Posts Tagged ‘ubuntu
17
May
08
Security Holes
Top Best 50 Ubuntu Opensource Applications For Design And Developing
Found this excellent list of applications from a post on the Ubuntu forums. Supposedly, this list was compiled by the poster’s wife! This list is the most decent I’ve seen to date, as it ignores all the commonly known applications and actually goes for some seriously different ones.
I’m going to try out Xara, pcman, Art of Illusion, Reconstructor and maybe some more!
I’ll be taking Sabayon out in the near future, most likely to be replaced by Linux Mint’s KDE community Edition. Sabayon didn’t impress me much. It has excellent driver detection and started Compiz Fusion on startup, which was great. KDE was good too, but Sabayon is certainly not a beginner-friendly distro.
I had to spend a while messing with settings to get my internet to work, and then about five times that much time fixing and setting up the sound system (which only partially seemed to work). Also, Sabayon’s forums aren’t exactly very large (or maybe I’m just used to Ubuntu!). Finally, I did not like Portage at all.
Portato had a spartan interface – definitely not very good. Its GNOME alternative, Porthole looks better but is much, much slower at installing/downloading/whateveritwasdoing. Both front-ends appeared to take their own time in downloading/installing, so I’m not very impressed with Portage.
Again I turn to Linux Mint, which I have found to be the most polished distro yet (although most of its credits would go to Ubuntu). A new, brash distro made Digg headlines today, named PyroLinux. While the distro and its devs got a nasty bashing in the Digg comments section, I’m still hoping this one will last.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have a whole lot going for it. It includes Avant with it, Microsoft Windows-like “sharp” fonts, a more “user friendly” interface (with no exact details about that). PyroLinux is designed to “just work”, the exact words used by Ubuntu. Codecs, Graphic Drivers and such work out of the box, so that’s good I suppose.
I think the guys at PyroLinux are lighting their fire (pardon the pun) too soon. While it sounds worth a try, announcing a distro with a haphazard list of features and no screenshots is not a good idea, especially if you’re touting Pre-Order ability. I will say that PyroLinux sounds like a pretty catchy name for an OS. Maybe HydroLinux can be made as a competitor to PyroLinux, and based on a rival distribution to Ubuntu (Fedora or Gentoo would be good here).
Hmm.
25
Nov
07
Downloading Linux Mint
Linux Mint finally managed to grab my attention. It touts as an elegant, easy-to-use, Ubuntu-based distro. It is completely compatible with Ubuntu repositories, so it’s virtually a different flavoured Ubuntu. Despite my hatred for GNOME, I decided to check it out, because something knocked my Kubuntu out.
Mint does have a KDE version in Beta (which is available in DVD-only, for some reason). I’ll wait for the full, and the release of KDE 4 this December. Maybe I’ll wait for Ubuntu’s Hardy line to come in, because Kubuntu Hardy must use KDE 4. If Mint’s KDE group becomes good enough, that might be worth a look. And if nothing, I can manually switch my Mint from GNOME to KDE. I can always reinstall if anything goes wrong. 
It’s at 90% and almost done now (torrents FTW!). I’m downloading the piping hot 4.0 Daryna right now. Mint appears to be in its infancy, since I cannot see a professional-looking forum or support page at their site. The site itself has a somewhat informal feel to it. Regardless, since it is so similar to Ubuntu, I suppose support concerns must work both ways. 
I have a feeling that Mint can be really big, though. It’s not far from the top in Distrowatch’s ranking. This might just be the new Ubuntu.
20
Oct
07
Using Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon”
Okay, it’s been about 7 hours with my copy of new Ubuntu, and to summarize my views:
- Some things have changed, which is nice.
- Some things have changed, which is bad.
The changes aren’t very dramatic, and you’ll only barely notice them. Most of the changes are good – graphics are slicker, Ubuntu slightly faster and things are overall progressing well. I’ve encountered only two disappointments:
- Problem relating to Desktop folder and Trash can.
- Start-up is considerably slower, possibly because of Compiz. Either that, or the start-up routine now hides elements as they loading, only showing the final product. I haven’t clocked the start-up, so I wouldn’t know.
Compiz Fusion is definitely the highlight. It comes in-built and it kicks ass. The in-built settings manager is painful, though. It has only three generalized options. Really, I don’t see what’s wrong with including compizconfig-settings-manager in-built. Thankfully, there are no additional packages required. Install compizconfig-settings-manager and you’re set to use Compiz Fusion to its full potential.
CF is also a lot faster and smoother now, its working smoothly, albeit understandably slowly. I’ve disabled the unnecessary stuff like Animations and such for now. The other effects are working impeccably, though.
I’ve noticed Gaim’s evolution to Pidgin. IMO, that’s a change for the better. Pidgin isn’t very different from its predecessor, but it’s certainly more polished and refined. It has a great look and feel and is very innovative in some aspects, like making buddy icons the conversation window icons and the new set of emoticons which are lovely as compared to Gaim’s painfully bad ones.
Deskbar has also been improved and isn’t giving me any bugs anymore. In fact, it has come out on its own as a strong desktop search application. I haven’t tried Strigi, so I wonder which is the better one. I miss the in-panel search box, though – that would have saved time.
Decided to mess up a bit, and replaced Metacity with Kwin. I don’t exactly know why, but it feels nice, I suppose. KDE has terrible native themes, though. It’s embarassing, in a way. I can’t wait for KDE 4 to roll in and kick asses.
Meanwhile, I got fed up with the graphical glitches I’ve been having in Firefox. I reinstalled the Firefox package and things seem a bit better now. I can still see some pictures “jumping” around, but it has reduced considerably. I’m planning a format-install for Gutsy, so I have 14 days to mess around crazy. 
Once KDE 4 comes out, I might take Kubuntu Hardy, though. Kubuntu did impress me, though not quite as much as Ubuntu. If KDE 4 lives upto its hype, it may get an edge over the monstrous GNOME, though.
What they said.