Ubuntu

[techie_alison]

Hello,

HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

So come on, let's see your Ubuntu setups?

My next task is to set up a server running Debian (text based Linux) on one of my old laptops. This will be running Samba, Apache2, and DropBear amongst other things.

This post has been written in Firefox. The picture was pulled in from the camera by F-Spot, and the image was resized using GIMP. None of this messing about with drivers, finding CDs or any of that.

Also... Linux when it uses hardware has a tendancy to interface straight with the chipsets in use, and ignores whatever the manufacturer/brand is. Such that you don't get all of the custom clutter.

Alison

[Desty]

It's pretty nice - my favourite thing about Ubuntu is probably Debian's apt-get system, and the automatic(ish) upgrades between major releases (I've got Mandriva 2008 on an old laptop and it has no system for moving to the next release - a bit of a showstopper IMO, even though it comes set up with the lovely Compiz 3D desktop stuff).
I'd send a screenshot, but my Ubuntu box is missing its USB wireless adapter (gave it to my ma) and it's a low-spec crappy machine I just use for genetic programming experiments. And, TBH, Gnome desktops usually look the same; somewhat frumpy.

[coze]

The only thing cooler than Ubuntu is probably Xubuntu, the lightweight XFCE distribution. It's so cool I wonder what OS I've used all this time until I found it

Unfortunately my desk is a total mess at the moment so I dare not put a shot here ...

[Desty]

The only thing cooler than Ubuntu is probably Xubuntu, the lightweight XFCE distribution. It's so cool I wonder what OS I've used all this time until I found it

Unfortunately my desk is a total mess at the moment so I dare not put a shot here ...

Do you really find XFCE itself lightweight though? That's the default WM I'm using on the Ubuntu box (switched away from Gnome since it left me with not enough RAM to use Eclipse at work), and I find it a bit... slow. For example, getting a run box (equivalent to what you get in windows with winkey+r) to appear takes at least 5 seconds the first time. That said, the system tray style applets are nice.

[techie_alison]

Have to agree slightly about XUbuntu. It's not as hugely streamlined as it's made out to be.

Debian is going on the intended server machine here; P4 1.6 / 512Mb / 40GB. The irony of said laptop is that it doesn't have a display (or adapter). So the only access I'm going to be getting to it is SSH. I have another identical laptop, so will borrow the graphics card from it to do the install. Then once DropBear is on there I'll deploy everything else via tty.

[rocket-dog]

Until recently I had a Vostro 1500 with a 1Gb RAM and a nice Nvidia card with 256Mb mem'. Ran like a dream; flicked a Compiz cube with two video streams, plus screen saver preview, and reflections about really smoothly. Better than Vista which ran so slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooweeeeeeeeee it was nearly unusable. But it it is no more, I had to get XP installed.

On another forum which I frequent there is a real humdinger of an argument going on about Ubuntu being to soft. Apparently Slackware is the one the real men run. But I don't suspect that affects you Al, you being a girl-type person....!

[d0us]

I use a special distro called Ubuntu studio which sets a realtime kernal for audio apps.

Do have a few problems due to having two soundcards and he odd scrambled audio.

I might actually replace Ubuntu with Linux mint (ubuntu derivative) as a day to day os and ubuntu studio for audio only

[d0us]

and amarok is a brilliant audio player/manager

[Desty]

On another forum which I frequent there is a real humdinger of an argument going on about Ubuntu being to soft.

What a ridiculous argument... underneath the soft-n-helpful exterior, Ubuntu is hard as nails. Incidentally, have you tried WINE recently? It's gotten really really good compared to a few years ago; I used it to run some proprietary Windows-only ebook software on my Mac - worked first time, and looked great; even the Chinese fonts.

[rocket-dog]

On another forum which I frequent there is a real humdinger of an argument going on about Ubuntu being to soft.

What a ridiculous argument... underneath the soft-n-helpful exterior, Ubuntu is hard as nails. Incidentally, have you tried WINE recently? It's gotten really really good compared to a few years ago; I used it to run some proprietary Windows-only ebook software on my Mac - worked first time, and looked great; even the Chinese fonts.

