Oct
18
2007
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition - Review
Posted by luna6
I’ll cut to the chase and say from the start that Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition is simply the best desktop operating system that I have ever used. From installation, to setup, to regular everyday use Gutsy is just a thing of beauty. I have been keeping up with the release since its initial rocky Alpha period, to the polished final Release Candidate released on October 15, 2007 and then apt-get upgrading to the final release. The end result is that the Ubuntu team has put together everything that you could possibly want in a desktop operating system and more.
Although there are flashier Live Installer CD’s – Mandriva 2008’s Compiz Fusion works brilliantly on their live cd – Gutsy gets the job done quickly and efficiently. All it took was 7 simple clicks from start to completion. I did have to opt for the safe graphics mode installation on both of my test compters : “Big Bertha” (AMD 64 3000, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia 6600 AGP) and “Mount Doona” (AMD X2 4400, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia 6600 PCI-X). I’m not sure if it was the monitors or the Nvidia card, but if I used the standard installation option, the screen would never get past the GDM login. But with the safe graphics mode, Gutsy’s installer worked smoothly. Ubuntu’s included migration utility was my favorite feature on the installer, but I would have liked to seen more application compatiability – primarily Thunderbird. Once the quick and easy installation finished the fun really began.
On reboot I was treated to a new and improved Gutsy desktop. The chocolate brown color scheme isn’t my first choice for desktop colors but the manner in which Ubuntu has polished the default layout made everything look slick and modern.
The first thing I wanted to do after logging in to the desktop was to active the proprietary Nvidia drivers. In prior Ubuntu releases there were various “unofficial” methods to install Nvidia drivers but Ubuntu has done a great job to make a standard way to install the drivers and it’s completely hassle free. All I had to do was click the green “Restricted Drivers” icon on the top Gnome panel and then check the box for “Nvidia”. This installed the latest Nvidia 100.14.19 drivers which is huge deal for me. In the past I always had to turn off Beryl/Compiz/Compiz-Fusion because of a nasty black window with prior Nvidia drivers. In the new version this bug is completely squashed and now I can open as many windows as I want without the black window bug!
Speaking of Compiz-Fusion, Gutsy now comes with Compiz-Fusion enabled by default. I did first have to enable the Nvidia restricted drivers for Compiz-Fusion to work. With that stated, Compiz-Fusion has come a long way and its now much more than eye candy. Once Compiz-Fusion was enabled the clarity of the desktop sharpened noticeably and the window management that’s enabled through Compiz-Fusion worked great. There’s no way I can go back to a standard 2D desktop.
By default the basic settings for Compiz-Fusion are found in “System / Preferences / Appearance”. In the Appearance applet, the fifth tab “Visual Effects” gives three choices : “None” “Normal” and “Extra”. Beyond those three basic choices, you can’t fine tune Compiz-Fusion. As an example Compiz-Fusion uses “Desktop Plane” rather than “Desktop Cube” as Ubuntu’s default choice. Fortunately, to adjust those settings all that is required is to install “compizconfig-settings-manager” via Ubuntu’s application installer Synaptic.
Once that was installed then I launched the more advanced compiz control panel by clicking “System –> Preferences –> Advanced Desktop Effect Settings”. Adjustments I made were to check the boxes for “Desktop Cube”, “Rotate Cube”, “Cube Reflection”, “Reflection”, “Shift Switcher”, “Widget Layer” and “Windows Preview”. After that, I couldn’t help smiling from ear to ear as I used Ubuntu 7.10.
Beyond the stunning visuals, Ubuntu Gutsy has also refined their operating system in an incredibly user friendly manner. As an example the first time Firefox opened up a flash enabled website, an “Install Missing Plugin” button appears. Once I clicked that button, a pop-up window appeared asking me whether I want to install Adobe’s proprietary Flash application or install an open source alternative. After I selected the Flash version I wanted, Ubuntu installed Flash automatically and Firefox now rendered Flash enabled webpages.
