Alan Pope wrote:

On 31/05/05, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:

...

Anyway, I said I would ask what is so great about it and what the general opinion is and how it differs from, say, debian.

For me it's having a more aggresive release schedule and newer packages than Debian that made me switch to Ubuntu.

Does it still take over the whole drive when installing? (or am I thinking of another distro?)

beb

Alan Pope wrote:

On 31/05/05, beb ben@psychoferret.co.uk wrote:

...

Does it still take over the whole drive when installing? (or am I thinking of another distro?)

There is an option to run a disk partition utility whereby you can partition the disk(s) how you like or you can let it grab all the space if you want.

I've just installed it (AMD64 version of Hoary Hog (what a name!)). Apart from a few problems mainly due to the config files from my old debian system in $HOME it's looking like a smooth switch for me (ubuntu installs metacity by default, my old system used sawfish so I was lacking proper windows decorations etc.)

So far, so good ;)

beb

Brett Parker wrote:

I might get round to building amd64 hoary packages for them sometime soon, just don't hold your breath (I haven't got a hoary mirror yet, I have got a debian unstable one ;)

Cheers,

---

Just found this whilst having a poke around.

http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu

The last topic on the page deals with setting up a 32bit chroot on an AMD64 system. Thought someone might find it useful (and I guess it would work with debian too (maybe other distros as well?).

beb

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

On 6/5/05, Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:

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.

Small correction - Sarge currently has Firefox 1.0.4-2, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ubuntu had the same security fixes.

In theory Sarge becomes Stable next week.

Tim.

Alan Pope alan.pope@gmail.com wrote:

For me it's having a more aggresive release schedule and newer packages than Debian that made me switch to Ubuntu.

More on whether Ubuntu is newer than debian testing or not at http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/blog/2005/04/14

I've not got a Ubuntu system around here yet, but I can see that it adds an interesting option between debian stable and testing for people who want to stay on the debianplanet.