Yes I and several others pointed this out to the main antagonist; a Windows admin is giving him a good kicking at the moment. I think one or two of these Linux lads get carried away; have you ever listened to the (now defunct) LUG Radio podcasts? Ubuntu looks like real Unix to me. And I know I spent enough hours battling AIX and Solaris.

Saying that Slack does look interesting. And I was wondering about Debian on a BeagleBoard http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/ for Hitari........

No I haven't tried WINE, but I do know it has been improved greatly. Our poor Vostro box must be quiet dizzy now; its gone from Vista, to Ubuntu, and now to XP Pro. My father is taking it abroad as a programming terminal for some equipment. The program is very invasive (it has destroyed other people's machines, don't ask because I don't know!) and is quite processor hungry. I did think of running XP virtually but couldn't risk the IO not working properly; no tech-support where he is going.

[Desty]

I think one or two of these Linux lads get carried away; have you ever listened to the (now defunct) LUG Radio podcasts? Ubuntu looks like real Unix to me. And I know I spent enough hours battling AIX and Solaris.

Saying that Slack does look interesting.

Yep, extreme fanatics are rarely fun to be around whatever the area of interest. Slackware was the second Linux I tried, around 2000, after I'd screwed up a Red Hat install from a couple of years earlier. But by then I still didn't really know what I was doing and had to pay per-minute to surf the web, so goo... err, Yahoo-ing for answers was costly.
These days of free (or at least flat-rate ) information make things much easier in this regard, but the quality of pretty much all Linux distros - especially in usability and approachability - has increased hugely as well. (Free)BSD is still lagging in those terms - I tried to install the latest PPC image about 2 years ago and failed miserably five or six times before throwing in the towel - it was all text-mode menus, terse explanations and cryptic error messages (or just hangs)... the antithesis of "out-of-box" we've come to expect from Ubuntu and other modern Unixes.

I did think of running XP virtually but couldn't risk the IO not working properly; no tech-support where he is going.

Where we're going, we don't need roads...
Probably the right choice - sadly even the nicest, best-designed Linux distro carries some risks that are higher than in Windows XP... especially where weird hardware is involved.

[daeghnao]

Have been using ubuntu for years, and Linux for years more. Attached, a shot from my desktop just now, while I have the random insomnia. We did a load of ubuntu installs at the Linux installfest a couple of weeks ago, and people seemed relatively pleased at the outcome. You can see some photos of the event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/martlev/se ... 359167082/

[rocket-dog]

Probably the right choice - sadly even the nicest, best-designed Linux distro carries some risks that are higher than in Windows XP... especially where weird hardware is involved.

The PC repair man brought the Vostro back last night. As I thought he couldn't get the odd program running on bog standard XP, he had to install XP Pro, so I don't think virtualization would have worked, too many software layers. The lesson here is,

DON'T LET YOUR DAD BUY HIS OWN LAPTOP; BE KIND AND DO IT FOR HIM.

daeghnao: Ubuntu + STEEM looks lovely. That image you posted is extremely crisp. What about Debian and Steem? Or Debian and Hatari? Have you ever ran these combo's? (Yes before somebody says anything I know there is an Hatari page elsewhere on the forum........)

[daeghnao]

daeghnao: Ubuntu + STEEM looks lovely. That image you posted is extremely crisp. What about Debian and Steem? Or Debian and Hatari? Have you ever ran these combo's? (Yes before somebody says anything I know there is an Hatari page elsewhere on the forum........)

Used to use Debian on my main desktop machine, and ran steem there too. I have hatari around too, but since I moved to the new server setup I need to configure things up again and I happened to get to doing steem first. I've also got a spare machine with aranym on it, or at least I will have once I've put the hard-drive back in...

[techie_alison]

Thought I'd try out the new Ubuntu 8.10 last night to see what all of the fuss was about.

This morning I've gone back to 8.04. Desperately sorry to say it, but 8.10 isn't quite stable just yet.

