Ubuntu: Best Linux Desktop for Business? 282
sebFlyte writes "ZDNet has been testing Linux for business, trying to work out what the best distro is for small businesses. After testing Mandriva Linux 2006, Novell Linux Desktop 9, Red Hat Desktop 4, SUSE Linux 10 and Ubuntu Linux 5.1. After installing them all from scratch to simulate a new business set up, and extensive testing involving Gaim, Evolution, OpenOffice.org -- as well as actually writing each review on each distro -- Ubuntu came out as the winner. They summed it up saying 'Ubuntu is a well integrated, practical and absolutely free' and dismissed worries about support. SuSE came a close second."
Ubuntu 5.10 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ubuntu 5.10 (Score:2)
Wow! It's vapourware and it still wins!
Re:Ubuntu 5.10 (Score:4, Interesting)
Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:5, Informative)
Ubuntu X.Y corresponds to the release year (200X) and the release month(Y).
In this case it was October 2005 -> (10/05)
The next release will be Ubuntu 6.4 (April 2006))
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:2)
I don't know if that equates to TOTALLY different, and I know that this is not really what you were talking about anyway, but at least you have a comeback to your dad...
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:2, Funny)
Attention: jotaeleemeese is an idiot. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Absufuckingly incorrect. (Score:2)
Because the zero is after the decimal point, it is significant as it shows that the 'hundredths' have been measured and it is zero. "5.1" can be representative of anything b
Re:Absufuckingly incorrect. (Score:3, Informative)
Using dates as a version number is pretty common.
--
Evan
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ubuntu Year.Month (Score:2)
I believe that Mark Shuttleworth was asked this in an interview, and didn't come up with a very conclusive answer (to be fair, it's 4-and-a-bit years away!).
I don't see a problem with 10.4 or whatever, though.
SuSE 10 (Score:4, Interesting)
One little additional remark (Score:3, Informative)
I have used several laptops with several linux distros (Slackware,Debian,SuSE), and they all worked OK. Definition of OK is: You are able to tweak your kernel and your X server, and you are totally OK. New versions of the distros pretty much install without a glitch on any of the systems I have standing around here (dual PII, PIII, PIV, laptop). So that re
Re:One little additional remark (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:One little additional remark (Score:5, Informative)
I've used Ubuntu since Hoary and I was always impressed at its quality over previous linux distros I had tried, FC4 most notably. I reciently installed it on a relitivily modern laptop and realised once I had done setting it up it had actually been easier to install and get up to date then Windows.
With Windows XP I have to install it, then find my SP2 cd and install that, download a heap of updates. Then I have to download drivers to get everything to work and so on. Now Ubuntu isn't much different its just the process takes a lot less time and is easier to do. As soon as you are done installing the base system there is a pop up that tells you you need to update. So you click that wait a while for it to download and your done, you do need to restart once because there is a new kernal out but that is understandable and is still much better then the 5 or probably more times Windows XP needs. And with Automatix [ubuntuforums.org] the rest of your setup is easier still.
I could not be more happy with my ubuntu laptop. There are even ATI video card driver packages available making for a very slick install.
Re:One little additional remark (Score:3, Informative)
Try doing the same with Warty which is newer than XP gold, you have to go through exactly the same process to get it up to Breezy but you have to upgrade to Hoary as a middle step.
You do? apt-get should be able to jump from Warty to Breezy in one step.
Re:One little additional remark (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One little additional remark (Score:2)
Very true. A slipstreamed XP SP2 disk, at least, would be needed to provide a fair test.
Ubuntu has always been surprisingly good for me though. It doesn't work with my KVM switch, but then no OS but Windows ever has, for whatever reason.
Re:One little additional remark (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One little additional remark (Score:2)
Re:One little additional remark (Score:2)
Try adding "irqpoll" to the boot command, I had a similar problem trying to install Ubuntu on one of my machines, turned out to be a problem with the new kernel revision.
