Ubuntu: Best Linux Desktop for Business?

sebFlyte writes "ZDNet has been testing Linux for business, trying to work out what the best distro is for small businesses. After testing Mandriva Linux 2006, Novell Linux Desktop 9, Red Hat Desktop 4, SUSE Linux 10 and Ubuntu Linux 5.1. After installing them all from scratch to simulate a new business set up, and extensive testing involving Gaim, Evolution, OpenOffice.org -- as well as actually writing each review on each distro -- Ubuntu came out as the winner. They summed it up saying 'Ubuntu is a well integrated, practical and absolutely free' and dismissed worries about support. SuSE came a close second."

Comments

Ubuntu 5.10

[the_g_cat]

Ubuntu 5.1 != Ubuntu 5.10. The first one doesn't even exist...

Ubuntu Year.Month

[my_breath_smells]

Actually its Ubuntu 5.10, not 5.1

Ubuntu X.Y corresponds to the release year (200X) and the release month(Y).
In this case it was October 2005 -> (10/05)
The next release will be Ubuntu 6.4 (April 2006))

Re:Ubuntu Year.Month

[Nermal6693]

Actually, the next release will be 6.04 :)

Re:Ubuntu Year.Month

[kalakala]

10.X

One little additional remark

[jurt1235]

Some, notably SUSE and Ubuntu, also worked well on our test notebook -- which might surprise those who think of Linux as purely a desktop or server OS.

I have used several laptops with several linux distros (Slackware,Debian,SuSE), and they all worked OK. Definition of OK is: You are able to tweak your kernel and your X server, and you are totally OK. New versions of the distros pretty much install without a glitch on any of the systems I have standing around here (dual PII, PIII, PIV, laptop). So that remark about the laptop is pretty redundant in my opinion.

Re:One little additional remark

[Frogbert]

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.

Re:One little additional remark

[swillden]

Try doing the same with Warty which is newer than XP gold, you have to go through exactly the same process to get it up to Breezy but you have to upgrade to Hoary as a middle step.

You do? apt-get should be able to jump from Warty to Breezy in one step.

Ubuntu Bug day

[maxx_730]

While we're on the subject: today (the 24th) is ubuntu bug day! Join #ubuntu-bugs on freenode and report all your bugs!

Re:Ubuntu Bug day

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:SuSE 10

[tpgp]

So where does the non-free part come in?

Why do you say that? The review says "SUSE Linux is available as a free unsupported download,"

That said, I don't believe Suse has any guarantees about prices of future products - whereas Ubuntu says on their front page:

"Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition", we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms."

Very low quality review

[Freggy]

I read the review of Mandriva 2006.0, and I have to conclude the review is of a really very low quality. Firstly, they are complaining about the lack of a tool to configure network printers. Was it that difficult to find the add printer item in the Mandriva Control Center, and check the two checkboxes for auto-detection of networked and Windows printers?

They say that partitioning was difficult. Actually, first you have the choice to do everything automatically, choosing "use entire hard disk" or "use free space on Windows partition". Instead, they chose Custom partitioning, where again there is a button "Auto Allocate", which do everythinhg automatically once you resized the windows partitions. Now if they call this difficult, they should not have chosen the customized partitioning scheme in the first place. Actually I have heard of users having a lot more difficulties with the SuSE or Ubuntu partitioners.

They say the Exchange connector for Evolution was not there. Did they actually bothered looking for it during half a minute? Then at least they would have found the package evolution-exchange!

The real weak points of Mandriva 2006.0 are not talked about on the other hand. Not a word about the instabilities caused by the buggy beta X.org 6.9 included, by kat which makes kded eat all CPU time sometimes, and nothing about the old version of OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 which is included, and which is buggy (it crashes on SXI files it has created itself).

Really, nothing to see here, move on people!

Re:How does Ubuntu =/==/!= Debian?

[endemoniada]

Ubuntu is based on Debian, yes. It's not Debian (it's Ubuntu) and, at the same time, it IS Debian with changes.

Whether you want to call it Debian With Changes, or Ubuntu, or probably up to you...

Citrix

[Rinnt]

A long time fan of Mandriva I decided to give the latest Ubuntu a try. I soon found out there is a problem with the 9.0 Citrix Linux client. True, you may be able to use an RDP connection to the server, but shadowing doesn't always work in this mode. I really should have given it more effort, but instead I moved on to try Mandriva 2006. The same thing existed there! In Mandriva I was eventually able to get it to work by installing the latest openmotif and using the 7.0 Citrix client. I'm sure the same solution probably works in Ubuntu...

Sure, Citrix may hardly be a requirment in most businesses. However, for those of us that do use it we're usually pretty dependent on it. Although this was a pretty serious problem I had with Ubuntu, it's still a great distro IMHO.

Re:Ubuntu makes me smile!

[Fallingcow]

Until you need to play some WMV3 video.... then its a boot into windows. sigh

Have you installed the Win32Codecs?

I'm not familiar with WMV3, and I'm not certain that it's supported by the Win32Codecs package, but lots of non-free and Windows codecs are. Also, VLC comes with its own pack of codecs and can sometimes play stuff that other media players can't, so you might try that if you havn't already.

