What Linux distro will you be using AFTER Ubuntu

[stoneguy]

I think it's as important to find out where this broad community wants to go as it is to know where it's been.

Describe what your ideal Desktop Distro (to keep in the same playing league) would look and act like.

[HungSquirrel]

My ideal distro would be a prelinked i686 Ubuntu on which all modern PC games ran natively. Of course, Ubuntu has no control over the latter, and as soon as I get an Athlon64 mobo+chip, I won't need the former. ;)

[poofyhairguy]

Describe what your ideal Desktop Distro (to keep in the same playing league) would look and act like.

Ubuntu with better ATI support and a constantly updated universe with 30000 packages.

[mark]

A fast, good-looking desktop (wait, I've got that now!)...that lets me use the display resolution I want (still fighting with this one...)

I never thought I'd say this, but - better multimedia support. I'm not a big fan of watching movies on my PC or listening to CDs there, although I can do both (I have a good television/DVD/VCR setup and a decent stereo), but it DOES get frustrating, visiting web sites that have streaming audio & video and having them come back and say, "Sorry, this site requires ****".

Other than that, well - magic stuff. Let me move and/or resize any partition with absolutely no risk; less cryptic (and intimidating) error messages; let me create bootable, useful backups/disk images to CD/DVD.

Really, come right down to it, Ubuntu currently gives me, um, 90% of what I'd like in a desktop OS.

[comctrl6]

Most probably SuSE. YaST in my opinion is the best setup tool ever written for Linux. So if Ubuntu were to disappear or stop developing new releases I would go back to SuSE. The only reason I switched was apt-get. Yeah, SuSE still uses rpm as their package management tool and it's just a hassle to install most of the programs that I work with. YaST is not much of a help in this area, unfortunetly. I haven't tried the new SuSE 9.2. Many say that many features have been reworked and are working much better now, but I don't really mind now. I have Ubuntu. :)

[JsPr]

I used SuSE 9.1 before switching to Ubuntu. I might use SuSE again if Ubuntu stopped being developed. It feels like Ubuntu is a lot "snappier" than SuSe and SuSE wasn't slow. Also, I really like apt and synaptic.

[Chibi]

If ubuntu fails me, I will go directly back to Slackware. I would seriously appreciate higher architecture optimization than i386. 586/686.. Seriously. I have a laptop from 1997, It's a 586 with 32 megs of ram, and a 2 gigabyte hard-disk. It can't run Ubuntu reliably. And When I actually made it to a graphical environment, it took 16 minutes to start a pristine mozilla firefox. So.. If a 586 can barely handle Ubuntu, how well is a 386 going to do? Ubuntu is too slow for an old machine, but it's optimized for one, which holds back speeds on the machines that can actually handle it.

Now I don't want to have to move up to an amd64 just to have some architecture optimization, when I could just move back to slackware and get all of that lost speed. Pat knows what he's doing, he's been doing this for 10 years.

[poofyhairguy]

If ubuntu fails me, I will go directly back to Slackware. I would seriously appreciate higher architecture optimization than i386. 586/686.. Seriously. I have a laptop from 1997, It's a 586 with 32 megs of ram, and a 2 gigabyte hard-disk. It can't run Ubuntu reliably. And When I actually made it to a graphical environment, it took 16 minutes to start a pristine mozilla firefox. So.. If a 586 can barely handle Ubuntu, how well is a 386 going to do? Ubuntu is too slow for an old machine, but it's optimized for one, which holds back speeds on the machines that can actually handle it.

Now I don't want to have to move up to an amd64 just to have some architecture optimization, when I could just move back to slackware and get all of that lost speed. Pat knows what he's doing, he's been doing this for 10 years.

at least make the kernel 686

sudo apt-get install linux-686

[HungSquirrel]

Chibi, Slackware isn't optimized much more than Ubuntu. i486 is hardly a gigantic leap forward from i386! ;)

But yeah, Slack kicks vast quantities of ass.

[mikeymike]

Chibi, Slackware isn't optimized much more than Ubuntu. i486 is hardly a gigantic leap forward from i386! ;)

But yeah, Slack kicks vast quantities of ass.
i would use Fedora Core 3 again

[clasqm]

Why, I'd go back to Win .... Stop hitting me, I was just seeing if everybody was awake!

:D

[Lovechild]

Seeing as Warty isn't really ideal for me, and I doubt Hoary will be either unless someone has a sweatshop filled with programmers and jdub swinging the whip over them - I'm using a Fedora Development setup since it has the most integrated apps.

Stuff that annoys me even on Hoary, I can't use the danish language pack in Firefox for some reason and OpenOffice still doesn't have the nwf or fileselector patches applied so it looks... butt ugly.

But I think a greater cooperation between Fedora and Ubuntu would be good they both have the same goals, so we could probably save a lot of effort working with them building tools and standardising packaging (by this I mean sharing the base toolchain and maybe sharing some GNOME tools).

[ralph_ubuntu]

Can't help about the danish language and firefox, but openoffice does have the nwf and fileselector patches in hoary.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=7176

[arctic]

back on topic... i expect the following from a future desktop:

1.) it should be lightweight (like icewm, xfce,...) but still beautiful (like gnome). although gnome and kde are very good de's, they simply use up too much memory imho and thus start behaving like the memory hungry windows. this slows any computer.

2.) easy to use. the hig is great in this respect. but some apps, like scribus, inkscape and gimp still need some polishing. even openoffice! (i know, ms-office is a package of crap compared to oo, but still, some things need be get better. :P )

3.) still open source and freely available via download.

4.) better network and laptop-support/tools

[jdodson]

ubuntu.

i see what the devs. write about adding and changing in the new versions, it looks great. i think ubuntu will keep getting better and better.

btw, someone mentioned not being able to play media in firefox on other webpage. download mplayer with the w32codecs and the mplayer-firefox plugin from synaptic. read this thread, i can watch movies from the trailers.apple.com page and any other page for that matter, mplayer rocks!

the info is in this guide here:

http://kitech.com.my/ubuntu/4.10/index.html

[poofyhairguy]

Can't help about the danish language and firefox, but openoffice does have the nwf and fileselector patches in hoary.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=7176

I use um, and its the second best reason so far to test hoary. (best is no more XFree!)

[Zundfolge]

OSX


When I replace my Pentium 3 its going to be with a G5 (hell, by the time I can afford a new machine it might be a G6 or G7 #-o ).

But I don't see myself going through another OS install on this machine (unless Ubuntu breaks real bad or something ... even then I'll probably do a reinstall)

[Quest-Master]

No idea.. I do wish there were more plugins for Firefox besides MPlayer (MPlayer b0rked my apt-get; I can't even think about reinstalling it after that experience), and I'd like to play MP3s and such inside Firefox without downloading it, opening it up, listening, and deleting.

My biggest problem with Ubuntu right now that really has me down is MIDI support. There is no guide; nothing, on how to set it up or get it to work and even the Linux How-To-MIDI doesn't work properly since Ubuntu doesn't have any of the stuff configured.

Me, being a composer, has a lot of love with MIDI.. and parting with it is difficult.

[BWF89]

I don't have Ubuntu yet but I plan to use it when I get my computer. If they stopped making Ubuntu I'd probably but SuSE 9.2 Professioal. Infact I may decide to use SuSE instead of Ubuntu because it uses a more popular package format (RPM)...

