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Ubuntu 6.06 Reviewed
Mark writes "This year has been a huge step forward for Desktop Linux users. First, Fedora Core 5 was released and featured the new Gnome 2.14. Then SUSE 10.1 showed us how well applications could be integrated to make a desktop look great. Now it was time for Ubuntu to release their latest version: 'Dapper Drake.'" Oh yeah, the inital review is good, too. Worth checking out for desktop Linux users.
Wow...I made a simple change to my sources.list file and ran sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and 15 minutes later I went from Breezy to Dapper. No reboot required. Bravo to the Ubuntu team!
This year has been a huge step forward for Desktop Linux users.
I know that people here frequently complain about things like duplication of effort and forking as things that dilute the impact of Linux and free/open source software on the world. I tend to be of the opposite opinion. You want something geared at the business desktop with good integration and commercial support? Get SuSE. You want something that carries the name of a recognized brand? Get Fedora (yes it is still in many places considered the standard, just look at how many hosting providers provide is as the primary or only platform). You want something different that has a reputation for rock solid stability? Get Debian. You want a user-friendly Debian? Get Ubutnu.
The point is that the diversity is what makes these things possible. None of those things would be done nearly as effectivly under a "one size fits all" approach.
In a nutshell:
So overall, I'd say, "excellent" on the visuals, apps choices, functionality (so long as wireless networking or network printers are not needed).
IMO, desktop users will be happy. Notebook users will be less than happy.
From the Ubuntu website http://www.ubuntu.com/ />, alternate is for:
* creating pre-configured OEM systems;
* setting up automated deployments;
* upgrading from older installations without network access;
* LVM and/or RAID partitioning;
* installing GRUB to a location other than the Master Boot Record;
* installs on systems with less than about 192MB of RAM.
Sounds to me like something that could be invaluable to people not necessarily running the latest and greatest.
Probably the two biggest issues that many have with Ubuntu are that it takes extra work to install MP3 support - not to mention every other codec or player.
MEPIS has recently confirmed the fears of some that Ubuntu is turning into a platform, displacing Debian itself...MEPIS is/was a KDE desktop based on Debian. The founder's concern with the stability and reliability of the Debian base recently led him to base his distro on Ubuntu sources instead.
So now with MEPIS, you get Ubuntu, except that it's KDE default, and it comes with every player (Real, Quicktime) and codec plugin for Kaffeine that can be found. Plus, the general layout of menus and the installer have won good reviews all around.
They're currently a week into beta4 on the new version based on the Dapper base and will likely have an RC1 out by mid-June.
Yeah but if YOU do the install, it is ready for grandma to use. I don't think grandma would do too well installing XP either.
To both parent and GP, I figured out how to do this. It takes some work, like many things in Linux, but is doable.
t o-breezy.html This may help.
/etc/fstab). From that point on, selling Ubuntu to him as easy-to-use was something of a losing battle.
http://www.ublug.org/ubuntu/twinview/twinview-how
I had to put this in the Device section:
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "RenderAccel" "1"
Option "DigitalVibrance" "127" #Vary me
Option "backingstore" "true"
#twinview
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "31.5-82.0"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "50-70"
Option "MetaModes" "1600x1200,1280x1024; 1280x1024,1280x1024; 1280x1024,NULL; 1024x768,NULL; 800x600,NULL; 640x480,NULL"
Ubuntu has been wonderful compared to other Linux distros. There are still headaches, and I think it's disingenuous to say that it is anywhere near as easy to use as Windows. I gave Dapper (beta 6) to my friend, claiming this. He was happy with the install and was delighted when the first thing he saw was that it had put icons on his desktop for his Windows drive. He clicked on them, and it said "you do not have permission to access this" (because the drives are mounted by root). There was no obvious recourse (the solution being editing
It just really bothers me that literally the first thing he saw on his nice, clean desktop was broken. I have had exactly the same situation in installs on other computers (which is why I knew how to fix it). I sincerely hope this is working in the current release.
I use Ubuntu as my desktop OS, mainly because of Ion3. I love the strength and flexibility of Linux. But I no longer recommend it to those without serious computer experience. Ubuntu is trying very hard, but I think it's gonna take them a couple more years. I know this is the cliche in Linux, "ready for the desktop in five years", and I don't think it will necessarially be that long.
It's just that any OS designed for non-experts needs to do a lot more whole-system novice-user testing.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
If you're paranoid about your users getting root on the box, physically secure it for a start and deny them shutdown permission (to reboot to the boot menu) you'd be better off...
