Ubuntu Linux 6.06 review

tijsco · #1 07-26-2006, 04:32 PM

This thread discusses the Content article: Ubuntu Linux 6.06 review

Well everything is working perfectly on my AMD Athlon 64 machine. And I also think, like many people, Ubuntu is the best and easiest Linux distro around nowadays.

I used Suse Linux for a few years (also great), but the latest version 10.1 didn't boot on my brand new pc. Ubuntu did.

But I don't go trashing Suse because of this experience... It worked on other machines and is a great distro. So is Ubuntu. But give it a fair chance and try it on an other machine and see how you like it when everything is working (because it works on most machines, why do you think everybody is so enthusiastic about it?).

I think you're right Ubuntu should be working on your machine, but for a review you should - imho - point this out as an disadvantage (bad hardware support or something like that), but you can't judge the whole os and all of it's features when you used it in a crippled way.

regards

Heinz · #2 07-26-2006, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Firefox is the default Web browser in Ubuntu 6.06 (and the only one installed, which is good -- no clutter), but it has no plugins installed. None at all -- not even the SVG plugin.

Nor should it need to: Ubuntu 6.06 ships with Firefox 1.5, which supports SVG natively.

Valour · #3 07-26-2006, 07:28 PM

tijsco wrote:

Quote:

This thread discusses the Content article: Ubuntu Linux 6.06 review

Well everything is working perfectly on my AMD Athlon 64 machine. And I also think, like many people, Ubuntu is the best and easiest Linux distro around nowadays.

I used Suse Linux for a few years (also great), but the latest version 10.1 didn't boot on my brand new pc. Ubuntu did.

But I don't go trashing Suse because of this experience... It worked on other machines and is a great distro. So is Ubuntu. But give it a fair chance and try it on an other machine and see how you like it when everything is working (because it works on most machines, why do you think everybody is so enthusiastic about it?).

I think you're right Ubuntu should be working on your machine, but for a review you should - imho - point this out as an disadvantage (bad hardware support or something like that), but you can't judge the whole os and all of it's features when you used it in a crippled way.

regards

If you would read the article, you'd know that I used two completely different machines for testing. I could have used others, but the review also says that these two machines are sort of a litmus test for distributions.

And yes I can judge a whole OS and all of its features when it doesn't work properly from the start. That's the sort of thing I do as a journalist.

-Jem

Josiahstjohn · #4 07-26-2006, 09:42 PM

Jem, you're not alone in your experiences with Ubuntu 6.06. So far I've been having serious (i.e. deal-breaking) problems with wireless, samba and growiosfs on my AMD Turion laptop. I have the same problems with both the 32bit and 64 bit versions of Ubuntu.

Most of the responses I get from people when I try to explain to them the problems I have are 'well, it works for me' or a paean to Ubuntu followed by the suggestion that I try x, y and z. Invariably I tried x, y and z a month ago.

The problem is that I need my computer for productivity and I just don't have much time to fiddle around under the hood to make it work. So currently, I'm using an external wireless card because I can't get the internal one to work and I've downloaded the free trial of NeroLinux (ugh!) so I can burn DVDs again. I found a slightly cumbersome workaround for my Samba problem.

I understand that Ubuntu 6.06 has been a great experience for the majority of users, but the upgrade from 5.10 has been a nightmare for a significant minority of users. As a devoted Ubuntu user, this saddens me.

What upsets me, however, is that Ubuntu and many of its users seem to be sticking their heads in the sand about these issues--ignoring the problems of this minority and claiming anyway that it's a great distribution and trying to sideline these issues.

Ubuntu 6.06 has been for me and a significant minority of users a terrible distribution. Sure it's made headway in some areas, but it introduced serious bugs that they have yet to fix. I'm tired of the Ubuntu community denying that there is a problem.

Post edited by: josiahstjohn, at: 2006/07/26 21:43

Valour · #5 07-27-2006, 09:34 AM

Josiahstjohn wrote:

Quote:

Jem, you're not alone in your experiences with Ubuntu 6.06. So far I've been having serious (i.e. deal-breaking) problems with wireless, samba and growiosfs on my AMD Turion laptop. I have the same problems with both the 32bit and 64 bit versions of Ubuntu.

Most of the responses I get from people when I try to explain to them the problems I have are 'well, it works for me' or a paean to Ubuntu followed by the suggestion that I try x, y and z. Invariably I tried x, y and z a month ago.

The problem is that I need my computer for productivity and I just don't have much time to fiddle around under the hood to make it work. So currently, I'm using an external wireless card because I can't get the internal one to work and I've downloaded the free trial of NeroLinux (ugh!) so I can burn DVDs again. I found a slightly cumbersome workaround for my Samba problem.

I understand that Ubuntu 6.06 has been a great experience for the majority of users, but the upgrade from 5.10 has been a nightmare for a significant minority of users. As a devoted Ubuntu user, this saddens me.

