For those of you who know more about Ubuntu Linux than I do (I assume that would be all of you who use Ubuntu…)
One of the things I like the most about Ubuntu is the way it updates itself constantly, even to the point of allowing you to “update” to a brand new iteration.
I moved up from Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 several weeks ago, by updating to the Alpha 5 release (risky as hell, I know, and I had problems here and there, but, on the whole, reasonably successful.
Since then, I check the updater ever day, and install any new updates that appear there. Today the Gold edition of Intreprid Ibex 8.10 dropped. However, my updater offered me no new updates. Have I actually incrementally upgraded to the point that I am now running the Gold version?
I’d be very happy to find this is the case, because for the past week or so, I’ve had almost no problems with Ubuntu, and everything is working fine. It may be just my imagination, but it seems to be running quite a bit faster, too.
Take this with the requisite grain of salt, but I think you are current if my experience with Ubuntu 7.10 beta is any guide.
If so, Alfred, that makes me very, very happy. Because what I am running now is noticeably better than Hardy Heron. If this is any harbinger for the future, I should be in clover from here on out.
I still prefer MEPIS, if only because I’m more of KDE guy than a gnome one. However, I still run Ubuntu on occasion and find it to be pretty darned robust.
Actually, Mint is a very strong KDE distro with Ubuntu guts, so I might be tempted to switch full time. Right now, I’m building another machine which will be all Linux, all the time.
Back on topic, I think that Alfred is entirely correct, as you should be up to date with your version of Ubuntu. And unlike many updates to Windows, I usually find the updates to Linux to be useful and desirable.
I did try Mepis, PG, but I ended up with Ubuntu because it was the first Linux distro to actually (mostly) work with my notebook.
It’s not hard to install KDE on Ubuntu, and if you want it by default, you can try Kubuntu.
<geek>
Personally, I favor Fedora, but that’s mostly due to frustrations with Debian and its progeny a few years back. The recent complaint arose when I attempted to install Ubuntu recently, only to be thwarted by its installer’s lack of support for LVM. This surprised me because LVM is included in the distro. Having escaped the Windows “one huge volume” trap, I’m not going back, so lack of LVM is not an option, and manually reslicing an Ubuntu installation into LVM volumes post-install is just too much work.
</geek>
I remember your notebook issues with Mepis, Bill. I didn’t mean to imply anything negative about the choice of Ubuntu, merely stating my preference. As you’ve said, Ubuntu just works for you. That, in my mind, is what should seal the deal for anyone.
Martinra,
Yes, you can install the KDE libraries and kluge the frontend of Ubuntu to run KDE, but it’s not that robust. I’ve tried Kubuntu several times and, while it’s gotten better, it seems more of an afterthought, rather than a distribution. I don’t find it nearly as robust as the gnome driven Ubuntu.
I’m not trying to win converts to any type of Linux, but rather Linux in general, which means that I’m wasting my time here. However, I’ve almost got my mother convinced. She checked out Linspire and was very impressed. Just wait till she sees Ubuntu or Mint. Actually, I think that she’d be happy with gOS, or whatever it’s calling itself these days. The Enlightenment frontend would run great on her older system.
Mint appears interesting – they’re currently #3 on DistroWatch.org, which put it in impressive company. However, looking at the Mint project page, I’m a bit disappointed. If this is correct, they’re only on alsa-lib 1.0.15, which means that my Intel ICH9-based audio on my home PC won’t work at all. PG, do you know if interim releases supply alsa-lib 1.0.17 or better?
While we’re talking about Linux audio, does anyone here know how to get a 32-bit Flash Player plugin running in 64-bit Firefox3 under nspluginwrapper to send sound to 64-bit alsa/pulseaudio? (Yeah, I know I should bring this to a Linux site, just checking.)
I can’t get hardly anything to run correctly with pulseaudio. I simply uninstalled it, and switched everything back to whatever is the vanilla alsa with my distro. At least I can hear youtube again.