PDA

View Full Version : [SOLVED] Still happy with Ubuntu



manicka
August 28th, 2005, 03:04 AM
Well, I noticed that this is my 500th post and thought I'd post a little feel good.

After 3 months of Ubuntu I'm still extremely happy with it. Recently I've been playing with Vidalinux, Yoper, mepis and opensuse10 to keep an eye on how other distros are going. I even had a crack at Gentoo but just got frustrated with how long the initial setup takes. Maybe when I'm next on holidays.

I must say though that Ubuntu still beats them all hands down. While I still have a soft spot for SuSE and the pleasant years there building my Linux knowledge, it is clear that Ubuntu now has me hooked and I can't see any reason to wander away in the near future with it as my production OS.

Can't wait for breezy. Have it installed on a separate partition and everything seems to be looking great :D

Buffalo Soldier
August 28th, 2005, 03:36 AM
I would like to express my happiness with Ubuntu and with this thread :) Tired of reading "goodbye ubuntu / linux" type of thread.

I've been using Ubuntu since Oct/Nov last year... this has definitely been the longest time I'm running GNU/Linux (but still dual booting to Win XP, can blame my college for using propriety-closed source apps for that).

The longest duration I manage to run GNU/Linux before trying Ubuntu was about a few days. Can't sing enough praises for Ubuntu, UbuntuForums, UbuntuGuide and everyone/anyone that's involved in any way (no matter how small that contribution seems).

Ubuntu has opened my eyes to a few other things too, for example now all my legal music collections are in ogg format. And UbuntuForums has let me practice typing in English (I guess it's noticable that English is not my first language). I also now believe that you can be rich, still be human (humanity, humility & etc), intelligent, geeky and cool at the same time.

I hope and pray that the future will be brighter for open source software, formats and standards. Google using Jabber for its IM is another good news.

p/s: wouldn't it be cool if a wealty person with connection to the media industry (example Sir Richard Branson - Virgin) teaming up with Canonical - Ubuntu - Mark Shuttleworth to create some new disruptive business model that works both ways (profitable and open source)

matthew
August 28th, 2005, 04:00 AM
Well, I noticed that this is my 500th post and thought I'd post a little feel good.
Congrats, man. I have to echo your sentiments. I've been a user since April and have no plans to go anywhere. In fact, I finally eliminated the last of my windows ties this last week (a dead hard drive and the lack of motivation on my part to install windows clinched the deal). Looks like I'll be seeing you around!

MetalMusicAddict
August 28th, 2005, 04:05 AM
I would like to express my happiness with Ubuntu and with this thread :) Tired of reading "goodbye ubuntu / linux" type of thread.
I 2nd that! ;)

I hope my kids will one day use Ubuntu.

Wide
August 28th, 2005, 05:01 AM
I'm pretty happy with Ubunto mainly because it is secure for users other then myself in the household.

I do run Debian on servers & this is just a natural for me

Now only if they would speed up Gnome processing large directories it would be a slam dunk.

arnieboy
August 28th, 2005, 06:16 AM
yeah I got tired of whining abt backports and got back to ubuntu within a day of defecting to fedora core 4. Ubuntu rocks!

Buffalo Soldier
August 28th, 2005, 07:02 AM
yeah I got tired of whining abt backports and got back to ubuntu within a day of defecting to fedora core 4. Ubuntu rocks!
welcome home arnie.

jyank
August 28th, 2005, 07:15 AM
I just finished having a converstation with a friend about distrobutions, he still consinders ubuntu a newbie distro ( he uses gentoo) but I love ubuntu and I really couldnt see myself using any other distro.

Keep it up Ubuntu

mohaham
August 28th, 2005, 07:20 AM
i have been using Ubuntu for last six months, i must say i'm still happy with it....Ubuntu rocks!
Great thanks to all working behind this outstanding distro.

darkmatter
August 28th, 2005, 08:16 AM
he still consinders ubuntu a newbie distro ( he uses gentoo)

To each their own (I've used gentoo - it may be good, but it's not THAT good). ANY Linux distro is what you make it. Heck...even Linspire can be hacked to death and made cutting edge if you are willing to do the extra work.

Ubuntu rocks, and if NOT having to spend the better part of a day having to install and configure makes it 'newbie' material, so be it.

