Apr
19
2007
Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
Posted by luna6
For people wanting simplicity from their Linux distribution, Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) may well be the best release ever from any Linux company. While using Feisty Fawn from the late beta stage and right on up to upgrading to the final version, I kept thinking “Feisty is so easy, my mom could use this!” Not to say you can’t get more obtuse with command line syntaxes in Feisty, but for the folks that wants their Linux distro to work with a minimal amount of fuss, Feisty Fawn is a smashing success. The installation is really as easy as 1-2-3 and from there you can set up your desktop with a minimal (and I mean minimal) amount of fuss. In fact, I found setting up Feisty Fawn to be far easier than Windows Vista or XP in that department. There’s no need to hunt down drivers and software from the internet and things just work out of the box. Furthermore, if you don’t want to use the command line just about everything in Feisty can be done via gui apps.
If you have been following the Ubuntu releases, you probably know that Ubuntu’s previous release “Edgy Eft” was somewhat lackluster when compared to the their prior “Dapper” release. Improvements were so slight that it was often difficult to differentiate between the two releases. Well with Feisty Fawn you will notice improvements from the Ubuntu installer all the way to how restricted drivers are now installed via a simple gui app and the easy manner in which proprietary codecs are installed. Visually the default look of Ubuntu and its KDE counterpart, Kubuntu, hasn’t changed from “Edgy” but the modifications made under the hood sure has simplified Feisty Fawn.
The installation has seen some nice streamlined improvements from past installations, which made the seem like it took 15 minutes to finish. The most significant new feature during the installation would have been the “Migration Assistant.” If you have a dual boot setup, the Migration wizard will ask you if you would like to import desktop settings from Windows or any other Linux installation on your computer. I chose to migrate settings from a Edgy Eft partition. I then got a window giving me the option to import settings for Firefox, Evolution, and Gaim. I don’t use Evolution so I imported Firefox and Gaim. After the installation and upon starting up Firefox for the first time, all my bookmarks from the Edgy partition were perfectly imported into Feisty. Saved passwords for websites were not imported, which is good for security reasons I guess. Furthermore, Feisty Fawn had successfully imported all my various Gaim account settings. When launching Gaim for the first time, it was awesome having my AIM/Google Talk/MSN/ICQ accounts ready to be launched from the get go. Very good job Ubuntu! I would hope in future releases they could expand the Migration Assistant even more by adding more programs (Thunderbird/Amarok comes immediately to mind).
As stated earlier, the default desktop in Ubuntu has not changed much. Most notable decision would be that Gnome’s new Control Center is not enable by default. Personally, I think users should have a choice between the two different systems so I’m happy that Ubuntu allowed the Control Center to be enabled or disabled. With the default setting in System–>Preferences and System–>Administration the menu has a cascading structure which is highly efficient. For users that would prefer the control panel ala Windows XP you can enable it by right clicking on the system menu (top left where the Ubuntu logo sits) and then select “Edit Menus.” Once “Main Menu” is opened, select System–>Preferences on the left window pane and then check the “Control Center” box on the right window pane. Then hit the close button and you will see the control center option the next time you click System–>Preferences–>Control Center. I did find Control Center to open slowly and preferred the cascading menu system a lot more.
Read more about the Gnome Control Center : New Gnome Control Center for Ubuntu’s Feisty Fawn
Installing proprietary drivers (hint Nvidia) was easy! Easy I say! Did I mention that it was easy? So easy. The steps needed to install Nvidia drivers required simply selecting System–>Administration–>Restricted Drivers Manager. Then check the box that says “Enabled” for Nvidia accelerated graphics driver and it’s installed. Way easier than installing Nvidia drivers in Windows.
What’s even more amazing is how easy it is to setup Beryl or Compiz. These two different programs enable the 3d rotating desktop and other bling effects for the Linux Desktop. Generally If you want to install Beryl (which I would recommend) open up Synaptic via System–>Administration–>Synaptic Package Manager, search for “Beryl” and then check the boxes for “Beryl,” “Beryl-Manager,” & “Emerald-Themes.” Click the apply button and your finished! An even easier way to install Beryl, is to open up the terminal via Applications–>Accessories–>Terminal and type this in :
sudo apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes
Once you reboot you can launch Beryl via Applications–>System Tools–>Beryl Manager. If you would rather use Compiz you can enable the program via System–>Preferences–>Desktop Effects. These screenshots are taken with Beryl running KDE (Kubuntu 7.04).
Read more about Beryl and its many new features : Preview Of Beryl 0.2.0
Mounting NTFS partitions is now a 1-2-3 process in Ubuntu. All that is required is to install ntfs-3g and ntfs-config via Synaptic or via the command line:
sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g ntfs-config
After that I just selected Applications–>System Tools–>NTFS Configuration and checked two boxes for enabling write support for internal and external devices. Once that was done my Windows NTFS partition was automagically mounted and available as an icon from my desktop. I was really impressed how simple this was.
