Friday, April 20, 2007

Feisty Fawn

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OK all...after making time to sit down and actually play around with the distro I must admit it is one of the best I have used in the past 6 months (Fedora, Sabayon, Gentoo, Arch) and am pleased how easy it was to set everything up. As of recent I tweaked the Latitude D620's Quadro card to work with 6.10 and was impressed with the beryl graphical interface. Some of the items may be to "kitchy" but you can simply turn those off.
Hardware / Install:
After waiting over 10 hours to download the iso (server's bombarded), get it burned, and go through the mind numbing install process everything was right there (I did not try the windows migration system that was built into the install process). The system told me that I would need a special driver for my graphics card and installed it shortly after (BIG difference from 6.10 with the Quadro NVS cards). It detected my Proxim Gold Card and the rest of the hardware on the laptop. Often times this is the biggest set-back with linux however, the Ubuntu programmers have made it as simple as checking a box which if we all remember is 100 times easier then fighting with specific drivers in Windows.
The Desktop:
There are some noticeable different screens from previous versions of Ubuntu (Example: log on screen) which bring a more fashionable sense to the overall OS. This will most likely appeal to the average and even intermediate to advance users: Come on we all like eye candy. Beryl, Open Office 2.2, Gnome 2.18.1, Tracker, Tomboy, and Banshee round out a wonderful list of items that are at every one's free fingertips (Synaptics).
My Verdict:
Linux will never be Windows folks and that is a great thing! All the developers that have worked long and hard on this distro have done a phenomenal job. The whole system runs flawlessly and has no overall need to be Windows or a Windows killer. I urge the educators out there to give this distro a try. Dual boot, like I do and see what you have been missing while trapped in the windows world. Almost all of our apps are going off site and through the net (Blackboard, Edline, Gradequick, Email) so you should have no reason to give Ubuntu a try. Moreover, tell all your friends about how you have something that is truly great and free!

(Ubuntu)Days without Breaking: 1

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