Ubuntu Linux (New with GNOME 2.8)

[rbrimhall]

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

New distro... if you fill out there online cd "shipit" they will send you pressed cds for free (as many as you want) for a limited time.

Includes GNOME 2.8
kernel 2.6



Slideshow showing the distibutions GNOME implementation and programs.... (uses firefox as the primary web browser)

It's a live CD too

[rbrimhall]

Thought this was interesting:

"Ubuntu and other Debian Derivatives

There are many other distributions that also share the same basic infrastructure (package and archive format). Ubuntu is distinguished from them in a number of ways.

First, Ubuntu contributes patches directly to Debian as bugs are fixed during the Ubuntu release process, not just when the release is actually made. With other debian-style distributions, the source code and patches are made available in a "big bang" at release time, which makes them difficult to integrate into the upstream HEAD.

Second, Ubuntu includes a number of full-time contributors who are also debian developers. Many of the other distributions that use debian-style packaging do not include any active debian contributors.

Third, Ubuntu makes much more frequent and fresher releases. Our release policy of releasing every six months is (at the time of writing :-) unique in the linux distribution world. Ubuntu aims to provide you with a regular stable and security-supported snapshot of the best of the open source world."

[Seminole]

I think I'll give this one a try tonight.
I was just looking around for a new distro to play with. Loaded up Vector Linux last night. Interesting but no package handler.

Will post back if I like it..

[rbrimhall]

Keep in mind that this is a preview release. It's not a bad distro though. Some "interesting" highlights/details:

No root ---> everything is done by sudo... if you need to edit any configs or install software you enter sudo nano /etc/fstab which prompts you for your password.

I had to boot with the pci=noacpi because my parallel port on my notebook was hoggin' the IRQ that my sound card and wireless use (I am still fighting with sound but wireless is working--my modem is listed as a soundcard)

Had some issues with a few packages not installing from the installer right... which screwed up GDM being configured correctly... an update via synaptic fixed this.

No kernel source installed by default.

It's a pretty good distro and worth checking out just for GNOME 2.8. Very bare bones set of packages (one web browser, one email client, music player, etc)...

Note, there is a live CD out there but I haven't been able to find it... the Ubuntu site only has the install CD from what I can tell.

[Seminole]

You hit just about everything I noticed out of the box as well. I'm not used to not being able to log in as root. Getting used to sudo though. I'm always ssh'd into my box and while I know that allowing root to login on ssh is bad, I still like the freedom.


It is a very simple straightforward distro. apt of course keeps the system updated well and allows for easy installs. First thing I did was edit the config for apt to look at their universal packages.

wireless is working like a champ. Made a small script to handle iwconfig, ifconfig and route entiries.

no kernel headers by default as you mentioned but they are easy enough to install.

I don't like the file manager. Hate not being able to run something like knoqueror in superuser mode.
If I want to copy directories to other places or delete files, I don't want to have to do it ALL from CL.

I also don't like the way the manager opens each folder in a new window.. That's a very small complaint but it's such a pain.. KDE and konqueror have this setup whipped by far.

Other than those things, it's light fast and solid.
I was trying some new flavors, booted SUSE and wasn't impressed at all. It's nice to have a Debian distro that is actually up to speed. Good stuff and I would recomend it to others.

[rbrimhall]

You seem to dislike the spatial nautilus... it can be turned off in the gconf editor "Configuration Editor"--->apps--->nautilus--->preferences--->always use browser.

[Seminole]

Bingo, sweet....

I had actually looked at that setting before but didn't try it. Option should be "Open all folders in same window".

How was I to know how nautilus acted in previous versions? I didn't use it... lol

Thanks!

[rbrimhall]

Man, the more I use this distro the more I'm growing to really like it... it is fast... it boots faster than my Slakware install! GNOME 2.8 seems more refined than 2.6 to me... I had forgotten how great apt-get was. Plus, the fact that they have "ports" (what would this be called?) for AMD64 and PPC is really great... plus a live CD version as well. I'm not saying I'm going to replace my Slackware install but this is the first disto since I've switched over to slack to make me even consider it. All of this from a "preview" release... if you haven't given it a shot, you should...

[rbrimhall]

Ubuntu Review (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/9/28/211242/712)

[sharth]

live cd : http://archive.ubuntu.com/cdimage/releases/warty/preview/live-i386.iso

[ions]

Well for the hundredth time my neighbour came up to me whining about XP being all screwed up. I told her if I do a reinstall and apply some patches I believe this is only going to be a re-occuring event. Maybe it was time to try something else. She agreed. Eventually. I've been watching Ubuntu and figured this would be a good time to give it a shot. The only warning I gave her was that Linux is a different world and while it's not harder, it is different. Apprehensively she agreed, as long as she could play her Yahoo! games she'd be happy.

The end-users are only going to do a few things with this machine: Play Yahoo! games, music, Web and email. As long as that works they need nothing more. Machine: A Dell P4 that they payed heaps of cash for.

So I jammed in a freshly burned Ubuntu and began installing...

The first iso didn't work. Input|Output errors. So I tried another. Same thing. Tried the other drive and one of the two isos I burned worked fine. I was getting worried - could have been the crappy discs I buy, could have been the drive, could've been the speed I burned the isos but anyway, it did work eventually. If memory serves the one that worked was burned at a slower rate.

I was fine with the graphical installer. The installer as a whole really. I never felt left out of the process too much but I also chose defaults all the way. The end user wasn't going to benefit from any specific tweaking so I didn't bother with partitions or anything like that.