Personally I hate a cluttered desktop and would rather have no icons shown on my desktop. Also, the mounted drives can be accessed via the terminal or a file browser so I like to turn off icons appearing on my desktop. In Ubuntu the manner in which you would do this is by opening the terminal program and then typing gconf-editor. Once the Configuration Editor opens up click on down to / –> apps –> nautilus –> desktop and uncheck the boxes on the right. If you want to keep trash can icon on your desktop then leave “trash_icon_visible” checked.
When I went to set up shared folders via NFS & Samba, Feisty Fawn was smart enough to give me a pop up window saying I needed to install the proper apps (samba and nfs-server) to enable these feature. Once those two options were clicked it was pretty darn easy to setup shared folders via Samba.
A great example of how Ubuntu is making Linux more accessible for non-Linux folks is the manner in which proprietary codecs like mp3 are installed. Because of licensing issues mp3 codecs are not installed by default in most Linux distributions. For the end user, sometimes this creates confusion, but not in Feisty Fawn. As soon as you click on a mp3 file in Nautilus or Konqueror file browers, a pop window appears asking you if you would like to install the proprietary codecs necessary to play the file. Very well done Ubuntu.
Ubuntu comes with a basic set of applications. This is necessary to have Ubuntu fit on only 1 cd. Personally I prefer Ubuntu’s method, rather than downloading multiple cd’s or dvd’s. Extra applications are easy to install after the initial installation and, most likely, you will have to upgrade a significant portion of the default software anyways. These are the default applications that comes with Feisty Fawn.
The fun part I always have is with installing additional applications in Ubuntu. The process is a easy as well, using either Synaptic or the command line apt-get program. For people that want to browse for software visually, Synaptic works great. System–>Preferences–>Synaptic Package Manager will launch Synaptic. No need to go to various websites and download programs like in Windows. Just click the program and Synaptic will download the applications from the Ubuntu repositories.
Furthermore there are third party applications like Automatix2 which can automate the installation process for third party apps. Automatix2 can be downloaded here. Personally I prefer to open up the terminal and just do it myself. This time around, typing this in the terminal installed all the additional applications I wanted (as well as KDE/Kubuntu & XFCE/Xubuntu) :
sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird gftp kftpgrabber nfs-common vlc par2 unrar xmms xmms-mad xmms-skins sun-java5-plugin sun-java5-bin ubuntu-restricted-extras libk3b2-mp3 ntfs-config libxine-extracodecs xine-ui mplayer mplayer-skins kubuntu-desktop xubuntu-desktop azureus klibido
After that pretty much every application I wanted was installed in one swoop. I should note that in Feisty, Ubuntu has concentrated on making things just work for the first time Linux users. For things like mp3 codecs if you click on a particular mp3 file or open Amarok and try to play an mp3 file a pop-up window will appear, asking you if you want to install the mp3 codecs. This was very sweet.
I think Feisty Fawn will be of particular interest to first time Linux users, so for the people getting their first taste of open source software, these are some of the best Linux applications for Linux desktop users. All of these applications were installed from that one long command pasted into the terminal, if they were not available from the default installation.
Music Players :
There are a lots of digital music players for the Linux platform. The best in my opinion would be Amarok, Banshee, and XMMS. Amarok and Banshee are similar to Apple iTunes where they excel at organizing and playing large digital music collections. Out of those two Amarok would be the preferred application simply because it feels lighter than Banshee and has more features. XMMS is similar to WinAMP where it excels at quickly playing a song or an album, but not as well suited for large collections.
Read more about Amarok and an interview with the Mark Kretschmann (lead developer of Amarok) : Amarok 1.4.5 Overview.
Video Players :
Similar to music players for Linux, there are tons of video players for Linux. The best of the bunch would be Mplayer, VLC, and Xine-Ui. It’s a close call on which of these are better. VLC works great with just about every format and does not require the installation of extra codecs. Mplayer works great from the commnad line and works pretty good wrapped around a gui. Xine-Ui is similar in features with Mplayer. VLC plays ripped DVD’s in ISO format with menu’s, so thats my player of choice.
Digital Photo Organizers :
Best of the Photo Organizers for Linux are Digikam, F-Spot, and Picassa. Digikam would get the slight nod because it is a native Linux application and runs much faster than F-Spot. Picassa works great as well and interesting enough runs off of Wine. Also, Picassa is not available in the Ubuntu repositories so you have to download it from here. Open the .deb file rather than saving the file and Picassa gets installed automatically.
Digital Image Editor :
In Linux, the best digital image editor is Gimp by a country mile.
Web Browsers :
For Linux there are Firefox, Konqueor, and Opera. Epiphany is another Linux web browser that’s pretty good, but since Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror are great, there’s really no need to use Epiphany at the moment.
Internet Utilities :
For ftp clients there’s Gftp and Kftpgrabber. Gftp is a basic ftp program that is simple and works relatively well. Kftpgrabber has a lot more features but can be confusing for first time users. Kftpgrabber is similar to the Windows program “Flashfxp” where you can actually send files from one site directly to another remote site. For your torrent needs Azureus is the best program for Linux at the moment. For Usenet, Klibido would be the program to use. Xchat works great for IRC and for an external email reader, Thunderbird of course.