[bazuka]

Since this is the first Linux distro I've ever been pleased with, they most likely have me for life. I am very brand loyal.

If Ubuntu stopped being developed though, I suppose it'd be this fedora thing everyone is talking about.

[wayover13]

It's called "Afterlife-ix." :)

[poofyhairguy]

I don't have Ubuntu yet but I plan to use it when I get my computer. If they stopped making Ubuntu I'd probably but SuSE 9.2 Professioal. Infact I may decide to use SuSE instead of Ubuntu because it uses a more popular package format (RPM)...

Doesn't matter what format it uses, it matter how many pacakges there actually are. Suse honestly has less third-party packages than Fedora and Mandrake. At most, I bet you could find 4000 packages. Synaptic right now tells me I have 14000 ready for me to use in Ubuntu.

Suse looks nice, but its slow and installing things that didn't come with it can be a bitch.

[Quest-Master]

and installing things that didn't come with it can be a bitch.

The exact reason why I couldn't go back to Suse.

[piedamaro]

Why it seems that everyone is afraid that ubuntu will suddenly stop from being developed?

Back to the topic: now I have Ubuntu, Gentoo and Fedora, if I had to drop ubuntu I'd stay with Gentoo probably or maybe Debian, who knows. There are good things in Fedora (especially if you get rid of their kernel), but I'm getting sick of it.



But I think a greater cooperation between Fedora and Ubuntu would be good they both have the same goals
This will not happen. I think they have very different goals too.

[cacofonix]

I'd go back to Gentoo or Slackware.

[macewan]

I'd go back to Gentoo or Slackware.
debian, maybe fedora

[poofyhairguy]

The exact reason why I couldn't go back to Suse.

Yeah. I mean, its kinda hard to install 3rd party packages for mandrake, fedora. But its REALLY hard in SUSE.

[macewan]

Yeah. I mean, its kinda hard to install 3rd party packages for mandrake, fedora. But its REALLY hard in SUSE.

thinking of converting my work computer from SuSE 9 to Ubuntu because of gnome problems in suse

[poofyhairguy]

thinking of converting my work computer from SuSE 9 to Ubuntu because of gnome problems in suse

You actually USE SUSE's gnome? Wow. Please come to the other side....its much better for that.

[Rogee]

I agree, Suse is really slick, but it's super difficult to find packages that aren't included on the CD-ROM.

If I wasn't using Ubuntu, I would probably use Fedora. I've really become a fan of Gnome, and there are tons of Fedora packages. Otherwise, the upcoming Libranet release seems promising.

[poofyhairguy]

Otherwise, the upcoming Libranet release seems promising.

Sure....if you wanna pay.

[stoneguy]

As this thread winds down, I gather that my own hoped-for directions for Ubuntu differ from most of the other responders. Answering my own question, I say Xandros because most of the time I'm a non-gaming desktop user.

I loaded 2.0CE on a system in a home workgroup. It sees shared drives on other boxes, and its own Win partitions. It installs wine to run Win programs with a click. Updating is a snap. All this out-of-the-box. Now, complete with computer, for US$200 + shipping from Walmart.

Sole drawback to Xandros? Simple. It costs money. I was hoping for a groundswell of interest in steering Ubuntu towards a community-based work-alike that would function well on older systems. (My own "screamer" is a 500MHz system with 384MB RAM.) But it looks like this group's interest isn't in that direction. :(

[eBopBob]

SuSE looks nice, but its slow and installing things that didn't come with it can be a bitch.
What I find terrible about SuSE was everything would be messed up if I installed some things from source and other things via YaST using an RPM file. However I'm told this is the same for all distros. Is this true?


However, if Ubuntu stopped being developed, I'd try out a few distros before settling on anything. I would probably try out BLAG, Rubyx (for fun) and DebXPde. Also probably Pie Box Enterprise Linux and Salvare.

[Rui Pais]

My dream system was something like Ubuntu (stable bleededge, good updates/releases, apt/deb thousands packages) with a few :sad: extras like a nice (GUI) way of (re)doing partitions (like mandrake's... I still use they MoveCD), faster and smaller gdesklets, a faster OOffice and a more centralized and stable control center (for Gnome).
My great, great wish was a Gnome lighter, a gnome that do what gnome does but with speed and memory managment of Xfce or WMaker! Gnome 2.8 is faster then older ones, but it takes looooong to start and uses a lot of memory.

If Ubuntu dies I'll go back to Sarge! (I'm still trying Gentoo, but had a lot of small problems, and boy, portage may be the great thing from a teorical point of view, but using that in fact is just a pain... hours to get something installed and with a fast computer not a very boosted speed...) I'll keeping a Sarge installed just in case!

Please don't stop Ubuntu is one of the best and will getting even better with time!

[eBopBob]

What I find terrible about SuSE was everything would be messed up if I installed some things from source and other things via YaST using an RPM file. However I'm told this is the same for all distros. Is this true?


However, if Ubuntu stopped being developed, I'd try out a few distros before settling on anything. I would probably try out BLAG, Rubyx (for fun) and DebXPde. Also probably Pie Box Enterprise Linux and Salvare.
Also, to add, I've just been looking at Project dEv and it looks very promising.

[inha]

hmm.. maybe I'd give slack a try or go back to gentoo. Fedora core 3 would be an option too. I know people say it's slow as hell but atleast core 2 took very little tweaking to make it run a lot faster.

[poofyhairguy]

Sole drawback to Xandros? Simple. It costs money. I was hoping for a groundswell of interest in steering Ubuntu towards a community-based work-alike that would function well on older systems. (My own "screamer" is a 500MHz system with 384MB RAM.) But it looks like this group's interest isn't in that direction. :(\

Don't be sad.


Xandros has a free version.

[K6-III]

Frankly, Ubuntu, especially with the Hoary updates, puts Xandros to shame.

Ubuntu makes a better multimedia distribution, looks much nicer (no nasty flickering like KDE under Xandros), and is simply a ton faster.

[eldrich_rebello]

debian.no doubt.have to move on to something that has the potential to completely wreak havoc on my system if not used wisely.debian sarge to be specific.

[poofyhairguy]

Frankly, Ubuntu, especially with the Hoary updates, puts Xandros to shame.

Ubuntu makes a better multimedia distribution, looks much nicer (no nasty flickering like KDE under Xandros), and is simply a ton faster.


There is no OS I like more than Ubuntu.

[dawynn]

Debian. Already switched back. Ubuntu came close, but ignored a few things that just *weren't* working. (I'll probably get flamed for what I have to say)

My ideal distribution would be a relatively stable distribution, say -- releasing about every 6 months. It would be deb based (I've only used deb and rpm distributions, and the deb distributions have been *VASTLY* more stable when upgrading). So far, Ubuntu looks pretty good, eh?

It would have a window manager that works. KDE would be good for that. GNOME isn't (now I'm SURELY gonna be flamed).

Why not GNOME?
1) The menus are not easily updatable. Sure, I can add or delete entries pretty easily, but trying to move an existing entry to a different folder? In order to do that, I have to remember a location name to type into Nautilus (specificaly Nautilus -- doesn't work in Mozilla). With KDE, there's a Menu Editor tool that works very slick.