While the installed default applications are good, you certainly will want to install more applications. Whenever you do decided to do so, the procedure is so simple that its actually easier than anything available in Windows or OS X. Simply open up the graphical application “Synaptic” in “System –> Adminstration –> Synaptic” , then browse through the list of available applications and check off the apps you want installed. Some basic applications that you should consider installing :
vlc - open source video player that plays about every format under the sun.
gftp - ftp program (basic but does the job)
k3b - one of the best CD/DVD burning program on the planet
opera - alternative web browser (make sure you have the canoncial repository enabled)
mozilla-thunderbird - can’t live without this one.
amarok - very slick itunes like audio player
kubuntu-desktop - installs the KDE version of ubuntu
ardour - multitrack audio editor
azureus - bittorrent client
Kino - non linear video editor
Soundconverter - convert audio files between Ogg, MP3, FLAC, WAV
Skype
1.) Select “Synaptic –> Repositories –> Third Party Software –> + ADD”
2.) Paste this into the APT Line: “deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free”
3.) Then search for “Skype”, check the corresponding box and then click “Install”
Google Earth / Desktop
1.) Download PGP Key : linux_signing_key.pub
2.) Select “Synaptic –> Repositories –> Authentication –> + IMPORT KEY FILE”
3.) Browse to the directory where you downloaded linux_signing_key.pub and select that
4.) Select “Synaptic –> Repositories –> Third Party Software –> + ADD”
5.) Paste into the APT Line: “deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free”
6.) Click “Reload”
7.) Then search for “Google” and install the Google applications of your choice
VMware Server (Run Windows and Windows applications in Ubuntu 7.10)
1.) Register for a VMware Server serial number here.
2.) from terminal “sudo apt-get install build-essential”
3.) download VMware Server for Linux - Binary (.tar.gz) here.
4.) from terminal cd dir to the downloaded file and type “tar zvxf VMware-server-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz”
5.) from terminal “cd vmware-server-distrib/”
6.) from terminal “sudo ./vmware-install.pl”
7.) hit the “enter” key for every question asked, if question doesn’t accept the “Enter” key then select “Yes”.
8.) Run VMware Server by selecting “Applicatoins –> System Tools –> VMware Server Console”
MythTV also has been greatly simplified. The program is still probably not suited for absolute beginners, but if you are familar with MythTV or patient enough to learn about the program, you can have it running in no time. I setup MythTV backend and frontend on “Big Bertha” in 20 minutes and installed a secondary frontend on “Mount Doona” in 5 minutes. You can use the excellant guide at help.ubuntu.com
Printing has been vastly improved in Gutsy and there is a neat print to PDF option available by default. Ubuntu also now includes “Tracker Search Tool” for desktop searches and that program is also integrated into the Nautilus file browser. For people that are unfamiliar with “Tracker Search Tool”, the program is a lightning quick and lighweight search program that indexes metadata to pull up relevant search results. The program searches not only through file names, but also the metadata residing inside of documents, mp3’s, jpg’s, pdf’s etc. Tracker worked great and I didn’t notice any kind of performance hit while the program was indexing my files. Gutsy also comes with the latest OpenOffice 2.3 Suite for Word Processing, Database, Spreadsheets and Presentation.
Additional improvements were many. One of my favorite new features in Gutsy would be “Screen and Graphics”. The application is found in “System –> Administration –> Screen and Graphics”. “Screen and Graphics” is a sweet graphical application that allows users to easily adjust monitor resolution, graphic card drivers, as well as setting up dual monitors. Another new feature likely to appeal to families and small businesses would be “Fast User Switching”, available for the first in a Ubuntu release.
Overall Ubuntu Gutsy is just a smashing success. A year or two ago, I didn’t care for Ubuntu’s continual movement to simplifying Linux, but now that all the individual pieces has had time to mature, the result is the best current consumer operating system available. From Gutsy’s easy as 1-2-3 installation, to its automated setup of drivers and codecs, to its brilliant integration of the latest Compiz-Fusion 3D desktop, to its second to none package management system Ubuntu Gutsy is just oh so impressive. The fact that Ubuntu 7.10 is available for free is just icing on the cake. Vista? Hunh? What?
Pro’s:
Installation is fast and easy.
Desktop looks beautiful and Compiz-Fusion makes it out of this world.
Layout is clean, uncluttered and all applications are easily accessible.
Restricted Drivers Manager works great.
Apt-Get remains the fastest package manager around.
Ubuntu Repositories has about every application you could ever want.
Con’s:
Had to use safe graphics mode for the live installer.
Firewall application is not included by default.
