On Thu, Jun 02, 2005 at 10:11:40AM +0100, Brett Parker wrote:
is, I still don't trust it yet... Oh, and there's far too much stuff that just isn't in it that I can get from unstable (for example: freeciv2!), fortunately repackaging debian sources for hoary is fairly
Thats hardly fair to use freeciv2 as an example... as you can get freeciv2 for Ubuntu also from the unstable distro :)
I also think you summed up why Ubuntu is so nice for users, you are talking about using Debian unstable which is a real pain in the bum when all most computers want to do is use their computer, and given that an Ubuntu tagline is "Ubuntu - Linux for human beings". I don't mind playing around with "unstable" software too much, just not on my desktop if not I find I am spending too much time trying to track down bugs and problems rather than acutally using the computer to do anything useful.
I moved to Ubuntu from Debian when Hoary was released, and I have been very happy since then, especially with how new most of the software is and knowing that there will be a new release in under 6 months. Not to say that Debian isn't good, but the waiting nearly 3 years for a new stable release is far too long. What also gets me is that I'm downloading packges ahead of the Sarge release to upgrade a Debian box here, and it appears that Sarge is shipping with things like Gnome 2.8, kernel 2.6.8, Firefox 1.0.1, Evolution 2.0 despite Ubuntu having already shipped with Gnome 2.10 kernel 2.6.10, Firefox 1.0.2, Evolution 2.2 and x.org instead of xfree86.
I also found that Ubuntu is far easier to install than Windows, there isn't any machine that I have installed it on that has required more than 20 or 30 minutes fiddling to get *all* the hardware fully working (this includes getting things such as all the fully accelerated Nvidia drivers installed (I like games) and getting+installing the firmware for the Intel wireless cards which Ubuntu are not allowed to redistribute because of brain dead licensing on Intels part) which compared to my recent Windows XP Pro (re)-installs which took several hours each and lots of downloading of extra drivers. (over 200 megs of downloads just for the drivers on my laptop, including a mammoth 45 meg driver for the wireless card!, and this is not counting Windows update which was another 300ish megs, and the other bits you need to make a Windows box tick so extras like anti-virus software, firewalls and spyware detectors, and of course not forgetting Firefox and Gaim) and fiddling to the extreme to make everything work, including spending an hour getting the thing to talk to the wireless network properly (whereas Ubuntu with the firmware stuffed in the right place and a bit of clicking in the network applet was up and running within minutes, and I still can't work out why the laptop keeps running so slowly every so often while in Windows, I have probably not installed a required driver somewhere, but I can't work out what it is).
In short, I think Ubuntu rocks, especially for newbies and those terrified of using computers and people who don't like to spend lots of time fiddling with their computer so they can get software working correctly.
Thanks Adam