My first impressions on full-on use of Ubuntu
Posted 09-10-08 at 10:37 PM by Firestorm252
Updated 09-27-08 at 09:17 AM by Firestorm252 (Categorizing things)
Updated 09-27-08 at 09:17 AM by Firestorm252 (Categorizing things)
Well, since my last blog I've gotten a new HD for my laptop. I've loaded both XP and Ubuntu 8.04 on it.
I guess I have to take back "first impressions" as I've been using Xubuntu for my file server for quite a while now.
In all honesty the whole setup for Ubuntu and it's different GUI derivatives has been good with a few caveats. In each installation I've had a few things I've needed to get nitty-gritty with in order to either get functionality I wanted or, in the case of my laptop, functionality I need.
Interface is fun overall, used KDE, Gnome, and XFCE thus far and I have to say, I really prefer it to the standard Windows interfaces.
However, when I'm actually setting up stuff the root privileges are nigh as annoying as Vista's UAC.
Back to the aforementioned problems I guess...
Keep in mind that I've never used any linux-derivative for any major period of time, and have pretty much had to learn CLI, compiling, and etc. much quicker than I expected...
Xubuntu + my fileserver:
S3 IGP... Oh, yea you know what I mean if you've encountered it. Compiling an OpenChrome driver without ever having done so or ever having read over the procedure for before. I swear, I was on a general VESA driver for the longest time.
mdadm... haha, I made this one harder on myself than necessary. I kept trying to use the hardware options, when in the end I went with an mdadm software array.
Vino instead of VNC... woo boy, learning XFCE doesn't have remote access and finding VNC being a PITA to get working, I went with Vino and it's password backend was a fun and easy learning experience.
now for Ubuntu + my laptop:
everything works well. one very annoying problem however...
Broadcom 43 firmware. fun stuff, I have the driver to use it, but just recently pieced together that there isn't the firmware to make the hardware work. yipee! -_-
This one's getting rectified shortly however.
I guess I have to take back "first impressions" as I've been using Xubuntu for my file server for quite a while now.
In all honesty the whole setup for Ubuntu and it's different GUI derivatives has been good with a few caveats. In each installation I've had a few things I've needed to get nitty-gritty with in order to either get functionality I wanted or, in the case of my laptop, functionality I need.
Interface is fun overall, used KDE, Gnome, and XFCE thus far and I have to say, I really prefer it to the standard Windows interfaces.
However, when I'm actually setting up stuff the root privileges are nigh as annoying as Vista's UAC.
Back to the aforementioned problems I guess...
Keep in mind that I've never used any linux-derivative for any major period of time, and have pretty much had to learn CLI, compiling, and etc. much quicker than I expected...
Xubuntu + my fileserver:
S3 IGP... Oh, yea you know what I mean if you've encountered it. Compiling an OpenChrome driver without ever having done so or ever having read over the procedure for before. I swear, I was on a general VESA driver for the longest time.
mdadm... haha, I made this one harder on myself than necessary. I kept trying to use the hardware options, when in the end I went with an mdadm software array.
Vino instead of VNC... woo boy, learning XFCE doesn't have remote access and finding VNC being a PITA to get working, I went with Vino and it's password backend was a fun and easy learning experience.
now for Ubuntu + my laptop:
everything works well. one very annoying problem however...
Broadcom 43 firmware. fun stuff, I have the driver to use it, but just recently pieced together that there isn't the firmware to make the hardware work. yipee! -_-
This one's getting rectified shortly however.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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I have done roughly the same thing you did, only in reverse order. I ran my laptop for about two weeks and then built a raid 5 array on ubuntu server... tried the MDRaid route, failed, went mdadm and have not looked back.
I love ubuntu, i even play most of my games in it now
Posted 09-12-08 at 07:05 PM by irishdunn
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i've been meaning to WINE my laptop. figure i'll give it a go in a week or two.
but thus far i've got tests up the bum already and a few speeches i need to get done and practiced.
one funny thing that's come from all this is that i've had to review my old coding know-how (which I've honestly forgotten a lot of after 2-3 years of inactivity).
lately i'm debating discontinuing use of the RAID1 array i have set at the moment and swap it to just two independent drives and simply do a full backup image onto drive 2.
would be simpler. but i'll setup mdadm monitoring first and simulate a drive failure (power-off, unplug route) after I back everything up again. then i'll try my hand at rebuilding the array, if it's painless (relatively) then i'll stick with it.Posted 09-14-08 at 10:38 AM by Firestorm252 
