Ubuntu - A quick glimpse

Ubuntu is a Debian-based Linux distribution that is available in both a Live CD and installable CD. I installed Ubuntu on a PIII 667MHz box with 256MB of RAM and a 12GB hard drive. Installation went flawlessly, though the one thing I wish I had more control over was the partitioning of hard drives.

One of the more unusual things about Ubuntu is that the root account is disabled by default. If you want to run a command as root you have to use the sudo command and enter in your user password. For example: If I wanted to do an apt-get update, I'd type:

sudo apt-get update

Sudo then asks for a password. I was confused at first because I thought I had to enter a root password (which I didn't know because there is no option to set a root password during the install). As it turns out, the password I needed was my regular user password. Note that not all users can do this, only the user you set up at the beginning and later assign the ability to do sudo commands.

The Ubuntu look is fairly slick, but I prefer my SuSE/KDE, I don't think the look is enough to make people switch from Windows XP, but looks aren't everything. That said, quite a few Windows users are extremely impressed with the xscreensaver displays we have at The Working Centre.

One of the most impressive things about Ubuntu is that it correctly set my notebook display to 1400x1050, the only Linux distribution to do so "out of the box." (And forget Windows XP's 1024x768 which refused to even install until the Reiser file system was wiped from the hard drive)

Unfortunately WiFi isn't nearly as simple to set up as it is on SuSE 9.x. Otherwise a very slick OS.