5 years later, 5 ways that Ubuntu has made Linux more human

[Daniel ~]

Written by Daniel
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 17:41


Today is the fifth anniversary of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. To celebrate the past five years of brown, we decided to have a look at five ways that Ubuntu has helped make the open source Linux operating system more human. [Front page...]

[booman]

I finally installed Mint at work and am now a fan of Ubuntu
Clean install, partitioned root, boot, home & swap as ext3 format and works like a charm. Even the Nvidia drivers downloaded and autoinstalled for me.
Doom ran great and Alien Arena played just fine.
Ubuntu is starting to be an "out of the box" Operating System

[Kaitain]

Ubuntu's greater success is in their media exposure.

They've pushed their distro hard all the unlikely places where other Linux distributions rarely have success. BBC News for example has many recent articles covering Ubuntu, one for Red Hat and none for the likes of SuSE or Mandriva. (Recent as in last 3 years).

Other distros than Ubuntu have also made spectacular progress in the integration and usability of their various desktops. Ubuntu makes sure more people know about it than those already using it.

This is a good thing. Your average consumer that bought a $300 nameless box from Walmart doesn't have the faintest idea that Windows <> computers. Just being aware that there is an alternative is a start.

[Daniel ~]

Truth be known I only boot to Fedora now to keep her updated...just in case! ":O} Mint 7 fulfilled my Linux dream...But Fedora still comes really close as well!

[booman]

I still use Fedora 8 for my server all the time. It works great even though I never update it. I don't even connect to the internet with it.
But I'm always on the "look out" for an easy-to-use Linux Distro for Windows users.... Mint seems to be right there.

Mint automatically recognized the domain, IP address and internet.
Firefox worked fine of course.
I tried downloading the flash plugin and it would not automatically install, so I'll have to use the terminal for that one.

My goal is to offer Linux to people who have a crashed or broken Windows OS, lost their disc/authentication key, and can't afford a new operating system.
We all know them....
Linux is a great alternative to still use their Office programs, internet, email and some light gaming.

I even read a Tomshardware article about virtualization in Linux to run Windows XP.

[Kaitain]

Originally Posted by booman

I even read a Tomshardware article about virtualization in Linux to run Windows XP.

Wot? Like this?

Disclaimer: I know using vmware-player is cheating. So what?

[Daniel ~]

I wonder how Mint 8 is coming along!? When Mint is 8 MS will still be trying to look like 7 and still charging like it was 10! ":O}

[booman]

Exactly!
Now besides having to purchase Windows XP, it is a great idea to run your Windows programs in Linux.... at least the ones that don't work natively in Linux

[dsio]

Running Win 7 Ultimate on a spare disk in my quad to get a feel for it. Must admit compared to Vista business on the same it feels snappier. Other than that I'm not convinced that they've actually changed Vista that much in it other than ironing out some kinks.

Win7 should have been a Vista service pack, or better yet, should have been Vista itself. Going to give it a chance over WinXP though on the spare disk, so far the performance and some features are worth the upgrade over XP, given the license was provided to me free of charge, but nothing I've seen yet gives me any inclination to use it over Fedora.

Even less inclination to use it over Snow Leopard which is on the mac mini I'm tinkering with.