Slashdot Mirror
Ubuntu Linux Review
JimLynch writes "Pardon me while I pimp one of my own stories. We've got a review of Ubuntu Linux up on ExtremeTech. Check it out. Overall we had quite a positive experience with it, we think it's going to be a good distro as it matures. If you're looking for an easy-to-install debian distro, give it a download." Update: 09/27 23:25 GMT by T :
Eugenia writes with another review from USALug, and a 6-page comprehensive Ubuntu preview at OSNews, writing "Gnome's & Ubuntu's release manager Jeff Waugh also had an interesting interview detailing lots of interesting tidbits. The final version of Ubuntu is expected mid-October."
I think the OSNews review posted today is better: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=8407
See the Debian Planet story back on the 16th. Which linked you to the announcement and also an interview.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Their packages are not binary compatible with Debian packages, so you can't mix them in a single install. Therefore, they're not really a Debian child, although they're related by starting with the Debian package selection, and bugfixing/certifying from there. More like a Debian half-clone, sent to finishing school. Which will have some effect on drawing away some community contribution to Debian, as a partial fork. Kinda like that clone beating his dad's time at the pub with his fancy accent, but then unable to get past Dad's doorman to use the penthouse jacuzzi.
--
make install -not war
QUOTE " What benefit, exactly, do Linux users get from the proliferation of distros?"
One large benefit is the fact that every distro is different, has different goals and aspirations.
Some people want a server, some people want a desktop, some want to run an FTP server.
If your looking to say, run an ftp server, wouldn't it be nice to get a distro that has an ftp server built in to the kernel?
You're more likley to find the distro that does exactly what you want with so many distro's around.
That's the purpose, and advantage to the proliferation of distros.
The review concludes that one of the few disadvantages of the disro is 'no VPN wizard'. Now isnt that a bit too picky !!! I would understnad if they mentioned the Text based Installer, no pakg selection , bad install documentation etc. but no VPN wizard is absurd.
Well at least we have to give Ubuntu folks some credit. This is the only linux distro that installed on my Apple G5. Installation was real easy on G5. They have PPC32 support only. PPC64 support coming soon. For those of us looking for an alternate OS for their G5 without paying yellowdog or without having technical expertise for debian and gentoo, Ubuntu is the distribution. The only problem sound card is not recognized. Even the thermal driver is working.
Google: Ubuntu: An African Assessment of the Religious Other
http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Afri/AfriLouw.htm
and a lot of other things.. but I'm too lazy to look for them.
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
There are some issues with the lp module b0rking up Dell and IBM laptops, so that may be the cause of the wireless trouble that ExtremeTech had. It is with my Dell Latitude and it's IPW2100 wireless chip - see bug 1254 on bugzilla.ubuntu.org.
That being said, they have released an evaluation install, not a final. That's scheduled for mid October, IIRC. It's therefore not suprising to see some things - especially wireless - flaky or non-functional in the eval release. The final is supposed to be a lot better - point, click, configure, done. Here's hoping.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Several people have already posted comments asking why the world needs yet another Linux distro.
I wrote a Slashdot comment explaining why Ubuntu is interesting. Click here to read it.
A comment by Doc Ruby states that Ubuntu is not package-compatible with Debian. I said otherwise in my comment linked above, but I haven't checked it out for myself yet so I'm probably wrong.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I think this is the quote he meant:
" If your looking to say, run an ftp server, wouldn't it be nice to get a distro that has an ftp server built in to the kernel?"
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Ubuntu is a commercial distribution with 34+ full time engineers working on it. Every bug they fix they contribute back to Debian or the relevant project. There are a number of really good distributions out there that have forked Debian, but Ubuntu is one of the few who gives most of their changes back to the community. So I say it's a branch, not a fork.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Good point. It was a broadband connection on the desktop, a wireless card on the laptop and I used NAT translation in the vmware install. My bad for not including the details in the review. Sorry. I'll see what I can do about adding that in.
Jim Lynch
Tech Analyst and Community Manager
It was a Netgear WG511 actually.
Jim Lynch
Tech Analyst and Community Manager
Yes! I'm running the ubuntu x86_64 version on an HP pavilion a650e with AMD64 3200+ cpu, everything works well. I'm also running the standard 32bit x86 version of ubuntu on my home pentium II system. So far I'm quite happy with ubuntu. Debian, gnome, python, just works, what's not to like?
There may be hundreds of distros but a newbie only really needs to choose from among the main distros: Fedora, SuSE, Debian, Mandrake. That's essentially three and a half distros to choose from (Mandrake is Redhat based) - I can't see that as unreasonable diversity.
A newbie thats considering Yoper, Arch or something equally obscure is asking for unnecessary trouble - as a quick question to a help board, chat channel, newsgroup, etc, will reveal.