Office Applications :
OpenOffice suite is what you need for Word Processing, Database, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. I use OpenOffice Writer daily and absolutely love it!
Kubuntu (KDE)/ Xubuntu(XFCE)
Read more about XFCE 4 : Overview XFCE 4.4.
There’s actually very little to complain about in Feisty Fawn and a whole lot to get excited about. Some minor grievances I had with Ubuntu would be with the default brown color scheme in Ubuntu (definitely could use a refresh or upgrade). Even with that stated, it’s very easy to change the default look so it’s not a huge issue. Also, I would have preferred if Feisty did not use UUID in /etc/fstab. For most normal users they probably won’t even notice this change so, again, it’s not a huge issue. If you do have to manually mount a drive, typing in “sudo mount UUID=3ac3eb4b-e1f4-4de9-90a1-076a7ae1e725″ is needlessly difficult. Finally, since Feisty is all about guification, I would have preferred to have a NFS gui manager to mount remote drives from the local network. Besides those minor complaints, I was just impressed with how well everything else in Feisty Fawn worked.
Everything I could have possibly wanted for everyday computing tasks were readily available and easily configurable. From Feisty’s new migration assistant in their installer, to the new Restricted Drivers Manager, to the ease of setting up Beryl or Compiz things went so smoothly that I was amazed. This would be the first Linux distro that I have encountered where I would think even my mother could use! Compared to Windows, Feisty’s installation was on par with XP or Vista. The minimal amount of steps needed to configure Feisty after installation was a whole lot easier than in Windows. Once the configuration is done, Feisty Fawn is just a pleasure to use. Very well done Ubuntu!
Download : Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
Pro’s :
Installation is flawless.
Installing proprietary drivers like Nvidia was problem free, as well as Beryl.
Simplified manner in which proprietary codecs were installed.
System felt lightweight and fast (Ubuntu & Kubuntu).
Con’s :
Services Manager could be improved (Fedora Core 6 as an example).
Everything else has gui apps, why not NFS?
The default look of Ubuntu & Kubuntu could have used more polish.
The change to UUID in fstab makes manually mounting those drives difficult.
(23 Votes, User Rating: 8.48)
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Comments
94 Comments so far
This may have already been pointed out, but you don’t need an FTP client for Ubuntu, nautilus handles it out of the box.
Just use Places > Connect to Server…, and make sure you select ‘FTP’ as the protocol.
Easy, huh?
Hello Dave :
There’s probably more but Quanta Plus provides a viable free alternative to Dreamweaver. More info about that program can be read here.
For someone like me considering installing Linux (Ubuntu) this is a very useful article and also the helpful reader comments which debate the different programs that you can use for different purposes (eg F-Spot vs Digikam; Amarok vs VLC). Can I ask what wysiwyg page editor Ubuntu users use who previously may have used Dreamweaver on Windows?
Thanks
Dave
Great article…!!!
Just executed your command line below:
sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird gftp kftpgrabber nfs-common vlc par2 unrar xmms xmms-mad xmms-skins sun-java5-plugin sun-java5-bin ubuntu-restricted-extras libk3b2-mp3 ntfs-config libxine-extracodecs xine-ui mplayer mplayer-skins kubuntu-desktop xubuntu-desktop azureus klibido
Now, my ubuntu is loading kubuntu desktop & CompizFusion stops working. Just wonder how to roll-back to my previous setup…w/out kubuntu desktop.
Many thanks,
CC1
Try messaging me through the contact form at the top of the webpage if you have more problems.
I can’t wait for Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
Especially the beryl desktop.
This would be like the greatest present.
I’ve always dreamed about it and now it’s build by those creative people’s.
There is something i know about power which is simplicity and Ubuntu Feisty Fawn is very close.
Milton - assuming you have Ubuntu installed and not running off the live cd.. if you see a blank file with options at top and bottom only…you typed in the incorrect path and opened up a non-existent file. Recheck and retype the path correctly :
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Thank you for replying luna6
1.) Try “sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager”
2.) Open up restricted drivers manager and check the box for your ATI card.
This is what i’ve done before it went wrong.
——————————————–
The safe mode brings me in root user prompt (sorry for that language probably different in linux) so i typed sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf next to it and then the cfg file launched but from there i was kind of lost because there was nothing displayed accept options at the buttom and the file name at the top.
Is there a possabillity to correct it from the Root@static-laptop:~# ?
Thanks
Milton - I don’t own an ATI card so probably not the buest source for help. I would recommend you try installing from safe graphics mode. On reboot if you don’t have any graphics…
1). Hit cntrl-alt-F1
2.) login and type “sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf”
3.) Use the up and down keys to navigate to the section for “Device” and look for the line that starts with “Drivers”. Change whatever it has next to it
Driver "vesa"..then save and type in reboot or startx.