Re:One little additional remark (Score:3, Interesting)
Lots of distros still make you choose between doing some or all of those things manually, or setting up the automation of the tasks on your own. That's fine for power users, but it'
Re:SuSE 10 (Score:5, Informative)
Why do you say that? The review says "SUSE Linux is available as a free unsupported download,"
That said, I don't believe Suse has any guarantees about prices of future products - whereas Ubuntu says on their front page: [ubuntulinux.org]
"Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition", we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms."
Re:SuSE 10 (Score:2)
The non-free response was a response on the
Article Header:
Just because they mention Ubuntu is integrated, practical and absolutely free doesn't mean they mean they think Suse is unintegrated, impractial and non-free ;-)
And yes, I generally agree with you about enterprise editions - but it would be nice to know the free edition is going to be around forever.
I trust communities like Debian, Gentoo and (to a lesser extent) Ubuntu fo
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:SuSE 10 (Score:2)
Luckily 10.0 is good again.
About trust: Add "I trust Patrick Volkerding" for me to the list.
Xandros (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Xandros (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Xandros (Score:2)
I'd like to try comparing Xandros to Ubuntu. Haven't tried either of them on a laptop. That would be an interesting comparison.
Couldn't agree more (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Couldn't agree more (Score:3, Funny)
Bullshit...
Re:Couldn't agree more (Score:2)
Honestly, can any other distro say that like Ubuntu can now? As for Windows, those morons don't even have a decent driver base that Windows Update can query and download from so it's their own damn fault you can't detect new stuff.
Now, I know man
Re:Couldn't agree more (Score:2, Interesting)
Quite an extensive review (Score:5, Funny)
After reading the article I think my intelligence actually dropped.
Re:Quite an extensive review (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Quite an extensive review (Score:2, Informative)
That was my first impression. Till I realized you had to click the links for the 5 distros tested, where they really did have extensive reviews.
Ubuntu Bug day (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ubuntu Bug day (Score:2, Informative)
Is anyone at Ubuntu actually testing updates with 4.10 or 5.04? Either fix the update system or replace the claim by "Your Ubuntu installation will be supported if you transition from one release to the next."
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=93587 [ubuntuforums.org]
ZDNET is a bit confused (Score:2, Insightful)
"All five distributions come with a good -- and very similar -- selection of core applications, including OpenOffice for office productivity, Gaim for instant messaging and Evolution for email, contact management and calendar functionality."
Re:ZDNET is a bit confused (Score:2)
"lacks Exchange support" does not equate to "lacks Exchange-like business utility support". Exchange is a well established office management software (and mail utility) with a built in client/server protocol that allows multiple users of Exchange to collaborate and share information.
Whereas GNOME's Evolution is simply an email client, contact manager, calendaring software. This means it doesn't communicate with Exchange (data se
Great (Score:4, Funny)
Yeh, and? (Score:2)
That and version numbering schemes...
I think Ubuntu is ok (Score:2)
I wouldn't consider it ready to plunk down on a desk at my workplace until I know a lot more about it, but it certainly shows promise. One
Ah, but there is!!! (was: Re:I think Ubuntu is ok) (Score:2, Funny)
Hit Alt+F2
then type
"gksudo gedit
type in your sudoer password and configure away!
</smart4$$>
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Lord I apologize for telling the CLI impaired person to type something in a faux command line, and be with the starving Pygmies down in New Guinea.
Re:Ah, but there is!!! (was: Re:I think Ubuntu is (Score:2)
Re:I think Ubuntu is ok (Score:4, Informative)
First, change your root password to something other than the auto-scrambled one that Ubuntu uses by default by typing:
sudo passwd root
It'll ask you for your password (the password for your user, that is), then ask you to type a new root password, then type it again to confirm. This is important because Webmin enables only the root account by default, and if you don't know the password then you can't log in, and it's a pain in the ass to change it after it's already been installed, as webmin keeps its own, separate password file.
Then open up your package manager under "Applications->Add Programs" (I think that's what it's called, doing this from memory). Wait for it to load, then go to "File->Advanced". Do a search for "webmin" and tell it to install the base package and any of the addon modules that you want for it.