In addition, I'd recommend dumping Totem as your default media player, if you havn't already. It blows big time, and Ubuntu associating it with all audio and video is my only complaint about their default setup. Well, aside from the ugly-ass brown color scheme, but that doesn't affect usability.

Use VLC or Xine or Gxine or Mplayer for video, and XMMS or something similar for audio.

Re:SuSE 10

[houghi]

but it would be nice to know the free edition is going to be around forever.

Not sure if SUSE will be free. SUSE OSS will certainly be free. It is the OS that is made by the community on http://opensuse.org/

Would've like to see Mepis too...

[darnok]

Ubuntu is very nice - no doubt about it. I've got it on my main desktop at home, and have been very happy with it since the first release.

I've also had a lot of joy with Mepis; a particularly nice feature is that you can boot off the CD, then install off the same CD. Ubuntu has separate discs for "live CD" and "install". I know it's a minor point to experienced Linux people, but having a single CD to boot and/or install from is pretty mindblowing for someone who's had to install Windows...

That said, being able to install a complete desktop with a full set of desktop apps from a single CD is pretty wonderful, compared to Windows. I know my parents were pretty impressed with that when I moved them off Windows; from past experience reinstalling Windows, I think they thought it'd take several hours rather than about 30 minutes.

Re:I think Ubuntu is ok

[Fallingcow]

I'm not sure if there's a GUI grub configuration tool or not, but you can install Webmin and edit stuff like that through your web browser.

First, change your root password to something other than the auto-scrambled one that Ubuntu uses by default by typing:

sudo passwd root

It'll ask you for your password (the password for your user, that is), then ask you to type a new root password, then type it again to confirm. This is important because Webmin enables only the root account by default, and if you don't know the password then you can't log in, and it's a pain in the ass to change it after it's already been installed, as webmin keeps its own, separate password file.

Then open up your package manager under "Applications->Add Programs" (I think that's what it's called, doing this from memory). Wait for it to load, then go to "File->Advanced". Do a search for "webmin" and tell it to install the base package and any of the addon modules that you want for it.

Now you can browse to "https://localhost:10000" and log in as root. There's a graphical utility in there to change the Grub configuration file, I think.

Alternatively, you can skip all that crap and just do:

sudo nano -w /boot/grub/grub.lst

It should be well-commented and pretty easy to understand. There will be a line that sets the default OS to boot. Just change that, save it, and you're done.

But yeah, there probably ought to be a GUI editor for it. Come to think of it, you might be able to pick the default OS during the install process; I can't recall for sure.

Re:Quite an extensive review

[codemangler]

Quite an extensive review (Score:4, Funny)

That was my first impression. Till I realized you had to click the links for the 5 distros tested, where they really did have extensive reviews.

Re:virtual PC & Ubuntu

[j-cloth]

I have Unbuntu 5.10 running beautifully inside VMware. Maybe you should use a better virtual machine....

Attention: jotaeleemeese is an idiot.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/sig_fig/S IG_dig.htm

a. Zeroes placed before other digits are not significant; 0.046 has two significant digits.
b. Zeroes placed between other digits are always significant; 4009 kg has four significant digits.
c. Zeroes placed after other digits but behind a decimal point are significant; 7.90 has three significant digits.
d.Zeroes at the end of a number are significant only if they are behind a decimal point as in (c). Otherwise, it is impossible to tell if they are significant. For example, in the number 8200, it is not clear if the zeroes are significant or not. The number of significant digits in 8200 is at least two, but could be three or four. To avoid uncertainty, use scientific notation to place significant zeroes behind a decimal point...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_digit

...any zeros that follow the last non-zero digit to the right of the decimal point are significant, e.g.: 0.002400 has four significant figures.

Oops, my anal retentiveness is showing.

Re:Distribution of choice

[illcare]

Original comment is here:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=137851&cid =11533388

news from the field

[erinacht]

I run a business (admittedly I'm a one man band contractor). My server is ubuntu and my laptop is ubuntu. Both very nice and easy and quick to configure, it wasn't completely painless, but neither is a windows server/desktop solution.
I've also just upgraded my in-law's aging P2 300 win98 machine with ubuntu. They're very happy with it. Their needs are limited admittedly - web,mail,digital camera,chess,patience. Ubuntu passes with flying colours. I showed them round gnome in a matter of minutes and they were up to speed in no time. Now they keep saying things like - it's _so_ much faster. it looks _so_ much better. No surprise really since win98 is now 7 years old and ubuntu 5.10 is 1 month old. The point is that they would not have had the same experience had I tried a WinXP upgrade on that old hardware.
For a home desktop, I can recommend Automatix - that installs all that "other" stuff for a desktop system.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563

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.

Re:Absufuckingly incorrect.

[JabberWokky]

There are no significant digits, it's a date. It may be written oddly, but that seems to be popular these days. Same goes for telephone numbers - people like to write them with periods, but that doesn't mean that 800.588.7726 has significant numbers. Nor does the 2005.11.25 sitting up in my clock.

Using dates as a version number is pretty common.

--
Evan