The last time I dabbled with Linux was years ago when I installed a version of Mandrake (now called Mandriva). It was awkward and I got rid of it after only a few days playing with it.
So, now in 2007 I thought I'd give Linux another go. I picked Ubuntu as my distribution of choice, mainly because it promised to be easy to install and everything should just work.
I downloaded 7.04 Feisty Fawn and burnt it to a CD. The installation process was as easy as promised. I simply set my computer to boot from CD, put the disk in, rebooted and in a couple of minutes I was presented with a desktop. I double clicked the install icon from the desktop, it asked me a few questions, asked me to pick where to install (I chose the entire of my spare hard disk) and about 15 mins later it was done.
So, in a similar style to my Windows Vista post, I shall list the good and bad points.
The Good
- Install was easy. I just picked a few options and off it went. I was surprised to hear a welcome sound play when it first dropped onto the desktop so it had obviously been busy detecting my hardware and installing drivers for it.
- Internet just works. I plugged in a network cable to my router and it immediately set up an internet connection and I was able to browse the web and update software.
- It automatically was able to read data from my Windows Vista (NTFS) disk, by simply double clicking on it. It doesn't seem to automatically mount the disk on boot though, so it loses a point there.
- Dual boot was set up for me. It found Windows Vista without me telling it that I already had another OS installed.
- The package manager for installing and updating software. This kind of thing didn't really exist in this form when I last tried Linux and it's very welcome.
- Wireless refuses to work. It had initially installed a driver for my wireless card, so I attempted to use the Gnome network manager to connect to our network, but it was having none of it. After a while searching forums on the internet, I discovered my Broadcom wireless card was one that wasn't directly supported. I had to install ndiswrapper (a piece of software that emulates the Windows driver interface) and install a Windows XP driver for the card into that. I was then able to attempt to connect to the network, but for some reason it still won't accept the WPA2 key for the router. I've spent two evenings trying loads of online solutions to this and still have had no success. This is frankly insane for an OS that's sold on the fact that it does this all for you.
- GRUB (the dual boot OS loader) assumes I want Ubuntu to be the default option for dual booting. It took a minute of Googling to find out which config file I had to alter to get Windows Vista back as my default OS, but it should have given me the choice when I installed it.
I'm quite disappointed in you Keef ;) Your "review" covers a single issue with installation, but you conclude that Linux isn't ready as a desktop OS? I hardly see how you've got grounds to claim that based on your experience :)
If you used ease of installation as the benchmark for overall quality, then most of the early versions of Windows wouldn't be worthy either. In fact, I just as many if not more issues installing Windows x64 on my machine than I did Gentoo - and that's saying something. Let's be honest, for the mainstream user, most of the time they don't install their own operating system and hence it's a non-issue (yes that's a generalisation, but it's not totally unreasonable).
NDISwrapper is crap. I do agree. But it does work when you've got it configured. My wireless card refused to work on Windows x64 full stop - and the only solution to that was to buy another one.
If you don't like GRUB, go use LILO, or some other commercial boot loader. Hell, even Windows has it's own which you can use if you really want. Saying that GRUB is a downside to Linux is like saying IE is a downside to windows. You have a choice to use something else if you want - GRUB is just the default, just as there are a million other crap defaults on a Windows system (eg. the 15 or so services that run on a desktop machine that shouldn't ever be running).
Installation of your Radeon drivers should be fairly simple. The process has been documented to death, and it's relatively painless. It's even got its own installer.
You should use your Linux distro for a while before saying it's not a suitable desktop environment :) I think you'll find that your initial impressions based on your issue (not issues) with installation aren't founded.
One last question - when you finished your installation, did you use the distro for a while or did you quickly reboot into Windows? :)
Cheers dude :D
If I have to spend hours searching the web and using the command line to get an OS to recognise a mass market common wireless card, then by definition it's not ready for mainstream yet.
It's very difficult to buy a computer with Linux installed at the moment (apart from a few Dell models) so if you want Linux you have to install it yourself, which means that the install process is a very important part of it.
I don't have any problem with GRUB, it just would have been nice it it had asked me which OS I wanted to be default at install time.
Anyway, apart from the wireless issue and a few other minor niggles (it doesn't recognise the back and forward buttons on my mouse for example) it's working well for me. Things like GIMP work better in Linux than on Windows and basic things like web browsing are flawless.
I'm not gonna give up on it just yet, but I had hoped for better given the hype Ubuntu has got in the last few months.
Also, this isn't a review. It's a personal comment on my initial experiences with the OS.
I know, I'm just winding you up :)
Actually, I've hit another problem. GRUB doesn't always play nice with Vista's bootloader. About 30% of the time it tells me some critical DLL isn't signed correctly so I have to reboot to get Windows up.
Looks like the answer to this one is to get rid of GRUB, restore the Vista bootloader to the MBR and add Ubuntu to it using EasyBCD. That way when Vista boots it should be able to sign all its DLLs properly. I'll give it a try tonight.
Seems to have sorted it. Now Vista's bootloader is in charge and boot correctly, and with EasyBCD I've added a entry to Vista's bootloader which can load GRUB on the 2nd hard disk which in turn boots Ubuntu.
Hi Keef, that was a useful summary of what Ubuntu was like for you. I think I'll hold off giving it a spin until my Windows XP home is truly too obsolete to run my PC for all my regular muggins applications and gadgets that I use it for...