Yes it Rocks!

Story: Ubuntu 9.04 releasedTotal Replies: 35
Author Content
tushargok

Apr 23, 2009
10:18 AM EDT
I was waiting for the servers to update the image. Now I have installed the Ubuntu 9.04 and its really cool! I skipped 8.10 release, I was running 8.04 and for me 9.04 is nice improvement. Major changes I see are

Pros: 1. Wireless and Wired network both can be active at the same time. 2. Many cool themes - Yes they all jell very well 3. Boot speed is noticeably fast 4. I could instantly integrate my email account with Microsoft exchange server with my Calender, Notes, Emails

Cons: 1. NVedia driver detection and installation took little time.

Summary: Over all gives a slik linux impression. What surprised me however was just after few minutes of release an firefox and xulrunner update was pushed via update manager! Great work by developers and long live Linux!
caitlyn

Apr 23, 2009
10:52 AM EDT
Pardon my incredulity, but... It released this morning which means you have tried using it for what? Maybe a couple of hours? That's hardly long enough to know if "it rocks" or not. There may be bugs... or not. You can't possibly have put it through its paces in a meaningful way just yet.

When I write a review of a distro it's always at least a month after release. By then I have a good idea what works and what doesn't.
tushargok

Apr 23, 2009
11:11 AM EDT
@caitlyn Yes you are correct you can write better review if you use distro for six months.... I dont know why people dont read the review carefully and make the comments! I never said its stable or its secure nor I said i tested it for 48 hrs... my all comments are over the look and feel and first impression of the apps that I used. Read the review carefully before you criticize anyone...
bigg

Apr 23, 2009
11:36 AM EDT
> 2. Many cool themes - Yes they all jell very well

I love the New Wave theme. Little things like cleaning up notifications and a better looking login screen also add quite a bit, however low this type of thing might be on your list of priorities.
caitlyn

Apr 23, 2009
12:57 PM EDT
I never said its stable or its secure nor I said i tested it for 48 hrs...

No, you said "it rocks" which is a much stronger and more of a blanket statement. I did read carefully and the criticism is justified IMHO or I wouldn't have made it.

You did make exactly one statement I can accept:

my all comments are over the look and feel and first impression of the apps that I used.

That one is accurate.

cabreh

Apr 23, 2009
1:27 PM EDT
Well, I've been using 9.04 since Alpha 3 and it is dead stable. I have no issues on the two desktops and one laptop I have it running on.

Now, fortunately, I don't have a Netbook. As I understand it that is a problem with this release. So Netbook users would be advised to either wait until the Intel chipset issues are fixed or wait for 9.10. If interested in Ubuntu that is. ;)

tuxchick

Apr 23, 2009
1:56 PM EDT
I've had Kubuntu 9.04 on a Thinkpad for a few weeks, and while KDE4 still has me scratching my head a bit, it has been performing very well. I'm going to put it on my main workstation this weekend, boldly dist-upgrading. Now that will be a test, mwahahaaa!
flufferbeer

Apr 23, 2009
2:21 PM EDT
@caitlyn IMHO your criticism of Ubuntu is _NOT_ so justified! My first impression of Ubuntu 9.04 is that it DOES ROCK even in the Beta for what I'm using this for, so at the very least I've tried it. Maybe its just me and some of the other readers of your past distro reviews, but we get the overriding sense that you'll find more NEGATIVES than positives in Ubuntu 9.04 once you actually get around to putting this through its paces.

One thing uncertain though, is whether Jaunty Jackalope is another MS-Winblow$-killer. FWIW, I'd estimate that it still is. Win7's not released, VistaShmista has been a bum-deal and XP will be around for awhile. 2c++





herzeleid

Apr 23, 2009
5:36 PM EDT
Quoting:Pardon my incredulity, but... It released this morning which means you have tried using it for what? Maybe a couple of hours?
(clears throat) I've been using jaunty for some weeks. Yes, I downloaded the beta and kept up with the updates, so it automatically became the released version, and it does rock - unless you're using intel graphics...

