Ubuntu 8.04 first impression

After backing-up all my data and also used Clonezilla to mirror the whole hard disk, I finally installed Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron to my laptop. For the last 2 versions of Ubuntu, I installed them on my test box before the go ahead on my main working laptop, perhaps I have become so comfortable with Ubuntu that I decided to just install.

Very similar to Gutsy (7.10), the installation process is smooth, and completed without any hiccups. There are only very slight changes in the installation process, but one change that I find very significant is the hard disk partitioning part. In Feisty and Gutsy, it was a guessing game when you try to move the slider, which side is for Windows, and which is for Linux? I made mistake on this once and shrank Windows to minimum resulting in unbootable Windows. This time there is an indication on which is which, and this will help greatly for new users who would want to configure a dual boot system.

I have not been exploring much on Hardy yet, and realize only a few changes, the 'thrash" naming is different now, and it has an additional folder inside the thrash bin holding information of the deleted files.

Next, Ubuntu will now auto-mount my SD-Card! I have an SD Card inserted to the computer, in Gutsy, I will have to remove and insert it again for Ubuntu to recognize and mount the card. It is now done automatically upon boot up. Nice!

There are a few applications changes which don't affect me as I am not a media guy and do not play music and DVDs on my laptop. The Brasero CD burner is a nice addition I would say, I have used Xubuntu on another PC and Brasero is standard CD burner on it.

One last minor thing I have noticed on my laptop, is the Intel wireless card does not require restricted driver now. I remember there were 2 restricted drivers that I needed to turn on during my first Gutsy boot-- the nVidia graphics and Intel wireless drivers, it seems like I need only to turn on the nVidia this time round. I have yet to check whether the wireless is working on Hardy, if it had worked flawlessly in Gutsy with just a click on restricted driver activation, I have great trust that the wireless will also work in Hardy.

So much for my first look of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and by the way, it could be just my imagination, I feel that my computer runs faster now as compared to Gutsy.

Choosing the Distro

I will continue on talking about Linux Distro today.

As a new would be Linux convert, how to pick the "right" distro? My personal point of view is since the launch of Ubuntu, most distros are slowly catching up and are moving towards the ease of use and installation direction. There are definitely differences behind the desktop screen, however, if you are just a normal user from Windows environment like me, you will not notice the difference and whether it is a Fedora core, Debian base, or Mandriva doesn't matter to you. All you want a general purpose distro which is easy to install to run your applications.

You can try this link to help you decide which distro is suitable for you.

What I personally think is more important for a new convert (especially from Windows & Mac) is the GUI desktop that you will feel comfortable with. There are quite a number of GUI desktops available and the most popular being GNOME, KDE, and xcfe.

Let me explain a little on what is a GUI desktop. You see, Linux OS and the desktop interface are 2 entire separate entity. You can have the same engine, and load different Desktop on it. In the example of Ubuntu, you can have Kubuntu using KDE desktop, Ubuntu running GNOME, and Xubuntu on xcfe desktop-- all are having the same Ubuntu engine but different interface, and you can even switch from one to another if you want to. If you have used computer long enough, just imagine DOS + Windows 3.11 where the 2 things are separate.

I do not want to start World War III by commenting which desktop is better, and the followings are ENTIRELY my personal opinion:

1. KDE. This is the preferred desktop of Linus Torvalds. It looks nice, and have arrangement very similar to Windows XP. It uses an application called Konqueror to explore the system files and internet just like the Windows Explorer in MS Windows. I have very limited exposure to KDE, and couldn't comment much, but I do find it a very powerful desktop that allows many hardware configurations to be done from a GUI environment. I have read that new users from Windows environment are generally more comfortable with KDE as compared to the other desktops, especially the power users who like to tweak and tinker with the OS.
   


2. GNOME is suitable for users who prefer a simple Mac-like desktop. It may look plain in its barest form, but is highly configurable to make it an eye-candy like a Mac. Power users from Windows environment may not like it, as many functions are hidden or not available from the desktop environment. If you find Windows is full of things you hardly touch like control panel & system management, and prefer a simpler approach, Gnome is for you. I personally am using Gnome and xcfe most of the time and I do not find it difficult to adjust to after 15 years of Windows.


3. xcfe. I have used xcfe desktop (Xubuntu--> xcfe + Ubuntu) for quite awhile on an old P3 system and currently Mythbuntu on another PC. It is a lightweight desktop and usually bundles with fully functional lightweight applications as well. It is also a very simple desktop just like GNOME. If you like to have fast boot/ load/ shutdown, or running Linux on a very old computer, xcfe maybe the way to go.


4. Others. There are a few other desktops available, like Fluxbox, Enlightenment, and etc., I couldn't comment on any as I have not tried them personally.

So, remember to research into which desktop the distro is bundling by default as well to ease your transition from your current OS. Anyway, frankly, if you are the adventurous type and familiar with using mouse clicks, all desktops are easy to use and need less than a week to get accustomed to.

