Why Ubuntu?

[GNUrag]

sba, you may not need to follow the hype and what others are saying about Ubuntu. You say you're already using Gentoo, then nothing like it, just stick Gentoo.

I prefer Ubuntu to every other Distro coz it simply Stupid Proof . You see, the users at my place are like that and Ubuntu gives me any my administrator peace of mind. We are slowly phasing out Windows 98 boxes in my new office and replacing all of them with Ubuntu.

I'd say, the lack of many options, lack of many software and a simple GNOME -> Applications menu makes it extremely Stupid Proof.

 

[Satissh S]

Man.. I'm lovin' linux. I installed Gentoo from their minimal cd (60 mb ISO) using the instructions on their website. Wrote all the commands in a paper and executed them after booting into the shell. Ran into fdisk for partitoning. It was like building a LFS system. I had to d/l base system using wget and untar it into a temporary dir .and then I had to download the kernel from their website using emerge , tweak it and configure it later using genkernel utility. I had to assign date and timezone myself using date and ln commands .First we have to build a system in a directory and chroot to it. Had to edit fstab and also mount /proc and /devFs filesystems.Compiling the kernel using genkernel --menuconfig all took a lot of time .I had to then download X ,gnome, openoffice and mozilla from their portages using emerge.

@Vignesh: Got the avatar from my friend. Google is my best friend

@praveen: I live in chromepet. Let's hope that we meet atleast this time
@gnurag: Actually , Ubuntu has a lot of apps that can be installed using internet. I have installed eclipse, mono, anjuta, best , realplayer all using internet.

 

[e-freak]

I have 1536 MB (1024 + 512) of RAM and so i use 2 GB of HDD Space as SWAP which is according to red hat installation instructions.

Dude, you don;t need any swap then!

 

[vignesh]

@Satissh
I came to Tambaram today.If I had known you live in Chrompet then I could have got the cd dude.I am even going tomorrow to college.....Can we met...
The avatar is the default wallpaper in SLax..

@prav
Do you think anyone needs so much of swap...You can always create a pagefile.. if needed.

 

[Satissh S]

Your wish vignesh. I have college till 3:00 pm and when i get back home it'll be 4:30 thro' bus. I'll bring the cd with me. I am in first semester so exam starts only from Jan.

 

[e-freak]

Being an Ubuntu user, I believe that Ubuntu is so getting more and more popular because of these features it incorporates:

* Simple - As gnurag explained, Ubuntu does not have a messy lot of apps...just what you require off a cd. That's why you need just a cd not a whole dvd.

* Fast - Due to its sleek gnome interface and minimal apps scheme, it remains to be one of the fastest gnome distros available...maybe the fastest.

* Stable - Ubuntu allows you to install only the stable kernel and apps available for your architecture.

* Debian - Ubuntu is debian based and supports only Free Software. Use of any propreitary software is not encouraged. Also, deb packages are smaller as compared to the RPMs on other distros. It therefore takes less time to download and install. One more thing, apt-get and Synaptic (Ubuntu's package manager) both are absolutely awesome!

* Size - With a minimal base system and apps, Ubuntu takes up little space for installation and update.

* Gnome - I find Ubuntu's gnome the best and fastest. I guess FC has a better looking gnome but it seems to be heavy and a little slow. Ubuntu's gnome on the other hand is sleek and sturdy.

I guess these are a few of the reasons I love Ubuntu. Its upto you what you prefer. Though, Ubuntu is definately worth a try.

 

[Satissh S]

Just to add to e-freak's comments..
* Ubuntu also has one of the best communities. Help is available if one cares to find..

* Text mode install. Most say textual install wards off newbies, but the debian installer is actually a boon b'coz the installation won't be affected by just due to graphics card.

* Latest software bundling. Ubuntu breezy has O 2.0 (1.9 release candidate) Gimp 2.2 and Firefox 1.07. I have heard that sometimes in debian the software isn't the latest. Is it true??
I agree with all your above points but gentoo should be the fastest..