Some of us geeks have more pressing matters to attend to than spending that much time with emerge.

nickless
August 28th, 2005, 01:48 PM
I was a Windows user for many years and I still feel that, when I have a problem with ubuntu. At last I was always saying, that there will come the time, when I will install Linux and remove windows, just becouse I never felt right using microsoft. Well, then I did it and all my friends, who laughed and asked my how I was going to play games began betting on when I will get back to windows.
I didn't come back. I tried different distros to find ubuntu as the first Linux installation, where I hadn't serious problems, which couldn't be solved by me :) Once in a while I installed win2k again to go to a LAN, but aparently I can't stand to boot anything else but ubuntu.
Starting to write down everything I installed and configurated, let me understand bit by bit, what I am doing :D Everywhere I go I started telling people of ubuntu, handing out CDs and praising this board, where "you just have to follow the Howtos to get pretty much everything to work, what a beginner might need, and more" .
At the moment I am customizing and even installing games (other than tuxracer :D).

Still I can't understand why the Linux community is so seperated. Together so much would be possible, I mean there are so many distros with the same goals. Someday I'll buy a book, too. Even if I still fear I won't understand enough to get me reading the whole :D ...well I heared kofler books are good... I'll see

aysiu
August 28th, 2005, 05:29 PM
Still I can't understand why the Linux community is so seperated. Together so much would be possible, I mean there are so many distros with the same goals. This ground has already been covered many times:

http://ubuntuforums.org/printthread.php?t=14381

nickless
August 28th, 2005, 06:04 PM
I know that :D (and it's funny that this guy has my realname...) ,but don't believe it. Freedom of choice and diversity are good, but still there has to be more centralization... but thats another thread :)
(I hope those words exist and I haven't just made them up :-P )

stimpack
August 28th, 2005, 06:50 PM
I used Solaris(i think) at Uni 12years ago and have been keeping an eye on linux for ages but continued using Windows. Tried many distros over the years but kept going back to windows (it was the apps/games not the OS that had the hold on me).

This most recent dabble I decided I wanted Debian, huge branch I had never tried. I was really impressed until I cocked up the system compiling the kernal. Chose to try some Debian derivatives next, Kubuntu on my desktop and Mepis on my laptop.

Well Im still here and 98% of uptime is in linux, 2% in GTA San Andreas in *******. I do like Kubuntu alot, even if the idea of a derivative of a derivative is a little unsettling. My laptop running mepis is still going as well and tbh that was a good choice, the hardware detection of mepis is pretty awesome. Cant see me changing either atm.

arnieboy
August 28th, 2005, 07:29 PM
I know that :D (and it's funny that this guy has my realname...) ,but don't believe it. Freedom of choice and diversity are good, but still there has to be more centralization... but thats another thread :)
(I hope those words exist and I haven't just made them up :-P )
Achieving centralization is not quite the objective of linux developers yet but one thing that is being looked into is the interoperability of packages. in other words since ubuntu is a derivative of debian, all packages in debian unstable should ideally install flawlessly in ubuntu and viceversa. This will drastically reduce the time that distros spend on making binary packages and help them concentrate on more productive stuff. This is being focused upon by Mark Shuttleworth and his team in close collaboration with Debian developers.

Brunellus
August 28th, 2005, 08:07 PM
I know that :D (and it's funny that this guy has my realname...) ,but don't believe it. Freedom of choice and diversity are good, but still there has to be more centralization... but thats another thread :)
(I hope those words exist and I haven't just made them up :-P )
If you want centralization, then go to whatever the biggest, baddest distro is out there, and browbeat large corps to adopt it.

poofyhairguy
August 28th, 2005, 10:49 PM
Still I can't understand why the Linux community is so seperated.

Then you really don't understand the Gnu system (which Linux is a part of). With all of the code under the GPL, its not like with a company. Or an organization. On any common group. Its software that can be used by many different people with many different( even opposing) backrounds.

Some people use Linux for this, some people want to use Gnome from that. some want to sell it, some want to give it away. There might be more diversity in the Linux community than outside it.


Together so much would be possible, I mean there are so many distros with the same goals.

Its like "Why isn't there one world government, people are all the same and with all those resources many world problems could go away." Its because that we are all too different. Many people in the Linux community don't give a damn if the community grows, some only care if their Linux product grows in sales.

WE are lucky there is only one kernel (I see a fork in a few years in the kernel development does not get nicer to closed drivers.....or BSD might just become much bigger....), one Xorg (a fork that went VERY well), and only two major desktops. And that most distros are based off a few original ones.

