitivily modern laptop and realised once I had done setting it up it had actually been easier to install and get up to date then Windows.

With Windows XP I have to install it, then find my SP2 cd and install that, download a heap of updates. Then I have to download drivers to get everything to work and so on. Now Ubuntu isn't much different its just the process takes a lot less time and is easier to do. As soon as you are done installing the base system there is a pop up that tells you you need to update. So you click that wait a while for it to download and your done, you do need to restart once because there is a new kernal out but that is understandable and is still much better then the 5 or probably more times Windows XP needs. And with Automatix the rest of your setup is easier still.

I could not be more happy with my ubuntu laptop. There are even ATI video card driver packages available making for a very slick install.

Ubuntu claims that "Each release is supported with free security updates and fixes for at least 18 months", but the Synaptic updater is now telling everyone who has 5.04 is to do a distro-upgrade or else it proposes to install a new kernel of size 21.8k.

Is anyone at Ubuntu actually testing updates with 4.10 or 5.04? Either fix the update system or replace the claim by "Your Ubuntu installation will be supported if you transition from one release to the next."

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=93587

The problem: the order and the list of things to install or configure is not listed anywhere.

You are on your own!

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=476609& postcount=112

Or Not: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

Also - there are over 500 ppl in the ubuntu irc channel (#ubuntu) at any given time, someone there to help usually at any time.

The problem: the order and the list of things to install or configure is not listed anywhere.

You are on your own!

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=476609& postcount=112

Or Not: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

Also - there are over 500 ppl in the ubuntu irc channel (#ubuntu) at any given time, someone there to help usually at any time.

Take a look at the ubuntuforums...here's a link that helped me get wpa working perfectly with my ipw2200. http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=26623

For Ubuntu, this works: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=82318

Otherwise, I do agree with you. I just had to go through that to get Steam to work under Wine, or rather to have it display any text. Later I found out that it's possible to change what font should be used instead. (Btw, Steam and for instance CS 1.6 runs almost flawlessly under vanilla Wine 0.9.1, I am quite impressed).

It seems some of your problems might be solved with a little help from the excellent Ubuntu Guide and Ubuntu Forums. Packages like DVD::Rip and avidemux sit in some repos that are turned off by default (at least DVD::Rip is; haven't checked avidemux as I pulled my deb install from a forum user). A quick edit to /etc/apt/sources.list and an apt-get update should help.

Ubuntu Guide has a lot of great tutorials for practical tasks (e.g. -- getting DVD functionality to work, setting up DHCP client, installing nVidia drivers), and any questions I've had not found there I can usually find at the Ubuntu Wiki or the Ubuntu Forums. And it's all pretty much top-notch. The forum people and IRC people are really helpful and friendly too -- I've not encountered any of the sort of snobbery that I found in other distro support forums and channels *cough*Gentoo*cough*.

Totally agree with the kernel bit. One of the first things I do after an Ubuntu install is install a new kernel. So, if any Ubuntu devs are reading this, more kernel options for an install would be greatly appreciated kthx :)

It seems some of your problems might be solved with a little help from the excellent Ubuntu Guide and Ubuntu Forums. Packages like DVD::Rip and avidemux sit in some repos that are turned off by default (at least DVD::Rip is; haven't checked avidemux as I pulled my deb install from a forum user). A quick edit to /etc/apt/sources.list and an apt-get update should help.

Ubuntu Guide has a lot of great tutorials for practical tasks (e.g. -- getting DVD functionality to work, setting up DHCP client, installing nVidia drivers), and any questions I've had not found there I can usually find at the Ubuntu Wiki or the Ubuntu Forums. And it's all pretty much top-notch. The forum people and IRC people are really helpful and friendly too -- I've not encountered any of the sort of snobbery that I found in other distro support forums and channels *cough*Gentoo*cough*.

Totally agree with the kernel bit. One of the first things I do after an Ubuntu install is install a new kernel. So, if any Ubuntu devs are reading this, more kernel options for an install would be greatly appreciated kthx :)

If you would posted this a month ago I would have told you to get an Nvidia 5200 FX- no question. But now it seems that the ATI 9250's are a better choice because for the next Ubuntu release they will have great EXA support. The better EXA support means they might be able to run a compositor in a more stable fashion than the Nvidia cards can.

Using a compositor is the best way to speed up the Linux desktop. Actually its about the only good way, but using them with Nvidia cards can be very unstable (as my guide warns). It seems that the ATI cards using EXA are much more stable. Just be sure to get a 256mb ANYTHING if you can because usually you only pay ten or so extra bucks at that level and you can be assured that you will get a 128 bit card instead of a 64 bit card (which would be crap). Plus xcompmgr LOVES VRAM.