If you've got intel, I'd say wait awhile - not really an ubuntu problem per se, more of an Xorg/intel issue. It should be nicely sorted out by 9.10 though - or hopefully in a later update of jaunty.

Other than the intel issue though, I'm liking it a lot. Jaunty on my intel 945 box suffers from sluggish graphics, but on my nvidia equipped box it's blue skies.
Steven_Rosenber

Apr 23, 2009
7:05 PM EDT
Am I missing something, or is the ability to have two or more network interfaces running at the same time something that users of Unix-like OSes have been able to do for quite some time?
Sander_Marechal

Apr 23, 2009
7:11 PM EDT
@Steven: It is. But it always was manual work to setup. Now network-manager can do it automagically.
zenarcher

Apr 23, 2009
8:18 PM EDT
Likewise, I've been using 9.04 since Alpha 4 and it has been very, very solid with no major issues for me. Likewise, I'm running 9.04 on my Dell Mini 9 netbook without any significant issues, either. I'm running Kubuntu 9.04 on 4 desktop systems, plus the netbook and I don't have a real complaint!
ColonelPanik

Apr 24, 2009
1:42 PM EDT
It DOES rock, loud and with a huge back beat. Naysayers aside we have done two 8.10 to 9.04 upgrades via the Update Manager and because Canonical was ready for this there were no problems. Both machines done during the busy season and while not lighting fast, more than good enough.

One install from .iso, again perfect!

Everything works, everything works.

If we find a bug you will hear about it. If we don't find a bug, YOU WILL be the first to know.
tuxtom

Apr 24, 2009
9:56 PM EDT
Funny, after this release it takes forever to do any apt-get work on my rock-solid 8.04 running KDE 3.5 .

Thanks Mark!!!!!!!!!!! Perhaps your new release deserves some new servers, too. Go ahead, splurge.
Steven_Rosenber

Apr 24, 2009
10:00 PM EDT
I'm getting a new USB Wi-Fi stick: http://www.amazon.com/CNET-CNTCWD-854-Wireless-G-USB-Adapter... (CNet CWD-854).

I'll be looking to see how it comes up in Ubuntu 8.04. It's supposed to play well with OpenBSD, but I do have two Ubuntu installs I'll be trying it with. I'll also give it a spin on my two Debian Etch boxes, and if it works (and I get networking on them) I'll upgrade both to Lenny.
tracyanne

Apr 24, 2009
10:32 PM EDT
Based on my testing on the net bok, I'd say Jaunty is pretty good. I've decided to take the bull by the horns and do an internet upgrade. After my experience with doing same with Mandriva, I am, to say the least, a little nervous.
tracyanne

Apr 25, 2009
8:08 AM EDT
Well the upgrade appears to have been successful. I'm now running Jaunty on my laptop.
tracyanne

Apr 25, 2009
5:32 PM EDT
The upgrade process was pretty uneventful, It took most of yesterday to download 1745 files, I carried on working while it happened. When the files were finally down, it began the install process, which took about 15 minutes (it probably would have been less but I was out of the room) to install the new files, and remove the old ones, I had to answer one question and enter my password once. There was exactly one reboot, to load the new kernel, and I was back in business.

I can contrast this with having installed a service pack on Windows, which took several hours - that's after the files had downloaded - and at least 6 reboots, and then I had to reinstall some software, to make it work properly.
gus3

Apr 25, 2009
6:27 PM EDT
Don't tell the Windows users, ta. They might get jealous.
tracyanne

Apr 25, 2009
7:16 PM EDT
@gus, they won't believe me. Everyone "knows" that it's supposed to take several hours to install, and that multiple reboots are the norm.
hkwint

Apr 25, 2009
7:32 PM EDT
Quoting:Don't tell the Windows users, ta. They might get jealous.


