| The Joy and Sorrow of Ubuntu |
May 08, 2007
 Ubuntu 7.04, aka "Feisty Fawn," has been out for several weeks now and it's already very popular. Heck, Michael Dell was running it even before he chose it to become Dell's Linux of choice. But, how good is it?
Here's our take on it from the Ziff Davis family of publications.
First, Rick Lehrbaum, founder and executive editor of DesktopLinux, gives you his blow-by-blow experience with installing and setting up the KDE version of Ubuntu -- Kubuntu -- on an older IBM ThinkPad in Seven steps to Feisty Fawn bliss.
After an illustrated guide to setting up Kubuntu, Lehrbaum concludes that he really likes the new Ubuntu a lot. He gives the overall look, except for the bouncing ball that KDE uses for the Windows hourglass when starting up a program, a big thumbs up. All-in-all, he found that, next to MEPIS, Kubuntu is the best Linux he's tested on this older system.
Jim Lynch, the community manager for PC Magazine and Extreme Tech and a long-time Linux user, had an entirely different experience. The full title to his review may tell you all you need to know: Ubuntu 7.04: Feisty Fawn or Crappy Cow?
Lynch's list of losers in Ubuntu included that, for a distribution that was supposed to be multimedia friendly it wasn't very media friendly at all. For example, it didn't add the drivers for his older NVIDA cards, it didn't come with Flash, and it couldn't get a DVD to play. Now, all this is fixable, but he makes the good point that just because we Linux users can add all the right software and drivers with Adept and Automatix2, why should Ubuntu expect Joe or Jane User to know how to set up what they'll think of as basic functionality?
He also found that the Windows migration tool doesn't migrate, at least when the Windows on the same system is Vista, anyway. At the end of the day, Lynch recommends Xandros, and you can see why he reaches that conclusion after his experiences.
Over at eWEEK Labs, though, Jason Brooks, advanced technology analyst, liked Ubuntu in his review, The State of Ubuntu 7.04 Is Strong. Brooks writes, "Ubuntu's best features remain its excellent software management tools, its well-organized community, and its large catalog of ready-to-install free software applications. We're also impressed with the steps that Ubuntu has taken to work with proprietary software, which, while more tricky to distribute, is in many cases what's needed to fit the bill."
Like Lynch, Brooks found that the Windows migration tool didn't work. On the other hand, he was impressed by the NetworkManager applet. With this application, you can easily switch from wired to WiFi connections to various VPNs. Taken as a whole, Brooks liked Ubuntu 7.04 as a desktop operating system.
And me? Well, I've only done a little work with Ubuntu 7.04 -- Kubuntu to be exact -- and I haven't done enough yet to feel I can say anything intelligent about it. I will say that my first impressions of it are good, but I don't see clearing my main Linux workstations of their copies of MEPIS 6.5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 anytime soon.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't include a reference to Jessamyn West, a self-described rural librarian, who has recently discovered Ubuntu and really likes it a lot. It's a non-jaded, non-techie look at Ubuntu and reminded me why Linux desktops are, when you get right down to it, so cool. Have a look at her entertaining story:
Jessamyn West installs Ubuntu
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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