LakeWind
June 5th, 2007, 09:30 PM
Hi All,
Well I finally took the plunge and switched from OpenSUSE 10.2 to Ubuntu
7.04. I've been using SuSE since 7.2 (pre Novell days). It was a
really hard decision to make but the last straw was when I upgraded my
computer to a new motherboard and processor (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core)
this past week. I re-installed OpenSUSE 10.2 and it didn't recognize the
integrated audio chipset or the integrated LAN. I also had some issues
with the on board video (nVidia 6100) so I bought an add on PCIe nVidia
GeForce 7300LE card. That helped with the video problems.
OpenSUSE has been a royal pain in the a** lately trying to get the zen
updater and zmd package management stuff to work!!!! I've been pulling
my hair out over the past 6 to 8 months trying and getting nowhere!
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and for no particular reason!
If one of the repositories is slow or down, watch out! What a mess.
I've been using Ubuntu on an older computer (my test machine) for about
6-8 months now playing around with it a bit. A couple months ago I
installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my Dad's computer (he's 76 and OpenSUSE was
just too complicated for him, again mostly because of the zmd package
management and zen updater. Plus it was slow on his older computer). He
loves Ubuntu. He told me it boots up a lot quicker now and it's just
easier to use. I also recently installed Ubuntu in a dual boot config with Win xp on
my wife's laptop (Toshiba). It recognized everything during the laptop
installation including the wifi and wide screen display without any
additional configuration on my part.
The most influential experience for me in choosing Ubuntu for my primary
production computer was when my wife and I went away for a week and took
her laptop (after Ubuntu was installed). The hotel we were staying in
had GuestWIFI. We were trying to log in to GuestWIFI using Windows XP
and were unsuccessful. I called GuestWIFI tech support and followed their
suggestions. We still couldn't get it working under Windows. I knew the
wifi card worked properly because she uses it at home with our wireless
network. I then asked if he had any config info for Linux and he stated
"We don't support Linux at all". At that point I ended the call and
re-booted the laptop into Ubuntu. After a few minutes of manually
setting up the wifi connection (using settings he had given me for
Windows) I had an internet connection. Very nice indeed! It wouldn't
work at all under Windows, but Ubuntu brought up the connection just fine.
Ubuntu is a real breath of fresh air! It installs really quickly, it
looks really nice and the updater just plain works without any fooling
around. Apt and synaptic are second to none. Granted I've been a KDE guy
for years but the funny thing is, I have always customized KDE to the
point where it was very similar to Gnome (double clicks, etc...). I was
impressed when I installed 7.04 and it immediately recognized my
integrated audio, LAN card and video for my new motherboard without a
hitch (something OpenSUSE failed to do).
I've used a lot of Linux distributions over the years starting with Red
Hat 4 (back in 1995 or 1996?). Since then I've tried many including
Debian, Mandrake, Fedora Core, SuSE / OpenSUSE and MEPIS among others.
Of all that I've tried, Ubuntu seems to be the most polished. It's the
easiest to setup and just plain use for productivity. It's also very
fast to get up and running (under an hour for me, with restricted
formats, medibuntu and drivers installed). No offense to OpenSUSE,
Novell or their developers. I enjoyed using SuSE exclusively on my
primary computer since 2001 and if the package management/updating
system wasn't so messed up, I probably wouldn't have looked for
something new. So far, I'm very glad that I did.
Keep up the great work Ubuntu Developers. I'll be here for quite some
time to come. This coming weekend I think I'll help my daughter blow
away OpenSUSE and install Ubuntu on her computer. That should take only
about an hour to get it completely up and running properly... I wonder
what else I can do with all that spare time I'll have this weekend? I'm
sure my wife will have a few ideas! ;)
Mike
Well I finally took the plunge and switched from OpenSUSE 10.2 to Ubuntu
7.04. I've been using SuSE since 7.2 (pre Novell days). It was a
really hard decision to make but the last straw was when I upgraded my
computer to a new motherboard and processor (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core)
this past week. I re-installed OpenSUSE 10.2 and it didn't recognize the
integrated audio chipset or the integrated LAN. I also had some issues
with the on board video (nVidia 6100) so I bought an add on PCIe nVidia
GeForce 7300LE card. That helped with the video problems.
OpenSUSE has been a royal pain in the a** lately trying to get the zen
updater and zmd package management stuff to work!!!! I've been pulling
my hair out over the past 6 to 8 months trying and getting nowhere!
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and for no particular reason!
If one of the repositories is slow or down, watch out! What a mess.
I've been using Ubuntu on an older computer (my test machine) for about
6-8 months now playing around with it a bit. A couple months ago I
installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my Dad's computer (he's 76 and OpenSUSE was
just too complicated for him, again mostly because of the zmd package
management and zen updater. Plus it was slow on his older computer). He
loves Ubuntu. He told me it boots up a lot quicker now and it's just
easier to use. I also recently installed Ubuntu in a dual boot config with Win xp on
my wife's laptop (Toshiba). It recognized everything during the laptop
installation including the wifi and wide screen display without any
additional configuration on my part.
The most influential experience for me in choosing Ubuntu for my primary
production computer was when my wife and I went away for a week and took
her laptop (after Ubuntu was installed). The hotel we were staying in
had GuestWIFI. We were trying to log in to GuestWIFI using Windows XP
and were unsuccessful. I called GuestWIFI tech support and followed their
suggestions. We still couldn't get it working under Windows. I knew the
wifi card worked properly because she uses it at home with our wireless
network. I then asked if he had any config info for Linux and he stated
"We don't support Linux at all". At that point I ended the call and
re-booted the laptop into Ubuntu. After a few minutes of manually
setting up the wifi connection (using settings he had given me for
Windows) I had an internet connection. Very nice indeed! It wouldn't
work at all under Windows, but Ubuntu brought up the connection just fine.
Ubuntu is a real breath of fresh air! It installs really quickly, it
looks really nice and the updater just plain works without any fooling
around. Apt and synaptic are second to none. Granted I've been a KDE guy
for years but the funny thing is, I have always customized KDE to the
point where it was very similar to Gnome (double clicks, etc...). I was
impressed when I installed 7.04 and it immediately recognized my
integrated audio, LAN card and video for my new motherboard without a
hitch (something OpenSUSE failed to do).
I've used a lot of Linux distributions over the years starting with Red
Hat 4 (back in 1995 or 1996?). Since then I've tried many including
Debian, Mandrake, Fedora Core, SuSE / OpenSUSE and MEPIS among others.
Of all that I've tried, Ubuntu seems to be the most polished. It's the
easiest to setup and just plain use for productivity. It's also very
fast to get up and running (under an hour for me, with restricted
formats, medibuntu and drivers installed). No offense to OpenSUSE,
Novell or their developers. I enjoyed using SuSE exclusively on my
primary computer since 2001 and if the package management/updating
system wasn't so messed up, I probably wouldn't have looked for
something new. So far, I'm very glad that I did.
Keep up the great work Ubuntu Developers. I'll be here for quite some
time to come. This coming weekend I think I'll help my daughter blow
away OpenSUSE and install Ubuntu on her computer. That should take only
about an hour to get it completely up and running properly... I wonder
what else I can do with all that spare time I'll have this weekend? I'm
sure my wife will have a few ideas! ;)
Mike