[conspire] Re: Ubuntu

[Ross Bernheim]

On Friday, October 8, 2004, at 08:27 PM, 
conspire-request at linuxmafia.com wrote:

> -Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 06:05:46 -0700
> From: Bill Stoye <skiffworks at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [conspire] Ubuntu
> To: conspire <conspire at linuxmafia.com>
> Message-ID: <1097240746.5057.48.camel at skiffworks.ca.sprintbbd.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> I've been using Ubuntu <http://www.ubuntulinux.org/> for almost three
> weeks and like it a lot; it's a pre-release but works well and if 
> anyone
> is looking to keep things simple, this is it. Gentoo, which I liked but
> was over my head(all Linux is), is fast, I think everything about 
> Ubuntu
> seems faster. I don't know the technicalities that make one 
> distribution
> faster than another but I'm often startled by how fast something pops 
> up
> on the screen.
>
> It's not quite bug free, the biggest problem I had was getting the
> network and printer working(common problems), both had a workaround; 
> I'm
> sure that'll get fixed by their release date of Oct, 13th. Also after I
> installed the correct 'nvidia' driver for my card, it won't shutdown
> without holding the power button for ten seconds; this is still a
> nagging problem. having a Knoppix CD on hand was handy to get on-line
> for help.
>
> It's uses Gnome, which I prefer to KDE(a Chevy vs. Ford thing); the 
> only
> thing I miss from KDE is 'K3b', which has been a very nice GUI for
> burning Cd's; I've not had luck with any of the burners available for
> Gnome. I don't yet have the skills to burn using the command line.
>
> Packages seem to be updated at the rate of fifty a day (+/-); there is 
> a
> lot of enthusiasm in the email user-list and other than very rare
> exceptions, everyone has been ladies and gentlemen. I've embarrassed
> myself on more than one occasion and haven't been slammed badly. If 
> fact
> I've learning about Linux at a much better rate from trying to follow
> the user-list.
>
> Much like Red Hat, their handling of multimedia is a little difficult;
> much for the same reasoning, concern over rights.
>
> I had been using Libranet 2.8 for almost two years but wanted the 2.6
> kernel for better support of some of my hardware and I liked the simple
> offering and menu of Ubuntu, but libranet hasn't come out with their 
> 3.0
> release after an original target date of mid August... I may duel boot
> to it when it comes out for grins.
>
> Don't know that anyone is interested in yet another distribution but
> being it's a Debian based, I put my thoughts out there.
>
> Best regards;
> Bill

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list
It has two lines commented out that open up the larger sources 
repositories
that Ubuntu has for the stuff not directly included in the basic 
desktop install.
Also note that if you use Synaptic to graphically manage your packages, 
it shows
the packages installed or that Ubuntu might install under a menu. 
Result was
that VideoLanClient is not listed under multimedia, but does show up 
under
the all catagory.


> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:01:57 -0700
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> Subject: [conspire] (forw) Re: debian server maintenance
> To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
> Message-ID: <20041008160157.GK22221 at linuxmafia.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Relevant to Bill Stoye's Ubuntu box.
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Daniel Stone <daniel at fooishbar.org> -----
>
>
> You might be interested in Ubuntu, which was just introduced at LUV --
> it's Debian-based, with a six-month release cycle, and resyncs 
> regularly
> with unstable, and comes with many improvements.  Despite being
> desktop-focussed, you can do a custom install which doesn't include X 
> or
> anything else similarly desktoppy, and then use all the normal 
> packages.
> Apache, Samba, and others are included in our supported seed, which get
> our high level of support, and virtually all the rest of Debian's
> packages have been built in the 'universe' repository.
>
> (Disclaimer: I work full-time on Ubuntu for Canonical.  But I still
>  think it's pretty rad.)
>
> :) d

I agree that it is quite a polished distro, particularly in light of it 
being
pre-release! I am learning my way around the gnome desktop. There are
a few issues that have given me trouble. The main one is that trying to
get the software to recognize a disk inserted in a firewire connected
DVD drive. The hardware manager sees it, but the multi-media programs
have problems finding or using the drive.

The simple plain desktop is 	quite nice and I like the login with 
account
name and password on two separate screens.

What blew me away the most was how good text looked in OOo and Firefox
on the box with Ubuntu versus the other distros that I have tried. 
Kudos as
this goes a long ways in getting me to spend more time on the linux box.

Ross Bernheim


A pound lost is two gained.