Once it was installed, which did not take too long, it looked pretty spiffy. Was clean and fast. I was impressed actually.

Everything was on the up and up as I showed her around Gnome, had to wing it cause I've been using *boxes for ages, we got her email running and accounts set up in Gaim but I have 2 problems.

1. No sound. All volumes are up at max and I can't make it peep. lspci listed the sound device. Also, apparently there's no mp3 support in Ubuntu. That'll need to be fixed.

2. The *most* important use of this machine is to play Euchre at Yahoo! games apparently. Everytime a link to a social lounge is clicked Firefox crashes immediately. Running Firefox from terminal only provided "Segmentation Fault". Headed off to #ubuntu and someone helped me out by adding new servers to get Java from. No workie. As sad as it is if I can't get Euchre to work on that box she'll want Windows back. Still looking into this one. Getting Flash to work would be nice too. Probably the same sort of problem is keeping both Java and Flash from working.

Other than that I think that this is a clean distro with a high amount of polish for a new release. It's nice to see something directed towards entry level peeps that is not RPM based. I'm not about to replace Gentoo with it but I would have no issues running it if it's what I had. If you have a box you want to try something new on go for Ubuntu.

[mrBen]

Originally posted by ions
1. No sound. All volumes are up at max and I can't make it peep. lspci listed the sound device. Also, apparently there's no mp3 support in Ubuntu. That'll need to be fixed.

It's not 'broken' as such - much as it was removed from Fedora over potential licensing issues, it has also been removed from Ubuntu.

I don't really use Java on Linux all that much, so I can't help with the other problem - hope you get it sorted out. Hopefully they might sort it for you by the time the final release comes out.

[retsaw]

Originally posted by lupin_the_3rd
Man, the more I use this distro the more I'm growing to really like it... it is fast... it boots faster than my Slakware install!

That's strange, I tried Ubuntu and it took longer to boot than my Slackware ever did, with my Slackware boot tweaked Ubuntu takes twice as long. I could certainly trim Ubuntu's boot time down, but for doing that Slackware is a lot easier.

With that said Ubuntu is a nice distro with a good choice of default packages and a good menu layout and I like using sudo by default instead of a root account, but I wouldn't switch to it from Slackware.

[rbrimhall]

Originally posted by retsaw
That's strange, I tried Ubuntu and it took longer to boot than my Slackware ever did, with my Slackware boot tweaked Ubuntu takes twice as long. I could certainly trim Ubuntu's boot time down, but for doing that Slackware is a lot easier.

With that said Ubuntu is a nice distro with a good choice of default packages and a good menu layout and I like using sudo by default instead of a root account, but I wouldn't switch to it from Slackware.

Slack boots fast with kernel 2.4 for me but hotplug and 2.6 slow the boot down considerably... hence Ubuntu beating out Slackware... I've actually wiped Slack from my HDD to concentrate on using Ubuntu for a bit and I am very happy so far. I may just keep Ubuntu on my laptop and wait for GNOME 2.8 on Slackware (non-dropline variety) for my upcoming desktop.

[seldomseen]

I like it. Downloaded/burned the live CD and it's pretty quick for live.

I'm not a big Gnome fan (Fluxbox is my weapon of choice) but this one looks clean. Easy to use. The desktop is not all cluttered.

I understand one advantage this has is that Ubuntu keeps its own repositories so's you can upgrade without worrying about breaking it (which is the one knock I have against MEPIS).

Not real crazy about the rootless/sudo system. Probably psychological. I like that level of protection root/user gives me (knowing I have to really work hard to screw the system up) and would need to know whether the rootless layout gives that same protection to the system files. But then I su - an awful lot no matter which distro I'm in.

If I was to install this one (don't tempt me) I would probably reconfigure it a little bit and put in Fluxbox. Then watch it fly.

[ions]

I'm pissed. Installing Java is a big painful process that so far has done nothing but piss me off, and cause Firefox to stop working. Still working on that. YES I downloaded the java bin, installed it, and found the directory. Which wasn't /usr/java like every fricken how-to says it would be. I had no .mozilla/plugins dir so I created that and made the symlink. No java. So I put the symlink in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins . That caused Firefox to stop working altogether.

mv ~/.mozilla ~/mozilla

brought Firefox back but of course all changes were lost.

Also Evolution has decided to not show a single email in the inbox. The panel on the right claims the inbox has over 30 messages. Not a single one displays.

#ubuntu has been near useless today, Tuesday it wasn't too bad.

[rbrimhall]

you're not using the gcc2.97 (or something like that) plugin are you? I did on accident and firefox stopped working altogether... symlinking the regular gcc plugin solved the problem for me.

[ions]

I believe the gcc version was 3.4...or whatever comes with Warty so I thought since I wasn't "using an old version of Mozilla, or one you compiled yourself with gcc 2.9x, use the copy located in the plugin/i386/ns7 directory of JRE 5.0, or plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32 if you are using JRE 1.4.2." ( http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux.html#Java ) I thought I'd be fine.

Geez does that quote make sense? Lemme know if I made things confusing by quoting like that. :o

[ions]

Turns out Java is a bug listed in the Ubuntu Bugzilla. It works fine with Opera so that'll get em by.

The sound problem was that the proper module was not being loaded. Once added sound was found.

I still like Ubuntu but there is some definate bugs - which should be expected for a beta release really.