(237 Votes, User Rating: 9.12)
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Articles of Interest:
Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 - New Features
Compiz Fusion 0.5.2 Preview
openSUSE 10.3 - Review
Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
Debian 4.0 (Etch)
Comments
73 Comments so far
I’m sorry to say that I don’t agree with most of you. Installation is not as smooth, had to do a lot of research found answers but no explanation of how to implement them.
Forgot to mention the OS, Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. Some how I got it to install by some fluke. User friendly, I don’t think so, I’m trying to install addition software but can’t gain admin permission. Then I found the terminal, changes have to be done through string of typed commands. But I keep getting errors or command(s) not found. What I’m I doing wrong, spent over two days trying and googleing and reading forum after forum. The answers are there I’m just to stupid, I really want to get raid of windows and migrate to the wonderful world of Linux. Installed Ubuntu on spare PC, eMachine Intel Celeron 2.2Ghz, ram 768mb, no video card using onboard video, HDD 10GB.
I just install Ubunto 7.10. It don’t recognize my usb. Please tell me the way to solve this problem.thanks.
To you people who are having problems installing: Have patience. Changing to Linux is like learning to drive stick, or switching to a Mac. You have a pretty big learning curve ahead of you, especially if your knowledge of hardware (partitioning and the like) is basic.
Because I do hardware setups all the time (I’m one of those guys who reinstalls windoze on a monthly basis), my reinstall roadmap is pretty much streamlined. Before I even install windoze I set up all three of my partitions (one (MUST BE FIRST) for win, two for Linux) on my boot drive.
If you are dual-booting, install windoze first. Then when you install Ubuntu GRuB will place itself in the MBR and you get a nice little menu to choose which OS you want.
And of course, the dual hard drive option works brilliantly, except that windoze MUST be on the first partition of the primary master drive or you run a significant risk of weird issues.
I can’t guarantee I can answer your questions, but I’d love to try and help spread the Ubuntu awesomeness. Email me and we can talk.
I will post again later addressing the lack of proper software and useability.
Disappointment abounds. Upgrades crashed system. Something to do with an update to the email client which I dont use as I have a hotmail account. I also had trouble with the file system. A heap of research web pages I tried to reorganise and found exasperation at every turn. The lack of polish in the OS, shows up in everything you try to do. I am afraid that the Microsoft team still are the world leaders in the usability stakes in consumer’s of PC’s. The PDF reader is abyssmal. If you enlarge the page to see fine detail in drawings there is no way of moving the page sideways to find what you want to see. No, sorry guys, free OS’s and free software are just not going to make it in the real world. You only get what you pay for.
Same issue here. I formatted HDD x 2 Umbuntu 7.10 hung at same spot. So i put in a new Hdd put on xp (pain) then umbuntu went well
running dual boot AOK 15 dys and counting . Going to test old Hdd in external reader >
My pc is a laptop and external devices are not my thing. I may try partition margic to see if there is any success. Thanks for the info.
Hey Greg Linton. Disconnect your windows hdd and install another drive as slave. I used an old 20 gig one. Bios change to boot from CD only. Proceed to install Ubuntu. Once you are satisfied it all works, reconnect your win. drive and use the Bios to boot whichever system you want to run. Worked on both machines I have. I will eventually have Ubuntu on the big drive and Win on the smaller one. If an alternative to Autocad ever turns up for Linux I will abandon Win forever.
In reponse to: 63 Greg Linton Says: February 14, 2008, and for others who want to install Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or any other Linux OS on the same computer that a Windoze OS is residing on but encountering partitioning problems (most likely do to the NTSF format opposed to FAT32), there is an alternative to installing it on the same harddrive!
I’ve been using Windoze since 1997 (during the Windoze 95 era), upgraded to the newer versions of windoze never liking any of them because they ALL had problems, cost too much, windows updates contained spyware, etc.. But being unable to use various Linux distributions do to the monopoly of microsucks based hardware (video cards, modems soundcards, etc.) on the market for PC’s, which would not allow them to function on any linux system, I had no choice but to go back to windoze.
Now I have discovered Ubuntu. Ubuntu 7.10 which is an unbelievably user-friendly version of linux. In addition to becoming a new and permanent user of Ubuntu I still need to keep Windoze XP for a little while. Knowing how unstable and finicky windoze is, I’ve chosen another way to install Ubuntu on the same computer without risking any damage to my windoze system and there is no partitioning involved (other than the automatic partitioning that will be performed by Ubuntu on the additional harddrive)!