Once you are in Ubuntu you probably want to get the ATI drivers working again.
1.) Try “sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager”
2.) Open up restricted drivers manager and check the box for your ATI card.
if that doesn’t work try out Envy over at Albert Milone’s webpage. Simple installer that usually works well.
First i would thank every one who contribute to ubuntu.
I like ubuntu allot even though i haven’t got it operating yet. I’am operatating it now, but from VM ware on my other laptop. I’ve tried installing it on my ASUS laptop (intel pentium M 740 > 1024 mb mem >ati mobility radeon x700_128mb). I’ve tried a clean install removing the partitions but it still would not start (something with the graph.no caution or error message, just a black screen) without using the live cd. Can some body help me, because i just can’t wait to get rid of… you know from both laptops.
Bjorn, you can absolutely use the live cd to do a clean install. During the partitioning portion of the installation select the option to remove all partitions on the hard drive and you will be set. About the wireless it depends more on your needs for the particular feature.
I’m very new to Ubuntu. And a novise linux user. But everything worked like a charm it seemed. But there seems to be a problem with my wireless connection.
At the same time i do enjoy Ubuntu so much that i’ve been thinking of doing a clean install and write over the current XP which i have in my dual booth.
Can anyone tell me if there is a point in having the wireless card in the machine while doing this install? And can i really do a clean install (overwrite the current Ubuntu and XP) from the live cd??
To luna6: I do remember altering my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file in an attempt to get 1680 x 1050 res on my Viewsonic wide screen. I was out of work back then, now I’m just to busy so I lost everything going back to a fresh install of Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 LTS. Thanks for the help, and may apply your advice when I try to upgrade down the road. Guess I’m not ready to abandon Windows yet.
odsvet : Hard to say without knowing specifics about your computer but it sounds like a video card issue (maybe even a hardware issue). Next time you are stuck at the blackscreen try hitting “Cntrl+Alt+F1″ and see if it drops you down to a console.
From there try to reconfigure your xorg for your video card by typing :
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
then :
sudo startx.
If you still don’t get any love from ubuntu, trying editing the xorg.conf manually and switiching over to the generic vesa drivers with this command :
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
then scroll down to the section that says “Device” and look for the line that says “Driver”. Whatever it has next to it in quotation marks change it to “vesa” then save and reboot.
If that doesn’t work or Cntrl+F1+Alt doesn’t respond, try rebooting and at the boot (Grub) menu screen select “Recovery Mode”.
Once your logged in try to reconfigure your xorg if you did not earlier.
One last thing I recall is some people had
problems with the splash command causing problems during bootup. If other steps didn’t work try editing menu.lst file and removing all instances of splash for the kernel you are running.
Type in “sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst”
then scroll down until you see kernel parameters for the kernel you are running and delete “splash” on that line.
If that doesn’t work you may want to try a “clean” install.
To luna6, I tried to upgrade from Edgy to Feisty using the update manager w/downloads from the internet. My Edgy was up to date as specified by the manager before the Feisty upgrade was attempted. Like I said, on reboot, it goes through the progression bars then all I get is a mouse wheel (movable) and a blank screen; what’s up? Oh, the hard drive LED seems to strobe, like it hunting but that is it, stalls..
Odsvet - I’m going to guess you used Automatix in Edgy? If so I have heard that since Automatix uses a lot of source outside of the Ubuntu repositories, system upgrades can get botched. Perhaps this would be a cause to your problem?
btw you need not type the UUID when mounting the drives. you can still mount them either using the mount point (if defined in fstab) or via the device name such as /dev/sda1
I upgraded from Edgy to Feisty Fawn and on reboot, a black screen of death. Dapper to Edgy was fine, ah well.
one machine 2 distro FC6 and Ubuntu, fc6 finds the modem (USR) and dial normaly, Ubunu finds the modem never dial even when rewrited the wvdial, so i cant download Automatix !!!
In response to post number 74.
I have no idea about your external modem but nVidia card driver is not a problem with ubuntu at all. All you need to do is install AUTOMATIX and from this applications you can install plenty of applications and drivers (nVidia included)…Just google for Automatix and download the package for ubuntu and you are on your way!
I have downloaded the Ubuntu and removed because he couldnt find my external modem and the nvidia geforce card! can you please advise
There are problems with ubuntu:
- keyboard support for non-american keyboard is incomplete.
- X11 does not detect trivial and popular video cards and monitors.
- the installation process looks for software on an internet connection (that does not exist) for ever.
- Ubuntu supports xdsl but it is minimal and not at all obvious.
I will wait for version 8.02
PS Ubuntu has also very strong points.
Yes indeed Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn is awesome !!!
Its interface is too good..
Can anybody tell me how to install Beryll(detailed ) in Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn ???
If a partition is registered in the fstab, you can use either its UUID/devnode or just its mount point to mount and unmount. So instead of
sudo mount UUID=3ac3eb4b-e1f4-4de9-90a1-076a7ae1e725
you can just type
“sudo mount /media/sda1″
Just wanted to say thanks. I add tried the beta on live cd of FF awhile ago and only decided to take the plunge AFTER reading your review. Your’s is the first one I found that not only reviewed FF but offered a list of how-to’s and apps that a Windows user could start with. I now have a dual boot Windows/FF setup at home. Thanks!!