Seriously, Ubunutu is one of the reasons GNOME has made so much progress recently with users and now we are back to square one with splitting the userbase. Stupid move. I could care LESS which one they choose, just choose ONE.

I guess your probably don't want to hear about Xubuntu then?

On a more serious note, stop. "Back to square one" and "splitting the userbase"? Give me a break. The underlying parts of K/X/Ubuntu remain the same - they all are using the same kernel, can use the same apps, and all of the programs install with the same "sudo apt-get install" syntax (or YOUR CHOICE of graphical installer). How is that splitting? As long as the "guts" of Ubuntu stay consistent and allow me to do what I want, I'm happy with my 5.10 Gnome desktop with k3b and Amarok installed, or switching to KDE and using Synaptic and Firefox.

Or look at it another way - what happens when things don't work "best" in GNOME? For example: this thread on the Ubuntu forums. In order to get some programs working, such as FreeNX, a remote desktop program, an alternate window manager (XFCE 4 in this case) had to be used. If GNOME was the only option, it wouldn't have worked as easily. Having choices about desktop environments allowed this particular project to work, and allowed other people to try it out, (hopefully) leading to further development of FreeNX (which kicks ass, btw). How is that a bad thing?

Try a little research Captain Holier than thou.
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/
Newbies are the only people who would go to the Debian site for help with Ubuntu or Debian. Anyone with experience would know that some jerk like you would shout them down for asking questions. The whole idea of Debian was to provide a community for support and growth of Linux and now you want to be bitter because Ubuntu is providing a FREE distro that has become useful and popular because of that community. Try helping them out next time and they may not stay clueless forever.

Actually Windows Power Users are not the key demographic. I advise the community I am a part of to avoid trying to convert such users if they can. Why? Because the demands for such users are higher than those who think that computers are magic boxes that are shipped filled with spyware, but they are less willing to tolerate the Linux learning curve then a super nerd.

If Linux gets popular on the desktop, it will be in spite of Windows Power Users, not because of them

Linux needs to gain popularity from the ground up
 
It is happening at the moment very rapidly. Just read Ubuntu forums and see. Many ordinary (not nerdy) Windows users are switching to Ubuntu.
 
We're seeing posts like this every single day.

It's a headache, but I got wifi working in Ubuntu 5.10 running the Linux kernel 2.6.12-8-386 on my Acer Aspire 3002 using Ndiswrapper. It works pretty well The major problem is that newer kernels don't seem to do so hot with it; when I upgraded to 2.6.12-9-386, the power management module stopped working, and I had to revert to the older kernel to get it back. A couple of others have reported success. See here for a thread about it, and here for my wiki documenting my efforts to get it to work.

Check out Automatix (Automated GUI installation script) posted on the EasyUbuntu forum. It installs all the nice-to-have extra software automatically. It's been updated to this release, and the number of posts has increased dramatically since I downloaded it this morning!! A list of what it does (copied from the post): Capabilities: 1) Installs multimedia codecs 2) Installs all Firefox plugins (java, flash, etc) (except Adobe reader and mplayer) 3) Modifies ALSA, OSS and ESD confs for duplex sound (solves most audio related probs on Ubuntu) 4) Adds midi capability to your Ubuntu box (NEW) 5) Installs RAR and ACE archive support 6) Installs skype 7) Installs Acrobat reader 7 and firefox plugin for the same. 8) Installs Gnomebaker (CD/DVD burning s/w for GNOME) 9) Installs gftp (FTP client for GNOME with ssh capability) 10) Configures Ctrl-Alt-Del to start up Gnome System Monitor (aka Windows) 11) Disables powernowd on laptops when they are plugged in 12) Installs DC++ and Limewire (file sharing progs) 13) Installs multimedia editors (Audacity (audio), Kino (video), EasyTag (ID3)) 14) Installs CD (goobox) and DVD (dvdrip) rippers 15) Installs Mplayer and mplayerplug-in version 3.05 for Firefox 16) Installs totem-xine, VLC and Beep Media Player (with docklet) 17) Installs Opera Browser 18) Installs Debian Menu (shows all installed applications) 19) Installs Bittornado and Azureus (Bittorrent clients) 20) Installs Avidemux 21) Enables Prelinking 22) Enables Numlock on (turns numlock on Gnome startup) 23) Installs Programming Tools (Anjuta (C/C++ IDE), Bluefish (HTML editor) and Screem (Web Development Env.)) 24) Gamepads (Makes USB gamepads work) 25) Totem and Mozplugger (Totem embedded with mozplugger) 26) GnomePPP (Graphical Dial up connection tool) (NEW)

Yes, you can. Check out http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ and do a search for VMWare. I've done it on Hoary Hedgehog and I'm sure someone has done so on the Breezy Badger as well.