There will never be unity. If there are every any standards, then it will be because one version gets way more popular than other versions and the other versions have to copy to avoid marginalization. Today I think SUSE and Ubuntu have the best chance at doing that (with a big edge to SUSE), and Redhat had its chance and failed.

nickless
August 29th, 2005, 01:22 AM
That is true and what I meant with centralization, which is definitiv the wrong word for it, are projects like Xorg. I feel that it will all go in this direction. That there will be lots of programs that do more or less the same is not bad, but when it comes to major topics, like sound for excample, there should be one main solution with many options instead of many solutions each offering different options.

npaladin2000
August 29th, 2005, 04:43 AM
There will never be unity. If there are every any standards, then it will be because one version gets way more popular than other versions and the other versions have to copy to avoid marginalization. Today I think SUSE and Ubuntu have the best chance at doing that (with a big edge to SUSE), and Redhat had its chance and failed.

Actually, Red hat is still going pretty strong. If you've used Fedora lately you'll see it about as good a desktop distro as Ubuntu. I honestly don't think SUSE even rates as a desktop distro, despite their automatic install of MP3 support. YAST is more of a centralized server admin tool (A real good one over SSH or VNC) and iManager is DEFINTELY a great server admin tool. Since their desktop is mostly a thin-client rather than a workstation, Novell and SUSE are concentrating on the Open Enterprise Server product, and all their advances are in the server area. I can hardly blame them there, but it means that their Linux Desktop is little more than a platform for Groupwise, Evolution, and Firefox (and sometimes Gaim) to connect to their server services.

Red Hat always concentrated on their server line, but their Enterprise Linux product line also includes a full-fledged Workstation product, so they DO have to pay attention to desktop/workstation sorts of things (like pretty themes, human interface guidelines, GUI config apps, etc. ) Fedora 4 was a bit of an abberation because of the GCC4 conversion....they jumped on that a bit TOO quickly, and broke a couple of things they're still working to fix. I predict Fedora 5 will be much better, and will likely be extremely competitive with Breezy.

poofyhairguy
August 29th, 2005, 07:45 AM
Actually, Red hat is still going pretty strong. If you've used Fedora lately you'll see it about as good a desktop distro as Ubuntu.

Depends on how you decribe strong. Redhat had it all at first. At one point, Linux=Redhat. They had THE desktop distro. THE products in the stores. THE brand recognition. Then they blew it.

They pulled the box product. Decided to give away Fedora and only focus on the server for money. Screwed all the people that would pay a little for a boxed Linux, especially if they could buy support later. Now you have to switch versions if you want support (no paid support for Fedora). They blew it. Redhat is losing its brand recognition.




I honestly don't think SUSE even rates as a desktop distro, despite their automatic install of MP3 support.

True, but OpenSUSE is.



Red Hat always concentrated on their server line, but their Enterprise Linux product line also includes a full-fledged Workstation product, so they DO have to pay attention to desktop/workstation sorts of things (like pretty themes, human interface guidelines, GUI config apps, etc. ) Fedora 4 was a bit of an abberation because of the GCC4 conversion....they jumped on that a bit TOO quickly, and broke a couple of things they're still working to fix.

As far as most people can tell, Redhat is a server distro. They basically said to the world when they changed "you can't make money on a workstation/desktop Linux, Linux is made for the server."



I predict Fedora 5 will be much better, and will likely be extremely competitive with Breezy.

For Fedora (or any other distro) to get my interest, they have to magically get more than 14000 packages in a few repos like Ubuntu does.....

npaladin2000
August 29th, 2005, 08:12 AM
For Fedora (or any other distro) to get my interest, they have to magically get more than 14000 packages in a few repos like Ubuntu does.....

Already done. Between their core repos, their extras repos (kinda like our contribs/universe) and the 3rd party ones like FreshRPMs and ATRPMs, there's a ton to choose from.

ekravche
August 29th, 2005, 08:20 AM
Well, I noticed that this is my 500th post and thought I'd post a little feel good.

After 3 months of Ubuntu I'm still extremely happy with it. Recently I've been playing with Vidalinux, Yoper, mepis and opensuse10 to keep an eye on how other distros are going. I even had a crack at Gentoo but just got frustrated with how long the initial setup takes. Maybe when I'm next on holidays.

