I am now an Ubuntu man, having purchased a Linux PC at the end of last week (a Dell Inspiron 530, just so you know). I am but a small particle in the Linux wave, but I made the choice to invest my hard-earned in an open source platform rather than Windows Vista...What are my impressions? So far, so very good, and I certainly don't regret the choice. Indeed I have been pleasantly surprised as to what's on offer.
The African theme came as a slight surprise (I suppose I should have been more aware about what Ubuntu really means). I can see the logic of the marketing. Think Linux and you may think of abstract code and geeks - more earthy tones were obviously considered as a balance (quite literally 'earthy' for one of the screen settings).
I'm impressed with the range of apps available and the ease of package installation (having defined your list of software sources, the pre-checked downloads that are available are listed).
The only downside has been some flakiness with the RhythmBox media playing software going mute on my music library, which was small beer, and a failure to get Compiz Fusion working. This is a whizzy windows manager that supports such things as rotating desktop cubes for current open apps, taking the interface way beyond Windows XP (see for a YouTube demo). I've had to settle for the AWN (Advanced Windows Navigator) and its fancy MacOS-like application doc (as you browse it, the selected icon becomes larger).
Also, I am on 'the release 'Hardy Heron' (8.04) and it's a pity Dell / Canonical could not have equipped it with the latest 'Intrepid Ibex' (8.10) release.
Incidentally, credit to the returning Michael Dell for recognising a market for pre-installed Linux systems. Following its customer-feedback initiative - IdeaStorm - the company identified demand for open source kit.
I'm impressed with the range of apps available and the ease of package installation (having defined your list of software sources, the pre-checked downloads that are available are listed).
The only downside has been some flakiness with the RhythmBox media playing software going mute on my music library, which was small beer, and a failure to get Compiz Fusion working. This is a whizzy windows manager that supports such things as rotating desktop cubes for current open apps, taking the interface way beyond Windows XP (see for a YouTube demo). I've had to settle for the AWN (Advanced Windows Navigator) and its fancy MacOS-like application doc (as you browse it, the selected icon becomes larger).
Also, I am on 'the release 'Hardy Heron' (8.04) and it's a pity Dell / Canonical could not have equipped it with the latest 'Intrepid Ibex' (8.10) release.
Incidentally, credit to the returning Michael Dell for recognising a market for pre-installed Linux systems. Following its customer-feedback initiative - IdeaStorm - the company identified demand for open source kit.
Comments (3)
Congratulations and welcome to the community!
F.
Posted by Flipouk | January 20, 2009 1:51 PM
Posted on January 20, 2009 13:51
An explanation for why Dell may have installed Hardy Heron (8.04 LTS) instead of Intrepid Ibex (8.10):
8.04 was a long term support version and will be supported for 3 years from its release (until April 2011), while normal releases, including 7.10 and 8.10 or Jaunty Jackalope (release date April 2009) will only be supported for 18 months. This means that they either have to update their inventory every 6 months, and their user support personnel, or they have to stick with the LTS versions.
Posted by Carl Snyder | January 21, 2009 12:43 AM
Posted on January 21, 2009 00:43
Cheers Carl (and F.). That's interesting, and makes some sense.
I have yet to encounter anything I have missed from having 8.04 rather than 8.10 - no material impact, so it's all just in my mind, really.
Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com
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January 21, 2009 10:04 AM
Posted on January 21, 2009 10:04