Same goes for Gentoo users; for this part:

Quoting:to download 1745 files, I carried on working while it happened. When the files were finally down, it began the install process, which took about 15 minutes


100 files per minute... Sweet!
dinotrac

Apr 25, 2009
8:03 PM EDT
OK, I have to give an Ubuntu thumbs up (grumble, growl).

I upgraded my mythbuntu box to Jaunty this morning without incident. First time that's happened to me for any Ubuntu upgrade.

I even snuck the upgrade in while my wife was at work because she had reached the point of threatening my future existence if I subjected the family to a broken myth box again.

Hooray.
hkwint

Apr 26, 2009
5:24 PM EDT
What happened Dean, not going with SuSE anymore?

Well, I must confess I'm inclined to start using Ubuntu too. A bit fed up with Gentoo (some alpha/beta stuff is not available for it and I'm lazy), and it is very convenient to use 'what everyone' uses. However, I am not used to those Gnome apps. I believe my choices are -Getting used to them; which also means migrating my current documents (mainly Kontact may be a problem, not sure). -Just plainly installing & configuring my own stuff in Ubuntu; but that would take away my cause to go for Ubuntu -Use Kubuntu; but I heard it hoovers; which also goes for Fedora with KDE.

Now, from TA I understood Mandriva with KDE4 is neither the way to go. Dean's using Ubuntu, TA is doing so, the chick is going for Kubuntu, even herzeleid above is using it and I believe he also used something else in the past. I really wouldn't have predicted all those people now using Ubuntu a year ago. So I really begin to doubt my probably outdated vision Gnome is nice - but not for me. I'm tired of Windowmaker anyway.

As a conclusion: probably I'll try out this new Ubuntu version just like my fellow LXer'res; and hope it can configure my existing LVM-volumes during installation.
Sander_Marechal

Apr 26, 2009
5:47 PM EDT
@hans: You may want to give Debian a(nother) try. I don't think you'll like Ubuntu very much, coming from Gentoo. I played with Ubuntu a couple of days ago and parts of it are just so.... annoying. They did a decent job of making an idiot-proof Linux but I feel somewhat limited when using it.

Things like "bulletproof X.org" are incredibly annoying to me and get in my way. I change the X.org configuration which accidentally does not work and I get a commandline. So I start typing something like "vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf" and then halfway through typing that, X suddently restarts into "safe" mode (whatever that is... it's not safe anyway*) and tells me my X is broken. Cancel. Stop. Yeah whatever. Commandline. Ah, finally! I type, and again it restarts X to jump the same question at me. WTF?!

Same goes for the "helpful" popup when auto-mounting media. Just shut up and put the icon on my desktop please. Their "restricted driver" feature is another annoyance. Everytime I tried using it to install graphics drivers (mostly ATI) it breaks. And when you try to go around it by manually installing the package from the ATI website it starts complaining.

Don't get me wrong, all those features are nice for a lot of people, but for me they get in my way. I can only imagine that for you coming from something like Gentoo it's even more annoying.

*) Ubuntu thinks 800x600 on Vesa is safe, but it's not. Many modern large LCD monitors can't even display 800x600 anymore. When I try it, I just get a message from my monitor saying the input signal is incompatible. Imagine a poor new Linux user facing that with nu clue as to what's going on.
hkwint

Apr 26, 2009
6:37 PM EDT
Oh no, now even Sander started using Ubuntu... Where's this world heading?

Quoting:I can only imagine that for you coming from something like Gentoo it's even more annoying.


At least I'll be glad to see a commandline, ahum.

Quoting:You may want to give Debian a(nother) try.


I recently did in a virtualized environment, and I actually managed to update to a point where I really believe I was running 'experimental'. Sadly in Debian there is no simple command that will show you what version you are running, or I'm simply not aware of it (something equal to the "emerge --info && cat /etc/make.conf a Gentoo user always does when filing bugs to show the state & versions of their system).

