Hi there,

Happy new year and all these things :)

On Mon, Jan 03, 2005, Ian B. Jacobs wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-12-21 at 07:02 -0700, John Marrett wrote:
> > P.S. I have been meaning to make a post about Ubuntu GNU/Linux [3], the
> > Debian derived desktop oriented linux distro with a regular release
> > schedule. If someone beat me to it I wouldn't complain.
>
> Based on a remark from Joe Reagle, I downloaded Ubuntu during the
> holidays. I haven't played with it yet. I'll send notes when I do.
>

I've switched to Ubuntu on my two computers (home centrino based laptop,
and work dell workstation). Although Linux is not my primary OS, I'm
very happy with Ubuntu so far: The installation procedure is quite
similar to the Debian's, with a cute ncurses interface which lets you
select what you want to do with your Ubuntu. The base install takes less
than 1 hour from the Ubuntu CD. No multi-cd, no internet required,
simple and stupid.

The installation procedure is really simple. You end up having an office
linux ready to go (OpenOffice is installed by default, Evolution too,
firefox, of course...).

Integration with others OS is seamless, the installation procedure
detects foreign OSes and suggests to integrate them in the Grub start
menu.


Once done, Ubuntu provides some apt sources to update the Linux with
security and normal packages.

I don't know if my Ubuntu is equivalent to a stable or an unstable
Debian, but I'd guess it's a bit more stable than the "testing" while
having latest features : My centrino wifi chipset is supported right out
of the box (even during the install procedure), my synaptic touchpad
works. USB, Firewire work also out of the box (PnP is also there :)).

I remember I had to manually setup my X but now, even the multihead
works like a charm.

I had previously tried to install a Debian to my laptop without any
success because of the complexity of burning an install cd _with_ the
centrino wifi driver builtin.

Even though as I'm using a "Warty Warthog", I get regular packages
updates.

Ubuntu tastes a lot like debian. I use aptitude to configure my package,
have a working gnome installation, a 0.9.3 firefox and so on. I have a
working subversion client (i remember it was not in the stable distro a
while ago), I can code, browse and read mail.

Being a Debian fan, I tend to think It would be difficult for me to
switch back to Debian (too lazy ?).

Fresh air in the Debian's community.

Cheers,
--
Pierre Baillet
Il faut pomper pour vivre et donc vivre pour pomper.
Devise Shadok