Dulwithe : try “sudo apt-get install restricted-manager” then launch it via command line with “sudo restricted-manager” …of course you can add it to K Menu manually…
Rachel : Ubuntu Feisty Fawn uses Firefox, no rebranding as IceWeasel or anything like that. I could be wrong but Debian Etch is the only Linux distro I have seen that has done the rebranding rather than submit patches to FF…
cheers
Looks like fun. Just to nag, though: Does the mozilla-firefox package in Fawn really contain Firefox, or does it install Iceweasel as under Debian Sarge?
Does anyone know how to install proprietary restricted nVidia drivers with Kubuntu?
Kubuntu doesn’t seem to have the same “Restricted Drivers Manager” that Ubuntu has. Why, why, WHY???
I don’t want to have to install the gnome interface and “Ubuntu” just to install the nVidia drivers.
Did the people who created Ubuntu/Kubuntu miss something really basic, or am I missing something really basic?
You can reply to:
dulwithe [at] myrealbox [dot] com
Thanks.
D.
Just a quick note: In your list of packages to install, gftp and kftpgrabber are listed twice. Thanks for the great article.
I am really impressed with Feisty Fawn, except two minor issues. Azureus crashes whenever I launch the program and Firefox occasionaly refuses to load certain webpages (I have to close and relaunch when that happens). Hopefully these will be ironed out in a update, everything else is awesome!
very good review i like the bit about the migration wizard the best
Idiot mom: MY KIDS SAW NIPPLES!!!!!!
People: So? It’s not a big deal.
“Lightning Lizard”: You need to like, respect everyone, man. Some people can’t handle nudity because, like, everyone is different.
Sorry, some people’s ideas are stupid, and they get laughed at accordingly.
It’s interesting how defensive and angry a few of you got to that mother of teenagers who made a comment about the nudity.
Just because it’s “natural” and on billboards everywhere doesn’t it make it acceptable for everyone. Keep in mind, people are different. You should respect their views no matter how different they are from yours.
Just a thought..
If you’re looking for a good NFS mounter, check out psydm. The one with that came with 6.06 is called disk-manager I think.
It works pretty good and can mount things graphically!!!
or go find it with synaptic
I just wanted to add Gwenview to the list of notable Linux Photo Organizers. It is very fast, powerful and versatile. In my opinion it beats Digikam and F-Spot.
I am runnung Feisty too on my laptop and desktop and I enjoy it very much. Thanks for your review, describes it very well.
Another note about mounting:
First, as someone mentioned earlier, you can use device names when you mount (/dev/sda1 or whatever). But as long as there is an entry in /etc/fstab, you can also mount by mount point (/home or whatever).
You can also add the ‘user’ option to a filesystem in /etc/fstab, and the filesystem can be mounted by a regular user, no ’sudo’ required. (Of course, this has some implications on a multi-user system.)
Please remove B G’s comments. Ubuntu is great, easy to use, and full of bling. However, you do have to be smarter than a moron to use it. B G is obviously a racist moron.
thanks for the link to the wallpaper :)
Failure gallore. On installation alone three bugs are waiting to be filed. And my favorite pet peeve ACPI Power Management. Still evades devs. It worked in Dapper then it didn’t work in Edgy, then it did work in Edgy with Feisty kernel then it stopped working after Feisty kernel upgrade and now it doesn’t work in pure Feisty. Way to go!!! I can’t wait when linux finally wins the market share. I’m gonna be a rich man. Fixing all that crap is sure will be proffitable.
I don’t understand your comment about UUIDS. As Freebird 54 says, they have useful side-effects. They are used for two very important reasons:
1) To allow the system to mount its partitions regardless the driver the kernel uses for your IDE chipset, the old ATA drivers that create /dev/hd* devices, or the new drivers based on libata that create /dev/sd* devices (because libata also deals with SATA disks and SATA disks are treated as SCSI, it is a matter of consistency). Linux 2.6.19 made the transition official and 2.6.20 (which is the default kernel in Ubuntu 7.04) uses the libata drivers by default. OTOH, the previous release still uses the old ATA drivers.
2) To allow the system to be upgraded in place. If this mechanism wouldn’t have been implemented, a system upgrade from Ubuntu 6.10 to Ubuntu 7.04 would have left the system unbootable if the root disk were an ATA drive. Debian will have to deal with the same problem during the preparation of Lenny for release. The alternative to an smoooth upgrade would be the Slackware/Redhat/SUSE way: wipe the hard-drive clean and reinstall.
You can always mount your hard drives (and other devices) by device filename. That hasn’t changed in years and I doubt it will.
PhotoAbode thank you !