Now you can browse to "https://localhost:10000" and log in as root. There's a graphical utility in there to change the Grub configuration file, I think.
Alternatively, you can skip all that crap and just do:
sudo nano -w
It should be well-commented and pretty easy to understand. There will be a line that sets the default OS to boot. Just change that, save it, and you're done.
But yeah, there probably ought to be a GUI editor for it. Come to think of it, you might be able to pick the default OS during the install process; I can't recall for sure.
How does Ubuntu =/==/!= Debian? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How does Ubuntu =/==/!= Debian? (Score:2)
Re:How does Ubuntu =/==/!= Debian? (Score:2, Informative)
Whether you want to call it Debian With Changes, or Ubuntu, or probably up to you...
Re:How does Ubuntu =/==/!= Debian? (Score:2)
class Ubuntu extends Debian {
public Ubuntu() {
super();
this.doMagic();
}
}
Re:How does Ubuntu =/==/!= Debian? (Score:2)
public class Debian extends Linux {
public Debian() {
super();
this.apt();
}
}
public abstract class Linux implements POSIX, GNU {
public Linux() {
}
}
Great First Impression (Score:2)
The box is earmarked for Scientific Linux [scientificlinux.org] (which doesn't seem to get any play time on /.), but, again, ubuntu installed flawlessly and boots much faster than my multimedia/web WinXP intel box, which takes a loooooooong time.
Re:Great First Impression (Score:2)
Well, rule number one of PR: Tell us what you do.
I spend more than sixty seconds on the SL.org website and I still don't know what SL will give me over a Debian.
I do, however, know that its appreviation is SL and it is build on Enterprise Linux - which is another distribution I have no knowledge of.
Re:Great First Impression (Score:2)
My post was a spur of the moment, rah, rah, me too, sort of thing, as, coincidently, I just installed ubuntu last night.
cheers
We love Ubuntu (Score:5, Interesting)
We do have one holdout on Slackware, but that's fine with me as long as he administers his own box...
We do too (Score:3, Interesting)
Here at Three Rings [threerings.net], we're migrating all developer desktops to Ubuntu. It works, it's free, and users can maintain it themselves.
Ubuntu has mixed Debian's solid packaging tools with a healthy dose of pragmatism and arrived at a distribution that Just Works. As a desktop operating system, I couldn't be happier with how Ubuntu is working out.
Very low quality review (Score:5, Informative)
They say that partitioning was difficult. Actually, first you have the choice to do everything automatically, choosing "use entire hard disk" or "use free space on Windows partition". Instead, they chose Custom partitioning, where again there is a button "Auto Allocate", which do everythinhg automatically once you resized the windows partitions. Now if they call this difficult, they should not have chosen the customized partitioning scheme in the first place. Actually I have heard of users having a lot more difficulties with the SuSE or Ubuntu partitioners.
They say the Exchange connector for Evolution was not there. Did they actually bothered looking for it during half a minute? Then at least they would have found the package evolution-exchange!
The real weak points of Mandriva 2006.0 are not talked about on the other hand. Not a word about the instabilities caused by the buggy beta X.org 6.9 included, by kat which makes kded eat all CPU time sometimes, and nothing about the old version of OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 which is included, and which is buggy (it crashes on SXI files it has created itself).
Really, nothing to see here, move on people!
"only one crash"... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny how different perspectives can make communication difficult. For example, take this casual comment from the article:
During the whole exercise, we only experienced one system crash...
To a Linux user, the idea of "only one crash" is bemusing. A modern Linux system, going down so easily? That's very serious. Surely the author isn't familiar with the territory.
Later, it becomes clearer, when the Mandriva review states:
Obviously, this is not what a Linux user would call a "system crash". I suppose it's just as well that Windows users would be asked to review Linux distros for the desktop, though. A Linux user might regard this as a minor problem, forgetting that to most people, this is indeed a show-stopper.
Re:"only one crash"... (Score:3, Insightful)
You're absolutely right. This is the problem with the Linux developers, they got so accustomed to it that they forget about their first problems and how they solved them. It's like learning a language and forgetting about your native language.
