ubuntu linux

[Luis G]

For years I swore by Mandrake, but it seems that now Ubuntu Linux caught my interest. The system feels fast and the way everything is set up makes you don't want to ever look back. So far I have only tested the livecd and boy does it work right, everything configured properly without a hiss.

And they will even ship the original CDs for free.
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

 

[chcr]

I tried the kubuntu live CD Luis (because you mentioned it really). It's okay but I didn't see that it was anything special. Knoppix has always configured fine for me, and I've rarely had any problems with other full distros. OTOH, I've been using Linux for quite a while and usually only buy hardware that I know will work. BTW, I need a driver for a K-World analog TV card for Linux. I haven't gotten it to work on the new PVR yet. Admittedly this is a "back-burner" operation.

 

[catocom]

I've been trying several ditros lately myself.
The linux revolutions is really taking off right now. There's some really
cool distros out there, and they are all getting better, but in different areas.
I posted this earlier today a HWC...

I've been checking out SimplyMEPIS for about a week now.
I'm greatly impressed with it. Stable on my lan w/windows shares.
Very very user friendly, and setup with apache right from install.
The only drawback I see so far is it is just a little shy of the packages I need.
I saw that it was based on Debian and the packages for debian will work for
it, but as a somewhat noob, I can't get them installed right.
I saw that the new ver of Debian looks quite a bit bigger than when I tried it
last time, and have heard it's more stable.
So I'm d/ling the 14/15 iso set now to give it another try.

 

[Luis G]

chcr, with this laptop I've had only but problems with linux distros, the ieee1394 halts ANY linux installer trying to configure it. The mandrake installation I have on the laptop was installed manually by me, I even re-compiled the kernel. With ubuntu everything went flawlessly, all I had to configure was the keyboard distribution.

You might feel ubuntu slightly faster than kubuntu. I always used KDE but the way gnome is configured in ubuntu made it a better choice for me.

catocom, to install packages simply run
# apt-get install packagename
it will download and install the necessary files.
In case you don't know the name of the package you can do
# apt-cache search somethingtosearchfor
or if you got the .deb file do
# dpkg -i file.deb

 

[Gonz]

Have they solved the "if it ain't winders & you ain't a mechanic it ain't gonna werk fer ya" problems yet? I'd really hate to have to reinstall windows just to get back to where I am now.

 

[Luis G]

Have they solved the "if it ain't winders & you ain't a mechanic it ain't gonna werk fer ya" problems yet? I'd really hate to have to reinstall windows just to get back to where I am now.

You can download a live CD, it will not touch ANYTHING on your harddisk, yet, you'll have a full feel of what the distro is all about.

Download and burn this ISO file (live cd):
http://ubuntu.cs.utah.edu/releases/5.10/ubuntu-5.10-live-i386.iso
then just boot from the CD, it will take around 5 minutes to boot, but the risk should be null.


edit: just in case you don't know about ISO files, you should choose burn CD from image, and then select the ISO file. Creating a regular data CD and adding the file will not work.

 

[catocom]

catocom, to install packages simply run
# apt-get install packagename
it will download and install the necessary files.
In case you don't know the name of the package you can do
# apt-cache search somethingtosearchfor
or if you got the .deb file do
# dpkg -i file.deb

That's one of the main things I'm looking for in a distro though.....
No, or very very little commandline have-tos.

Gonz there is a "good" cross-over, but it ain't free.
"WINE" is free, but at last count it wasn't good on lesser known softwares.

 

[chcr]

WINE has gotten better over the years but it's far from perfect for sure. Sure runs Office 2000 well, although I find myself using Open Office more and more these days. Even on Windows.

Gonz, most major distros are pretty good at installing hardware. There are excellent tools for installing software now too. Where you'll get in trouble is gaming. It's why most folks dual boot.

Luis, in my experience KDE is always slower than Gnome (and Windows is slower than either) but I like it better. Laptops can be a problem because of the proprietary hardware. If ubuntu works, that's what you use. BTW, have you used "urpmi" in Mandrake? It basically works like "apt-get" does.

 

[Gonz]

There are excellent tools for installing software now too

Tha's a big plus. There is just too much software for windows that's a PITA for a Linux novice. Bill may be a slovenly rich Seatle aristocrat but he makes installation a breeze.

 

[catocom]

Gonz, with Xandros I think I clicked 4 times and it was installed.
As far as drivers, man I've spent countless hours getting drivers installed
on windows over the years. These new linux distros are nearly as good as
xp at setting the hardware up right from the setup for what I do mostly.
MEPIS setup my radeon 9000 pro perfectly, control panel and all, right off.