“MD5 sums match”
*happy dance*
Just a little note about the UUID numbers. If they bother you - they are easily removed. If you don’t remove them, they are a HUGE improvement for those who tend to have differing drive setups on different sessions. (example: 1 or two USB drives connected - sometimes in differing orders). No problems with partitions moving their assigned names around - everything is correctly identified.
Just a different perspective :)
Very nice review. Thank you.
MD5 Sums for Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn :
50f3655fbcbdba9746d4b05ad8705b0b *ubuntu-7.04-alternate-amd64.iso
ff0cc7c9ed5157f0ff8c0f2213973f49 *ubuntu-7.04-alternate-i386.iso
a2b159599b69cea51371eee1ec5feda6 *ubuntu-7.04-desktop-amd64.iso
e296e3468358789904097fc8df29609a *ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso
8a1099f5fa8eaf4ee295bf0087c8b03a *ubuntu-7.04-server-amd64.iso
cf462501e2dc1b82b96dfc497a0404a2 *ubuntu-7.04-server-i386.iso
e016f1e3322848af98d01eae2688568c *ubuntu-7.04-server-sparc.iso
URL: http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04/MD5SUMS
Great Review! Seriously one of the best I have read. Very thorough. Great tips!!!
You dont have to use UUID to mount…
Why is it impossible to find the MD5 checksum for Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn ?! Why is it not on the same page as the download ? GRRR
Yes Tony, was a typo that’s now fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.
Just an editorial note: for the Nvidia Drivers, did you mean System–>Administration–>Restricted Drivers Manager instead of System–>Preferences–>Restricted Drivers Manager?
I have an Inspiron E1505, it still has issues with my laptop. SD card reader doesn’t work right. Battery usage is not as good as XP. ATI drivers still a pain to deal with. 7.04 has improved alot but it still is missing the “badram” patch that would have been usefull for another laptop I own with bad onboard ram.
Hey Devnet here’s the wallpaper…click here.
Cheers…
nice review _and_ the wallpaper. can you
pleae share that wallpaper/background?
thanks
Great review Luna6, shame about the dodgey screenshots. You should keep it professional. Apparently Michael Dell is running Ubuntu 7.04 on his laptop. It would be cool if Dell starts selling Ubuntu systems.
Oops, its blubuntu-looks (not blue) It looks blueish like kubuntu. I also forgot to tell you to use audacious instead of the non maintained xmms or beep media player.
So:
sudo apt-get install blubuntu-looks audacious filezilla krita
Its always apt-get install, sorry for the many mistakes in my post.
Yeah, if you reformat a partition or replace a drive, the UUIDs change. That’s because the partition isn’t the same. It wouldn’t be “universally unique” if multiple partitions had the same ID. That’s the whole point. If you’re experimenting and physically swapping drives that you want mounted on the same mountpoint, either use partition labels or old-fasioned device names - /etc/fstab works the same way it has always worked. Anyone who’s so ‘leet that the think they need to swap hard drives all the time should also have at least a rudimentary knowledge of how filesystems are mounted, and can use labels or device names. They might even be aware that most filesystem tuning utilities allow them to assign whatever UUID they want to partitions. Finally, they should darned well know how to use vi/emacs/pico/sed to edit fstab when they’re yanking drives around.
Aha, many things to correct.
Last one, UUID. If you have an entry defined in fstab, you can mount the device by its mount location instead of device. If you have something ponting to /mnt/whatever, do mount /mnt/whatever.
Also FYI take a look at /dev/disk.
So you dislike brown? apt-get bluebuntu-look
Oh, did you know that for firing little things like gconf-editor, instead of opening a terminal you could just press alt-f2?
Someone dislikes gimp, as usual they start with the interface and follow with cmyk support. apt-get krita and be done.
So you don’t like gtfp? Ever heard of Filezilla? apt-get filezilla. Ah, you mentioned xchat twice in the same paragraph, check that part.
Overall interesting review. Now read this and Fly like a butterfly :) http://xlntsolution.blogspot.com/2007/03/feisty-performance-fly-like-butterfly.html
Does Mom need to drag and drop a file from fileroller to nautilus? (in feisty this doesn’t work). My father surely uses it a lot.
great and thorough review, thank you.
While I understand some of the sentiment that a few of the respondents have I thought I would throw a couple cents in as well.
First, Thanks for a great review Luna. It’s much appreciated.
Next, though I agree with the sentiment that we need to move as much toward Open Source as we can some hardware just doesn’t have the support it needs yet. Whether it be a complex chipset or some random off the wall hardware. I feel, that if a user can install Ubuntu on their machine and get it to work quickly and easily; this is a win for Open Source and a huge step in the right direction. The coding of OS drivers will catch up as adoption increases.
The App installation process is actually so easy my grandfather *does* do it (from Synaptic, not the Terminal). When you see it in writing, it never looks easy but if an old retired locomotive engineer can do it, I have faith that my mom and most other people’s moms and dads could do it with little problem.
Looks good, but it still has some problems:
- Restricted driver manager won’t enable ati driver on my pc
- Wireless is found on 2 pc’s, but none of them can connect to a network
- Extra mouse buttons don’t work
“Feisty is so easy, my mom could use this!”