We'd need an army of Windows Joe users trying to test Linux and reporting all the things they don't feel comfortable with. And we need to keep them fresh so
Re:"only one crash"... (Score:2)
Please no - they are there for a reason.
They are on obscure key combinations for a reason.
The distros should document how to use the "compose" key to create other common European characters, and make sure "compose" is mapped to a key "out of the box". Heck composing foreign character is much easier under X than it ever was under MS Windows, I don't understand why Microsoft didn't just copy it, since I doubt anyone would
Re:"only one crash"... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"only one crash"... (Score:2)
I don't think it's possible to please them really.
Re:"only one crash"... (Score:2)
Obviously, this is not what a Linux user would call a "system crash". I suppose it's just as well that Windows users would be asked to review Linux distros for the desktop, though. A Linux user might regard this as a minor problem, forgetting that to most people, this is indeed a show-stop
Re:"only one crash"... (Score:2)
Well, if they were runlevel 5 (which is the default for almost all distros these days), it would just respawn GDM/KDM/XDM - not drop them to a command line.
Citrix (Score:3, Informative)
Sure, Citrix may hardly be a requirment in most businesses. However, for those of us that do use it we're usually pretty dependent on it. Although this was a pretty serious problem I had with Ubuntu, it's still a great distro IMHO.
Re:Citrix (Score:2)
I didn't think there was such a beast. Motif went out with the Ark. That there says everything about the quality of Citrix software. Some flavour of VMWare is surely a better option?
Bob
They didn't account for administration (Score:2, Interesting)
Regards,
Steve
Re:They didn't account for administration (Score:2)
Please explain. I've not used Novell, but I'm currently an Ubuntu user and I've worked with Red Hat quite a bit, and I don't see how Ubuntu would present any challenges that Red Hat wouldn't.
Re:They didn't account for administration (Score:2)
Installation time (Score:2, Funny)
SuSE Professional wins. Here's why: (Score:2)
Re:SuSE Professional wins. Here's why: (Score:2)
Re:SuSE Professional wins. Here's why: (Score:2)
(SuSE 9.2, SuSE 9.3, SuSE 10.0, CentOS 4.1, Mandrake 10.0, Ubuntu 5.04, FC 3, FC 4.)
I've been addicted to SuSE since 9.2. It "just works" and I like the layout.
Ubuntu is okay, but Nautilus just seriously annoys the crap out of me.
(I actually use WindowMaker for my desktop, Konqueror for my filemanager, and mostly KDE apps.)
Would've like to see Mepis too... (Score:4, Informative)
I've also had a lot of joy with Mepis; a particularly nice feature is that you can boot off the CD, then install off the same CD. Ubuntu has separate discs for "live CD" and "install". I know it's a minor point to experienced Linux people, but having a single CD to boot and/or install from is pretty mindblowing for someone who's had to install Windows...
That said, being able to install a complete desktop with a full set of desktop apps from a single CD is pretty wonderful, compared to Windows. I know my parents were pretty impressed with that when I moved them off Windows; from past experience reinstalling Windows, I think they thought it'd take several hours rather than about 30 minutes.
...why? (Score:2, Interesting)
I've always felt that one of Linux's strengths the fact that it's super easy to customize and deploy in that very sort of homogenous environment.
Re:...why? (Score:2)
Useless (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Useless (Score:2)
Ubuntu's best "business friendly" feature: (Score:4, Insightful)
This is increadibly handy. Not that you couldn't do this on other distributions, but it's nice to see this feature in Ubuntu by default. I'm partial to OpenSUSE myself, but their (and many others') handling of sudo is misinformed [thoughtspot.net].
-Peter
With a good IT department.. (Score:3)
If they cant do that, then your IT department has no business making a change yet.
What is in it for me? (Score:2)
At this point does ubuntu have anything to offer me worth the trouble of switching distros? Am I better off sticking with what I have and simply apt-get updating?
Is the appeal of ubuntu an easily install with a lot of end user oriented precofigurations ( as opposed to customization crazy geek hobbyist )?