2) The default GNOME file manager (Nautilus) doesn't work as a web browser. And the installed web browser (Mozilla) is far too bulky to use as a file manager -- not to mention that it can't do all the things GNOME needs Nautilus to do (like manage the broken menu system). Meanwhile, KDE's Konqueror works well as both a web browser *and* a file manager.

3) KDE is HIGHLY versatile in how it can be made to look. Sure, the default makes it look much like Windows -- and that's great for teaching Linux newbies as they migrate from Windows. But kdelook.org shows what can be done with superkaramba and other utilities. (Especially see the screenshots link) Here's one excellent example:
http://kdelook.org/content/preview.php?preview=1&id=16423&file1=16423-1.jpg&file2=&file3=&name=Fahrenheit%3A+Fall+Equinox
Is GNOME that versatile? I don't think so.

Are there other window managers that work? Probably -- but GNOME is not one of them. Perhaps IceWM? Or other more lightweight managers? I wouldn't mind if the distribution chose something other than KDE, as long as the maintainers were willing to make sure any programs had proper menu support in the default window manager, using menu functionality that I could also easily change, if I so chose.

I would like to see the meta-packages in my ideal distribution keep focused on what they were supposed to be packaging together. One thing I noticed in Ubuntu was that the "desktop" package had almost every python package included in the meta-package. What was up with that? When I install the desktop package it should include what the average user needs to run the desktop. Yes, that will include a few Python packages, but only about a half-dozen. The rest should have been in a "ubuntu-development" package.

That all said, there were a few things that were missing from Warty, even considering the Universe and Multiverse repositories. Bibletime and Gnomesword were recognized as broken in the forums, and they have chosen to leave these unusable and broken in Warty. OK -- when an error is found that makes a package unusable, and a fix is found (just needed a new version of libsword4) why leave even a Universe package in an unusable state? Lilypond was also missing, with no explanation at all as to why it was not included when it was compiling quite well in Debian Sid.

Synopsis:
I like the release mandates of Ubuntu (a stable version every 6 months). I hope that they can continue to produce on such a tight schedule. I think their choice of a window manager was flawed. GNOME is broken, and from the forums I see that there's a lot of hatred toward KDE. It would be cool to see a distribution use something OTHER than KDE or GNOME or even a hybrid of the two as its base window manager. Ubuntu's meta-packages need a severe review to ensure that they are truly serving their intended purpose (ubuntu-desktop has misplaced development software). Where possible, even Universe should be fixed if the current Universe (or Multiverse) packages are completely unusable. Finally, everything in Debian Testing (or Sid?) that can be compiled into Universe / Multiverse -- should be.

I would be willing to try Ubuntu again if they would only use a Window Manager that "just works".

Cheers!

[poofyhairguy]

Debian. Already switched back. Ubuntu came close, but ignored a few things that just *weren't* working. (I'll probably get flamed for what I have to say)

My ideal distribution would be a relatively stable distribution, say -- releasing about every 6 months. It would be deb based (I've only used deb and rpm distributions, and the deb distributions have been *VASTLY* more stable when upgrading). So far, Ubuntu looks pretty good, eh?

It would have a window manager that works. KDE would be good for that. GNOME isn't (now I'm SURELY gonna be flamed).

Why not GNOME?
1) The menus are not easily updatable. Sure, I can add or delete entries pretty easily, but trying to move an existing entry to a different folder? In order to do that, I have to remember a location name to type into Nautilus (specificaly Nautilus -- doesn't work in Mozilla). With KDE, there's a Menu Editor tool that works very slick.

2) The default GNOME file manager (Nautilus) doesn't work as a web browser. And the installed web browser (Mozilla) is far too bulky to use as a file manager -- not to mention that it can't do all the things GNOME needs Nautilus to do (like manage the broken menu system). Meanwhile, KDE's Konqueror works well as both a web browser *and* a file manager.

3) KDE is HIGHLY versatile in how it can be made to look. Sure, the default makes it look much like Windows -- and that's great for teaching Linux newbies as they migrate from Windows. But kdelook.org shows what can be done with superkaramba and other utilities. (Especially see the screenshots link) Here's one excellent example:
http://kdelook.org/content/preview.php?preview=1&id=16423&file1=16423-1.jpg&file2=&file3=&name=Fahrenheit%3A+Fall+Equinox
Is GNOME that versatile? I don't think so.

Are there other window managers that work? Probably -- but GNOME is not one of them. Perhaps IceWM? Or other more lightweight managers? I wouldn't mind if the distribution chose something other than KDE, as long as the maintainers were willing to make sure any programs had proper menu support in the default window manager, using menu functionality that I could also easily change, if I so chose.

I would like to see the meta-packages in my ideal distribution keep focused on what they were supposed to be packaging together. One thing I noticed in Ubuntu was that the "desktop" package had almost every python package included in the meta-package. What was up with that? When I install the desktop package it should include what the average user needs to run the desktop. Yes, that will include a few Python packages, but only about a half-dozen. The rest should have been in a "ubuntu-development" package.

That all said, there were a few things that were missing from Warty, even considering the Universe and Multiverse repositories. Bibletime and Gnomesword were recognized as broken in the forums, and they have chosen to leave these unusable and broken in Warty. OK -- when an error is found that makes a package unusable, and a fix is found (just needed a new version of libsword4) why leave even a Universe package in an unusable state? Lilypond was also missing, with no explanation at all as to why it was not included when it was compiling quite well in Debian Sid.

Synopsis:
I like the release mandates of Ubuntu (a stable version every 6 months). I hope that they can continue to produce on such a tight schedule. I think their choice of a window manager was flawed. GNOME is broken, and from the forums I see that there's a lot of hatred toward KDE. It would be cool to see a distribution use something OTHER than KDE or GNOME or even a hybrid of the two as its base window manager. Ubuntu's meta-packages need a severe review to ensure that they are truly serving their intended purpose (ubuntu-desktop has misplaced development software). Where possible, even Universe should be fixed if the current Universe (or Multiverse) packages are completely unusable. Finally, everything in Debian Testing (or Sid?) that can be compiled into Universe / Multiverse -- should be.

I would be willing to try Ubuntu again if they would only use a Window Manager that "just works".

Cheers!


Ummm...have you ever heard of simplymepis?

[dawynn]

One drawback to SimplyMepis -- or I would have tried it already.

Ubuntu Linux is kind to those of use who currently use Debian. They provide the sources.list changes that allow us to switch directly from Debian to Ubuntu. I was able to change the apt repositories on my system and switch from Debian completely over to Ubuntu. Sure -- much of it was a package-by-package ordeal, but I was able to do it.

I have searched the web and the Mepis websites, and have not found the repository list. So, in order to try Mepis, I would need to save off my needed data, trash my system, and rebuild it with a Mepis CD.

Hmm. I like the way I have things set. I'm willing to move to a new distribution, even if I have to do it package by package, but I'm not excited about a total redo.

Oh -- and just in case anyone mentions Knoppix -- I tried that. Problem is, even the Knoppix people admit that, once you put Knoppix on a hard drive, it's basically a Debian system.

Cheers!

[p!=f]

Debian. Already switched back. Ubuntu came close, but ignored a few things that just *weren't* working. (I'll probably get flamed for what I have to say)

Could you be more descriptive here? What's ignored and not working?