I must say though that Ubuntu still beats them all hands down. While I still have a soft spot for SuSE and the pleasant years there building my Linux knowledge, it is clear that Ubuntu now has me hooked and I can't see any reason to wander away in the near future with it as my production OS.

Can't wait for breezy. Have it installed on a separate partition and everything seems to be looking great :D

Congrats on the 500th post! I'm glad that you like ubuntu. I also like Ubuntu. I think it's a great OS!

arnieboy
August 29th, 2005, 08:21 AM
Already done. Between their core repos, their extras repos (kinda like our contribs/universe) and the 3rd party ones like FreshRPMs and ATRPMs, there's a ton to choose from.
I agree.. number of packages and updates are not issues with fedora. On the contrary they are issues with stable versions of debian and hoary. http://pbone.net will help u believe that fact.

poofyhairguy
August 29th, 2005, 08:32 AM
Already done. Between their core repos, their extras repos (kinda like our contribs/universe) and the 3rd party ones like FreshRPMs and ATRPMs, there's a ton to choose from.


Hmm...last time I tried (I vainly installed Fedora to see how many repos it had) synaptic told me about 5000. What I will do next time is wait till Core 5 is about to come out, look then in Core 4 and based my numbers on that.

Fedora does have newer stuff a lot, but for sheer number of packages the Debians win I think. Mandrake actually have more RPMS afloat than Fedora does...like 10000.

arnieboy
August 29th, 2005, 08:39 AM
Hmm...last time I tried (I vainly installed Fedora to see how many repos it had) synaptic told me about 5000. What I will do next time is wait till Core 5 is about to come out, look then in Core 4 and based my numbers on that.

Fedora does have newer stuff a lot, but for sheer number of packages the Debians win I think. Mandrake actually have more RPMS afloat than Fedora does...like 10000.
5000 repos?????? u must be kidding me. u obviously mean packages. synaptic does not automatically configure repos. u have to add them manually just like u do in debian systems. go to www.fedorafaq.org . The guy who maintains it has made a nice list of repos for yum (not apt-get). a one line install automatically configures the yum repositories and its quite exhaustive.

poofyhairguy
August 29th, 2005, 08:53 AM
The guy who maintains it has made a nice list of repos for yum (not apt-get). a one line install automatically configures the yum repositories and its quite exhaustive.

I tried to do better. I use apt-rpm and found EVERY RPM pacakge site for Fedora Google would show me. I added a lot. And I got like 5000 packages. there were many duplicates though...I don't know what synaptic did with those.

Lord Illidan
August 29th, 2005, 09:28 AM
True.. I must say I have been quite happy with Ubuntu.

Normally, I would only stay with a distro for 2-3 weeks..
I have been with Ubuntu/Kubuntu for a month, and I don't want to install anything else..

I do have alternatives if I get bored, namely Open Suse and Gentoo... However with Open Suse I get Yast, which I don't like in comparison to Synaptic, and I don't have the time to install Gentoo, or the time to leave a computer installing it, and I can do nothing with it..

Nay, I will remain with Ubuntu. Am already looking forward to installing Breezy...

TristanMike
August 29th, 2005, 05:01 PM
I too am very, very pleased with Ubuntu. As this has been my first experience with Linux after years of spending my time with Windows and it has been marvelous. Everything that was suppose to work "out-of-the-box" did. The command line, and repos, and all of the "crazy" stuff associated with Linux was a little confusing at first but I'm dealing one day at a time, lol.

Unfortuantly I still need to keep Windows around for my cd/dvd burning and to catalog my cd/dvd's. I can't believe I am having such a hard time finding a cd/dvd cataloger in Linux. It's pretty crappy that I have to boot into Windows just to find that movie or doc on all my cd/dvd's. But it is the way it is so that's how it is.

Thank You to all of the people who work very hard to make this such a fantasic os.

:)

xequence
August 29th, 2005, 05:04 PM
Thats good to know :) I am only on my 170th post or something... Though I do love ubuntu. I installed XP after ubuntu and it wasnt as easy... Having to get all the drivers and everything, my sound still doesent work :P Ubuntu just had it all. If my mp3 player worked with ubuntu (stupid sony) and I could get cedega to work (downloaded off limewire, im not paying for software :P) so I could play games then id probably only use ubuntu.

arnieboy
August 29th, 2005, 05:31 PM
I too am very, very pleased with Ubuntu. As this has been my first experience with Linux after years of spending my time with Windows and it has been marvelous. Everything that was suppose to work "out-of-the-box" did. The command line, and repos, and all of the "crazy" stuff associated with Linux was a little confusing at first but I'm dealing one day at a time, lol.