Ubuntu 8.04

Just downloaded the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron a few days ago. Have not installed into any boxes yet, as I am so comfortable with Gutsy. Before the release of Hardy, I was thinking of loading it to my main working laptop and keep it that way till the next LTS or end life of the laptop, whichever comes first.

However, I love Gutsy. Perhaps another reason is Gutsy just works with this laptop, Dell Inspiron 1420, without any sort of tweaking and configuration, unless you consider activating the restricted drivers as tweaking.

Well, let me think for a few more days, perhaps I will do a back-up over the weekend and install Hardy Heron to the laptop.

Mission Critical

An interesting quote from an article found at linux-watch.com, reporting the events at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit held a few weeks ago.

"The bottom line: Linux is continuing to become the life's blood of many businesses. Or, as in the case of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, an early Linux adopter, it already is. A representative of the Exchange at the Summit said, 'We're already doing a trillion dollars of trades on the exchange.' What part of mission-critical ready do you not understand?"

You can read the full article here.

Linux Distros Family

I wrote about what is a Linux distro a few weeks back, and this is a follow up article that hopes to give you a better understanding of the vast number of distros.

First thing first, here's a link to the "family tree" of the Linux distros. Of course it is already outdated as the moment you read this blog, another 5 new distros are borned :-)

Some distros are developed for specific purpose, eg., Knoppmyth and Mythbuntu are 2 distros that focus on configuring your hardware to be a Home Theathre PC (HTPC). There are also some distros that are bent on squeezing the last drop out of the CPU without much concern on ease of use; while some general purpose distros aim to be Windows replecament.

Here is a popular website that keep track of the top 100 most popular distros and news about releases. Ya, sometimes too much choices can be a bane for would be converts, chose the wrong distro, and will drive the person away (probably forever).

I will write more to talk about on how to choose a distro, stay tuned.

Back to Vista

I bought a Toshiba U3 thumbdrive recently, and installed thunderbird, firefox, opera, and tons of other applications on it. I want to carry my browser favourites, settings, and emails with me to different offices & sites.

Laptop is not an option, besides being too heavy to lug it all day, it is a highly restrictive item in some of my customers' premises. If there is one reason for me to stay with Windows, it is this portable applications. I have grown so much in love in it, so much so that, I booted up Windows Vista for the first time in months at home.

Ah... reminded me why I abandon it in the first place. Incompatibility.

Just like you can't blame Linux for lack of software, you can't exactly blame Vista for this, the software has yet to catch up with it, thus contributing part of the numerous issues. Some still need administrator priviledge to run, and I believe many users are turning off UAC and thus back to the security hole.

I looked at Vista for another moment. It is pretty. Much prettier than XP and Linux. The gadgets graphics is so much nicer than those found in Gnome desklets. What lies beyond the superficial look? The WGA, the DRM, and the dirty tricks like the recent OOXML case. All these are Microsoft's own doing, you can't blame anyone else.

I shut it down for another time, sorry Vista. I walked away a little hardened on my decision to drop Microsoft products, and to evangelize Linux whenever I have the opportunity.

What is Linux Distro?

So you are keen to explore Linux, but where to start and what is this distro thingy people are talking about?

Distro is short for Distribution, make more sense now?

There is a humorous article on bbspot.com that makes fun of the number of Linux distributions surpassed the number of Linux users. While one can brush it off as humour relief, there is a some truth to it, that is, there are really many different Linux distributions.

When you cross over to the light, you will find that you are suddenly overwhelmed by the vast variety of choices; you will also find that there is no Linux Operating System per se, but a whole full list of the variants (or we call it distributions, in short, distros). You can do a Google search or visit Wikipedia for more detailed history of Linux or the GNU/Linux. Here's a brief:

Linux, like Mac OSX, is an UNIX like operating system. It was originally created by Linus Torvalds in 1991. Most worked done by Linus and gang at that time was limited to the kernel (you can view kernel as the engine of the operating system). Almost parallel to the Linux development, there was another free software movement started by Richard Stallman on another free UNIX OS called GNU, which had already completed many of the UNIX utilities and applications, but without a kernel. The two projects decided to merge and thus forming the framework of today's GNU/Linux.

Due to Linux's Open Source nature, it attracted many developers, and some packaged it with more applications and distribute the new "packages" under different names. Some early distibutions include Red Hat (commercial release), Debian, and SLS. These distributions in turn spawned many other distributions. Eg., Debian Linux spawned some popular distributions such as Ubuntu and Knoppix; and Ubuntu in turn acted as a spring board for many other distributions such as the gOS and Linux Mint. You can create your own distribution if you want to, and no one is going to stop you :)

Let me use an analogy to help you understand Linux and the various distributions:

Imagine GNU/Linux as a car engine maker such as Honda, BMW, Mercedes, Ford & etc. The distribution such as Redhat is a car maker who designs the car, and use the engine from Linux --> some Protons use Mitsubishi engines. There are other distributions that are built ontop of another distribution, example, Ubuntu is based on Debian. You can consider Ubuntu as AMG who tunes and modifies Mercedes Benz or Mugen who tunes Honda cars.