My ideal distribution would be a relatively stable distribution, say -- releasing about every 6 months. It would be deb based (I've only used deb and rpm distributions, and the deb distributions have been *VASTLY* more stable when upgrading). So far, Ubuntu looks pretty good, eh?

Relatively stable?
Believe it or not, Ubuntu IS stable.


It would have a window manager that works. KDE would be good for that. GNOME isn't (now I'm SURELY gonna be flamed).

GNOME is the desktop environment not a window manager.
GNOME works for me and for thousands of users.


Why not GNOME?
1) The menus are not easily updatable. Sure, I can add or delete entries pretty easily, but trying to move an existing entry to a different folder? In order to do that, I have to remember a location name to type into Nautilus (specificaly Nautilus -- doesn't work in Mozilla). With KDE, there's a Menu Editor tool that works very slick.

I agree here that KDE menu editor is better in some ways.


3) KDE is HIGHLY versatile in how it can be made to look. Sure, the default makes it look much like Windows -- and that's great for teaching Linux newbies as they migrate from Windows. But kdelook.org shows what can be done with superkaramba and other utilities. (Especially see the screenshots link) Here's one excellent example:
http://kdelook.org/content/preview.php?preview=1&id=16423&file1=16423-1.jpg&file2=&file3=&name=Fahrenheit%3A+Fall+Equinox
Is GNOME that versatile? I don't think so.

Yes, GNOME is that versatile and superkaramba is as cool as gDesklets. Btw, they are both python based and resource hungry.
I think GNOME offers more eyecandy. It depends on our taste. :)
Screenshots:
http://www.lynucs.org/?gdesklets


Are there other window managers that work? Probably -- but GNOME is not one of them. Perhaps IceWM? Or other more lightweight managers? I wouldn't mind if the distribution chose something other than KDE, as long as the maintainers were willing to make sure any programs had proper menu support in the default window manager, using menu functionality that I could also easily change, if I so chose.

GNOME is the desktop environment not a window manager. Metacity, Sawfish, KWin, etc. are window managers.
I run enlightenment.org or xfce.org (current beta, GTK+ based) on other xservers. You may want to try Waimea, Kahakai, Fluxbox, ... ones of the most lightweight managers.
GNOME works.


I would like to see the meta-packages in my ideal distribution keep focused on what they were supposed to be packaging together. One thing I noticed in Ubuntu was that the "desktop" package had almost every python package included in the meta-package. What was up with that? When I install the desktop package it should include what the average user needs to run the desktop. Yes, that will include a few Python packages, but only about a half-dozen. The rest should have been in a "ubuntu-development" package.

What would you like to see in _YOUR_ ideal distribution could not be ideal for me or for the rest of ideal distribution users.
I'm sure it doesn't have almost every python package. :)


apt-cache --names-only search python

What an average user needs or you need?


That all said, there were a few things that were missing from Warty, even considering the Universe and Multiverse repositories. Bibletime and Gnomesword were recognized as broken in the forums, and they have chosen to leave these unusable and broken in Warty. OK -- when an error is found that makes a package unusable, and a fix is found (just needed a new version of libsword4) why leave even a Universe package in an unusable state? Lilypond was also missing, with no explanation at all as to why it was not included when it was compiling quite well in Debian Sid.

I don't get your points. You're probably looking for a perfect distribution which has no bugs and everything is set up to fit _YOUR_ needs. Or you really think I need to have Universe and Multiverse repositories for a production server setup? No, I don't.
To my knowledge there's no single distro without at least 1 package broken. It happens. If you really need that application that bad you can always


sudo apt-get source <foo>
cd <foo>; fakeroot debian/rules binary

Question of several minutes. Feel free to post your experience here.


Synopsis:
I like the release mandates of Ubuntu (a stable version every 6 months). I hope that they can continue to produce on such a tight schedule. I think their choice of a window manager was flawed. GNOME is broken, and from the forums I see that there's a lot of hatred toward KDE. It would be cool to see a distribution use something OTHER than KDE or GNOME or even a hybrid of the two as its base window manager. Ubuntu's meta-packages need a severe review to ensure that they are truly serving their intended purpose (ubuntu-desktop has misplaced development software). Where possible, even Universe should be fixed if the current Universe (or Multiverse) packages are completely unusable. Finally, everything in Debian Testing (or Sid?) that can be compiled into Universe / Multiverse -- should be.

GNOME is NOT broken. GNOME is the default desktop environment for Ubuntu because Ubuntu releases when GNOME releases and I personally do hope it will stay like this because GNOME works.


I would be willing to try Ubuntu again if they would only use a Window Manager that "just works".

Third time you mentioned that. GNOME works, it just don't fit your needs!
Did I already mention that GNOME is not a window manager and works? :) (just a joke, no offence meant)

Well. Let's be a bit serious. I don't want to start a flame or something similar. I respect your opinions but can't agree with them.
Reading your post I can't see any exact problem you had with Ubuntu (if we don't count "GNOME is broken"). Nautilus cannot browse the web yet but it doesn't mean it (or whole GNOME) is broken. I have no problems to click on the icon to get Epiphany browse the web. I have it opened all the time. I don't like allin1 solutions. Personal choice...
I was also KDE user and I also can write an article how KDE is broken because it doesn't fit my needs anymore. And trust me, I'd find enough things which doesn't work as good as in GNOME and vice versa.

[dawynn]

Thank you for admitting that there are things both in GNOME and KDE that are broken. From my experience, KDE was working well enough. That being said, this morning I tried an experiment. I went over to IceWM. I'm not completely convinced, but in just a couple hours, I'm becoming convinced to use one of these lightweight managers over the bloat that is both KDE and GNOME.

I would just like to respond to one item. You indicated, based off of one of my statements, that I probably hope for a flawless distribution. No, that wasn't my point at all. What I pointed out was that there was a package in Warty that was well represented on the forums as being broken. A package that I had found a fix for. The "solution" was to wait until Hoary to fix it.

Now, I know that this was in Universe, but we're not talking about a functionality change here. We are talking about packages being *broken*, as in not even able to function. As in, every time we try to run the package, it gets a segmentation fault. I had identified that, by updating the one library to a slight version change, the segmentation vault would go away, and the program would run. I'm not asking that we keep upgrading Universe / Multiverse packages, but when we recognize that a package that has been put in Universe / Multiverse doesn't work at all, and especially when we discover the fix has already been put in place in Debian (Testing, no less!), our answer should not be ... forget you -- you'll have to wait six months and get the next round of Universe / Multiverse (which will probably contain even more broken packages).

By the time that Hoary implements, Warty should be free of non-working packages. ALL of Warty -- even Universe / Multiverse. Could there still be bugs? Sure, this isn't a perfect world. Should we continue to allow show-stopping bugs that won't allow a program to even START executing? No. Not even in Universe / Multiverse. Not when a known, easy fix exists.

[sbaker33]

Sole drawback to Xandros? Simple. It costs money. I was hoping for a groundswell of interest in steering Ubuntu towards a community-based work-alike that would function well on older systems. (My own "screamer" is a 500MHz system with 384MB RAM.) But it looks like this group's interest isn't in that direction. :(

I use Xandros (X3 today X2 before that) on my primary production machine because everything just works. Out of the box no fiddlin' I get flash drives, microdrives, CD and DVD burning, browsing and mapping Windows file shares, Windows printing, etc. The issues I have with it, however stem from those same customizations that make it work so well. Installing almost anything from anywhere except XN (and even a few items from XN) will break at the very least the look and feel if not the whole thing. The other thing is that, in an effort to make it easier to use a lot of core of Linux is hidden and abstracted. Makes it hard to trully "learn Linux."

