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View Full Version : A praise to Ubuntu 8.10 - the Intrepid Ibex (and Linux in general)



ddainese
November 1st, 2008, 11:24 AM
Hi everyone,

I would like to thank the Ubuntu and Linux communities for the incredible effort put into this new release: it's simply amazing.

A little background: I always been a Linux supporter since I started my university career in 1996. In 2002 I have been hired in an IT company
and from there on I was having less and less time to use Linux at home.

At that time Linux was awesome already as a server (in example I upgraded my Debian installation from 1998 to 2003 without a single problem), but as a desktop it was still behind: I could have my desktop applications and peripherics work but only going through a lot of hassle, and the interface was still a little buggy too.

In the end, after about a year, I decided to remove Linux from my desktop and live with Windows XP only so to have only one OS to administer (my sister was using my PC too, and Linux was far too unfriendly to her).

I have to say I didn't had much troubles in these 5 years with windows... Mostly because I wasn't using my home PC very much :) what really I can't bare are all the attacks I received: trojans and virus of all kind and everywhere, and even though I tryed to be somewhat strict on my security policies (firewalls, antivirus, no IE, no suspicious sites, no installation of unneeded programs etc.) I caught 1 virus and (recently) 1 keylogger which forced me to reinstall the OS 2 times.

Enough is enough. I decided to check about Linux progresses in these 5 years... And I'm really amazed!

I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 8.10 - the Intrepid Ibex in half an hour. The procedure is far superior to its windows counterpart. And even if my hardware is quite recent everything has been successfully detected and configured (the extended keyboard, USB devices, audio/video, SATA controller, etc.), and I could install the proprietary video drivers in just 2 clicks.

So far I found the documentation to be very complete and well written.

All software I need as a desktop user is already included (firefox, mp3 players, video players, image viewers, etc.) and working very well, and the way you chose to temporarly give admin rights to the desktop user when needed is great.

On top of this I rediscovered all the great things about Linux: the stability, the security, the openess (i.e. nothing of what is going on is hidden), the amazing packaging system, etc.

I strongly believe now the system is easy enough to be usable by average users... And that I'm not going back to windows again ;-)

Great job guys, keep it up!

Diego

justplainaqua
November 1st, 2008, 11:38 AM
Second that! I just did a dual boot with XP and Intrepid last night. This morning got an XP install going in VirtualBox and installed all the Windows progs I need that aren't available in Linux. So now my XP partition is used purely for gaming which keeps the machine lean and mean as there are only games installed, no antivirus or other software to bog the system down. I don't game online so no security software is needed.

Very impressed with the Ibex and Virtual Box. I don't have ADSL at home so shared my 3G modem on my notebook connected via a hub to my normal desktop and had internet connection running without even thinking. Really surprised that I even had internet in my VM running in VirtualBox without any hassle.

Very impressive release guys, well done!!!

le singe
November 1st, 2008, 12:28 PM
Welcome back. Being that you're in Information Technology and already have a background in linux, you probably know your way around already. However, if you ever get stuck, then these forums are truly excellent. I've only been on linux since this summer, and I'm really not too computer technical (I only recognize a handful of terminal codes, couldn't tell you what compiling is...), and the community on these forums has helped me immensely with all my various questions and problems. So don't hesitate if you get stuck.

What was very refreshing to me about linux is how much you can customize it. I guess I'm more visual - check this site out if you want to change up the theme/icons/etc

http://gnome-look.org/

On the left-hand side you'll see all the categories. From what I understand, in gnome the GTK 2.x are system-wide themes (just install them or drag and drop into your appearance settings). Icons work the same way, usually only needing to be drag/dropped into the theme window. You can even change the mouse pointer if you want.

and here is a good (albeit huge) post that started over a year ago listing people's favorite applications, to give you some ideas of things you do or don't need:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=382137&highlight=favorite+apps

EDIT: oh, and an irritating virus was in large part what got me looking into Linux systems this summer, so I know what you mean.

Alright, enjoy!

mybunche
November 1st, 2008, 01:56 PM
I agree. Two years with Ubuntu, currently on 8.04 and only tried the 8.10 liveCD, which I was very impressed with. I don't usually upgrade with each release but with 8.10 it is very tempting.

Ubuntu 8.10 god work.

ukripper
November 1st, 2008, 02:05 PM
Hi everyone,

I would like to thank the Ubuntu and Linux communities for the incredible effort put into this new release: it's simply amazing.

A little background: I always been a Linux supporter since I started my university career in 1996. In 2002 I have been hired in an IT company
and from there on I was having less and less time to use Linux at home.

At that time Linux was awesome already as a server (in example I upgraded my Debian installation from 1998 to 2003 without a single problem), but as a desktop it was still behind: I could have my desktop applications and peripherics work but only going through a lot of hassle, and the interface was still a little buggy too.

In the end, after about a year, I decided to remove Linux from my desktop and live with Windows XP only so to have only one OS to administer (my sister was using my PC too, and Linux was far too unfriendly to her).

I have to say I didn't had much troubles in these 5 years with windows... Mostly because I wasn't using my home PC very much :) what really I can't bare are all the attacks I received: trojans and virus of all kind and everywhere, and even though I tryed to be somewhat strict on my security policies (firewalls, antivirus, no IE, no suspicious sites, no installation of unneeded programs etc.) I caught 1 virus and (recently) 1 keylogger which forced me to reinstall the OS 2 times.

Enough is enough. I decided to check about Linux progresses in these 5 years... And I'm really amazed!

I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 8.10 - the Intrepid Ibex in half an hour. The procedure is far superior to its windows counterpart. And even if my hardware is quite recent everything has been successfully detected and configured (the extended keyboard, USB devices, audio/video, SATA controller, etc.), and I could install the proprietary video drivers in just 2 clicks.

So far I found the documentation to be very complete and well written.

All software I need as a desktop user is already included (firefox, mp3 players, video players, image viewers, etc.) and working very well, and the way you chose to temporarly give admin rights to the desktop user when needed is great.

On top of this I rediscovered all the great things about Linux: the stability, the security, the openess (i.e. nothing of what is going on is hidden), the amazing packaging system, etc.

I strongly believe now the system is easy enough to be usable by average users... And that I'm not going back to windows again ;-)

Great job guys, keep it up!

Diego

Nice one mate! Welcome to ubuntu community