Why I selected and deselected Ubuntu?

[Amandeep Singh]

Since I read online, Ubuntu is very fast and easy to use Linux operation system. I installed it on top of my windows. I liked it is very fast. Now came the time, what I used to do in windows do the same things in Ubuntu.

Following are the things I did in Ubuntu-
1) Installed the jdk, so confused there is openjdk and sunjdk. Not sure which one to use. I end up in installing both. Then came the confusion 32 or 64 bit. Unluckily Ubuntu does not stops installing 64 bit on 32 bit machine. And you won't easily can figure out if you installed 32 or 64 bit.
2) Installed eclipse 3.6. Now eclipse is not starting either because of different jdk installed above. Then I un-installed other non-required jdk's. Finally eclipse worked. It was a sigh of relief.
3) I need to install jboss tools, here I spent hell allot of week time to figure why plugins are not being installed. Turns out you need to install fully loaded eclipse which I mean which has all the features installed then you can install jboss tools.
4) Finally figured out to install mysql with allot of trouble.
5) Finally jboss is working.
6) chrome and firefox unable to play videos. it requires flash player, spent hell allot of time to figure out.
7) internet speed is too slow apparently because of wireless driver wrapper. Spent hell allot of time to make the internet fast, googling and all that stuff. No success so far.
Then I directly used serial ethernet access for internet thru cable. Internet is fast but I cannot always use cable.
8) every time i login into ubuntu, I have to decrease the brightness and mute the volume. What a crap, it cannot remember my settings.
9) i decided to connect my lcd monitor to ubuntu, it did not worked with lcd.

It was worthwhile attempt to try it. I no longer use ubuntu it is really a pain to use it. most of the softwares you use are incompatible in ubuntu.


Is there any one to say I love Ubuntu, if yes please tell us why you like it?

[Vijitha Kumara]

6) chrome and firefox unable to play videos. it requires flash player, spent hell allot of time to figure out.

I think that's a common thing across other platforms too (atleast with Fedora) as they don't ship third party libraries with the original distro.

[S Venkatesh]

Hi,

This might be an interesting read for you

http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/2010/05/ubuntu-1004-experiences.html

Thanks
Venki

[Tim Holloway]

Use sunjdk if you are planning to run Enterprise Java or Swing applications. openjdk is still a work in progress.

As far as I know, you don't get Flash for free even on IE. However, at least there's a 64-bit version of Flash for Linux. 64-bit Windows is out of luck.

I think the need for a wireless wrapped driver is almost gone now unless you have a really old network interface or something weird built into your computer. Most of the modern hardware is supported native.

Sorry to hear about the LCD monitor issue. I had the same problems, but newer versions of Linux have fixed the need for manual configuration in my case.

I have NO idea why your volume settings aren't being remembered. Although as long as Windows boots up with an ear-splitting chord that cannot be turned down, I have to be a little cynical about this complaint.

As far as OS 64/32 bit options, I think the "uname -a" command will list what type of kernel is in use.

If you want to know the truth of the matter, it sounds like you were installing on a laptop, and laptops - especially older laptops - are really nasty bits of work with lots of proprietary hardware requiring specialized drivers whose source may not be available to the Linux development teams. It used to be a lot worse, though.

[Amandeep Singh]

Vijitha Kumara wrote:

6) chrome and firefox unable to play videos. it requires flash player, spent hell allot of time to figure out.

I think that's a common thing across other platforms too (atleast with Fedora) as they don't ship third party libraries with the original distro.

The good thing about windows is, if you open youtube in browser, it would let you know "hey you need flash to view content and the other missing plugins".
In ubuntu I also saw the same message, so I download flash player, still it did not worked. Then I installed whatever was available for browser under Adobe. Finally it worked. Believe me it wasn't as simple as in windows.

Estimates- window adobe installation time/figure out what to install/missing plugins- 1 mintue
Ubuntu-30 minutes

[Peter Johnson]

Frustrations like this are why I always install Java components manually instead of using the Ubuntu package manager. Then installing Java stuff is almost identical to how it is installed on Windows. And I know where everything is!

Though the mysql install problem puzzles me; "sudo apt-get mysql-server" should do it, or you could go to the package manager and install the mysql metafile. I find it easier than on Windows.

Installing Flash used to be a huge hassle, with manual steps required. But the last time I did it on my laptop it was pretty much a couple of clicks within Firefox and Chromium.

And I am very happy with Ubuntu 10.04 on my laptop. And I never had an issue with connecting to an external display (usually a projector, but I have connected various LCD monitors and even a few HDTVs.)

[Amandeep Singh]

The problem with mysql I encountered, if you use Ubuntu package manager, you see couple of mysql stuff. I ended up installing everything whatever it displayed under mysql*. Compared to windows, there is 1 exe file and run it & you get it.

BTW who will remember this name used in sudo command- sudo apt-get mysql-server.

You are very lucky, projector, various LCD montior and few HDTV's worked with Ubuntu flawlessly

Other thing about chrome browser instructions says, flash player is pre installed. Even then it does not works unless you install adobe* stuff.

Tim,

My laptop is fairly new model 2007, the only thing is it is AMD turion with ATI grpahics card. So far I did not mention the surprises encountered while installing Ubuntu.

TO be fair enough, I should stop criticizing Ubuntu and can say it works like charm after you have everything installed. And moreover it is free OS, so you should expect some challenges.

[Tim Holloway]

The problem with mysql has to do with how Linux manages software packages. MySQL is a client/server system (as are most good DBMS's). It is often the case that the client code is fairly small and the server code is pretty large (and even empty database files can be enormous). So the two parts come in separate packages. This makes it easier to install for the more common client-only machines and adds to overall security slightly since casual users don't get a copy of the server software to muck around in.

Windows installers tend to be enormous one-program-does everything affairs where you have to select what you want from a GUI, such as the client and/or server components. If you'll recall, Linux normally not only doesn't use a GUI for installs; an package manager such as synaptic doesn't count. In fact, Linux installs normally don't ask questions. They're expected to be run as non-interactive batch files so that the entire OS and apps can all be done as a single unattended operation, which is a process that reaches its full potential on the Red Hat platform where you can "kickstart".

Overall, I prefer the Linux package management approach. One major complaint I've had on Windows systems is that when the DBMS client and server are both installed from the same executable, you can only get the client if the DBA is kind enough to provide you with a server install. The Linux RPM package manager also has 2 very useful features that aren't part of the basic Windows install process: a "verify" option that can check to see if critical files have been damaged, and an "audit" function that lists what files were installed and where.

For a long, long time the rule for Linux on laptops was to bring in a Linux live CD and see if it worked before buying the laptop. It's a lot better now, but there are still occasional issues. Like I said, laptop hardware isn't as well-standardized as desktop hardware is.

[Vijitha Kumara]

Other thing about chrome browser instructions says, flash player is pre installed. Even then it does not works unless you install adobe* stuff

I also had the same issue but luckily there was a 64 bit version available for linux...