My "learning" machine on which I try new things, experiment, learn and break things regularly is either Ubuntu or FC3. Once I break one I install the other, break it, repeat. This is where I learn Linux itself. I may not be as productive but I learn more.

I like the "spirit" of Ubuntu and the community, and like most of what I see with the software itself as well. (OK I am still trying to learn to like Gnome and will likely never like sudo) I can see this becoming my primary productivity platform before long. I have high hopes for Hoary. Props to all who are guiding and developing Ubuntu. And to those in the community who are helpful to those of us with a lot more time in the M$ world than the Linux world.

[poofyhairguy]

(OK I am still trying to learn to like Gnome and will likely never like sudo)

you can chose not to use it:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/faq/root

[latrine]

I have tried 3 releases of Mandrake and liked it, but I have uninstalled them all, after ruining them all with "upgrades" (I have bought release 7, and been a silver member )... they lasted almost 1 week each and then I got bored...
I have tried SUSE 9.1 and liked it even more, but I have uninstalled it and went back to windows, after ruining it with an upgrade... it lasted 2 days, then I got bored

All this gave me a warm windows feeling in KDE... but it was also nothing "new"


I have tried Ubuntu warty, upgraded it , put my ndiswrapper to work with no problems, updated to hoary, ruined it, recovered it with such an easy of use, nvidia installed perfectly, been browsing gnome-art and gnome look for "stuff", ... damn... I am looking for alternatives to macromedia stuff, been using gimp2.2. that comes with warty live cd on my windows machine...it has been 2 weeks now... it's a personal record!

I love Gnome, I feel it is a little more next to OSX feeling than KDE... I wish I had tried it before...

Oh my God...I am almost uninstalling windows...

...and you are asking me what I wil choose next?

probably hoary 64 bits, when ndiswrapper has 64 bits support and my linksys wp11 v27 a 64 bit driver...

[Rui Pais]

Thank you for admitting that there are things both in GNOME and KDE that are broken. ...t. I went over to IceWM. I'm not completely convinced, but in just a couple hours, I'm becoming convinced to use one of these lightweight managers over the bloat that is both KDE and GNOME.


Well, I use XFCE4.2 RC2, with xfce applets (lighter) to replace the gnome equivalents but keep a gnome-panel running and using nautilus as file manager with the option 'use nautilus to draw desktop' turn off.
It compiled easilly for my computer, it's fast, simple, good-looking and ALL the things that Gnome (and i think KDE) has on it with the exception (not difficult to implement, i guess) of desktop item that i don't like or use (thanks Ubuntu for teach me that!)

[MaZiNgA]

I'll probably go with ProMepis since my sound in warty is not working (thread: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=8156) but will also be back for hoary.
One thing I admit about Ubuntu is it opened my eyes for gnome. From now on gnome will be my favourite wm...:)

[Quest-Master]

I've been looking at MEPIS lately too since gEdit is really messing up with FTP permissions and no MIDI. :(

[poofyhairguy]

I'll probably go with ProMepis since my sound in warty is not working (thread: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=8156) but will also be back for hoary.
One thing I admit about Ubuntu is it opened my eyes for gnome. From now on gnome will be my favourite wm...:)


Hmmm. Its the opposite for me. SimplyMEPIS won't work with my sound. Oh well...I like Ubuntu better. :p

[DonL]

After using RPM based distros for the last few years, I'm happy with this one.
If for some reason Ununtu wasn't available or became unusable I think I would stay with a Debian based system, hopefully Debian itself. I never had much luck installing it before, but Ubuntu makes it a walk in the park.
I'm really happy, and I'm telling all my friends.

[tleroy]

Hopefully a newer Ubuntu release! :)

[gny]

Well,
I am very pleased with ubuntu. Before i was running Debian/Sid, and yes I'm totally crazy. :twisted:
The main reason for that was fresh packages.
Then i found out about ubuntu, that gave me a really slick system with most of the software i like. Only change i have made is that i run Xfce on my laptop by adding:

deb http://www.os-cillation.de/debian binary/
deb-src http://www.os-cillation.de/debian source/

to /etc/apt/sources.list

A lot faster then gnome and i don't use a file manager anyway, who needs to when there are things like xterm ;-)


So, from Sid to Warty. And as it looks right now. I'm here to stay.
I also like Ubuntu from a philosophy point of view. That was one of the reasons why i used Debian in the first place. And not to be forgotten..

apt

Oooh yes... give me some more. :D

So what would I do if it was to be discovered that Ubuntu is owned by M$ as a grand plan for world domination? Probably go back to Debian, or try FreeBSD. Hmmm, or deploy my Mega big robots with death ray lasers and mind controlling satellites. Opps, said to much.. :-#

[flibblesan]

Well I love Ubuntu, it's a great distro. If ATI cards can work fine then I'd be happy.

[eivind]

Well. I once had a fling with BeOS, and what I loved about it, and thus would like to have in my dream OS (including, of course, Ubuntu) was that it booted in something like 20 seconds or less.

But of course, BeOS was <taboo>proprietary</taboo>, and after having a new fling with Mandrake 10.1, made by a company that wants revenue for its product, I decided to find a free/libre OS. Enter Debian.

But in Debian, the install was/is a mess, and hardware was/is likely not to work without major tweaking, so I looked for a free distro that was user friendlier, or at least less pecky about who its friends were. Then came Ubuntu.

What I am trying to say, I think, is that Ubuntu is by far the best choice for me (it's open and free, releases regularly, has apt-get, tons of packages and works very well), and I will probably settle with it, but there are still some issues:
- in the perfect OS, all hardware should work perfectly and without need for tweaking. (I know, that's a hardware vendor issue, really)
- the perfect OS should boot in just a few seconds, and be very responsive once it's up and running. Smaller is better.
- the perfect OS should .... oh well, be like Ubuntu in all other respects.


Eivind

[k.ODOMA]

I've been seriously looking into finding another distro that is cleaner, simpler, and less "crufty" than Ubuntu or my last distro - Debian. I've tried Arch, and it's a possibility, but I have some issues with the maturity of the distro. FreeBSD and Crux are other options. In fact, I'm going to set up a dual-boot with Crux today and mess around with it a bit.

I'm finding that much of the advantages of running Ubuntu, ie GNOME, don't really apply to me. While I use a number of GTK apps, I don't run GNOME itself.

[somuchfortheafter]

i would really like to have the option of running movieos, you know where you can break encryption strings in like 2seconds, never get caught for anything, and when your ssh into a server you get that cool tunnel thing.....

[SGC]

If i could't install the next version of KDE in Kubuntu, I will switch to any distro that have that version and based on debian.

[NaplesBill]

I used SuSE 9.1 before switching to Ubuntu. I might use SuSE again if Ubuntu stopped being developed. It feels like Ubuntu is a lot "snappier" than SuSe and SuSE wasn't slow. Also, I really like apt and synaptic.

You can use apt and synaptic on suse. All you have to do is do a web search for apt for suse. There is a whole website and a ton of repositories dedicated to it.