It’s so easy my mom DOES use this!
Keith: Ubuntu *does* install the commercial ATI drivers (the packages to install are linux-restricted-drivers and xorg-driver-fglrx, I believe)…the problem is that the ATI driver doesn’t support AIGLX, and therefore you must setup your PC to use XGL instead. This is where it gets a bit complicated…
FightingMad: Mom doesn’t *need* to use Beryl, which is still cutting-edge software that is not installed by default. Mark Shuttleworth has expressed his hope that Beryl/Compiz will be included by default in Gutsy Gibbon (the next Ubuntu release), but until then it’s still considered “experimental” software, i.e. “not for mom”. As such, your criticism misses the mark. Ubuntu *is* mom-ready!
Nice overview - thanks for that.. Some minor grammar errors in there, nothing especially offensive. You may want to fix this:
“Video Players :
Similar to music players for Linux, there are tons of video players for Linux.”
Thanks for the through overview. Definitely exciting stuff!
Friends envious of a photo-organising app? Dude your friends must throw awesome parties.
Either way I look forward to trying this new Ubuntu.
Great overview, although you should include more discussion of some of the things 7.04 is still missing- for example, as you hinted indirectly, ATI driver support. This is a really huge issue- a large amount of people who are going to install feisty looking forward to a snazzy 3d desktop are going to feel pretty crestfallen once they realize that feisty’s ATI support is currently bordering on non-existent.
It’s not difficult to get better drivers, and i’m sure in the (hopefully near) future, ubuntu will be able to incorporate the ability to easily install proprietary ATI drivers, but in the mean-time it is a large issue, and is imo the biggest thing holding back the new version of ubuntu.
On a lighter note however- i have been running 7.04 beta for a few weeks and it has been AMAZING (aside from the hacking i had to do to get compiz working with ATI card). A Very nice accomplishment by the ubuntu team :)
Nice wallpaper. Could you share it to me please?
Contrast
“Feisty is so easy, my mom could use this!”
with
“Generally If you want to install Beryl (which I would recommend) open up Synaptic via System–>Administration–>Synaptic Package Manager, search for “Beryl” and then check the boxes for “Beryl,” “Beryl-Manager,” & “Emerald-Themes.” Click the apply button and your finished! An even easier way to install Beryl, is to open up the terminal via Applications–>Accessories–>Terminal and type this in :sudo apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes”
Come on — No way Mom is doing this. I’m not saying that the MS flavors are better, but this isn’t close to easy. As much as I dislike Macs, OS X is the std to beat for newbie/unsavvy users.
“Setup” is a noun, not a verb. Twice, you meant “set up”.
Shame.
You have shown the forbidden FLESH! FLESH IS EVIL! Doesn’t it say in Leviticus 12:29, “Thou shalt not look at the skin of thy sister, thy mother, or any other woman who comes to thee…”
I mean, my GOD! If a child saw a naked woman, he or she might learn what a naked woman looks like! KNOWLEDGE is EVIL! May I remind you that the very first sin was when our forefather Adam learned he was naked!?!
I must most STRONGLY demand that you photo-shop a BURKA over the ATROCITY in your screenshots. This showing of a naked woman is, I think fairly safe to say, worse than the Hindenburg and 9-11 put together! And we good people won’t stand for it.
You’re missing Rhythmbox, as someone already said.
I use it over Amarok and any other, mainly because it’s in C, so its fast, but still complete.
You should check out listen, an amarok-like player for gnome for your audio. http://www.listen-project.org/
Comment #19:
“People who want something without a design philosophy of “Make it easy” can just use Debian.”
Your information is outdated. Try Debian’s latest “cutting etch” version and you’ll find that Debian makes things very easy nowadays. :-)
You didn’t at all mention that you could use add/remove (gnome-app-install) for installing programs.
For newbie’s and old timers alike this is much easier than synaptic/apt-get for finding and installing programs (unless of course for experienced users its easyer to use apt-get if you want to install a specific package)
“Long Way to Go” Compiz is installed by default and can be enabled with one click.
Your rant leads me to believe that you live in a cave and froth at the mouth when people mention the GNU or GPL.
Ubuntu gets all the attention because it is a balanced distro with all the best for free.
Crawl back into your cave, you nazi fanatic.
Hey thanks for pointing out the nudity in the Screen shots, I had to go back and look….
Folks the point is Ubuntu works, you can get professional support if you need it, it has real developers working on it, and it’s free.
“I wonder if Ubuntu aligning itself more with OS X’s general strategy of “make everything as easy as possible” is going to result in some backlash from the linux hobbyists.”
Isn’t this part of the magic of linux? People who want something without a design philosophy of “Make it easy” can just use Debian. I think the biggest barrier for many people considering the move to linux is the impression that everything will be hugely complex to set up.
concerned:
Oh my gosh, nudity! On the internet! Whatever will the neighbors think!!? How shocking!
