On Sunday, 6 בNovember 2005 09:32, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 06, 2005 at 08:05:03AM +0200, Aaron wrote:
> > would I gain something from ubuntu?
>
> I'd like to amplify Marc's answer. Ubuntu is sort of the "Windows"
> of Linux. Instead of trying to make Linux look and act like Windows,
> as in "Lindows", etc, the founders of the project aim to take an
> already existing distro, Debian to be exact, and recreate or
> repackage it into a Linux that anyone can use.
>
> I assume most people on this list have installed Windows at one time
> or another and are familar with its instalation. You boot from a CD,
> put in a "magic number" answer a few questions and an hour later you
> have a working system without a clue of how it got there.
Something which will be new and surprising only to Debian users. For
quite a few years now, other distros have offered powerful and simple
installers that hide the complexities of a linux system install and
setup your system for so that everything works out of the box.
I personally don't like RedHat's all too simple installer which
basically wants to know if you are installing a Server, A development
workstation or a desktop computer and then takes everything from there,
but other installers such as SuSE's or Mandriva's, while allowing much
better and easier customizing will let your go on with the install with
the minimum amount of fuss (usually less then the Win98 installer,
though a bit more then the simpler WinXP installer).
I'm not saying Ubuntu isn't a nice distro, but it is a far cry from
ground-breaking or anything. I personally have tried a previous version
(05.something) and didn't much like it - I think they make the classic
GNOME mistake of hiding important and useful end-user (i.e. not
power-user) features - to the point where its impossible to find w/o
going to the mailing lists and messing around with registry-style
configurations programs and/or editing text files - and then calling it
"usability improvements".
That being said, as for GNOME, people who only want the very narrow
feature set that Ubuntu provides (only GNOME for example ;-) ) will
find it an enjoyable experience. I personally wouldn't subject newbies
to GNOME if I want them to have any chance of using powerfull desktops
later, because as with Windows, GNOME destroys the user's "will to
tinker" with incredibly limited end-user-accessible configuration.
Kubuntu OTOH (which I haven't tried) should be nice if you want a simple
Debian based distro for a powerful Linux desktop.
--
Oded
::..
Griffin :"I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to
eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get
rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here."
-- from "The Player"
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