[eeclark]

i would use Fedora Core 3 again
I'd go back to FC3...but by then it would be a legacy OS... :-)

[telmo]

I will use my own! ;)

[SamH]

If Ubuntu went away, I'd probably go back to SUSE. Overall, I've had better luck with SUSE finding my hardware and installing it, until I tried Ubuntu.

Slackware is also a possibility.

This is all very speculative, though. From what I see, Ubuntu is gaining adherents, momentum, etc. I don't think it's going to go away.

[james_mad]

If Ubuntu was gone I would probably go on a distro testing spree: I would try gentoo first, and then, after hours of trying to install it, I would go to fedora core :)

[jerome bettis]

well i used ubuntu for sometime, and i started to hear all this talk about how great gentoo is. after i felt confident enough in my linux skills i finally got the balls to install it. i liked some things about gentoo, and different things about ubuntu. gentoo seems to be best as a 'lean mean' distro so i'd rather not install gnome, open office, etc etc etc on it. i just have xfce and a few essential programming apps on there. portage is just as good as apt-get - each has their own advatages / disadvatages, but overall they both are awesome package managers.

after a week of using just gentoo i started to miss all the good things about ubuntu. then after a week of using ubuntu exclusively, i started to miss the good things about gentoo. i like the way gentoo handles the linux system (modules, network etc) and i love my ubuntu destkop. so rather then install all of that stuff on gentoo, i found a way to run both at the same time!

i boot into gentoo and start my ubuntu desktop. it's so nice. if i wanted, i could run a third distro at the same time, but i see no need to. i'm 100% content with both of these distros running perfectly side by side, and it's going to be a long time before i even get the itch to try something else.

plus i can go to work, start xfce in gentoo and have a completely hidden ubuntu session running ... i just hit ctrl + alt + f7 to get back to xfce if i hear my boss coming.

[Nob]

after ubuntu i wont be using linux, i will be using freebsd ;)

[defkewl]

I'd probably go back to FC again. I've tried FC3 and it was quite slow. But some folks already told me to tweak FC. But I'm staying with Ubuntu right now. I hope I won't have to go back to FC :D

[XDevHald]

If Ubuntu was gone I would probably go on a distro testing spree: I would try gentoo first, and then, after hours of trying to install it, I would go to fedora core :)

Well, that does it for my answer :grin::grin:

[Gary Powers]

OSX


When I replace my Pentium 3 its going to be with a G5 (hell, by the time I can afford a new machine it might be a G6 or G7 #-o ).

But I don't see myself going through another OS install on this machine (unless Ubuntu breaks real bad or something ... even then I'll probably do a reinstall)

I've got to agree. OS X is quite good and without Ubuntu, it would be an easy decision.

Gary

[escuchamezz]

i'll probably try out Microsoft Linux

[derrick1985]

A desktop that both KDE and Gnome can exist natively, but also sperately (i have both installed, and the menu's are kinda messed up, menu icons and all. Anything that I add to KDE's desktop, get's added to my Gnome, and I don't want that!)

Better package management. Firefox 1.0.3 is out, I want it ASAP (yes, i know the story, but i would rather have 1.0.3)

Full write support for NTFS partitions

Better printer driver support (more drivers, this way you aren't always hunting them down)

Better Multimedia Keyboard support. Lineak perhaps integrated.

Custom install from web. Don't get me wrong, the install CD is GREAT and I love the packages it comes with, but here is my example: OpenOffice 1.1.3 comes standard with the distro, but say I want to use openoffice 2.0 beta, well then, I want to be able to select that from the list and use that instead.

HaiH Hoary after install helper is a great tool, gets me the codecs I need and most of the settings preconfigured for me to work properly. What I would like is perhaps a link on the desktop (the fist sudo user) that i can use that, and select additional packages to use from there.

Last thing I can think of of the top of my head: Install updater. If for say, I downloaded the distro, 3 months after it's release, chances are there is an update or two for it, well, I want to install that update during the install process. So, an afterinstall, before boot updater would be nice too.

[haiku72]

coming from BeOS I'd switch instantly to Haiku when it's stable to use. It's incredible fast, intuitive and way out better than anything linux however when it comes to Linux Ubuntu rules.

[somuchfortheafter]

i would probably go to debian or slackware.. if i needed something reliable and quick though i would go with suse pro....or nld as it is now called i think.....

[aysiu]

I don't understand the original post-er's point. If Gnome isn't cool... well, there's Kubuntu. Or you can use Ubuntu and download KDE or any desktop environment/window manager you want.

And the thing about Mepis... what? Ubuntu's the one that has its own repositories. Mepis, for the most part, uses the actual Debian repos.

I think both of these distros are great.

[WildTangent]

well...the closest any distro other than ubuntu has come as far as my satisfaction with it would have to be FC3, and even then, i wasnt that impressed. as far as what im looking for, definately multimedia support. i have yet to get WMA/WMVs to work, and ive tried everything i can think of.

-Wild

[N'Jal]

Use the latest mplayer i have gotten wmv's working havn't tryed wma's

[sapo]

Ubuntu with better ATI support and a constantly updated universe with 30000 packages.

Ubuntu is perfect for me... if it were easier (to newbies) and it have an ATI driver that could run games with the same quality and FPS as windows it would be a dream.

And when ALL the stupid games companies start making OpenGL games that runs nativelly on linux.. it would be a dream coming true :grin:

[qeek]

Maybe I'm gonna fight with Gentoo again. I had many problems with it last month and I decided to switch to Ubuntu.
But Gentoo is simply... more exciting, heh :D

[hard_i]

it'll definitely going to be debian based.
Like Ubuntu, for example :grin:

[Nu-Buntu]

So far I am happy with Ubuntu. I love apt-get, love the way my notebook wireless card worked from the get-go. So far, the only problem has been a HAL failed to initialize message that I have beaten back.

I am curious about Fedora Core 4, but even if I get around to installing it, I don't plan on replacing Ubuntu as my primary OS unless there was a compelling reason. I also like Mandrake / Mandriva, but I don't like the special class of users called Club Members. I like free, I like choice, I support the philosophy of Ubuntu.

[mrtaber]

It is my hope that, after Ubuntu, I'll be using...Ubuntu! Right now I use RHEL (and CentOS) for my servers, but I really, really, really like Ubuntu for my desktop OS. I hope they keep up the good work.

In fact, I love it so much, I've even tapped my pocketbook...which is saying something for me and a free OS (although I did tap the pocketbook for CentOS, too).

Mark

[virgule]

I'd still use Yellow Dog if only it would be better maintained and faster. I mean, they provide very little 'yum update' thats lame. YD3 was quite fast, super robust and stable I must say but YD4 is sloooow and compiling stuffs mostly never worked for me ( Only when using FC2/3 source RPMs it would work - I sure woke up the dependency monster by then, anyway) They also dropped support for my aging G3 ](*,) I though about OSX but it seam to require BUILD-In FireWire, that I dont have.

So Be It. Ubuntu Hoary is my savior.. \\:D/

My next step is to feel comfort with apt-get/dpkd combo.
1- What is the command to print a package's version? (rpm -q <package_name> equivalent for .debs?!?!
2- Is there a way to search for a providing package?!? (yum provides <file_name> equivalent?)
3- Whats the trick to build a .deb straight from a tarball? (rpmbuild -ba <tarball_name equivalent?)

