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Ubuntu, The Ultimate Linux Distribution
From its Debian roots to its commercially available support to its overwhelming popularity, Ubuntu is the ultimate Linux distribution. For me, Ubuntu became a significant force within the Linux community with its 2006 releases: 6.04 and 6.10. From April 2006, I've installed and used every new version and anticipate each new one the way a child anticipates toys on Christmas morning. But, have you ever wondered why is Ubuntu the ultimate Linux distribution? Why is it so popular? Why did Canonical choose Debian as its distribution template? And, why did Mark Shuttleworth believe in Linux so much that he chose to create Canonical to support it? |
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Comments (53)
33 earlier comments in the full thread.
herzeleid said:
"For me, the main selling point of ubuntu is none of the silly reasons mentioned above, but rather the fact that absolutely everything on my various laptops, desktops and servers works 100%, out of the box. Full stop."
I agree. I have done over 40 installs of ubuntu on various hardware configs, and have yet to find a better all around distro. It simply works 99% of the time.
I agree. I have done over 40 installs of ubuntu on various hardware configs, and have yet to find a better all around distro. It simply works 99% of the time.
Quoting:From a user-approachability perspective the Debian repository system is flawed anyway:
The user has to bundle separate repositories to create one compound repository at the client.
Uh, no. The software does this for them. All the user has to do is pointy-clicky to say they want the non-free repository. Better: It's on by default.
Quoting:Here, compare this (installing VirtualBox PUEL
Flawed, like Wolven69 said. Debian is even better. It ships Virtualbox in it's install. Again, just point-click in the software list.
wolfen -
Sucks to be the 1%, though, an experience I have had several times.
Admittedly, I have had some, umm, less that popular hardware in the process, including a pci Express ethernet card, a Pinnacle PCI HD TV tuner, a couple of ralink wireless cards (well, one is a USB adapter) that, ummmm, well -- they work now.
And I can't really blame Ubuntu for failing to understand a 3 core Phenom II.
All in all, I'm not thrilled with Ubuntu, but part of that is that I came over from OpenSuSE, a very good RPM-based distro. I also came over from KDE and never warmed up to GNOME and am only slowly learning not to grumble at XFCE.
Sucks to be the 1%, though, an experience I have had several times.
Admittedly, I have had some, umm, less that popular hardware in the process, including a pci Express ethernet card, a Pinnacle PCI HD TV tuner, a couple of ralink wireless cards (well, one is a USB adapter) that, ummmm, well -- they work now.
And I can't really blame Ubuntu for failing to understand a 3 core Phenom II.
All in all, I'm not thrilled with Ubuntu, but part of that is that I came over from OpenSuSE, a very good RPM-based distro. I also came over from KDE and never warmed up to GNOME and am only slowly learning not to grumble at XFCE.
> It simply works 99% of the time.
99% must not be as big as it used to be.
> Nice try at FUD.
Except that your method only works for the PUEL version. Not everyone wants that. Plus, hopefully to offend the Ubuntu fanbois, Ubuntu was the only distro that ever gave me trouble with USB and vbox.
99% must not be as big as it used to be.
> Nice try at FUD.
Except that your method only works for the PUEL version. Not everyone wants that. Plus, hopefully to offend the Ubuntu fanbois, Ubuntu was the only distro that ever gave me trouble with USB and vbox.
bigg --
Wait -- did you get past that problem with USB and vbox?
I would REALLLLLLLLY like to know how you did it!
Wait -- did you get past that problem with USB and vbox?
I would REALLLLLLLLY like to know how you did it!
> did you get past that problem with USB and vbox?
Not really - that's a typo, it should have said virtualbox, not vbox.
Not really - that's a typo, it should have said virtualbox, not vbox.
bigg said:
"Except that your method only works for the PUEL version. Not everyone wants that. Plus, hopefully to offend the Ubuntu fanbois, Ubuntu was the only distro that ever gave me trouble with USB and vbox."
Is everyone having an off day? If you want the non-PUEL version, just open synaptic, search for virtualbox, and click to install. Anyone else need help?
Is everyone having an off day? If you want the non-PUEL version, just open synaptic, search for virtualbox, and click to install. Anyone else need help?
It's not good to post when I'm in a hurry. My recollection is that you can't just install virtualbox from synaptic. I believe there is still some configuration. At least the last time I tried I gave up and installed the PUEL version, usually the FOSS edition is easier, but not with virtualbox.
The only configuration needed is to add yourself to the vboxusers group, but that's with any distro. And yes, vbox free edition is in synaptic.
Quoting:WRONG.
All I need to do in ubuntu to get the PUEL version of vbox is to go to the vbox site and download the .deb file for ubuntu. 1 click install. Nice try at FUD.