Here’s how to do it:
Requirements: One unused PCI slot in your computer to install a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) and a internal harddrive.
(Step One) Install the SCSI and internal harddrive.
(Step Two) Disconnect the EIDI and power cables from your existing windoze hardrive but leave it installed!
(Step Three) Power-up the computer and and go into the BIOS configuration to set the system to boot from cd-rom first, boot from SCSI second.
(Step Four) Insert the Ubuntu 7.10 disc into the cd-rom drive, reboot the system and proceed with the OS installation.
(Step Five) Once Ubuntu is installed, remove the installation disc, reboot the system to make sure Ubuntu loads-up properly. After you confirm proper installation, shut-down the computer and reconnect the EIDI and Power cables to the original windoze harddrive.
Power-up the computer and go into the BIOS configuration again and set the boot-up configuration back to the way it was prior to installing Ubuntu. (Should be something like boot floppy first, IDE-0 second, cd-rom third)
Now your system will boot-up in to windoze the same as it did before. Whenever you want to boot in to Ubuntu, just go back into the BIOS configuration and where boot “IDE-0″ is, change it to “SCSI” and your system will automatically boot-up in to Ubunto and vice-versa.
Additionally, you can now very easily install any other Linux distribution such as Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Mandrake, RedHat etc. on the same harddrive as Ubuntu (Warning: whenever installing additional Linux OS’s to the drive where Ubuntu is, ALWAYS follow the directions above regarding the disconnection of the windoze harddrive to protect it from accidental lose of data / corruption, or even accidental reformatting)
Thats how I did it. Quadruple-boot system: HD-1 Windoze XP, HD-2 Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu.
Ubuntu - Un Believably Userfriendly Nice Tidy Understandable
Thank you GNU world for this excellent Linux distribution!!! The only windows in my house from now on will be the ones that are built into the walls that I can look through… lol
CyBeR_WoLf
Day 2 and I still have no reason to go back into my windows setup. with wine and crossfire I am able to run all my applications from windows like dreamweaver flash photoshop and with one soundcard update I was even able to run my Fruityloops or FL Studios - This completely rocks
EMAIL - lg-w@msn.com
Hey I don’t mean to rude but I have ran out of options. All you people talking about installation ran smoothly over and over again and just totally ignoring the god dam fact that there are other pople out there trying to get a different operating system experience with no luck.
What i’m trying to say is that i have both the Live and alternate ubuntu 7.10 cd but during installation whenever i reach to the point where i have to partition i keep getting all sorts of errors.
I have a gateway mx6448, AMD turion 64 1.6 ghz,1024 ram, 120gb hd (ntfs 112gb [system], fat 32 8gb[recovery]) windows XP SP2 MCE laptop. I want to do a dual boot cause i cant just get rid of windows yet altogether - I have disabled virtual memory (pagefile) and hiberantion and defragged probably a hundred times now -i even defragged in safe mode. I ran chkdsk and no bad sectors were reported.
I know quite a bit about computers but partitioning is relatively new to me. I therefore rather the program automatically resize the 112 gb windows xp ntfs partition. But with no luck with both cds. I keep getting errors, cannot resize partition. Its two weeks now and no progress -i dont know what else to read or do. I tried manually creating the partitions but with no luck. I even downloaded gparted and tried to create the partition for ubuntu with no luck.
From the live cd i kind of get an insight of what the os is like and i want to completely install t cause i am really sick of windows. However i still cannot get rid of it all together i have to work with linux for some time to see what programs are compatible and so on.
So PLEASE I AM BEGGING SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!! I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO AND I WANNA INSTALL THIS OS. EMAIL ME OR POST TODAY IF POSSIBLE.
THANKS
I absolutely concur with the above. Its even better than Mandriva 2008 by default esp with the compiz fusion part.I couldn’t believe it was free..i really don’t know what guy’s using Vista are waiting for……Smell the Coffee!
Definitely, this version should appeal to novice users and put any reservation to rest. It’s incredibly easy to install, a pleaseure to use and its interface is gorgeous. I installed the Xfce-based distribution (Xubuntu) on an old machine and it runs smoothly. What a great experience.