Thing is that I've become used to 8.04 and most of it's tweaks to keep me going. I was quite proud of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf and dual screen Nvidia 8600GT

[daeghnao]

I'm hearing this about 8.10 from many sources. They do push pretty hard with the new ideas and it does take a while for it all to settle, and it does introduce this whole new edition of the X infrastructure that's causing a lot of the issues. I usually wait a good few weeks before switching, looks like it may be a while longer.

[rocket-dog]

I'm hearing this about 8.10 from many sources. They do push pretty hard with the new ideas and it does take a while for it all to settle, and it does introduce this whole new edition of the X infrastructure that's causing a lot of the issues. I usually wait a good few weeks before switching, looks like it may be a while longer.

I know releasing a new version every six months keeps the momentum going on the project. And probably the Ubuntu coders are fanatics, really interested (I suppose that goes without saying), and keen to try new things. But this does mean there are holes (yet I am still staggered how few gaps there are!)

I will not consider Hatari now and just install STEEM on my next Linux box. At the moment I am looking at a proper desktop box. But I am veering back to a laptop with graphics card; I have got to research which laptops running Ubuntu see their external video port as it can't be taken for granted that it will. Case in point Vostro saw its VGA running Gibbon, but didn't see it all the time with Heron (depending on kernel build.)

[Desty]

rocket-dog:

I used Hatari 0.95 or so on my Ubuntu (Breezy -> Dapper -> Edgy -> Feisty Fawn -> haven't used it properly since then) from the first build with Falcon emulation. It worked really well - probably better than it does on my (much more powerful) Macbook. I suspect SDL works better in Linux... If you have time, I'd recommend checking out and building the latest version from CVS.

[Grunaki]

I am both scared and confused by this Ubuntu thing you speak of..

Actually, I know what it is (sort of) I used the text-based SCO UNIX in my old job and it's kinda similar.

I've never actually used Linux of any sort though - my Father-in-Law gave us his old laptop and it has a dual boot with a GUI version of Linux on there, but it's password protected so I can't use it anyway.

Can't say I was that big a fan of SCO anyway, and using that has screwed up my DOS usage (I keep typing L instead of DIR)

[techie_alison]

Oh Ubuntu is far better than that. It's a rather polished GUI. Well GNOME if we're splitting hairs.

Download the 8.04 Desktop .ISO image. Burn it to CD, and boot off of it.

If you're running an older machine then you might try XUBUNTU, which is less intensive.

Really, it is worth having a look at.

The thing that it gives me is peace of mind. Like with XP, I'd be spending half of my time either worrying or trawling through the registry trying to remove malware. And that's even with the O/S locked down.

XP is eye candy. So is Ubuntu. The difference being that Ubuntu is secure, and allows you to delve deeper into a standard UNIX environment.

[Desty]

Can't say I was that big a fan of SCO anyway, and using that has screwed up my DOS usage (I keep typing L instead of DIR)

Heh, Linux has done the same to me - I often type cp, mv and ls by mistake at the DOS prompt. The flipside of this is that after you come to like some of the Unix tools, you end up finding free equivalents for Windows (eg. pskill/pslist for kill/ps).

[NiceGuyUK]

Got my Macbook set up as a triple-boot with OSX Leopard, Vista Ultimate and Ubuntu 8.10. All working fine, except the brightness controls under Ubuntu (but I've a patch to apply for that when I get time).

Playing Neverball on Ubuntu by using the Mac's motion sensor and tilting the whole laptop is amazing fun!

[NiceGuyUK]

BTW Alison, Debian isn't "text-only" - it can be just as graphical as Ubuntu and Ubuntu can be text-only too. I run my server on Ubuntu-Server AMD64 Edition, version 8.10

Also got a OpenSuse 11 machine, cos they tend to have a more recent version of Mono and tools in the repositories

[Desty]

Also got a OpenSuse 11 machine, cos they tend to have a more recent version of Mono and tools in the repositories

What do you use Mono for? Is there any compatibility with the MS C# API? Remember that STOS editor written in C# for windows...?

[NiceGuyUK]

What do you use Mono for?

Pretty much the same things I use Microsoft's implementation for - putting together little apps and scratching that programmer's itch. Its reasonably compatible (UI stuff is the least incompatible but its hugely improved of late) with the "official" MS version