Results tagged “Dru Lavigne” from CLICK

I did an install of FreeBSD 7 on the $0 Laptop (Gateway Solo 1450) a couple of weeks ago for a number of reasons.

First, I wanted to see how the new FreeBSD would run. It's supposed to be light years faster than the previous releases, at least in server situations, and I'm very much interested in how it performs on the desktop as well.

Besides Linux, which I'm still running plenty, I'm determined to see what the non-Linux alternatives have to offer. Due to it being the first BSD I could successfully install on my VIA C3 Samuel test box, I began with OpenBSD, a system I continue to be very impressed with. Sure, I had to do a bit of reading in order to do the install, but I followed the FAQ and was able to get a working system very quickly.

We go through this every six months: Ubuntu brings out a new release, and by the time release day comes around, it's murder to get enough bandwidth to grab the damn thing and make a new disc out of it.

And no, I don't have any recent Ubuntu installs that I can upgrade, so I need the full ISO.

Hence, I'm downloading a Ubuntu 8.04 beta right now.

I'm excited about this Ubuntu release for a number of reasons:

1) Even though I had problems with 7.10 on my Gateway laptop, that version of Ubuntu allowed me control of my Alps touchpad that is hard to come by in other Linux distributions. OK, so PCLinuxOS 2007 was able to do it, but otherwise I've either got tap-to-click or not ... and I'd like to have a choice in the matter.

2) I'm not a huge fan of upgrading every install on a six-month schedule. Some things I'm happy to upgrade twice a year. Some not. My problems with Ubuntus 7.04 and 7.10 put me off of the very popular distro for awhile. I went back to 6.06 LTS on one install and enjoyed it immensely. But why even think about staying with an install for up to three years? I'll tell you:

3) From the Firefox 3 beta to a bleeding-edge GNOME implementation ... OK, I can't find much else, but the point is that Ubuntu is front-loading this release with the latest of everything. Normally, I'm the kind of person who gravitates to stable, not experimental, but in this case -- with a long-term support release -- there should be plenty of time to shake out the bugs, so to speak. I imagine it'll be like running a less-broken Debian Sid (and hopefully not a more-broken one) that will cycle its way through Lenny-ness, on to a stable Etch-like state. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

It's a funny thing -- Ubuntu. I think this 8.04 release -- given its LTS status, and the general maturation of the Linux desktop over the past couple of years -- is more make-or-break and less just-another-in-the-cycle for the Ubuntu community. I'm hopeful that vendors like Dell will latch onto 8.04 and boost its profile by preinstalling it wherever and whenever they can.

Like I said, while I did abandon Ubuntu 7.10 pretty quickly, I saw a great deal of progress in terms of desktop usability. While I thought I needed Ubuntu to easily run the apps my 4-year-old has grown extremely attached too -- namely Gcompris, TuxPaint and Childsplay -- I've since installed them in Debian Lenny, and then even OpenBSD, and they worked just as well. Yeah, my 4-year-old is using OpenBSD (in 64 MB of RAM and 233 MHz of CPU, no less -- and no more).

So Ubuntu is great and all -- I do recommend it, but with the right administrative help and a little training, the "average" user can find his or her way in just about any Linux distribution -- and even in OpenBSD or FreeBSD.

Oh, and here's the fast mirror I found.

And here's the ubiquitous "this many days until Ubuntu Hardy" graphic:

But first ... FreeBSD 7 will fight for supremacy on my Gateway Solo 1450 laptop. I'm starting the install now, and things look very, very good at this point: ACPI fan management is working, and I'm barely past the boot prompt. that's very encouraging. Along with this install, I will be using and reviewing Dru Lavigne's book, "The Best of FreeBSD Basics," which so far has proven to be a very useful book to have around. A full review of the book is forthcoming.