What upsets me, however, is that Ubuntu and many of its users seem to be sticking their heads in the sand about these issues--ignoring the problems of this minority and claiming anyway that it's a great distribution and trying to sideline these issues.

Ubuntu 6.06 has been for me and a significant minority of users a terrible distribution. Sure it's made headway in some areas, but it introduced serious bugs that they have yet to fix. I'm tired of the Ubuntu community denying that there is a problem.<br><br>Post edited by: josiahstjohn, at: 2006/07/26 21:43

Well, if you'd like to try to work through the problems you're having, I can try to help you. Otherwise, you might consider a different distribution. SUSE Linux 10.1 and Xandros Desktop 4.0 are two distros that worked well for me on the same hardware that Ubuntu did not like. If you want to stay with Ubuntu, the next version should be out in October.

-Jem

Josiahstjohn · #6 07-27-2006, 07:40 PM

Valour wrote:

Quote:

Well, if you'd like to try to work through the problems you're having, I can try to help you. Otherwise, you might consider a different distribution. SUSE Linux 10.1 and Xandros Desktop 4.0 are two distros that worked well for me on the same hardware that Ubuntu did not like. If you want to stay with Ubuntu, the next version should be out in October.

-Jem

Thanks, Jem, for the offer of help! Sadly, I think it's too late for that though. I've honestly spent the best part of the last 6 weeks (well, the best part of my free time) trying to fix these issues. The samba issue is the only one that I found a satisfactory workaround too. If you google on e.g. "ubuntu 6.06 dvd burning issue" (without the quotes) you'll see that there's a significant underclass of people with growiosfs problems who have no idea what's going on and no idea how to fix it. Ditto CUPS (did I mention the CUPS problem?).

I freely admit that my inability to get the wireless to work is probably my fault. My laptop has the 'Broadcom wireless card from hell' in it. Ubuntu included, for the first time, drivers for it, but while they recognise the card it does little more. I tried installing NDISwrapper, but it conflicted with the broadcom driver. Perhaps with a little more expert knowledge and time, I'd have got it to work.

The thing that really frustrates me is that the showstopping issues I've come across in 6.06 were not there in 5.10. In fact, 5.10 was a fantastic OS and it worked pretty much without a glitch. Initially I upgraded my server and my laptop from 5.10 to 6.06 but after I found that there were some serious bugs (most notably the CUPS one) I downgraded my server to 5.10 again. I stuck it out on my laptop, hoping that there would be fixes forthcoming.

Anyway, I'm sticking with 5.10 on my server because it's a wonderfully powerful and stable OS. On my laptop I'm switching back to SUSE--I'm not too keen on SUSE but it does work with the hardware that I have and it's better than e.g Mandriva.

raetsel · #7 07-28-2006, 03:01 PM

Quote:

The default desktop environment is GNOME; other DEs and window managers are not officially supported, though you can just as easily download and use Kubuntu or Xubuntu if you prefer KDE or XFCE.

Please can you correct that statement?

KDE is officially supported as part of Kubuntu. The lead Kubuntu developer is employed by Canonical, Kubuntu repositories are hosted by the same sites as Ubuntu and full commercial support is available from Canonical:- http://www.kubuntu.org/support.php

The reason the various plugins and things like NDIS are not included is because (K)ubuntu is a free software distribution. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

You may not agree with philosophy but I think it would be better if you did explain why these things are as they are in (K)ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/philosophy

Valour · #8 07-28-2006, 03:41 PM

I will not change a correct statement. I suggest you re-read the article and pay closer attention to its exact wording.

-Jem

raetsel · #9 07-28-2006, 08:15 PM

Valour wrote:

Quote:

I will not change a correct statement. I suggest you re-read the article and pay closer attention to its exact wording.

-Jem

I have re-read the article and I do not see how you can state that KDE is not supported.

Please point out the exact wording I am missing.

In what way is KDE not officially supported?

Here is another statement from the Kubuntu website from their FAQ:-

Quote:

Is this a fork of Ubuntu?

No, it is an official part of Ubuntu. All our packages are in the same archives.

http://www.kubuntu.org/faq.php#fork

Post edited by: raetsel, at: 2006/07/28 20:18

razor · #10 07-28-2006, 08:44 PM

Hi Jem

Since I bought a compaq notebook (r4000) I've been looking for a linux distro that fits well on it so I can use the dvd recorder, firewire port, card reader, 3d via hardware acceleration and so on.

I tried gentoo, fedora 5, open suse 10.1 but when I got usability I lost performance and vice-versa.

I decided to try ubuntu 6.06 and got suprised. Everything worked perfectly, card reader, dvd, wifi network card, even my webcam. The video card (ati xpress 200M) was the most difficult to configure, but now it's working fine. I'm also a java programmer and the real java (sun jdk) was easy to install following: (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats). I have eclipse 3.2 and netbeans 5 running perfectly, better than on an windows box.

So I have no issues on ubuntu.