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
I am a [very] long term Windows user and Windows Admin for a large corporation witl 100,000+ desktops. I love Windows. It is a superb operating system for a corporate environment. Sure it can be a pain in the arse because of updates but its ability to be centrally managed, etc is awesome. There is nothing else that can compete with it on an enterprise level, not even the stunning OS X 10.4. However Ubuntu 6.06 is an incredible operating system. While I am a Windows user I have a lot of respect for a lot of other operating systems. Linux being one of them. Ubuntu is probably the most professional release I have ever used. It installed without a hitch on my 6 months old IBM test workstation. I am very very impressed and I take my hat off to the Ubuntu team. The delay was worth it. Easily. They [the Ubuntu team] have done an incredible job and you have to respect that. I could easily give a Ubuntu system to a new computer user and they be able to learn how to use it for general tasks just as fast as a Windows system. You only have to go to the terminal as much as you need to go to the registry in Windows so it isn't really a battle on ease of use anymore. Ubuntu has brought Linux on par with Windows in that regard. Ubuntu just need to push on hardware support so that if it fails it fails gracfully. X server critical errors need to be replaced with a more graceful drop down to 800x600z256 colours similar to what Windows does. Also the most important thing to get working (other than the graphical interface) is the network. Once you have the network up and running you can get any other driver you need to. Ubuntu worked fine with my network card but I know that it isn't perfect from reports I have read online. I hope that this is fixed in the next release (7.01?). In a nutshell. SUPERB.
On May 29th, two days before release, an ATI bug was introduced via the xorg driver that makes Dapper unstable on certain ATI based systems. In my own case this means that my G4 is now unusable. Just as a reminder, if you think you might be affected, don't upgrade.
Just for reference, the forum post and the bug report.
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
Bah! Is MS paying these people to write one post like this on every mention of linux progress anywhere?
Dear Sir,
Your post is addressing the needs of a computer user (Grandma). You argue that she could not use Ubuntu Dapper for her computing needs. According to you, she would have problems with the following:
Because this is why she can't switch, I am guessing that you presume she does not know anyone who can help her with that. Fine. And because you argue that this is what makes Ubuntu inapt as an XP replacement, you must be arguing that she em can do all of that on her own with Windows XP.
"Grandma" does not exist, so stop pulling her out. Let's analyse what kind of person Grandma would have to be to fit the description: She is concerned about the performance loss between the nv and nvidia drivers, but unable to follow the three steps documented under "documentation" on Ubuntus webpage to get the nvidia driver. Also, she is completely able to download and install an updated executable from the correct website when she is in Windows. That kind of person does not exist.
I am really sick and tired over these kind of comments. "It is really good, I use it, but I doubt anyone could manage to use it". What you are trying to say, is that not everyone can setup and manage a computer, and maintain a healthy, powerful and updated operating system on it. This is old news. It applies just as much to your favoured operating system (which pshyciatric examination would reveal to be Windows) as Ubuntu Dapper.
As a counter-point, and an exercise to the GP, please do compare the routine of installing office applications on Windows compared to Ubuntu Dapper. Oh, it came pre-installed on Dapper? OK, that's unfair. Then compare installing any other application on Dapper vs. Windows. The ease-of-use for new users is vastly better with Dapper's extremely user-friendly shell over apt-get and dpkg. Windows is more difficult on this much more common task for a newbie than installing custom, 4%-extra-performance-gaining graphic drivers.
Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
this might sound obvious but you did burn from the iso rather than unpacking didn't you?
Neither. I just went to Ubuntu's web site and wished it boots up really hard. Didn't work.
You are a troll, whether you know it, or not.
./configure;make;make install since I am using Ubuntu. It has _all_ the software I need. I'm very confident that "grandma" doesn't need more software than I do. If she has more esoterical needs, maybe she could get someone to help her, but then your user is not "grandma" anymore.
I could tell, because you highlight "./configure; make install"
In fact, if it was _that_ simple, it would just be "make install", but it isn't.
About clicking the "setup.exe" , well, someone need to tell you to do that. People don't know by default that they need to click that to install. Plus, they can't se the ".exe" in XP, because file extensions are hidden. So they need to click the "setup" file with the flashy icon. And with no help whatsoever, of course. Plus, the CD with the software popped out of nowhere. Or maybe "grandma" went to best-buy and bought the software.
Let's talk a little bit about me. I use Ubuntu, and I didn't use
The fundamnetal problem is that MP3s are patented. As long as Ubuntu is dedicated to giving out free and liberated software, they'll be at odds with the patent holders who hold the right ensure that neither of those goals is possible. Recently there have been attempts to work within the patent holder's framework to provide something legal and acceptable, but the closest we have is Fluendo's licencing program, which explicitly doesn't allow for redistribution, one of the key things in the GPL's operation. For example, Ubuntu can mail you a 6.06 CD containing the mp3 plugin, but it's legally questionable for you to redistribute those CDs to your friends. And MEPIS would certainly be in trouble, unless they also secured such a contract. Ubuntu represents it's distro as a "people should be able to modify and share changes" aka a Free Software distro. This contract goes against this ideal, and if MEPIS isn't aware of this contract, and chooses to modify Ubuntu in other ways, then Ubuntu's exposed the people they told could modify the software, people like they guy behind MEPIS, to hidden legal liabilities.
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Open Source Sysadmin
I think I said that quite bluntly. And when grandma, or any other non-tech savvy person, can't play MP3s or family videos on Ubuntu because of "licensing restrictions," they aren't going to know what to do.
Actually, I'd be more concerned that they know what this means rather than exactly what to do about it. They need to know that in some situations [insert licensing entity here] is either refusing to avail their 'technology' on this platform, or that they require payment in order to use it. I'd like to see Americans start to gain a greater understanding of the political aspect of technology, and how it affects the choices they have.