Maybe for you, I see a whole wack of other people that it worked for.

I couldn't agree more. What you are doing sounds like sex with your clothes on

What "stuff" doesn't work? It might be helpful if you'd post the hardware that didn't work here. I have had no hardware problems except for my PCI wlan adaptor, which I was able to get to work using ndiswrapper. (It even works about as fast as I expect it to work). Are you running ubuntu on a desktop or a laptop, and which make/model? This sort of data is pretty useful for people who are distro-shopping for a distro to revive an old piece of equipment.

What things do you need done that can't be done with ubuntu? Why bother running Linux under a virtual machine if in Windows--surely that's having the worst of both worlds, performance-wise?

Wow, I don't know where to start on my praise for ubuntu.

I tired debian about 10 different times on three different computers; and I could never get past a command line; you can look at some of my previous posts on here, it just didn't work. I really wanted to use debian, as it looked like my kind of distro (stable, completely free, etc) but it just simply had too many problems.

I went through just about every distro I heard about (because I had ordered free ubuntu CDs and was waiting for them to come) and although I would get a good desktop on most of them, they just wouldn't work! I was (and still am) a complete retard with linux and nothing was helping (not even mandrake).

Then, I broke down one day and burnt ubuntu and installed it; I haven't looked back since (or wait yes I have, I'll get to that). Ubuntu worked perfectly for me, it took a little while to figure out how to add the extra repositories, but that was quickly over and I installed everything I could ever dream of having. Things just work on ubuntu, it's just great. I would recomend ubuntu to anybody, which is why I hand out warty CDs wherever I go.

The Bad; well, the first time I had ubuntu installed (yes I said "the first") everything worked perfectly, and I decided to dist-upgrade to hoary (wonderful) the only problem, was that it broke a day after I installed it; the reason being the ICEauthority file, but at the time I had absolutely no clue on how to fix it, so I made a new partition and installed it again. This time everything went great, but I had made only a 4 Gig partition, so things just started breaking all over the place (ayyyiieee). So I burnt all my files to a CD, wiped the HD and installed hoary. Things couldn't be better!!!!

The UGLY. The only real problems I have had with ubuntu is simple things like flash, shockwave etc. They just aren't the same as they are on windows, some things don't work as well as I would like, but seriously, that's NOTHING.

In the end. AT LEAST order a few copies of hoary. You will NOT be disapointed. And with the new live CDs for MAC and AMD64, you can show all your friends

Ubuntu gets my complete support. Every time it has broken has been completely my fault. It is a better distro than anything else out there. And it's free; shipping included.

Lucas

I am a Mandrake person, I have 10.1 installed and it works wonders its beautiful, but I have to say that Ubuntu has seduced me but I see that if I am to keep a GNU/Linux system on a drive it might as well be Mandrake, my Mandrake HDD looks like Ubuntu, well the GNOME theme per say. The problem that I get is not one that is documented much so I really don't know what to do. I am moderate in knowledge of Linux and advanced noobie. My bios for my Asus P4PE2-X is fully up to date, and I have no idea what hw_random.ko is something to do with PCI i assume, and my iPod doesn't work, people say its the EFI option on the kernel but it doesn't seem to be the reason on Mandrake 10.1 2.6.10, maybe its the new kernel, but I will give it a try with my DELL 4550 motherboard, and get back to the forum on what happens, I really prefer Linux over Windows. Thanks for the comments and for the record Windows might be insecure but it works, and you guys can't deny that.

Here is my hardware:

Intel Pentium 4 2.53 S478 Processor 533mhz FSB
512 MB DDR 2700 RAM
ATI 32 MB 128 Ultra
Creative Audigy (EMU10k1) MP3 with 1394 Firewire
Asus P4PE2-X Motherboard
American Trends Bios Ver. 1005 Latest from Asus
Intel 845 Chipsets and respective ICH4 Controllers
Panasonic Floppy Drive
Onboard LAN Realtek 8100c series 10/100
ADSL Connection
48X CDROM
80 GB Maxtor DimondPlus 9
Supported LBA UDMA 133
Logitech Elite Keyboard and Mouse both on USB connnection
Apple iPod Mini 4 GB
DELL E171FPb 17inch LCD

Maybe you guys can look at that and offer a diagnosis. On the DELL board the only thing that would be different is the LAN it will be Intel 10/100 EEPRO100 (Mandrake Descripiton), and DELL Bios (Pheonix) V. A08 the latest for the Dimension 4550.

SMB = Samba Network Browsing

-arnieboy

Uh... SMB = Server Message Block

"At the heart of CIFS is the latest incarnation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, which has a long and tedious history."

Also, go here: http://us2.samba.org/samba/docs/SambaIntro.html

Search down to "Meanwhile, " ...

For what it's worth, I'm an old timer, (in no way a geek!) who first got a computer in '98, now have three with two dual booting Win 98SE and Mandrake 9.1. I have just downloaded the Ubuntu live CD to play with and I must say I am impressed. I like the look of it, it seems lean and mean, I have been able to get everything working, (with a little bit of help from the web) and I am certainly going to install it. Cheers.