You might ask "Why were you running experimental in first place?" Well, I believed I needed it because I tried running KOffice2 and it was told somewhere it needed experimental. The good news is: KOffice2 worked!

After that, I needed some new VESA-driver because the 800X600 pxl screen annoyed me; and the little info on the net about running Lenny inside KVM suggested using the latest VESA-drivers. Those were not by default in experimental I remember, I had to enable some extra experimental flags somewhere.

apt-get told something about 'not possible' and started giving alternatives accompanied with scores (some of them below zero) which didn't work as well, but I was stupid enough to choose such an alternative and it broke my whole system till a point of no repair; non matching libraries probably.

Normally in Gentoo I'd had been able to revert or repair such an issue, but in Debian it is believed to be hard to revert some broken experimental system back to "default experimental" or "testing". Certainly a Debian-noob doesn't know I guess. Also because it's a binary distribution it seems to be a bit harder to mix 'bleeding edge' packages in an 'old stable' environment, something a Gentoo user might try if it didn't mean compiling whole KDE4. Apart from that Gentoo does deem KDE4 'not stable'; which says enough. Conclusion of all of this is I should have made a backup of my Debian virtual machine before borking it (doh!).

But that's mainly the reason for me to use Ubuntu: Because most new 'experimental' / 'alpha' software is packaged for Ubuntu (sometimes Debian or rpm) to test out; and if you're not using .rpm or .deb and still want to test some new software like KOffice2 (to do a nice LXer review for example!) you're pretty much on your own. Also, most problems with that same new software are reported for Ubuntu; so most workaraounds are also for Ubuntu.

Sometimes someone has been nice and made an ebuild overlay for Gentoo. But the situation with Gentoo package management and overlays being accepted in the 'main tree' is a problem. Most of the times this is simply not happening meaning the overlays are not tested enough because nobody uses them; with the result being if they exist, they might not work or are outdated.

Phew, I think that sums up my problems and reason to try Ubuntu pretty well.
Sander_Marechal

Apr 26, 2009
7:04 PM EDT
Quoting:Oh no, now even Sander started using Ubuntu...


Not really. I have a VM running 8.10 but that's just because someone reported a bug in one of my FOSS applications who ran 8.10 and I could not reproduce it on Debian Lenny.

But when I convert people to Linux then I do usually install Ubuntu. I may dislike the features I described above but for the type of people that I convert (people who know little about computers) they work pretty well. So, I don't use it but I support it for other people.
dinotrac

Apr 26, 2009
7:58 PM EDT
Hans --

Still using openSuse for my workstation, but have mythbuntu for my myth box and (still) kubuntu on wife's box.

New Dell Mini 9 came with Ubuntu, so will have to decide to keep it or ditch it. Don't like GNOME. Grumble. Pissed off at KDE. XFCE is OK on the myth box, but I don't want to live there. Grumble more.
azerthoth

Apr 27, 2009
12:17 AM EDT
Dino, how are you liking that mini9? I'v been looking really hard at one.
tracyanne

Apr 27, 2009
3:52 AM EDT
Interesting thing about Ubuntu, I use the command line considerably more than I did with Mandriva. Mandriva really spoils you, pretty much everything can be done via a GUI, while with Ubuntu, in spite of compalints to the contrary, I'm doing a lot more at the CLI.
tuxtom

Apr 27, 2009
6:44 AM EDT
I don't know, TA. I can't help but think that the feeling of "spoiled" you refer to means "familiar" in the MS Windows sense. I feel more spoiled being able to access everything from one terminal session in essentially one directory than I do trying to navigate the rat's maze of menu systems and GUI utilities that were the whims of a mix of different developers. I can have my system updated and new packages installed before Synaptic even get's itself fired up.
bigg

Apr 27, 2009
6:50 AM EDT
@Hans

You might wish to try Arch if you have not already done so. It's very popular among former Gentoo users who got tired of compiling.

