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Story: Review: Xubuntu 7.04 revisitedTotal Replies: 28
Author Content
nikkels

Aug 23, 2007
8:27 PM EDT
Nice article It tells you every thing you already know and nothing about what you want to know.

Furthermore, why do I get the impression that I have read it a few times before.

These reviews are getting boring . At least for me. Further more, every point mentioned can be contradicted. Xubuntu works fine on my laptop. Troublefree. None of the ubuntu family will install at the end of my HD , where otherdistros do without a problem. Ubuntu's give me problems with my hardware, every time, where ( example ) PclinucOS and Mandriva don't.

But it was nice reading, whilst waiting for Lunch.
tracyanne

Aug 24, 2007
12:22 AM EDT
Quoting:Ubuntu's give me problems with my hardware, every time, where ( example ) PclinucOS and Mandriva don't.


Same here.
dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
12:25 AM EDT
GentlePeople:

Your concerns are duly noted, but...

Don't question the Ubuntu.

It's for your own good, really.

Ubuntu loves you and wants only what is best for you.

Seriously.

Of course, if, in your foolishness, you question Ubuntu, Ubuntu will be forced to smite you.

For your own good.





dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
12:27 AM EDT
Seriously, though, I'm losing fascination with my Ubuntu experiment.

May put my myth box back onto Suse, or even give PCLinux another try. Last experience was the pits because I needed to build a custom kernel and simply could not find any support for the "PCLinux way".

Things may be better now.
Scott_Ruecker

Aug 24, 2007
12:42 AM EDT
I have tried several times to "get into" Ubuntu but the no root by default and the the fact that I have never been able to successfully add repositories to the sources.list file have kept me away.

I like good old Debian or OpenSuSE a lot better. I get my root login and I am very familiar with configuring them. I am working on a story about how I helped a friend order a Dell Laptop with Ubuntu on it and the fun I had setting it up for him, but I don't want to give away too much. :-)

dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
12:47 AM EDT
>I like good old Debian or OpenSuSE a lot better.

Nothing like Ubuntu to remind me what a solid package SuSE is overall.

rijelkentaurus

Aug 24, 2007
2:28 AM EDT
Yeah, and (K)Ubuntu makes PCLinux look even faster than it already is. Not really a 'buntu fan, but my girlfriend's 12-year-old nephew is taking to it like a duck to water, so I guess it has something going for it.
jsusanka

Aug 24, 2007
3:46 AM EDT
wouldn't really mind fedora or suse but their application installation and updates are just too darn slow for me. ubuntu just flies when I want to install something or I need updating.

that is the main reason I use Debian and Ubuntu - nothing comes close to apt. I heard pclinux uses apt and I might give it try but then I think why - I already have debian, ubuntu running with xen virtual machines and they just stay up without any intervention from me and the occasional apt-get update apt-get upgrade - they are solid - very solid. suse at times would lock up because I wanted to update software. but this was 10.0 and 10.1 so things may of improved who knows.

debian/ubuntu have all the software I ever need too - I haven't compiled anything like in a year a half since I tried suse and fedora because they didn't have what I needed.
dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
4:19 AM EDT
>updates are just too darn slow

buntu updates are quite quick.

I've had less luck not having to compile things, but some of my needs might be a little "out there".

Of course, in SuSE land, your compile needs are greatly reduced by the great Packman repository.
Sander_Marechal

Aug 24, 2007
4:41 AM EDT
Quoting:the fact that I have never been able to successfully add repositories to the sources.list file have kept me away [...] I like good old Debian or OpenSuSE a lot better.


Eh? How can you be able to add to sources.list in Debian but not in Ubuntu? They work exactly the same (unless something big changed between 6.10 and 7.04 and I missed it).
Scott_Ruecker

Aug 24, 2007
5:06 AM EDT
Sander: No matter how many times I tried to get it to work, it was a no go. I am sure it was user error. :-)
Sander_Marechal

Aug 24, 2007
6:26 AM EDT
The most common error when editing a sources.list is forgetting the deb in front of the URL. Wrong:

http://example.org/path distro section [section [...]]