 

[srijit]

IMO ubuntu is popular because its widely distributed for free. people get abt 10 cds min when the request them and they give them to their friends. moreover the fact that things do work properly out of the box is a huge advantage.
that being said it can only be considered as a newbie distro. hardcore linux geeks will do well to stick with LFS or gentoo and the gentoo forums have the most harcore helpers out there. if you can compile s/w for you own computer, you so know quite a lot abt it
ps: if u can install gentoo then y bother with other distros
pps: @satish : how long did it take for everything to finih compiling? am downloading the universal cd + the package cd and planning to do a stage 3 install, so just curious

 

[GNUrag]

@gnurag: Actually , Ubuntu has a lot of apps that can be installed using internet. I have installed eclipse, mono, anjuta, best , realplayer all using internet.

@Satish, lol.. You're telling me that!!
You see, its good that all those software is not bundled. New users dont get confused. Less software means they have a very small learning curve in front of them.

 

[GNUrag]

I have heard that sometimes in debian the software isn't the latest. Is it true??

Yes, it is true. Debian's testing and unstable both archives still contain XFree86 as their X server. No sight of XOrg which is present in Ubuntu as well as all other distros.

 

[vignesh]

Your wish vignesh. I have college till 3:00 pm and when i get back home it'll be 4:30 thro' bus. I'll bring the cd with me. I am in first semester so exam starts only from Jan.

Which college are you in ?Then maybe later,since I just have to collect my hallticket so I will just be there for some time.Maybe in the Hols..

 

[Satissh S]

@vignesh: Jeppiaar Engineering College
@srijith : I dunno what happened., waited for sometime and went to sleep, morning the kernel was compiled, then i configured system services. such as syslog, using emerge and then rc-update add command. Then created users using useradd, Only prob is soundcard not working. I'm dearly missing sndconfig!

 

[sba]

From the replies relevant to my question posted by it_waaznt_me, GNUrag, e-freak, Satissh S and Srijit, I have derived the following points that seem to be going for Ubuntu in a nutshell

1) Money and marketing (probably the most important)
2) Stupid Proof/Simple: Has less number of apps forced down an user's throat thus causing less confusion to new Linux user.
3) Stable/Debian back end: I wrote them together as Stable and Debian are probably hand-in-hand with each other.
4) Compiled with performance enhancing configurations.
5) Lots of softwares from Synaptic.

Looks like I got what I needed to know
Thanx a lot for all the replies I got. After reading all these replies, I have made my mind that I am not going to move away from Gentoo as it doesn't seem to be having any additional benefits/features but still I might try it some day when I am feeling bored

 

[sba]

am downloading the universal cd + the package cd and planning to do a stage 3 install, so just curious

Even though the question was not for me but I would still like to poke my nose.
If you are planning a Gentoo installation then imho please try "Stage 1/3 installation" method by Bob P on Gentoo Forums.
*forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-345229.html
Also do put "nptlonly" as use flag in your make.conf. The tutorial and proper use flags will help you make (probably) the fastest Linux installation you've ever worked on.

 

[sba]

Only prob is soundcard not working. I'm dearly missing sndconfig!

What is the make/model of your sound card?

 

[Satissh S]

Ok configured, no probs.
@srijith: If you are installing from universal cd you don't have to d\l stage1 tarball.

 

[srijit]

thanks guys.... will try them out. just a small doubt. why reiserFS?

 

[sba]

why reiserFS?

Have a look here
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS
...and especially read this line

Compared to ext2 and ext3 in 2.4, when dealing with files under 4k and with tail packing enabled, ReiserFS is often faster by a factor of 10–15.

Now even though that is dealing with smaller files but still ReiserFS gives better performance than ext3.

 

[srijit]

thanks for the heads up have never used reiser so i thought that i'd ask

 

[e-freak]

AFAIk, Reiser is a default option only on Suse, not on others. Others stick to ext3.