Re:What is in it for me? (Score:2)
The big difference is the amount of stuff Knoppix puts in the menus -- it's overwhelming trying to figure out what app is where. Ubuntu instead has very clean and short menus of the apps yo
Re:What is in it for me? (Score:2)
I have noticed over the years that Gnome has shorter menus then the KDE and much more shorter menus then icewm ( what a mess ). I am wondering if your experience is the result of Ubuntu or Gnome? Is Gnome much more polished in Ubuntu then it is in other
Re:What is in it for me? (Score:2)
It's possible. I would have seen the default window manager(s) for the Ubuntu and Knoppix bootable discs.
--Pat
Distribution of choice (Score:5, Funny)
"My distribution of choice is superior in every way to your pathetic distribution of choice. You are the lowest form of loser to think that your worthless distribution could hold a candle to the God-like superiority of my distribution.
"My distribution's superiority is clearly demonstrated by it's magnificent out-of-the box handling of my obscure feature of choice. Your pathetic distribution doesn't even support my obscure feature of choice without a course of action so complex that it's madness to even contemplate it.
"Clearly, my distribution of choice will utterly destroy your distribution of choice. This is so certain it is pointless for you to resist it."
Does it support WPA yet? (Score:2)
Where is Fedora (Score:2, Insightful)
can any of them completely replace exchange yet? (Score:2)
Now I know that all of the features can be replaced for the file serving via samba, and I'm sure that we can set up a domain controller somehow, but will postgres or mysql directly replace sql server and allow my apps to work without c
(k)Ubuntu, Gentoo, Slack, Puppy.... (Score:2)
1. Application/OS requirements (which might well stop the OS transition).
2. Knowledge of the hardware on the floor.
3. Understanding of the level of end-user experience (and amount of necessary hand holding that will be necessary).
Once those three items are in place, it comes down to the IT cat.
For a mixed floor, Ubuntu works great as it has absolutely beautiful hardware detection. Is that
Linux vs. OS-X (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/forum/showthread.p hp?p=310 [linux-on-laptops.com]
news from the field (Score:5, Informative)
I've also just upgraded my in-law's aging P2 300 win98 machine with ubuntu. They're very happy with it. Their needs are limited admittedly - web,mail,digital camera,chess,patience. Ubuntu passes with flying colours. I showed them round gnome in a matter of minutes and they were up to speed in no time. Now they keep saying things like - it's _so_ much faster. it looks _so_ much better. No surprise really since win98 is now 7 years old and ubuntu 5.10 is 1 month old. The point is that they would not have had the same experience had I tried a WinXP upgrade on that old hardware.
For a home desktop, I can recommend Automatix - that installs all that "other" stuff for a desktop system.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563 [ubuntuforums.org]
Re:Ubuntu makes me smile! (Score:4, Informative)
Have you installed the Win32Codecs?
I'm not familiar with WMV3, and I'm not certain that it's supported by the Win32Codecs package, but lots of non-free and Windows codecs are. Also, VLC comes with its own pack of codecs and can sometimes play stuff that other media players can't, so you might try that if you havn't already.
In addition, I'd recommend dumping Totem as your default media player, if you havn't already. It blows big time, and Ubuntu associating it with all audio and video is my only complaint about their default setup. Well, aside from the ugly-ass brown color scheme, but that doesn't affect usability.
Use VLC or Xine or Gxine or Mplayer for video, and XMMS or something similar for audio.
Re:Ubuntu makes me smile! (Score:2)
unless of course you simply don't like totem or prefer something other than totem.
Re:That's ridiculous. (Score:3)
I also haven't experienced your problems with network printers or Samba, but I use Kubuntu so maybe that makes a difference.
Re:virtual PC & Ubuntu (Score:2, Informative)
Re:virtual PC & Ubuntu (Score:2)
But I started with vmware 1.0 and the last update I bought was 3.20.
Re:PC-BSD (Score:2)
Considering you are also currently posting on Slashdot using HTML lists no less, I don't think you're doing a very good job at pleasing her.
Unless she is very nerdy I doubt she'll consider this neither foreplay nor pillow talk.