Right:

deb http://example.org/path distro section [section [...]]

Example:

deb http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main universe multiverse

Edit: Ha! I beat the LXer URL auto-linker!
azerthoth

Aug 24, 2007
6:53 AM EDT
please share that last trick. please please please
dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
6:54 AM EDT
please please please please please please please please

And -0- while you're at it -- do you know a way to get strike-through for edits?
Abe

Aug 24, 2007
8:00 AM EDT
Quoting:but my girlfriend's 12-year-old nephew is taking to it like a duck to water
I have two nephews, 11 & 8 year old. They have been having problems with XP for a while. Three weeks ago, I decided to help them out. Instead of fixing their XP, I decide to give them one of the old, but decent, PCs I have.

I installed PCLOS and included many of the games but didn't let them know. I told them this computer is to learn about computers, so go ahead and explore to your hearts content. I even gave them the root password but explained how important it is and to be careful about it.

I checked with them every few days and every time they are more excited about it than before. Guess what, they don't even want to use XP any more, Linux is much faster and a lot more cool computer and keep asking "when are you going to get our stuff from the OLD computer".. They haven't touched the XP machine at all since and they don't want to.

After installing it, I just showed them how to log on and that was it. They found everything else on their own. For those who keep talking about retraining, I say you are full of it. They didn't only find all the games, they also found everything else, OOo, Gimp, Inkscape, how to configure their KDE (schemes and everything else related). They even created an account for the 4 year old little brother who played Potato Head and Bubbles.

They have downloaded pictures from their camera and it was a snap. So simple and automatic to show them how to download them and have taken pictures and video clips of anything and everything around them. They keep fighting about which one to use as background and keep changing each other's when they get the chance.

They don't have Internet connection, now their mother is going to get it for them after she heard how safe it is and what they can do. She was hooked on some games too. Most importantly them making some promises (yeah right!).

They keep saying "it is the best present they got".

You know what, my wife keeps telling that, I am being more excited and happier than they are.

I think she is right

Steven_Rosenber

Aug 24, 2007
9:46 AM EDT
All the praise heaped upon Vector Standard made me want to revisit Xubuntu. And the whole point of doing the review, and writing it the way I did, was that the Ubuntu family's feverish popularity makes its distros subject to a higher standard.

Since Ubuntu is the No. 1 distro by many measurements (with Xubuntu being a derivative that uses most of the same tools), I wanted to analyze its popularity and whether or not it lives up to the hype.

Other distros should take heed of some of what, in my opinion, is responsible for Ubuntu's popularity: single-disc, live CD used as an installer, an install script without too many questions for users, the ability to do partitioning automatically, excellent desktop aesthetics (in Xubuntu anyway -- Ubuntu is still that orangey brown, I think) and good choice of applications. Many distros have some or most of these attributes, some have all of them.

And then there's that huge Ubuntu community. Between the well-trafficked forums and many ancillary blogs, there's just a lot of Ubuntu out there. I often find answers to my Debian questions from Ubuntu people.

But I hadn't read anywhere that Xubuntu 7.04 basically ships BROKEN -- you can't even launch a program until you do a bit of Xfce configuration. My conclusion is that Canonical keeps a close eye on Ubuntu, much less so on Xubuntu, or they wouldn't have let an ISO out of the gate with fundamental (though easily repairable) problems.

I did go back to 6.06 LTS, and while everything worked, it had that flat blue look that every other Xfce distro has.

I guess I'm saying that Ubuntu is way, way too big to ignore at this point -- that's why I'm writing about it.
Abe

Aug 24, 2007
11:10 AM EDT
Quoting:I guess I'm saying that Ubuntu is way, way too big to ignore at this point


I don't think Ubuntu is being ignored; If it was, it wouldn't be that popular. Don't take me wrong, K/Ubuntu is pretty good distro and all but it is not the best. What is helping it the most is the backing by a commercial company with much resources and the bias of journalists who always favor commercial companies for their marketing resources.