First of all: No reason to get excited, I was / am just somebody willing to try / use Debian (a potential user), not somebody willing to flame Debian. It is because I am actually looking for something more user friendly as I am fed up with Gentoo, which can be found in my earlier comments and the article I wrote about it.
1) This process is what I found using the web, it documents this procedure at multiple locations. I found about the same procedure (and used that procedure) for VMWare-Workstation 2) Of course I can download a binary and install it, but normally in Linux I'd let the package manager handle stuff like that. Because it is the tool supposed to do so, I don't think I have to point out the advantages of using a packet manager here.
It's just that I feel this 'merging' / 'compounding' could have been done server side if the ones making the distro decided it should be easy for new users. Like TuxChick says, of course you can learn new users and I was happy to learn this method, but things could have been more easy. The other thing which they could have made more easy was booting from LiveUSB and making X 'fallback' to VESA because for me - out of the box it doesn't work and has't worked since 2006 or so. If there's some point & click list in Ubuntu where I can enable / disable repositories - than sadly I missed this opportunity or didn't find it. Also, it's not always straightforward for the new user (such as me) what the differences between those repos are, I'm pretty confused by all those options. If they were given some 'security' / 'approvedness-level' or something and some level of 'freeness of the license', in other words: If an expert on this topic would 'rate' those repositories, new users would have an easier time instead of just blindly following 'add this to your sources file if you want xx to work'. In an ideal situation, there would be a list with all repos (a repo of repos) with all those ratings.
I was rather happy with Ubuntu last time I tried it (about three years ago?) but for a distro which (it seems) aims to be approachable, some things are rather hard to accomplish. And they could be fixed, that was what I'm trying to say. I mean, much of what I tried to accomplish was really easy in Ubuntu, much easier than in other distro's, so I find it sad if something is difficult (for newbies like me) in Ubuntu. If something is hard in Gentoo, OK, I can live with that, I expected it, and that's why I'm surprised some things are easier in Gentoo than in Ubuntu. To me, that's not the way things should be. These minor annoyances (plus I find it pretty hard to mix stable / testing / unstable in Debian) are what currently keeps me 'locked in' to Gentoo, but try updating a box which has not been updated for three months in Gentoo and you'd probably understand I'm looking for something else.
BTW last time I wrote about my Debian attempts
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/113405/index.html
I promised to try it once again, so maybe 2010 is a good moment.
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/113405/index.html
I promised to try it once again, so maybe 2010 is a good moment.
> ...so maybe 2010 is a good moment.
I'd wait till 10.04 is released, Hans.
I'd wait till 10.04 is released, Hans.
Note to myself:
Why install virtualbox-bin if virtualbox-ose is also a bin (in Debian)?
Why install virtualbox-bin if virtualbox-ose is also a bin (in Debian)?
vbox-bin and vbox-ose are not feature complete mirrors. vbox-bin is the closed source do more version.
hkwint said: "I was rather happy with Ubuntu last time I tried it (about three years ago?)"
That says a lot right there. Ubuntu has made loads of improvements since 3 years ago. I suggest you wait until 10.04 comes out and try that. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
That says a lot right there. Ubuntu has made loads of improvements since 3 years ago. I suggest you wait until 10.04 comes out and try that. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
> Ubuntu has made loads of improvements since 3 years ago.
Unless you use certain Intel video chipsets. But then most distros seem to be having that problem lately, as it's an Xorg issue, not one specific to any particular distro.
Of course, if you're going to claim that Ubuntu is that much better than other distros, it should be able to fix such a problem.
Unless you use certain Intel video chipsets. But then most distros seem to be having that problem lately, as it's an Xorg issue, not one specific to any particular distro.
Of course, if you're going to claim that Ubuntu is that much better than other distros, it should be able to fix such a problem.
10.4 isn't out yet jdixon. They may still fix it before release.
Sadly, I was not able to easily see those improvements made in the last three years, as making it boot from USB took multiple hours of my time, after that making X boot took at least another hour and after that I didn't know how to proceed - as the failure of X dropped me to the command line without any clues how to continue to start the familiar Gnome environment.
But I'll promise I'll give 10.04 a try.
But I'll promise I'll give 10.04 a try.
> They may still fix it before release.
Possibly. We'll just have to wait and see.
Possibly. We'll just have to wait and see.
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Ubuntu: ___________________________ As root (sudo), add the line "deb http: //download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free" to /etc/apt/sources.list Add the key: $wget -q http: //download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Resynchronize package files: $sudo apt-get update
Now, you can only find the PUEL-version by means of ruling out the ose-versions (how stupid is that?):
$ apt-cache search virtualbox
And finally:
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.0"
WRONG.
All I need to do in ubuntu to get the PUEL version of vbox is to go to the vbox site and download the .deb file for ubuntu. 1 click install. Nice try at FUD.
And btw, the PUEL version is now the default download on the linux download page. Have a nice day.