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| DATE | 2005-05-03 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] More on the Free Linux Distro
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Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] More on the Free Linux Distro
From: Ruben Safir
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Ubuntu Linux: Free and Fabulous
The 'Hoary Hedgehog' release of Ubuntu Linux is here, and the Free Agent
likes what he sees.
Matthew Newton, PC World
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
I'm going to just come right out and say it: I absolutely adore Ubuntu
Linux 5.04 (the "Hoary Hedgehog" release, often referred to as "Hoary").
I'm now running Ubuntu on both my laptop and my desktop PCs, and I don't
think I've ever been such a happy Linux user.
Advertisement
There's so much to like about Ubuntu, it's hard to know where to begin.
Before I even get to the product itself, Ubuntu's genesis is worth a
note. Work on the distribution is funded by Canonical, a company set up
by South African gazillionaire Mark Shuttleworth. Perhaps you've heard
of him: He cashed out big-time when he sold his security firm, Thawte,
to VeriSign, and later became the second fabulously rich guy to
literally buy his way into orbit. Now he's putting his money behind
Linux with an eye toward increasing the flow of Free Software to all
corners of the planet.
And I do mean all corners of the planet: Ubuntu's Philosophy page lists
this goal: "Every computer user should be able to use their software in
the language of their choice." Couple that with other ideals like "Every
computer user should be given every opportunity to use software, even if
they work under a disability," and "Every computer user should have the
freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their
software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees," and you see
very quickly that the folks behind Ubuntu are interested in something
more than selling you a box with some discs in it. In fact, Canonical
will send you an Ubuntu disc in the mail, completely free of charge, if
you'd prefer not to download the distribution yourself.
What You Get For Free
Ubuntu's installer is not going to win any beauty contests: It runs in
text mode and completely ignores your mouse. It is also not the "fire it
up and watch it go" experience you get with newbie-friendly commercial
Linux distributions such as Xandros or Linspire.
I've been through several Ubuntu installations now, and find that I
usually have to answer somewhere around a dozen questions before the
installer kicks into autopilot and does its thing. None of these are the
sort of questions that used to make Linux installs a nightmare: You
won't need to know the timings of your video card, for instance. If
you're setting up a dual-booting machine, you will need some basic
knowledge of partitioning, and Ubuntu can help you shrink a Windows
partition to make room on your drive. Once the installer is finished
interacting with you, it starts copying files to disk, rebooting once in
the process. Then you'll see your new Ubuntu log-in screen.
Click here to view full-size image.Once you log in, you're presented
with a very clean Gnome 2.10 desktop. By default, all system icons like
Computer and Home live in a Places menu at the top of the screen,
leaving the desktop itself empty. Even the Trash is not on the
desktop--instead it's an applet on the Gnome panel. I think this
approach is mindful of the way most users use their desktop: as a place
to stash work-in-progress. It's wise, then, to clear the desktop so the
only items on it are files and folders that users put there.
Click here to view full-size image.Ubuntu's Applications menu (Windows
users, think "Start menu") is very well organized--which is good,
because there's no built-in way to edit the menu. This turns out to be a
limitation of Gnome 2.10, and a lot of users aren't happy about it. I
don't understand the gripes myself, but that's because I always put
launcher buttons for the apps I use most frequently right onto my panel.
If you prefer to launch your apps by pulling down a menu and looking
through submenus, do yourself a favor and download the nascent Menu
Editor application, which lets you set things up just the way you like.
An Entire World of Free Software
Ubuntu is based on Debian, the grandpappy of noncommercial Linuxes, and
thus inherits Debian's best-of-breed package management system, Apt. You
can deal with Apt via the command line or the powerful point-and-click
Synaptic interface. The amount of software available is staggering.
We're talking about more than 16,000 different packages, once you've
enabled all the official repositories. Granted, a lot of these packages
are extremely esoteric; for example, I was thrilled to find the latest
version of Trn, a venerable Usenet reader that Perl creator Larry Wall
first brought to life more than two decades ago. Others are simply
fantastic apps that are not installed by default. If you're a software
junkie, you'll have a blast browsing through the listings in Synaptic
and trying out apps left and right. To access these goodies, follow the
instructions at Ubuntuguide.org for adding the "universe" and
"multiverse" repositories to your Apt setup.
