October 19, 2007

• I gotta get me a spare box and load up this baby.
• I think I'll hold off a week or two before the upgrade (from Feisty). Always seems wise to let other find the odd obscure hardware incompatibility, and you miss the initial hammering the repository servers get.
• There's nothing wrong with waiting, but Ubuntu is very quick with fixes, just in case there is something wrong with an early release. Also your download should go very quickly if you use Bittorrent, which takes the load off the servers. I recently put vmware and wine on my Ubuntu box and was pleasantly surprised at being able to run Windows apps under Ubuntu.
• That's my next project too, he. I've read a few vmware how-tos but yet to plunge in. I know you can torrent the install disk images, but I've had pretty good success with upgrading through Synaptic in the past and like the way it saves tweaking your set-up again. That's why I mention the repositories. There was a massive amount of people online at the forums I noticed, so I am guessing traffic will be pretty high.
• I dunno. Devil's advocate: the OMGWINDOZEKILLER articles have been recycled with every major Linux release for at least the last decade. I remember when Xandros of all things was supposed to completely destroy the Windows stranglehold on the desktop. Alongside it are the "Linux is finally ready for prime time! It's even easier than Windows!" articles, which have been running nearly as long. And while Linux is certainly a simple install for most people, it's still in my experience very much a tinkerer's OS. Not that that's a bad thing, I just don't enjoy it, and I haven't ever been as impressed with Gnome or KDE as I have with the Windows and Mac GUIs. And comparing an OS experience to Vista, while fair enough (Vista is after all supposed to be MS's "latest and greatest"), is sort of like saying you're going to gauge your intelligence by comparing your cognitive ability to that of a comatose bullfrog. That said, I'm definitely going to download a live CD and play with it, because even though I know the cycle of reviews for Linux releases, I still can't help getting excited every time.
• I haven't ever been as impressed with Gnome or KDE as I have with the Windows and Mac GUIs. Harsh, but fair. Has anyone tried Ubuntu Studio yet? It's not a LiveCD so you have to install it to see if you like it.
• I'll stick up for Gnome (always willing to go into bat for the little guy!). I still have Windows on the laptop and now find it a much bigger pain to use than this Ubuntu install on the desktop - not just more sluggish, but not half so clean and easy to use. And I'm really no expert tinkerer. Mac OS I have only used on borrowed machines on rare occasions. Everyone I know who has it loves it, but in a bit of a Moonie way that leaves me unconvinced. (flame on). My big favourite thing with Linux is it's free, not pirated, and robust on a Chinese Internet filled with horrible script kiddies up to all sorts of malarkey.
• The "tinkerer" comment certainly isn't meant to indicate that dealing with issues here and there is particularly difficult -- the Ubuntu forums are a fantastic resource. But I tend to prefer my tools to work right out of the box with minimal tweaking from me, and I have never, ever had that experience with any of the now four or five Linux distros I've played with over the last ten years. Even if the install goes off without a hitch (which is in and of itself quite a feat -- installing an OS is not a small thing), there are invariably at least a couple of applications that will need some fiddling to work right. If we're going to judge Linux's readiness as a Win replacement for the average user, I think out-of-the-box usability has to be the litmus test. At least 75% or 80% of users don't have the confidence or desire to go digging for solutions -- they want it to just do what they tell it to. The tone of the Wired article in the first link was "It's perfect! Well, except I can't get it to play DVDs." That's a pretty big deal, and one that I'm sure is fixable, but it shouldn't come up at all, IMO, if we're going to call the OS "ready for the average user." It's still one hell of an OS, it just usually needs a bit of care.
• That's all pretty much true mct. I wonder if some of the break-through will come with pre-installs, as I believe some OEM manufacturers like Dell now offer. Because a lot of the same users would be just as lost with a Windows install and driver hunt as a Linux one if it hadn't been done for them already. I'm not ideologically committed to Linux taking over the world myself. Just so long as they keep releasing and maintaining it and letting me use it. It would be nice if it got big enough to be automatically considered for versions of some commercial software too though.
• Interesting. I'm actually downloading all three varities right now (U, K, and X). Ubuntu has over 5100 seeds. Kubuntu? Six.
• Yes, but it is a wonderful thing that Wired actually thought enough ot Ubuntu 7.10 to put it in the main 'computer' section and not the Linux blog in the deep recesses of the site. Another positive is that the programs will install the required media for you to play the DVDs, along with the great Synaptic. This 8-part series is both the most hilarious article I have ever read about Linux, but very interesting, from a Window's point of view. It is too bad she had problems with her screen consistently throughout the article though. =P Pete, from what I have heart Ubuntu Studio is really good, but I have not had much use for it, so I haven't really tried it yet. Having used Vista only a little, I find its design much much more frustrating than GNOME or KDE's, but I do like GNOME's better. I think the big turning point for Linuc will come from those countries on the other side of the Atlantic. =) Russia, Moldavia, France, and other countries are finding Linux, Ubuntu especially to their liking. The One Laptop Per Child Initiative is also going to change how a new generation of children use and play with computers.
• I have Ubuntu on my laptop, and I am thinking of moving over to Damn Small Linux because it's faster.
• It is damn small.
• Well, Ubuntu won't let me run the screen resolution I desire, even though I can select it. Which is weird, because on the previous release, I had the opposite problem -- had to fiddle with it to make anything but 640x480 available, and after that it ran fine.
• yeah it wasn't happy with 1600x1400 or whatever I've got. Bummer.
• I'm sure it's totally fixable and the forums will have a solution within a week or two, but this is the point I'm making above: Ready for prime time? No. Ready for smart people who don't mind a little shade-tree mechanic action on their OSes, sure.
• I'm running Ubuntu Studio, although I haven't done much music stuff with it. The low-latency kernel works ok with my M-Audio 2496 Delta, and it has a working Ardour installation out of the box. I briefly tried mastering with JAMin but couldn't figure it out and had to use Nuendo on a last-century Windows box. I promise to give JAMin another chance someday.
• No, I think the correct Linux answer here would be to tell you that it's patently your fault for having the wrong monitor mct, and offer a useful suggestion such as planing the edges down until it fits the resolution the devs have decided on for you. Obviously!
• *cries*
• Yay! Over the past couple of years I've tried each subsequent Ubuntu version on my desktop but they never played well with various bits of hardware, mainly video cards and monitors, as MCT noted. Gutsy, however, works like a charm. I think I'll give it a couple weeks then install a dual-boot with XP.
• Only just got 'etch' to look as good as feisty fawn so I'll hold off on gibbon, though ntfs and compiz-fusion without fiddling is quite cool. Ubuntu Studio looks interesting, I'll give that a go if I can find somewhere to put.