Typical conservative north american attitude. Get a grip! Nudity is natural and healthy. Being frightened of the idea that your children might see *gasp* naked imagery ISN’T. In Europe there are signs/advertisements with full out vagina shots on them.
I bet you are so uptight and boring. Ugh!
UUIDs are bad for experimenters. Try removing disks and inserting others and then rebooting. Ubuntu cannot find the disks … or try clean installs with test levels of Ubuntu or beta copies in unused partitions of one of the disks. In the latter case all of the UUIDs get reassigned (new values are recorded on the hard drive) making it a real pain to drop back to previous levels.
I agree with Paul (#4) KPhotoAlbum is a wonderful app, and is one of the main programs that my friends are envious of when they come over.
luna6, Thank you so much for pushing porn with your screenshots. As a parent of teenagers, I think you could have used a bit of responsible decency in your review by leaving that out. You ruined the story….
As a Mac OS X user and subscriber to the Slashdot RSS feed, I have been following the development of Ubuntu and am curious in regard to Linux. What are the primary benefits of switching to Ubuntu from Mac OS X, other than the differential in the cost of the OS? Is it easier to use, more stable, more SW offerings, etc.? In other words, what are the compelling reasons to set up a spare computer using Ubuntu? Thanks in advance.
Long Way to Go: Yes, Beryl is easy to install in Ubuntu (like the review says), and in OpenSUSE/SLED Compiz is one button-click away. However, Compiz is also one button-click away in Ubuntu. He was talking about Beryl, and Beryl is not Compiz (yet!).
So basically, to sum up, the Ubuntu team has put a lot of work into making everything “just work” and be configurable through a GUI, so that it is, as you said, “so easy your grandmother could use it.”
I’m a programmer and IT tech working in a multiple-OS environment. We currently use Ubuntu, Mac OS X, and Windows XP. The biggest complaint I’ve heard from linux users about Mac OS X is that it makes things too easy… that part of the “fun” of linux is the challenge of digging through .ini’s and arcane commands just to get anything done. I wonder if Ubuntu aligning itself more with OS X’s general strategy of “make everything as easy as possible” is going to result in some backlash from the linux hobbyists.
Anyone know how well this versions works with Parallel and Mac OS X? Does anyone know whether the default config option in Parallels is still the kernal2.4?
UUIDs are good. You can move drives around, and as long as the BIOS can find the boot drive and the bootmanager can find the boot partition, your mountpoints will still work. Besides, if something’s in fstab, it shoudl be mounted with the path, not id.
Expanding on what Tim wrote, you can use the mount point alone to mount a device in the fstab, without needed to spec the device at all.
sudo mount /location/to/mount
UUID in fstab is a welcome change IMO. It’s a big help for cases like adding new drives, repatitioning drives, connecting external drives in different orders, or migrating data from ATA to SATA (/dev/hdX to /dev/sdX in some cases).
Ubuntu has enough hype for a million distributions, and they always have a few nice things, but seriously, it’s so far away from distros like openSUSE, SLED, and RHEL still.
Funny that what Ubuntu’s really praised for at the moment is the fact that you can easily install extra proprietary stuff. Great…. Funny methodology. “Let’s bring in all people to open source… with proprietary stuff”.
“Beryl is so easy to install”.. yeah. On openSUSE/SLED what actually happens? You hit ONE button to get Compiz up-and-running if you can.
Beryl was just another infestation of Ubuntu hype that pretty much stupidly created the fork. A few months down the line and it’s being merged back into Compiz. Wonderful; talk about a waste of time, resources, arguments, etc.
As for all the other applications.. yeah, every single distro has them. Has Ubuntu actually contributed anything new to them? No. While Novell/SUSE and RHEL are the ones sponsoring people to work on projects like KDE and GNOME (or creating new technologies, like knetworkmanager, kickoff, slab, banshee, f-spot, beagle, etc etc), Ubuntu just pipes all its money into making Ubuntu. They’ll end up sponsoring events to get a “woooo”. Sponsoring events is trivial; sponsoring developers isn’t.
“The change to UUID in fstab makes manually mounting those drives difficult.”
You could specifiy the path instead of the volume : “mount /media/cdrom”. That way you don’t need to worry about UUID :)
It is strange that you’ve dismissed Rhythmbox when examining audio players. Suggesting Amarok is not a good idea for a Gnome-centric desktop.
Regarding NFS, did you miss System / Administration / Shared Folders?
Under Digital Photo Organizers, I can’t believe you didn’t even mention KPhotoAlbum (formerly KimDaBa). It’s great.
you can still manually mount a drive without using UUID. mount -vt ext3 /dev/sdxn /location/to/mount works fine
I failed installing ubuntu a couple of weeks ago (I messed up my xorg trying to install the nvidia drivers) and postponed my next linux tryout, and it seems like this time it should really be possible.
I actually had a problem telling if the damn driver where installed or not, at least this seems to be quite clear with the restricted driver manager.
I like this. I REALLY like this. Can’t wait to try it out this evening. Thanks for the review.