If you like, this is the time to pull down several non-Free packages
that may make your computing life better. "Non-Free" doesn't mean you
have to pay for them; it just means that they do not meet the
requirements to be classified as Free Software. You'll likely want DVD
and MP3 support, drivers for the 3D side of your ATI or Nvidia video
card, and Flash and Java plug-ins for your Web-surfing pleasure. You can
also download support for Windows Media, RealNetworks, and QuickTime
video formats, and even set up a package called Mozplugger that lets you
play these video formats right in your browser, just like all your
Windows and Mac-using friends do. We Linux users don't have to take a
back seat in these matters anymore!
I recently reviewed Linspire Five-0, after which Linspire founder
Michael Robertson wrote in, pointing me to Linspire's file compatibility
page, and challenging me to find another version of Linux that can
interact with all the formats linked to on that page. Robertson's point
is well taken: To my knowledge, his is the only Linux distribution that
speaks all those tongues right out of the box. But with an hour's work
with Apt on an Ubuntu system, you can match Linspire's wide-ranging file
type support--and you won't be stuck on a costly upgrade treadmill,
either. In fact, when the next Ubuntu release ("Breezy Badger") comes
out in six months' time, upgrading to it should be as painless as
feeding new repositories to Apt and then typing sudo apt-get
dist-upgrade in a terminal window. The system will then upgrade itself
over the Internet. I can't wait.
You Know What They Say About Every Rose...
It's hard to come up with a list of gripes about Hoary. The annoyances
are mostly minor--there's no pretty startup screen at boot time, for
instance. The only glaring blemish is an unfortunate decision to change
the default behavior of Nautilus, the Gnome file manager.
I've mentioned several times in this space that beginning with Gnome
2.6, Nautilus has had two modes of operation. One, the "File Browser"
mode, is like Windows Explorer, with a two-pane display (folder tree on
the left, folder contents on the right). Then there's the "Spatial"
mode, which is what you get when you double-click a folder on your
desktop. In Spatial mode, Nautilus behaves very much like the Finder in
older versions of the Mac OS: A new window opens for every folder you
access.
A lot of people think that this is a bogus way to operate. Just one of
their complaints is that if you're drilling down to a buried subfolder,
you end up with a screen full of windows in no time at all. Never mind
the fact there's an easy way around this (the double-middle-click); Mark
Shuttleworth decided, apparently by fiat, that there's a better way, and
he had his coders implement it right before the Hoary release:
Double-clicking a folder in Ubuntu not only opens the new folder, but
also closes the previous folder window.
That does solve the glut-of-folder-windows problem, but there are a lot
of reasons to dislike this new behavior. Just one example: Imagine
you're navigating to a folder four levels deep in order to grab a file
there and move it up to a folder only one level deep. When you arrive at
your destination and find your file, its new home has disappeared; it
got closed as you clicked your way down through your folders. Yes, in
"Ubuntu Spatial" mode, a double-middle-click gives you what a
double-click used to: It will open a new folder without killing the
previous folder window.
I'm so used to the "normal" Spatial mode that I've re-enabled it on my
Ubuntu machines. That's relatively easy to do via a hack in GConf
(Gnome's somewhat Registry-like settings storehouse)--but before making
such a big change in Nautilus, the Ubuntu gang should have provided a
simple toggle for this new behavior in Nautilus's Preferences dialog.
Ubuntu Spatial mode is the only serious bummer I've found in Hoary. In
all other respects, I've now got two Linux machines that are purring
along and doing exactly what they should without throwing me any
curveballs. Everything just works, and that's the way I like it. My hat
is off to the Ubuntu folks, not only for the fine work they've done but
for the way they offer it--Freely--to the world.
If you'd like to give Ubuntu a test drive before you install it, you can
download a "Live CD" version. This is a self-booting CD-based version of
Hoary that should give you a pretty good idea of what you'll end up with
if you go ahead with a full installation. If you decide to bring the
Hoary Hedgehog into your life, drop me a line and let me know what you
think.
I'll be back next month with a look at some of the amazing (and
amazingly friendly) applications I've discovered in the Ubuntu
repositories--applications that will, of course, work on whatever Linux
distro works best for you. Until then, be as Free as you can.
Which Linux is your favorite? What made you switch? What's keeping you
from switching? PC World's Free Agent wants to hear from you. Speak
Freely!
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