[allforcarrie]

Windows 95 :-?

that is a joke BTW.

[benplaut]

(i was sure i'd already replied to this, but i guess not...)

my ideal distro wold be the following:

=-i686 optimized
=-containing a KDE/GNOME combo (the great features and options of KDE, with the speed and UI fo GNOME)
=-.BEN based (update of .RPM to have full .DEB and .RPM compatibility, but with massive repos of 100,000 packages. includes web crawler to automatically compile source programs found on the net, and add them to the repos)
=-the speed of Slackware, with blackbox (that's really, really fast)
=-full support for all wifi chipsets
=-stable, cutting, or bleeding edge software- at the choice of the user
=-humoungus community (5x the size of this one)
=-full support for ati cards (i hate you, Dave Orton)
=-%10 market share
=-PDA port, with support for most PDAs on the market
=-ultra-miserly battery sipping for laptops






=-world peace?

--

as you can see, my wishes are quite distant, but, most importantly, i wish for a blend of the worlds fo KDE and GNOME... that would be heaven on earth (until the next big thing, of course [-X )

[Artanis]

Before Linux I was a hardcore Windows XP /w Litestep/Directory opus, and the rest of the programes being mainly open sourc/freeware.

Before Ubuntu I was a CentOS (RHEL) fanatic, if it wasnt CentOS it wasn't worth looking at. Centos was stable, easy to update, always had support (Atleast I thought until I found the ubunutu community) and was secure from the first install.

What I want after Ubuntu... Well, the only thing that I want is to be able to port win32 programes and run them natively on linux (Camfrog and windows games for instance). I'd also like it to have a cool bootsplash (Like CentOS, it has a pretty splash screen with icons saying what it's configuring and how long it's got, but it can also go into verbose mode and show the normal boot text).

The bootsplash can be done easily, but I'd prefer something from ubuntu so it's official and looks as professional as the rest of ubuntu. As for the porting of win32 programes... I don't see that happening 8(

[jsimmons]

As for the porting of win32 programes... I don't see that happening 8(


But there is Wine. It's coming along nicely. Once Wine can run my games without undue hassle (or at all), I'll be able to make the switch to full-time Linux. As for which distro I'll be using AFTER Ubuntu, that's a moot point because as long as Ubuntu keeps their wits about them, I won't have reason to look for alternatives.

[Skel]

I dont know I will probably .................................choose........... ....One of the Linuxs... Honestly i got know clue so lets hope it doesnt stop.....

[trivialpackets]

I think it's as important to find out where this broad community wants to go as it is to know where it's been.

Describe what your ideal Desktop Distro (to keep in the same playing league) would look and act like.
I don't know if it's ideal, but for now I'm up and running slackware. I really love the way that things are where they need to be when I need them. No knock on ubuntu, as I love that as well and still have it on my desktop. I just still love slack.

[Optimal Aurora]

Probably go back to Fedora if they ever get it working perfectly on my system...

[FLeiXiuS]

I would have to say, that this would be a competeing scene, between gentoo and ubuntu. Ubuntu runs perfectly on my desktop and it's...almos just as fast as my completely optimized gentoo desktop.

[bored2k]

After Ubuntu ? Whatever works.. better. Ubuntu is a tough act to follow here. I would still be switching between Windows and Linux (one word: Gaming).

[poofyhairguy]

As for the porting of win32 programes... I don't see that happening 8(

That is what WINE is.

[Artanis]

Show me how to get camfrog working with wine.... I've been trying for ages and still no success.

[dickohead]

*ponders WINE*

*laughs till sides hurt*

*boots into windows to play REAL games*

Seriously though, WINE is not bad at getting games like Warcraft 2, Diablo 2, StarCraft, Total Annihilation, and many other OLDER games working, but what about those of us wanting to play games like:
World of Warcraft? Age of Mythology? Knights of the Old Republic? you catching my drift? Sure they might run for some people, but untill companies start writing versions of their games for Linux it looks like we are all stuck with using programs like WINE and WINEX (transgaming calls it something else now).

Given the title of this thread... it sounds like Ubuntu is going somewhere? Judging by the ever-increasing uptake and enthusiasm behind Ubuntu, I honestly can't see it going anywhere! Especially after using systems like Debian, SuSE, Mandrake, Slackware and Fedora myself... Ubuntu is just plain brilliant!!!

[weasel fierce]

Ubuntu has me very pleasantly and thoroughly surprised, though I think including some FAQ elements on how to get and use basic things like java couldnt hurt.

An Openoffice that lets you print wouldnt be amiss either ;)

[Slapdash]

It wont be Linux. it will be *BSD probably PC-BSD or FreeBSD. www.pcbsd.org & www.freebsd.org.

I have fallen in love with PC-BSD and its only version 0.75 ( Still in Beta ).
using it at the moment still not what it should be but version 1.0 should be AWESOME.

[rider343]

I like Gentoo, but...
I love Ubuntu \\:D/

[mjbanks]

I can honestly say I'm sticking with Ubuntu as long as it's around! Being somewhat new to Linux, I tried Mandrake for a bit, then Fedora for a bit, and neither really gave me any reason to dump Windows and use Linux (I don't game on the PC so I don't need Windows). I downloaded Ubuntu after seeing someone post about it on Slashdot, and everything just worked (well, wireless still isn't working, but that's another story). And it just seems to work better and easier than other distros.

[jnk]

It wont be Linux. it will be *BSD probably PC-BSD or FreeBSD. www.pcbsd.org & www.freebsd.org.

I have fallen in love with PC-BSD and its only version 0.75 ( Still in Beta ).
using it at the moment still not what it should be but version 1.0 should be AWESOME.
Most likely I will goto Debian, and then maybee Gentoo or L.F.S.
On my laptop I'm allready thinking of installing BSD (again). ;)
Just found the PC-BSD homepage and looked at the screens, will try this.
Thanx by the way for the link to PC-BSD, Slapdash.

[Stemp]

I think I will go for BSD and then to Debian/hurd, but only for testing purposes.
Ubuntu is just fine for me.

[musicman2059]

Switch to another distro? Well, I guess it could happen, and seeing that I had already toyed with both RedHat and Debian, I'd probably end up using one of those two. Which one, I dunno.

[primeirocrime]

*uh

just took the tour in www.pcbsd.org and I am very impressed. uau. got to try this next.

[christooss]

The question have to be which distro will you use in november 2005.

My anwser Breezy.

If I anwser this question. I don't know which excatly but I know it will be a deb based one :) And ofcourse with apt-get and GNOME :)

[Optimal Aurora]

I went back to using Windows after Ubuntu, I just like windows a lot more and linux has should me that it is a nice OS, but I personally don't have all the problems many people say they have with windows. I like Windows and Ubuntu was the closest I could get to having a stable system...

Ha... Ha... Ha... I am not kidding I did go back to windows...

[obx-jdt]

Things in the Linux world change so fast, that all I can say is;
The ultimit Linux will install in under 10 minutes, have all dependicies , and come with 3 hot chicks, a 12 pack of beer, and a fith of booze :grin: .

