Ulteo, The New 'World's Easiest Linux'

ggarron writes "Gael Duval, the creator of Mandrake and now fired from Mandriva, has created a new Linux distro, based on Ubuntu, and it claims to be the easiest Linux, and that it will redefine the Desktop philosophy."

Comments

The world's easiest Linux distro?

[4D6963]

You mean, even easier than Slackware or even Gentoo?!?

Re:The world's easiest Linux distro?

[gbobeck]

You mean, even easier than Slackware or even Gentoo?!?

Gentoo is pretty easy to install. Hell, I even remember the two of three commands for installation:

Command #1:
cfdisk /dev/hda && mkfs.xfs /dev/hda1 && mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/ && chroot /mnt/gentoo/ && env-update && . /etc/profile && emerge sync && cd /usr/portage && scripts/bootsrap.sh && emerge system && emerge vim && vi /etc/fstab && emerge gentoo-dev-sources && cd /usr/src/linux && make menuconfig && make install modules_install && emerge gnome mozilla-firefox openoffice && emerge grub && cp /boot/grub/grub.conf.sample /boot/grub/grub.conf && vi /boot/grub/grub.conf && grub && init 6

Command #2:
either 2a) rm -rf / & sleep 1000 && reboot
or 2b) cat /dev/urandom /dev/hda /dev/sda /dev/pts

Source: Uncyclopedia

Re:The world's easiest Linux distro?

[Workaphobia]

Gentoo is all about choice. In this case, you choose to overwrite your partitions with /dev/urandom. While that may be fine for newcommers, power-users appreciate the satisfaction that comes from catting /dev/random and manually moving the mouse to generate entropy until every gigabyte is nuked. You already took the time to compile your system from scratch in step 1; when it's time to give up in step 2, you'll want to make sure you demonstrate that same dedication to slowly acheived perfection.

Re:The world's easiest Linux distro?

[thc69]

I had the thankless task of ridding the boss's wife

So easy to misread. So very easy.

It is based on Kubuntu, not on Ubuntu

[Anonymous Coward]

The article summary is slightly incorrect: Ulteo is based on Kubuntu, not on Ubuntu. This means that it used KDE instead of GNOME as its default desktop environment.

This is not a surprise, considering that Gael Duval is a big fan of KDE and started Mandrake by adding KDE packages to a base Red Hat distribution. But this announcement of a new Linux distribution started as a fork of an existing one sounds a bit like an ego fight. Also, I have serious doubts about using KDE for the "World's Easiest Linux". Either Gael Duval plans to dumb down KDE and hide most of its options, or his definition of "easiest" is rather biased (maybe "easiest for those with a solid experience of Windows"?). Neither seems to be obvious by looking at the Ulteo web site.

Also, the only screenshot available so far does not look like something that would be really easy to use. Compared to a default KDE 3.5 installation, this screenshot looks a bit closer to the default Windows XP interface, so maybe he does really think that "easiest" means "easiest for experienced Windows users". However, Firefox looks rather standard (it is interesting to note that he does not use Konq for browsing) and there does not seem to be anything special about the Konqueror window either.

So after looking at the various articles on the Ulteo web site claiming that it started with a study of "users with limited knowledge in computers", I am still wondering what is so special about this new fork of an existing distribution, and what it really means by "easiest".

Re:It is based on Kubuntu, not on Ubuntu

[Wylfing]

It's before my coffee and I am feeling crabby. I just hate this subtle fear and doubt BS which is based on lies and false comparisons.

I couldn't just click-and-install a wireless card driver just drew a blank look from me

I don't know why this persists. People appear to be so trained to tolerate Windows' annoyances that I guess the following is "one click":

1. Hunt for a CD and put it in the drive.
2. Try to figure out what to click on the manufacturer's custom welcome screen or trial-and-error figuring out what to click on the CD or oh wait don't actually insert the CD now wait until Windows asks for a driver disk.
3. Agree to a EULA that strips you of all rights.
4. Answer some questions you don't understand the consequences to or meaning of.
5. Boggle at a scary message that these drivers are not approved by Microsoft and take the "not recommended" approach of installing them anyway.
6. Reboot so it can "finish the installation."
7. Reboot again to finally have the device recognized.

why the hell should I need to edit config files and compile stuff?

For the n-billionth time, nobody does this anymore, and hasn't for a long time. The real fact is that 99% of Ubuntu users don't even need to be aware that there is such a thing as a "driver" because the vast majority of hardware works immediately as soon as you attach it to your computer. Your plea for "more drivers" is meant only to scare people into thinking Linux doesn't have them, when in reality a distribution like Ubuntu comes with many, many times more drivers than Windows does.

some very basic things continue to confuse me - eg. setting VLC as the default video player for all video files

So now we take a task that is not basic -- configuring file associations or default applications is something that very few users attempt -- but call it "very basic" to make it seem like fundamental functionality is missing. Good job, there.

Re:no

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

You can't get irony, isn't it?

Sentence not parse, does not?