Unfortuantly I still need to keep Windows around for my cd/dvd burning and to catalog my cd/dvd's. I can't believe I am having such a hard time finding a cd/dvd cataloger in Linux. It's pretty crappy that I have to boot into Windows just to find that movie or doc on all my cd/dvd's. But it is the way it is so that's how it is.

Thank You to all of the people who work very hard to make this such a fantasic os.

:)
cd/dvd burning should not be a problem with gnomebaker and/or k3b.
look at the following link for cd/dvd catalogers and much more. am sure u will find what u want:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Home_and_Education/Cataloging/

drizek
August 29th, 2005, 11:34 PM
True.. I must say I have been quite happy with Ubuntu.

Normally, I would only stay with a distro for 2-3 weeks..
I have been with Ubuntu/Kubuntu for a month, and I don't want to install anything else..

I do have alternatives if I get bored, namely Open Suse and Gentoo... However with Open Suse I get Yast, which I don't like in comparison to Synaptic, and I don't have the time to install Gentoo, or the time to leave a computer installing it, and I can do nothing with it..

Nay, I will remain with Ubuntu. Am already looking forward to installing Breezy...

yast isnt just a synaptic replacement. it is a full GUI system config utility which kicks ass(even though it can be a little sluggish at times, its still better than editing stuff by hand). also, you can choose to install synaptic in suse, or better yet, smartPM, which is better than apt/synaptic, but it doesnt suffer from the sluggishness of YOU(suse package manager).

manicka
August 30th, 2005, 12:06 AM
yast isnt just a synaptic replacement. it is a full GUI system config utility which kicks ass(even though it can be a little sluggish at times, its still better than editing stuff by hand). also, you can choose to install synaptic in suse, or better yet, smartPM, which is better than apt/synaptic, but it doesnt suffer from the sluggishness of YOU(suse package manager).
I actually prefere the tools in the System Menu and the Configuration Editor to the cumbersome layout of Yast. Then again, I prefer Ubuntu to SuSe, so maybe that's to be expected. :)

TristanMike
August 30th, 2005, 01:29 AM
cd/dvd burning should not be a problem with gnomebaker and/or k3b.
look at the following link for cd/dvd catalogers and much more. am sure u will find what u want:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Home_and_Education/Cataloging/
Thanx for that link, I'll be checking that stuff out for sure. As for cd/dvd burning, alot of people seem to have trouble burning and what about converting avi's and such to dvd, I really don't have any money to throw away on taking a chance on whether it will or will not burn successfully, but I will look more into it.

Thanx

arnieboy
August 30th, 2005, 03:16 AM
Thanx for that link, I'll be checking that stuff out for sure. As for cd/dvd burning, alot of people seem to have trouble burning and what about converting avi's and such to dvd, I really don't have any money to throw away on taking a chance on whether it will or will not burn successfully, but I will look more into it.

Thanx
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=31190

arnieboy
August 30th, 2005, 03:17 AM
I tried to do better. I use apt-rpm and found EVERY RPM pacakge site for Fedora Google would show me. I added a lot. And I got like 5000 packages. there were many duplicates though...I don't know what synaptic did with those.
There are better ways to configure apt repos on fedora but i am sure u tried your best.

bearbigears
August 30th, 2005, 03:17 AM
still very happy and trying to convince my wife to try it.


:grin:

poofyhairguy
August 30th, 2005, 06:53 AM
There are better ways to configure apt repos on fedora but i am sure u tried your best.

I will admit, the fact that a release seems to start from scratch with the rpms almost promsie the new versions of popular software (my glares at old zsnes in ubuntu)....but when you can't find something.....I have found that forcing RPMs into Ubuntu from the big RPM OSes (mostly Mandrake) with Alien worked for me better than installing, say, A SUSE rpm on Fedora. I heard there was a program to help this....but I never found its name.

darkmatter
August 30th, 2005, 07:19 AM
still very happy and trying to convince my wife to try it.


:grin:

My wife was very apprehensive at first. I had been using Linux exclusively for some time, but kept Windows around for her sake (and for a few games - who needs playstation or xbox). I finally solved the problem by deleting Window's. :mrgreen: