Ubuntu! I'm Impressed

[Christian Hansel]

After years of working with MS OS's - from the early day till now - I
started working with Linux about a year ago. I've tested several Distros
over the month and decide for Mandriva mostly. Only alst weekend I figured
it time to look into ubuntu, after having heard so much - w3hat can I say:
I am impressed:

- Ubuntu was the first to install on my Laptop (with option vga=771)
without any problems,
- Ubuntu was the first to configure ALSA correctly - something no other
distro was able to do for my Laptop so far.
- After a fairly simple installation - practically everything worked "out
of the box" no additional tweaking was needed.
- Even installing a Java VM and eclipse from the mirrors was not a problem.
Also something I previuosly had problems with in other distros.
- GReat documentation and easy to use GUI

Only one thing left to say: Great Job! Congrats to the community! And
Thanks!

[Jon Solberg]

Christian Hansel said the following on 2006-03-13 08:27:

>
> After years of working with MS OS's - from the early day till now - I
> started working with Linux about a year ago. I've tested several Distros
> over the month and decide for Mandriva mostly. Only alst weekend I figured
> it time to look into ubuntu, after having heard so much - w3hat can I say:
> I am impressed:
>
> - Ubuntu was the first to install on my Laptop (with option vga=771)
> without any problems,
> - Ubuntu was the first to configure ALSA correctly - something no other
> distro was able to do for my Laptop so far.
> - After a fairly simple installation - practically everything worked "out
> of the box" no additional tweaking was needed.
> - Even installing a Java VM and eclipse from the mirrors was not a problem.
> Also something I previuosly had problems with in other distros.
> - GReat documentation and easy to use GUI
>
> Only one thing left to say: Great Job! Congrats to the community! And
> Thanks!

I must agree. After a seven year go with Mandrake/Mandriva I finally
decided to change distribution. I'm still not certain Ubuntu is for me
though (CentOS is another alternative for my everyday Linux), since I'm
used to RPM-based distros.

However, I must say that Ubuntu did a great job on my Thinkpad T23
laptop which is currently working as a testing platform.
Hibernation/sleep worked without me interfering (like I've become used
to when using Mandrake/Mandriva), the built in WLAN worked out of the
box and Synaptic proved to be a great tool. IMO, the system feels very
robust and doesn't impose a lot of branding tweaks on the user (which
was one of the reasons I decided to switch from Mandriva).

One question though: I'm currently also running a server with the now
somewhat obsolete Mandrake 9.2 (I have been keeping it up to date by
patching it by hand). Since I want something that will get updates for a
long time in the future without me having to compile stuff, most
desktop-Linuxes is not an option (with update schedules of 6 months or
less I will spend my time upgrading the system far to often for my
taste). The alternatives that have longer support that I feel are an
option so far are Debian, CentOS or some BSD derivative. Not having
worked much with BSD (although my transparent firewall runs OpenBSD) the
latter is probably of less interest.

However, since I found Ubuntu being such a pleasant surprise I'm
wondering what your opinions/experiences about using it as a server are?
Am I'm better of with Debian (if my choice falls to a .deb-based
distro)? What differences will I see?

The server is used for providing ssh, nfs, smb, nntps (Leafnode through
a SSL layer), http(s) (Apache), imap(s) and cups printing services. Will
I find what I need under Ubuntu?

Opinions are welcome.

--
Jon Solberg (remove "nospam" from email address).

[SINNER]

* Jon Solberg wrote in alt.os.linux.ubuntu:

> Christian Hansel said the following on 2006-03-13 08:27:

[...]

> One question though: I'm currently also running a server with the now
> somewhat obsolete Mandrake 9.2 (I have been keeping it up to date by
> patching it by hand). Since I want something that will get updates for a
> long time in the future without me having to compile stuff, most
> desktop-Linuxes is not an option (with update schedules of 6 months or
> less I will spend my time upgrading the system far to often for my
> taste). The alternatives that have longer support that I feel are an
> option so far are Debian, CentOS or some BSD derivative.

BSD or Gentoo will get you off the rollercoaster. The ports system is
designed so that a reinstall at each version is unnecssary.

[...]

> However, since I found Ubuntu being such a pleasant surprise I'm
> wondering what your opinions/experiences about using it as a server are?
> Am I'm better of with Debian (if my choice falls to a .deb-based
> distro)? What differences will I see?

Ubuntu IS a debian based distro.

> The server is used for providing ssh, nfs, smb, nntps (Leafnode through
> a SSL layer), http(s) (Apache), imap(s) and cups printing services. Will
> I find what I need under Ubuntu?

Yes.

--
David
I suppose that in a few hours I will sober up. That's such a sad
thought. I think I'll have a few more drinks to prepare myself.

[Frank Debil]

> - Ubuntu was the first to install on my Laptop (with option vga=771)

> without any problems,

what is the type of your laptop ?

--
Frank

[Chuck]

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:58:45 +0000, SINNER wrote:

---<snip>---

>

>> The server is used for providing ssh, nfs, smb, nntps (Leafnode through
>> a SSL layer), http(s) (Apache), imap(s) and cups printing services.
>> Will I find what I need under Ubuntu?

>
> Yes.
>

If that's all you need, I agree, but I've found that for 3rd party
application support, it's best to stick with Red Hat, Suse, or Debian
Stable in that order.

btw: Dapper is supposed to be supported for 5 years after release which
may be May/June.

[Christian Hansel]

Frank Debil wrote:

>> - Ubuntu was the first to install on my Laptop (with option vga=771)
>> without any problems,

>
> what is the type of your laptop ?
>

It's a 'noname' brand Celeron1.1GhZ 256MB with SiS chips. Bought from the
German retailer Vobis years ago. Still working though. (Brandname is
TekNeo)

It's not the best and it's not the fastest, but using ubuntu the machine has
become quite a working horse again, after Windoze kept crashing or slowing
down constantly...

[Frank Debil]

Thanks Christian!

> It's a 'noname' brand Celeron1.1GhZ 256MB with SiS chips.
> (Brandname is TekNeo)

totally unknown for me in Hungary

--
Frank

[wyeknot]

Christian Hansel wrote:

> After years of working with MS OS's - from the early day till now - I
> started working with Linux about a year ago. I've tested several Distros
> over the month and decide for Mandriva mostly. Only alst weekend I figured
> it time to look into ubuntu, after having heard so much - w3hat can I say:
> I am impressed:

I did my install (KUBUNTU 5.10 on a new Toshiba laptop) over 2 months
ago. The first install didn't configure video or WiFi correctly. But
after a few hours of newbie browsing of various forums I had it up and
running.

A week later I installed Ubuntu 5.10 (Gnome) on an older Toshiba laptop
- everything worked out of the box. Damn! That was impressive.

Now I'm just spending time figuring out what is best for me. I already
prefer Gnome to KDE (KDE appears to be a bit clunky about some things
such as startup and re-painting some windows correctly, Gnome to me
seems simple and clean). I'll do a clean install of Ubuntu on the first
laptop above install "my" current suite of apps and be all set for a
long time to come.

I am *impressed* as hell with Linux and Ubuntu in particular. Other
than that initial four-hour roadblock on my first install (which was
educational as all hell as I learned command-line tools such as
iwconfig), most things have been fairly painless and totally satisfying.

And *thanks* to the community forums for all the great help.

Matt

[Margaret Wilson]

wyeknot wrote:

> And *thanks* to the community forums for all the great help.

Yes, I have to agree. I believe the K/Ubuntu communities are of the
most helpful I've ever had occasion to frequent. I've heard that the
Mepis community is fabulous, and perhaps it's smaller than that of the
'buntus. But I've gotten faster, more friendly and helpful info here
and on the 'buntu web forums.

Thanks from me, too. I might actually *learn* Linux this time!! :-)

Regards,

Margaret

[noshellswill]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:41:43 -0500, Margaret Wilson wrote:

> wyeknot wrote:
>

>> And *thanks* to the community forums for all the great help.

>
> Yes, I have to agree. I believe the K/Ubuntu communities are of the
> most helpful I've ever had occasion to frequent. I've heard that the
> Mepis community is fabulous, and perhaps it's smaller than that of the
> 'buntus. But I've gotten faster, more friendly and helpful info here
> and on the 'buntu web forums.
>
> Thanks from me, too. I might actually *learn* Linux this time!! :-)
>
> Regards,
>
> Margaret

It is not possible to LEARN Linux, any more than you can make a martini
with vodka. Trust me ... hehe. However, you MAY as an infant have been
exposed to one of the following 3 influences:

1) Delivery-room monitors may have spewed bash_shell_scripts during
an especially trying series of contractions ... or

2) Your mother may have recited AWK-GREP-SED nomograms instead of Dr
Seuse & Brothers Grimm during long winter evenings ... or

3) You may be the 1/1000000000 human still born with a cobra-venom
detox gene that modestly changes function as you approach teenhood.

The coincidence of all three unlikelies correlates strongly with later
appearance of *nix_like traits. Yet hope remains. Help-groups are
available, ofcourse, run by a gent named Bob ...


nss
*********

[erik w]

Christian Hansel wrote:

>
> After years of working with MS OS's - from the early day till now - I
> started working with Linux about a year ago. I've tested several Distros
> over the month and decide for Mandriva mostly. Only alst weekend I figured
> it time to look into ubuntu, after having heard so much - w3hat can I say:
> I am impressed:
>
> - Ubuntu was the first to install on my Laptop (with option vga=771)
> without any problems,
> - Ubuntu was the first to configure ALSA correctly - something no other
> distro was able to do for my Laptop so far.
> - After a fairly simple installation - practically everything worked "out
> of the box" no additional tweaking was needed.
> - Even installing a Java VM and eclipse from the mirrors was not a problem.
> Also something I previuosly had problems with in other distros.
> - GReat documentation and easy to use GUI
>
> Only one thing left to say: Great Job! Congrats to the community! And
> Thanks!

I am also very happy with ubuntu and thank them but I also want to
remember debain for that is what I understand ubuntu is based on and
that ubuntu is a repackaging of debain.

SO THANKS TO Debain AND Ubuntu. and the whole linux community.

If anyone wants to learn a lot about Linux they should try gentoo. Just
installing it is a learning process. Took me about a year on and off, i
am/was a newbie. Start the stage 3 install then progress to the more
difficult. Patience is a virtue.