On Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:11:27 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ Kier ] on Sunday 09 July 2006 20:36 \__
>
>> On Sun, 09 Jul 2006 20:17:06 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> __/ [ Kier ] on Sunday 09 July 2006 20:05 \__
>>>
>>>> Got around to trying the Ubuntu Dapper Live CD yesterday.
>>>>
>>>> My only gripe with it would be that it didn't automatically mount my hard
>>>> drives, and I couldn't work out how to get them to mount (don't know if I
>>>> was missing something supremely obvious or not, and any pointer would be
>>>> welcome). This naturally limited me a bit in really testing the CDs
>>>> limits, but it automounted my USB thumbdrive without a problem, so I had
>>>> something to work on.
>>>>
>>>> Apart from that, I was very impressed. I'm a Gnome fan, as some of you
>>>> may know, and it looked utterly gorgeous here. Understandably, apps
>>>> loaded fairly slowly - the machine it was on was my old 'FrankenPC',
>>>> which isn't all that quick, though functional. Once they were loaded they
>>>> worked well.
>>>>
>>>> Ubuntu has definitely come on from my last experience of it, which was
>>>> 5.10. I like the new default look very much, and I could definitely see
>>>> myself installing it. It makes my Mandriva 2005 look amazingly old hat.
>>>
>>> Hi Kier,
>>>
>>> ...Just done a quick Web search. Have a look at this <
>>>
> http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/06/installing_ubuntu_dapper_the_g.html
>>
>> Couldn't see anything there that really helps, but thanks anyway. I did
>> Google a bit, too, but couldn't find anything that told me anything much
>> about it. I was quite surprised I couldn't get them mounted, because I've
>> never had problems with most Live CDs - it also happened on my old
>> laptop, and the new one, both of which I tried briefly before the PC. The
>> error I got was something about them not being removable drives/media,
>> which of course is quite right - they aren't. So maybe it's a deliberate
>> policy of the Dapper Live CD not to mount hard drives? It's not vitally
>> important, but it would have been nice.
>
>
> The Live CD's I have tried (older versions) mounted the hard-drive IIRC. Now
> that you mention this, I am not entirely sure. Maybe they never got mounted
> until Ubuntu was properly installed.
I'm just installing it now on my old crappy laptop. It seems to have
brought the (I thought) dead wired NIC back to life. The recharger and
CMOS battery are also dead, but if the NIC works, it'll still be useful.
I'm reluctant to just chuck it away while it's still working, it's such a
waste.
>
>
>>>> and pay attention to the relevant comments. In Ubuntu's defence, I have
>>> run the Live CD (versions 4.x, 5.x) on about 5 different machines and
>>> never had any trouble getting the hard-drive/s automagically mounted. In
>>> fact, the only issue I ever had was screen resolution defaulting to lower
>>> values than what I had hoped for (Windows XP gave similar problems, FWIW).
>>> Some of these machines were somewhat irregular. And by the way, I really
>>> liked Mandriva 2006, judging by the one evening that I spent with it. I
>>> guess KDE is not everyone's cup of tea.
>>
>> Oh, I have nothing against KDE, I like it. I'm just more into Gnome right
>> now. I usually install both Gnome and KDE, because there are still a lot
>> of KDE apps I like using even when I'm mostly using Gnome. And I've got
>> 2006 on my dual-boot machine, but it doesn't get much use, and it's not a
>> great deal more up-to-date than 2005.
>>
>> 2005 is still chugging away pretty reliably on this box, but I still might
>> give Ubuntu a whirl on it instead, although I'm teetering on the verge of
>> putting SUSE 10.1 on it instead and trying to get XGL up and running, as
>> it does have a reasonably good nVidia graphics card. Then again, I might
>> just hang onto 2005 a while longer :-) Decisions, decisions...
>
>
> If I were in your shoes (and your hardware), I would download SLED 10 and
> rest assured that the simple menus would have XGL taken care of, with
> friendly menus for further customisation.
>
> http://reverendted.wordpress.com/2006/07/02/its-not-xglits-desktop-effects/
Thanks for the links, I'll take a look.
>
> SUSE 10.2 with GNOME should be merely identical, according to what I read in
> the SuSE newsgroup. Here is the download URL. It's a free release condidate
> (revision 3), so bear in mind that migration path that follows the 'SLED
> route' would cost money.
>
> http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/
>
> http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/preview.html
>
> Download: http://www.novell.com/linux/prerelease.html
>
> Don't hestate too much. I currently run SUSE at home and work. Rarely do I
> have regrets or feelings that involve temptation to switch. SLED feedback
> and reviews have been fantastic and it's GNOME-based. Hardware should not
> impose any compatibility issues. Novell found a method or devised a tool
> which makes driver development far easier (and more rapid) than ever before.
Yes, I'd heard about that. Good news, I reckon. Let's hope it percolates
through to the other distros.
> If the kernel in MDV and Ubuntu could handle it, this will be a freeze for
> SUSE.
I've got SUSE 10 on my new laptop, and I'm very satisfied. No chance to
try another distro there, because it's an awkward brand of Toshiba, and
only SUSE will pick up both the wired and wireless NIC and play nice with
the drives - I tried several others and only SUSE really worked properly.
When the old laptop finally claps out completely I think I'll buy a new
one that I *know* is Linux compatible, and downgrade the other one to
second-banana back-up slap. It's not a bad little slap, really, but its
battery life is hopeless
I like SUSE a lot, though I'm still a Mandriva fan as well. I'm just
waiting to see whether or not Mandriva can weather their current
difficulties. 2006, though pretty good, did have a few problems, at least
on the install I did.
At the moment, I'm on Mandriva, SimplyMepis and SUSE, and now Ubuntu. I
like variety. It's surprising how different the distros can be in look and
feel when on different hardware.
--
Kier
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