What is being ignored is PCLinuxOS. I believe it is more mature than K/Ubuntu and much nicer in my perspective. There is nothing in K/Ubuntu that is not in PCLinuxOS other than the Automatix tool to download Proprietary Codecs after users agree to take responsibility.

Sander_Marechal

Aug 24, 2007
11:45 AM EDT
Quoting:please share that last trick. please please please


He, it's easy. The autolinker searches for stuff starting with http:// or www. I simply replaced the : in http:// with an HTML entity for the ASCII code of the : namely :. So I type:

http://www.example.com

PS: Note that if you edit your post, you need to re-add the HTML entities.

PPS: It also works with www. The HTML entity for a w is w
Steven_Rosenber

Aug 24, 2007
12:10 PM EDT
When it comes to KDE, I don't put Kubuntu into the top tier. So far, my favorite KDE distro of the few I've tried is Slackware -- KDE works better for me there than it does in Kubuntu and SimplyMepis. The NimbleX live CD also shows how fast KDE can be.

I really don't know how much the success of Ubuntu is due to Canonical's marketing and money. I'm sure it's a factor, but I can't, for the most part, really see it. I bet Red Hat and Novell spend more in terms of money and people. When it comes to the enterprise, they are winning, but for the consumer, it's another story.
tuxchick

Aug 24, 2007
12:28 PM EDT
Ubuntu's success is definitely marketing. It's the Cool Distro. And that's OK- it has given Linux awareness a big shot in the arm, and introduced Linux to a whole new group of users. Red hat and SUSE have been playing in the big corporate world for years without making the kinds of inroads Ubuntu has. Ubuntu on Dell is huge, and Lenovo keeps making Linux noises, though when you visit their site you have to be an ace detective to find any actual mention of Linux.

Marketing is way important. Don't quibble over trivial stuff- the most important step is getting people to try it. Then you can quibble over the trivial stuff :)
Abe

Aug 24, 2007
6:23 PM EDT
Quoting:When it comes to KDE, I don't put Kubuntu into the top tier...


I just happen to like KDE more than GNOME and I used Kubuntu for a while to find out what this Ubuntu is all about.

dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
6:26 PM EDT
> I used Kubuntu for a while to find out what this Ubuntu is all about.

Interesting. I have Ubuntu boxes and a Kubuntu box. Kubuntu looks and feels a lot like Ubuntu. IMHO, that makes it a less than stellar KDE distribution.
Abe

Aug 24, 2007
6:44 PM EDT
Quoting:Kubuntu looks and feels a lot like Ubuntu. IMHO, that makes it a less than stellar KDE distribution.


Meaning Ubuntu being the handicap in Kubuntu!

dinotrac

Aug 24, 2007
6:52 PM EDT
>Meaning Ubuntu being the handicap in Kubuntu!

I'm not sure that I'd put it exactly that way. It's more a matter of Ubuntu being very GNOME-ish and Kubuntu having a vaguely GNOME-ish feel instead of being proudly and gloriously a KDE distro.
Steven_Rosenber

Aug 24, 2007
10:35 PM EDT
That's it -- Kubuntu just isn't KDE enough. At least ship it with KOffice.
Scott_Ruecker

Aug 24, 2007
10:59 PM EDT
Quoting:That's it -- Kubuntu just isn't KDE enough. At least ship it with KOffice.


I agree.

Its KDE, if you want it to look and act as much like Gnome as possible. The default look anyway.

Up until this last year for me, SuSE has been the gold standard for KDE. I have to say though, I have been running Etch on KDE on my desktop for a while and I really like it.

I have the best of both worlds right now, OpenSuSE on my Laptop and Etch on my Desktop.

I'm a pig in mud.

dinotrac

Aug 25, 2007
2:26 AM EDT
>I'm a pig in mud.

There's help for that, you know.
jacog

Aug 25, 2007
3:31 AM EDT
There's always Mint.
gus3

Aug 25, 2007
9:42 AM EDT
A pig in mud, with Mint.

That's a mental image I didn't need.

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