Switching over to ubuntu from fedora
It was a tough decision, but in many ways a good one...
I switched from fedora core 3 to ubuntu recently. As it happened, the other day GNOME suddenly got messed up on fedora when I tried to kill gam_server (gamin - which was eating up 100% CPU, I couldn't figure out why) and I couldn't use xcfe comfortably (though its quite faster than GNOME). I don't like KDE, either. So, instead of installing fedora afresh, I opted to go for ubuntu. I have been hearing a lot about it these days, it was time to check it out myself :)
P.S: This post was written weeks back than the posted date, somehow it never turned lucky to come out of draft, until today :) Hope this scribble would turn useful to the readers.
Both live and installation CDs have been with me for a while though I never went across to install ubuntu. Kubuntu live CD looked smashing and an eye-candy to me, even though I don't fancy using KDE as the window manager. (However, I use kate, kworldclock frequently). But for those who would fancy some latest KDE treats, kubuntu is a great choice.
Here are the notes from the switchover experience:
The downsides of the switchover (lets mention those first) ;)
- 1) Don't expect frequent updates as we get for fedora.. When using fedora, one can update to the latest package releases almost as soon as they get released, thanks to freshrpms.net. But ubuntu seems to have such huge number of applications that frequent updates aren't happening. Even firefox 1.0.3, 1.0.4 security release hasn't been updated yet!
- 2) If you're a user of an NVIDIA card, get ready for a bad installation experience. The card isn't automatically detected (should be added manually) during installation. It doesn't even ignore the card like fedora does which leads to messed up installation process with Xserver not starting. So the result would be a blue screen with weird characters, that just hangs up.
- 3) No GUI for installation. This is something we usually do not worry about, but its easier for relatively new users to get along if there's a GUI. (I hear there's gonna be one on Breezy)
- 4) There are some crazy issues with sound on ubuntu (I hadn't experienced this on FC3). Xine and BMP abruptly stop playing audio. One has to kill the esd each time this happens. (See the fourth link at the bottom of this post for the detailed document).
The good reasons for switching:
There are just several reasons why one should switch to ubuntu, and I had mine.
- Ubuntu has vast number of applications available for instant installation. The 'universe' and 'multiverse' repositories have such a huge number of applications that you'll be awestruck. There's an application each for almost everything! The ghastly experience you might once have had finding the right rpms that just work on your distro, might not haunt you anymore. :) Everything is there in the repository, just do an 'apt-get' ;)
- Ubuntu seems like lot more simplified, though almost everything I see is the same as in any other distro. wierd? pretty much, but its really simplified... take my word for it. Maybe its 'cos of the easy package management and some easy admin tools.
- The installer might not have a GUI, but I found the installer on Ubuntu a lot more useful than the ones we find on the distros like Mandriva or Fedora. Some really minor stuffs like depicting which partition is going to be erased (the ubuntu installer marks it with a 'danger' sign) and which is going to be retained with the old data is really nice. They make a lot of difference at times.
- Though the updates aren't that frequent, one can rely on the breezy repository (unstable) to get the latest binaries. I upgraded the firefox, gaim and remaining bunch of applications I use for Internet. Pretty useful, and until now I haven't seen any of those upgrades I did from breezy repository crash.
Right, those were my reasons to switch over... for those who are switching over, here are few workarounds that might be of use:
Installing NVIDIA drivers:
As I mentioned earlier, somehow the installer doesn't detect (few types of?) NVIDIA graphics card(s). You can set it right either at the time of installation, or at a later time when your X fails and brings you to the terminal (or you switch to a different run-level).
I would suggest setting this right at the time of installation itself as it saves seeing a hung blue screen. Either ways, you'll need to do an apt-get NVIDIA-glx driver and do a:
nvidia-glx-config
which takes care of the rest.
The ubuntu unofficial guide has the detailed workaround. Check it.
Getting APC UPS daemon running to monitor your UPS
See this post.
Few applications that you might want to install once you switchover (and are readily available on ubuntu repositories):
- Leafpad - Notepad like text editor.
- Tomboy - A Note taking (wiki-like) tool.
- Beep-Media-Player - A wonderful media player (a look alike of XMMS, Winamp but with gtk2). This one might support winamp animated skins in future.
- Amarok - Another wonderful media player (uses QT - if you like a jukebox, this is the one to look for).
- Wordnet 2.0 and Wordnet Browser - A lexical database and a browser for it.
- gPHPedit - An editor exclusively for php/CSS/HTML
- GNOME icon editor - An icon editor for GNOME.
- gFTP - FTP client.
- KWorldclock - shows you the the time at timezones on a graphical world map
- gourmet - A recipe manager (this one can be an interesting tool for few).
- Xine, xine-ui, gxine - Xine player
- mplayer (available only when multiverse and universe repositories are enabled)
and ofcourse,
And finally, some useful links:
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