Slashdot Mirror
Ubuntu Linux Preview Released
psykelus writes "Ubuntu Linux, a Debian-based distro (formerly flying the flag of 'no-name-yet.com') annouced a preview of their first release (Warty Warthog) earlier today. Ubuntu is the most shiny Debian-based distrobution ever, sporting Gnome 2.8 and an extremely streamlined, mostly automatic installation & configuration process." For a limited time, they're also sending out free disks on request.
Single install CD with a full desktop and core server packages, anything else is available off the online archive.
Unfortunately the server was slashdotted with 0 comments. Try the Coral link but that is also very slow.
This is getting painful. Would someone please teach the slashdot editors how to use a spellchecker? (Don't get me started on grammar...) Maybe I should write a HOWTO...?
From the site: http://ftp.cs.umn.edu/pub/ubuntu-cdimage/releases/ warty/preview/warty-i386.iso.torrent
amd64t y-amd64 .iso.torrento rs/warty/warty-i386. iso.torrentr rors/warty/warty-power pc.iso.torrent
http://ftp3.linux.it/pub/mirrors/warty/war
i386
http://ftp3.linux.it/pub/mirr
powerpc
http://ftp3.linux.it/pub/mi
From the site: http://ftp.cs.umn.edu/pub/ubuntu-cdimage/releases/ warty/preview/warty-i386.iso.torrent
Amazing what a little patience can get you, isn't it?
We've got torrents online. They are here:
If the distro vanishes, you can always switch to mainline Debian, the packages should be fairly compatible.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
It's not out of nowhere, in fact I think slashdot reported on this project already.
g 01 659.html
This is Canonical software, far as I can tell, and there has already been discussion about it on the Debian lists -- since Canonical employed a swath of regular Debian developers.
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/07/ms
To get those free CDs shipped to you, you can go directly to this link:
http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org
In short, "humanity towards others".
Two defintions:
Ubuntu on Wikipedia
And a shameless plug for my writeup on E2
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Please don't bankrupt these poor chaps -- CDRs may be cheap, but they ain't free; nor is shipping.
But Maaa! Everyone else has a
Well, you can install it, and should they stop development on it, you can put the APT sources for Debian in your sources.list and magically, you'll be running Debian.
The improvements most of these distros make on Debian it seems is that they make it easier to install and configure. But once that's done, one Debian system is just like any other for the most part. It just runs, or at least it should.
-N
I've nothing to say here...
Matt Zimmerman, who announced this preview on debian-devel, is a prominent debian developer and member of Debian's Security team, and I understand that other prominent Debian developers are also involved. There have also been other postings relating to Canonical and this distribution on the debian mailing lists over the last couple of months so it is not exactly out of the blue.
I've been testing for a while, here's the skinny:
* Even sleeker installer than Sarge. Still curses, but it doesn't ask you nearly as many questions, and sarge doesn't ask that many to begin with
* Project Utopia out of the box
* GNOME 2.8
* A good percentages of packages available that are available in sid.
* Time based releases every 6 months coinciding with GNOME releases.
* Check the list, it's a who's who of debian and gnome guys working together on a desktop distro.
* Matching live CD (Not this release though)
Here is the debian list of the debian-based distros:
...and this list doesn't include Ubuntu or UserLinux yet.
* Adamantix
* BenHur
* Corel Linux
* Debian JP
* DemoLinux
* Demudi, http://www.demudi.org/, a multimedia distribution.
* Embedded Debian, http://www.emdebian.org/
* ESware Linux
* Euronode, http://euronode.org/
* Floppix, http://floppix.ccai.com/
* Gibraltar
* Impi Linux
* KNOPPIX, http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/
* Libranet, http://www.libranet.com/
* Linspire, http://www.linspire.com/
* Linex
* Linuxin
* Linux-YeS, http://eugene.mplik.ru/doc/lys/
* Linux Router Project, http://www.linuxrouter.org/
* MEPIS, http://www.mepis.org/
* M.N.I.S. Linux, http://www.mnis.fr/
* Morphix
* PingOO, http://www.linuxedu.org/
* Progeny Linux, http://www.progeny.com/
* Prosa, http://www.prosa.it/
* Stonegate
* Stormix Technologies' Storm Linux.
* TelemetryBox, http://telemetrybox.org/
* Xandros.
Bah!
It's XFree86 at the moment but the packages will be going into our development branch as soon as it opens. :)
1) Gentoo's documentation and forums are second to none. I often look up answers to questions at the Gentoo forums even when using a non-Gentoo Linux distro. Gentoo's install is very involved, but detailed documentation accompanies every step-by-step part of the process.
2) USE flags give me a ton of control on what support is compiled into each package. If I want Freetype to use the patented bytecode that makes AA so purty (to my eyes), I just add a flag to my USE flags and it shall be compiled as so.
3) I've had less dependency problems with Gentoo/Portage than Debian/APT. The last time I used Debian, I had a dependency issue that I could not find help for quickly on Google or mailing lists. I've yet to have an ebuild problem in Gentoo that wasn't quickly explained/fixed by searching the Gentoo forums.
4) Debian makes me feel guilty if I want to use any reasonably up-to-date software. :) I have to use SUPER-UNSTABLE-OMFG-ITS-GONNA-BREAK distro. So many posts around insist "don't use Sid, it'll break! OMFG!!11 use Sarge!". I have to admit that it makes me a bit gun-shy. With Gentoo, if I get a funky "too new" package that's breakable, I can just roll that one back to an older version. Gentoo stable is very up-to-date but not exceedingly so.
Who cares about Yet Another Distro? What's different about this one?
It's Debian, in a friendly wrapper, free and for free.
You can get Debian in a friendly wrapper by buying Xandros, or Linspire. They include nonfree software, and Linspire hooks you in to a software distribution scheme that costs a minimum of $50 per year.
You can get Debian free if you are a Linux expert. Get a Debian installer and have fun. However, Debian has 10,000 packages, and you need to know enough to pick and choose which ones you want. Ubuntu has 1,000 packages, and they have made default choices for you. (Want something Ubuntu doesn't offer? Grab it from the main Debian distribution; it will work.)
Also, Debian comes in three major branches: stable, unstable, and testing. Stable is really stable, but only updates every two years or so. Unstable updates daily but can be unstable. Testing updates automatically from unstable when the packages appear stable (a week goes by without major bugs posted against the unstable package, IIRC). Ubuntu on the other hand is promising a six-month release cycle; if you use Ubuntu, you should have a nice stable system, but you will get new packages much more often than if you use Debian Stable.
Ubuntu will occupy a similar niche to Fedora, but Red Hat makes all the decisions for Fedora while Ubuntu will have a community process.
The closest distro to Ubuntu is probably Bruce Perens's UserLinux project. But UserLinux is focused squarely upon business, whilst Ubuntu seems to be more focused on individual users.
Ubuntu should preserve all the things I like best about Debian, while being more friendly to newbies and offering a much fresher stable release. There isn't another distro quite like it.
I'm downloading it now and I look forward to trying it out.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I was a Gentoo user from the first release of 1.2 but after a long and arduous desktop install trashed by Reiserf and having no luck getting the latest release to see /dev/hda on my Nforce3 notebook, I looked around. FreeBSD won't boot due to a BIOS fault, Fedora works but it's still Fedora. Debian's Pure64 port has been a revelation. Fast (way faster than XP home on the alternate partition), stable and 14000+ packages in the Alioth Sid repository. I've always shied from Debian because of the incomprehensible install (for a Gentoo user!) but the lastest installer works great. I'm in no hurry to go back.
Ubuntu Linux will vanish when Mark Shuttleworth runs out of money...