(-5, spelling)

[obx-jdt]

I went back to using Windows after Ubuntu, I just like windows a lot more and linux has should me that it is a nice OS, but I personally don't have all the problems many people say they have with windows. I like Windows and Ubuntu was the closest I could get to having a stable system...

Ha... Ha... Ha... I am not kidding I did go back to windows...
Windows is a good OS, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I think I speak for the whole world when I say "I wish I wrote the code for it!!!"
If you can avoid hackers, spyware, viruses, and don't care about having to reboot evrytime you install software, your gold. Not to meantion the daily securty updates......
The thing that sells windows is also it's weak point..........
.exe......... fat16/32/NTFS........I must admit, if it wasn't for securty issues, I'd still run 98SE.
My guess is you couldn't grasp the command line, and gave up.
I still run Win2000 Pro, but just for gamming. I'm starting to think Ubuntu is the first Linux distro that might change that.

[blitze]

Moving to Ubuntu from Arch Linux but if Ubuntu didn't exist then I'd be on Arch Linux. Thing I like about Arch is it's minimalist install approach with install as you see fit after you have your working base.

Thing that drew me to Ubuntu was that everything worked with minimum of effort but....

DVD's needed installation and tweaking to get them running well

Yet to find Opera in the Ubuntu repositories

More optimisation with Gnome but it's a work in progress so I can't complain.

Overall, Ubuntu is a great distro which is easy to get up and running. I just need to uninstall a fair few apps that I don't want and then optimise to get the sucker running how I like. Would also like i686 based packages but I am running a K7smp kernel for my system that has helped a lot.

Oh and would like Nvidia to get their crap together with TwinView on Linux so it is as easy and workable as under Windows. I want my TFT to be the primary display and TV secondary :|

[AntiDragon]

If I decide their is an "after", Gentoo. But I'm more likely to stick with Ubuntu and use Gentoo at work (once I get the go ahead!).

Actually, I tried Gentoo as my first distro. It was fine up to the "build kernel and reboot into new OS" part.

Ho hum...
I figured I should opt for something a bit more appropriate after that! :-P

[betrayed]

Debian unstable/testing with a couple of packages from exp. now and again. I am all ready running that. There is just somethings I don't feel I have control of when i run ubuntu(understable though for what they are trying to do). I still think it is a great way to get new people into linux

[ElllisD]

yoper 22

[hernias]

Prolly Debian. I tried to install Yoper and it thinks my Microsoft Wireless Multimedia Keyboard and Intel 815 integrated-video chipset are both alien artifacts. So I got keyboard errors all through the install, and no video. Not cool. The Ubuntu experience has been wonderful so far, so I don't think Debian would be any worse - install might be a bit more difficult, and there might not be so much stuff configured and ready to go out of the box, but with apt-get that's not a problem at all, it does all the hard work for me. Debian's got bigger repositories and the like. I'm not sure that it would toss an icon up on the desktop when I plug in my USB stick, though. That's a big deal for me. When Ubuntu did that for the first time I was amazed. I'd never seen such a user-friendly Linux environment.

So, I could go Debian, or I could just stick with Ubuntu... who knows.

[AdrianBrown]

I used SuSE before Ubuntu so I expect I'd go back there.

[Stormy Eyes]

but what about those of us wanting to play games like: World of Warcraft? Age of Mythology? Knights of the Old Republic? you catching my drift?

Not really, but that's not your fault. My idea of gaming right now involves a PS2, a TV tuner card, and a copy of one of the new Shin Megami Tensei RPGs by Atlus (either Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga). My time for games is limited, and I'm not willing to spend what little time I have on sloppily written games that require post-release patches. And, IMO, MMO games are boring.

[Lowe]

but what about those of us wanting to play games like: World of Warcraft? Age of Mythology? Knights of the Old Republic? you catching my drift?

Using windows for games is rather lame IMO. I've always been a console gamer anyway. If you want to use an operating system that gives you no freedom, just to play a few games then go ahead, but at least we know who the real linux users are around here. :-P

[andlinux21]

I used SUSE 9.1 Pro before this so I would go back to 9.3 Pro, or Xandros CrossOver Office rocks. Ubuntu is awesome i hope they dont stop developing it....

[dickohead]

Using windows for games is rather lame IMO. I've always been a console gamer anyway. If you want to use an operating system that gives you no freedom, just to play a few games then go ahead, but at least we know who the real linux users are around here. :-P
*Real Linux users*? What's that supposed to mean? I use Linux for EVERYTING with the exception of gaming. I have 3 machines running Linux, with a 4th on the way. 2 of those machines have windows on them - which are used for gaming. If you think that makes me less of a Linux user than some, perhaps you need to pull your head of a dark smelly place and see the light. It's not my fault, nor is it the Linux communities, that I cannot play the games I personally enjoy in Linux - but the fact still remains that I cannot.

And as for Windows giving you "no freedom", it gives me the freedom to play whatever games I want... whilst Linux cannot. Perhaps your idea of freedom is a little detatched from what computing freedom is all about - the ability to use a machine for whatever purpose you require - political and emotional feelings/beliefs aside, Linux just can't cut it in the Gaming scene, which for many, is exactly why they do not use Linux at all.

Not meaning to start arguments, just expressing my findings and opinions, as you were... however, saying that anyone who uses Windows too, is less of a Linux user than someone who does not is a rather uneducated and ignorant statement. Perhaps you should think like a realist and not a zealot?

[Kyral]

No.......Ubuntu...........*starts shaking in complete fear of the concept*

Seriously I would prolly go Debian or SymphonyOS if it was out of Alpha at the time

[ilbahr]

I know that all distros are just linux. So switching from one distro to the other for me is not based on what packages are availabe. It will be based on the hardware support they offer and the ease of upgrade. Most of the problems with the winmodems, printers, scanners and wirless network are common in linux. Some distros though try to develop packages to support those hardware. I found that MEPIS and Mandriva till now have supported my hardware better then Ubuntu. So if I will make a switch it will be to MEPIS as I am going with debian based distro for their alleged nohastle upgrade (a claim i still have to test).

[darkmatter]

First off, it will be a Debian. What I would really want to see is a distro with better media integration (note:I say integration, not support, as i believe the distro itself should remain 100% free).

I have this sweet idea for a much more streamlined/sharper, modular approach to the way multimedia applications are handled/integrated within GNOME, but I haven't actually learnt enough coding as of yet to pull it off.

Regardless, whatever direction I travel in, the distro(s) I will continue to use must cover all the basics as cleanly and as polished as possible.

[redlabour]

Mandriva !

[lol]

Debian, of course!

I just switched to Ubuntu because the Debian unstable has been a bit of a mess recently. So far, I am rather happy with Ubuntu and I will probably stick to it as long as it's upgraded often enough for me.

The reason I would go back to Debian if I had to change, is simply that it wouldn't require a new installation. Updating the apt source list would be all it takes.

My current system is an old Debian 2.1, that survived several hardware (first installed on a P75) and system (slink 2 potato 2 testing 2 unstable 2 Ubuntu hoary) upgrades during the last 6 or 7 years! That's what makes me *love* apt :)

[DarthBagel]

I'm in the process of putting gentoo on a 1Gb USB drive so that I can run it on my desktop (unfortunately I'm stuck with Windows on it... parents need it). So while I'd love to run Ubuntu, and I do on my laptop, I'll be using alot of gentoo in the next few weeks.