The "crossover" I was talking about is here...
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/
I haven't checked it out really, but some gurus I know say it works well.
I'm still playing with wine. I'm hopeful to eventually fine some time
to help contribute to wine development one day myself.

 

[Luis G]

WINE has gotten better over the years but it's far from perfect for sure. Sure runs Office 2000 well, although I find myself using Open Office more and more these days. Even on Windows.

Gonz, most major distros are pretty good at installing hardware. There are excellent tools for installing software now too. Where you'll get in trouble is gaming. It's why most folks dual boot.

Luis, in my experience KDE is always slower than Gnome (and Windows is slower than either) but I like it better. Laptops can be a problem because of the proprietary hardware. If ubuntu works, that's what you use. BTW, have you used "urpmi" in Mandrake? It basically works like "apt-get" does.

I used to like KDE better too, but I found this version of gnome appealing. I also used urpmi, but also got more affection for apt-get, is hard to beat that huge collection of deb packages. I found some rpms that wouldn't work while deb packages always do, maybe I just need to use .deb more to find some useless ones.

 

[catocom]

Yeah deb definitly has the packages, but MAN!, the setup is definitly not
for the novice.
LOL, I was going to install the whole thing, every package I could....,
but it started asking questions about stuff I never even heard of.
I need a book to read before I try this install again. It's my 3rd failed atempt.
I probably should try just adding a few packages at a time I guess.

I think I'll stick with the distros that have a good graphical installer.
Deb also doesn't seem to detect the hardware automatically very well.

I think it WOULD be easier to install MEPIS, and then do the commandline
installing of the extra stuff.

 

[Luis G]

Yeah deb definitly has the packages, but MAN!, the setup is definitly not
for the novice.
LOL, I was going to install the whole thing, every package I could....,
but it started asking questions about stuff I never even heard of.
I need a book to read before I try this install again. It's my 3rd failed atempt.
I probably should try just adding a few packages at a time I guess.

I think I'll stick with the distros that have a good graphical installer.
Deb also doesn't seem to detect the hardware automatically very well.

I think it WOULD be easier to install MEPIS, and then do the commandline
installing of the extra stuff.

Seriously, try ubuntu, it detected all of my hardware without a hiss and I believe it also has a graphical installer. Since ubuntu is debian-based you'll be able to install .deb files too.

But if you still want it easier, try Mandriva (formerly Mandrake).

 

[catocom]

yeah I'll give it a try.
I can't use the new mandriva. I've installed it on 3 different systems, and
everytime it goes into any kind of power management, it won't come back up.

 

[catocom]

Well I got ubuntu D/Led last night. I got the live, and install vers.
I'm gonna burn the live ver, and give it a try today.

 

[catocom]

Well I just tried the live ver.
I'm not terribly impressed. I'm not a big Gnome fan. I have to have my kde.
I could definitely tell that it was base on debian though. I may do the
HD install and add some stuff,...later.
I still like mepis for admin, and server stuff, and knoppix for quickie stuff.
I'm going to give debian one more try before I give up on it though.
Debian's "power" is holding my interest right now.

 

[Luis G]

Well I just tried the live ver.
I'm not terribly impressed. I'm not a big Gnome fan. I have to have my kde.
I could definitely tell that it was base on debian though. I may do the
HD install and add some stuff,...later.
I still like mepis for admin, and server stuff, and knoppix for quickie stuff.
I'm going to give debian one more try before I give up on it though.
Debian's "power" is holding my interest right now.

If you're a die hard KDE fan, try kubuntu then, it is just an ubuntu with KDE.

 

[catocom]

I think chic metioned that somewhere, I can't remember
Yeah I'll probably give it a try then, after I get through messing with debian.
I've got a lot of time, and cds (15) invested now in this deb distro, so I
want to at least get it working.

 

[Mirlyn]

I think chic metioned that somewhere, I can't remember
Yeah I'll probably give it a try then, after I get through messing with debian.
I've got a lot of time, and cds (15) invested now in this deb distro, so I
want to at least get it working.

You really only need disc 1 and maybe 2. Everything else is hardly-used packages (or src). You can get everything off the net with a high speed connection anyway.

Base woody install with disc 1 and internet downloading/updating takes about an hour and a half.

 

[catocom]

You really only need disc 1 and maybe 2. Everything else is hardly-used packages (or src). You can get everything off the net with a high speed connection anyway.

Base woody install with disc 1 and internet downloading/updating takes about an hour and a half.

Yeah, thanks why I'm giving it another shot. This time loading a few packages at a time.


well Kubutu seems better than ubuntu, but still not close to mepis, or Knoppix.
It didn't configure my ethernet right.

I'm gonna try deb again right now.