The situation you describe is precisely why many users like Arch. It's a rolling release, like Gentoo, not a development release - you have the latest packages, but instability is unacceptable. There's very little FOSS for which you are unable to find a package. That's true in particular for something like koffice2 that has not yet been released. If there's no official package available, there is likely to be something in the AUR from another user.

Like Sander, I don't see any way that a Gentoo user can possibly be happy running Ubuntu (not to say it is impossible, I just don't see it).
tracyanne

Apr 27, 2009
7:02 AM EDT
Quoting:I don't know, TA. I can't help but think that the feeling of "spoiled" you refer to means "familiar" in the MS Windows sense.


No, I mean, makes you reliant on the mouse and a GUI.
montezuma

Apr 27, 2009
8:06 AM EDT
Yeah Ubuntu is just Debian updated more often and with a few rough edges removed as well as a glitzy theme and good forum. It doesn't have a lot of its own config guis like Mandriva. To me that is a good thing because it makes new Linux users more flexible should they choose to switch distros. Too much spoon feeding via guis limits flexibility and self-reliance in the end.
caitlyn

Apr 27, 2009
8:38 AM EDT
Actually, I find that Ubuntu is Debian with lots of rough edges added. See: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090427 My experience with Xubuntu parallels Chris' poor results. It's buggy, less than stable, and a very poor performer compared with other Xfce based desktop distros on the same hardware.

Also see Ladislav Bodnar's article (second one down the page) at: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090420 My netbook has an Intel Express Graphics 945 chipset which is affected by the bug he reports. Yes, there is a workaround. No, this really isn't acceptable.

Rocks? To me it's more like sucks rocks this time around. For introducing newcomers to Linux I'm with Tracyanne: Mandriva is a much better choice.
dinotrac

Apr 27, 2009
9:09 AM EDT
azer -

Haven't used it heavily yet, but, so far, seems like a sweet little box.

Dell did one thing that I haven't yet decided good or bad, but am leaning to good:

Instead of having actual function keys, you reach function keys by A-L. That means no f11 and f12 keys, btw, a bit of a problem for a mythfrontend if you don't remap volume control. It also makes alt-f2 less convenient than I would like, but....

The payback is a small keyboard with big, easy to type on keys. For a fumble-fingered klutz like me, that ain't bad.

The little box seems pretty solidly built, but I guess that's easier to do when you're only spanning half the distance in any one direction of a large notebook.

I don't have a hard drive -- just the 15 GB flash, which is how I want it. The whole purpose of a netbook instead of a notebook is small, portable, and not to worry about it. Precision machinery doesn't fit that definition.

That might explain some of the limitations in the Ubuntu repository as set up out of the box. For example, the thing comes with OO 2.4 instead of OO 3.0, but 15 gb of flash, 1 gb of memory, and the little atom all seem plenty powerful enough to run the latest and greatest.

All told, a nice little machine. Right now, however, I think you can actually get it with XPee on you for less.











jdixon

Apr 27, 2009
10:39 AM EDT
> The payback is a small keyboard with big, easy to type on keys. For a fumble-fingered klutz like me, that ain't bad.

I'm liking the keyboard on mine also. Finding the various non-alphanumeric keys can be a bit of a challenge, but other than that it's very nice.

> I don't have a hard drive -- just the 15 GB flash

Mine only has the 8GB drive, so space is a bit more limited, but seems adequate. I think I'm only using about 40% of the drive. Of course, non-OS related stuff gets moved to external storage very quickly.

> Right now, however, I think you can actually get it with XPee on you for less.

I've seen that on occasion when they have sales, but not normally. Normally the Ubuntu version is slightly cheaper. I wouldn't try to run XP on an 8GB drive though; I think you would need the 16GB drive to run it properly. Mine (which included the added cost of the web camera) cost $225, plus tax and shipping. They seem to have upped the prices by around $80 since I bought it though.

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!