I am no stranger to computers old timer, I touched my first computer in grade 3 it was an Apple II and didn't own my first PC until 1999 it was an Aptiva. I like Ubuntu don't get me wrong I am using it right now, it just seems that I must have the first and only edition of hardware because no one else seems to have the probs that I do. For all that is worth Mandrake has been the most harmonious with my pc, execpt for the fact that if I install it fully from the mini cd it will lag. So I am just waiting for 10.2 to become official to download the cds and install it from there.

Windows XP Home
Ubuntu 4.10
Mandrake 10.1

Hi all,
I'm working my way through this thread, but I have a major dislike/gripe that's coloring my view of Ubuntu:
No matter what I try, or how hard I look, I can't access a web page.

First, I should say that I consider myself a noob. Although I have decades of PC experience, by profession I do legal research. Because of my love of tech I'm the default IT guy for my office, family and friends. (That [probably sounds familiar).

I've been wading into the Linux waters for about a year now, but haven't been ready to take the plunge on full distro installation until I saw Ubuntu last year. My experiences with the liveCDs of Ubuntu, Gnoppix, Knoppix, and DamnSmall have all been great with the exception of Web access. The ONLY time I've had a live Web (browsing) Internet connection was using a DamnSmall LiveCD while plugged directly into the router in my home. But when I try connecting to the Web wirelessly (admittedly complicated) or plugged into the LAN at work (not complicated) I get NOTHING. Again, the only distribution that has worked for me doing this was DamnSmall Linux.

Otherwise I'm thrilled by Ubuntu. It makes perfect sense to me, and more importantly would make sense to the people who rely on my advice on computers. The Hoary LiveCD is thrilling because it has recognized the wireless card on several of the machines I have at work and at home. But even when I've configured DNS, Proxies, IP addresses, I still have no connection. I'm ready to roll with Ubuntu and would set up a server using it if only I could get a live Net connection. That's my gripe, and my one regret. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
_MetroWonk

I have tried the Ubuntu live CD on two computers, one a self specified 2 gig P4, the other an old Gateway 667 Celeron, and it worked fine on both. My web access is through a Netcomm NB 1300 Plus 4, and internet connection was ready and waiting when I fired up Firefox and Evolution. It then quickly set up my Epson printer and I printed out an important email. I thought that was pretty good. I recently upgraded one machine that was happily running Mandrake 9.1, albeit a little bit slowly, to 10.1. It was a bit of a disaster, bogged it right down to the point where I couldn't put up with waiting for things to happen, so off it came. If I may say so, I also didn't like the way they have re-arranged the menus etc, much prefer the 9.1 setup. Perhaps I am just old fashioned and set in my ways! In the same vein I prefer the Win 98 setup to XP, I think sometimes the powers that be change things just for the sake of making a change, in the process making things less user friendly.

Well, I can say that Ubuntu was the first distro that I was able to use. It loaded and configured my system well enough that I could start enjoying and learning with out getting so frustrated just trying to get the system set up. Maybe that is why it has become known as a great distro for noobs. In fact, this is the first one that has gotten me far enough that I dropped Windows completely (at home anyway )

Hi,
Warty:
Wont open photos from my camera.
Nautilus wont transfer pics to webspace without corrupting them.
Gftp wont transfer .html files to webspace without corrupting them.
DVD playback is jumpy.

Hoary:
Same as above.
Cant edit app menu.
Gpdf has had the page number box removed.
An extra menu has been added and takes up more space on control bar.
They have removed the yellow folder icons from the Human theme, ( I liked it)

Warty wasnt broken so they tried to fix it and now it is broken ?

Mepis:
Was good until the last update has broken the nvidia driver.
Wine wont play apps that I ran in Ubuntu via wine.
Everything else that didnt work in Ubuntu works in Mepis

Mandrake:
Keeps crashing and freezing and then wont boot ?

I have returned to Windows XP and everything works great and all my apps are freeware and I got my XP free as OEM so it has cost the same as Linux but everything works, AVG, Adaware and Spybot keep me safe.

So its goodbye Linux from me

You tried to install woody, that is ancient, then you installed ubuntu which has as the installer the debian-installer.
Yeap, right, DEBIAN installer.

That installer was not made by Ububtu, but by Debian folks and is the current official installer for Debian

http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

here, you can take this as a starting point.


Sheesh, talk about clueless.

What do you mean, "won't open photos?" Does your camera appear as a USB Mass storage device? If yes, then it should be pretty trivial to open them or move them in Nautilus.

the data corruption issue: I have not encountered this. Perhaps something is happening with you internet connection?

Jumpy DVD playback: again, this might be a hardware issue, and not so much to do with ubuntu/mplayer itself.


I dont' know how it's done in Hoary, but in Warty's GNOME 2.8, the app menu is edited this way:

left-click on the app menu. left click on the submenu in which you wish to add a new application launcher. right-click in this submenu, and select "whole menu" from the new submenu that appears. There will then appear an option to add a new application launcher.

One of the nice things about GNOME, as opposed to WinXP, is how customizeable the desktop is, especially when it comes to menus and dock applets. If you don't like/don't use the new menu...remove it (a right-click on it should bring up the options availble to you in this regard). "problem" solved. Likewise, if you liked the "Human" theme from Warty, it shouldn't be too much fuss to recreate it on Hoary or indeed any GNOME desktop.


I'm sad to see you go. If you could do us in the community one last favour and post exactly what hardware you had that was going wrong, that will save an awful lot of people a lot of additional hassle--and it may in fact move people to post fixes and workarounds.