dawgiestyle

03/14/05: Ubuntu Linux "Hoary Hedgehog": My Experience

Ubuntu Linux is a fairly new linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. Here's a description from Ubuntu's website:

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release. Ubuntu ships with the latest Gnome release as well as a selection of server and desktop software that makes for a comfortable desktop experience off a single installation CD.

The latest "Preview" release, 5.04, or Hoary Hedgehog (Hoary) was released just a few days ago, and, not liking to get too comfortable with any one distro, I decided to give it a shot. I started by downloading the live cd, just to make sure I wasn't going to have any problems. It started up with no problems, and it really impressed me with how clean it seemed. I had read beforehand that it included only the Gnome desktop environment. This was my main reason for wanting to try the live cd first. Before settling on Xfce4 on my Suse desktop, I was a KDE guy. I was a little surprised to find how far Gnome had come since the last time I used it (Redhat 7.3). On to the installation!

The install, not surprisingly, is not graphical, but ncurses based like Debian's. It differs from Debian's though in that it minimizes the amount of user input required. This is a big plus for newbies. I didn't get a real feel for partitioning from the installation since my partitions were already set up. All I had to do was select hda2 and set its mount point to /boot, and select hda4 and set its mount point to /. The installation detected my swap partition and assigned it automatically. The installation as a whole was very straight-forward.

One thing I don't like about the default installation is that the root account is disabled. I read about this beforehand as well, so I was ready for it. This is actually a good thing to have done, since all the launchers that require root access are run with sudo, prompting for the user's own password, but I do think it is still necessary to educate the user about sudo on the command line, just in case.

I had been using Suse long enough that I expected to be able to set up my LDAP authentication and nfs mounted /home right away. This software had to be added manually though. "That's ok", I thought. A perfect opportunity to check out synaptic, the gtk frontend for Debian's apt/dpkg package manager. I am impressed. I wasn't sure if it would stack up to Suse's YAST for installing/updating packages, but I believe it exceeds it easily.

I did run into some problems with LDAP and nfs, but admittedly, this was due to misconfiguration of my FreeBSD server (my bad). Most of the problem coming from the lack of nfs file locking capability. Enabling rpc.statd and rpc.lockd on the nfs server took care of those problems, and after editing 4 pam files, my LDAP authentication was up too.

Most of the software I regularly use was already loaded. Rhythmbox took the place of XMMS, though I did have to install the gstreamer-mad package for mp3 support. No problem. The default browser is Firefox, and other default software includes Evolution, Gaim, Xchat, the Gimp, Openoffice.org, and even a terminal server client. One disappointment was that I found I couldn't use Evolution due to yet more file locking issues stemming from my nfs mounted /home. I could compile it myself and disable file locking, but being used to Thunderbird anyway, I just decided to use it instead.

This is a preview release, which is a nice way to say open beta, so bugs are to be expected, but overall, Ubuntu is well on its way to becoming a very excellent desktop linux. As far as I'm concerned, it already is if you're like me and enjoy fixing problems as they pop up. It's how we learn. It is also very nice to see a distribution that doesn't try to please everyone by including every known window manager and desktop environment. It's not unheard of, but I would definitely like to see more of this. Ubuntu immediately struck me as a very cohesive experience, while avoiding severe bloat. It feels both very simple and very refined. I highly recommend this one to anybody looking for a new distro to try.