Hi everyone. Interesting and mostly incomprehensible reviews, except the one by luna6. I apolagise for my ignorance.
Ubuntu is only my 4th try with a linux OS. First was Lycoris. Then Red Hat then Fedora. NONE installed first try. Ubuntu 7.1 did!!! I do not want to know any more than how to use the OS. May I respectfully comment as a totally inexperienced Linux user, you people who are experts in using linux based OS’s are a very minor elite group. The overwhelming majority of people who would like to give Gates the flick, are in a similar position to me. They just want a computer with OS and Apps that works and is easy to use. It has to run and be stable. Thats all. No learning how to write code, figuring out what all the jargon means. Just an OS that a person can use. I am wrapt in Ubuntu 7.1 Gutsy Gibbon. Mr. Gates and his mob are in seriously deep manure. Linux OS’s are being developed at an amazing rate and Gutsy will do me. Congratulations to everyone involved with Ubuntu. Guys you are GOOD. I have had no trouble installing it on two machines. An oldish one with a P3 667 and a newer one with a P4 2.4.
Thanks for your review! :-)
Installed 7.10 Gnome on my Pentium D as a dual boot with XP Pro, and I’m quite pleased with it. All my hardware was detected correctly, installation was fast and painless. Starting up Gutsy takes considerably less time than firing up XP. The GUI is pure eye candy. Package management is OK but IMHO still requires some fine tuning with the package dependencies - I’ve noticed that Gutsy tends to “forget” removing no longer needed dependency packages when you remove software packages. It might be friendly to inexperienced users to leave this “file trash” on the drive but it’s quite wasteful and unnecesarily takes up hard disk space.
Gutsy doesn’t qualify for “rock solid” either, but works with a tolerable stability as long as you don’t try to run various major apps with large files simultaneously. In the real world that should be sufficient. If only Ubuntu-Firefox stopped sometimes behaving like a raving lunatic and crahsing for no apparent reason, I’d be happy. All other apps I’ve installed work like a charm.
Ubuntu certainly is a very nice Linux first-timers choice, easy to set up, quite fast and can even be used by people with no sophisticated computer/Linux skills. Added to that, it’s free, along with many very good apps, and that is its main advantage over Windows.
BTW: I tried Kubuntu as well but was quite disappointed by the lack of stability and of Ubuntu’s bad implementation of KDE. My recommendaton would clearly go to Ubuntu (Gnome), not Kubuntu (KDE). KDE fans might want take a look at Novell’s openSUSE 10.3
Just brought up Gutsy on a dual AMD mbd and super pleased with it. Yes, few bugs and poor support for for older hardware (and ATI) but all round a usable fast and light OS.
I had an old PC that windoze could never get on the net after it was upgraded from 2k to xp, not on-board ethernet or plug-in pci board. Had to use a usb wireless pos with it. Nearly threw it away. Yesterday installed 7.10 and ethernet worked first time.
If this OS wasn’t Ubuntu, there would probably be several paragraphs railing on the instability of 7.10. It was a nice review, and it was a refreshing change to see the positives of Ubuntu for a change instead of a bug list, but eventually I want to see some fairness on lunapark.
Jason: By design Ubuntu doesn’t let you log in to X with root. If you absolutely want to do so you should create a password for root user (sudo passwd), then go into System –> Administration –> Login Screen Setup and hit the box for “allow root to login with GDM”. then log back in as root.
I don’t know if it’s my computer or what, but every time I’ve installed Ubuntu (I’m talking final versions here), I experienced the same terrible bug.
I was completely unable to log in as root either in GUI or in the console. I could use the root user mode of the file manager, and I could perform isolated commands as root, but the root login has failed EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Does it have something to do with my drive partitioning?
Re Cons: I had the same response re the lack of a default firewall app, initially, but running netstat (and visit to the shields up site) proved ubuntu wasn’t listening on any ports, anyway. Most secure out of the box Linux install I’ve seen to date.
Great review, however it is most definitely not “the best current consumer operating system available”. There is way more work required before Ubuntu is as easy to use as a M$ or Mac OS.
As easy a M$? already is! What exactly are you talking about?
Hi,
firewall it’s included by default: it’ called iptables, and it’s part of the Linux Kernel.
If you want a GUI, you can install Firestarter.
See you!
Gutsy certainly has its share of useful features, but I’ve run into far more problems using it than I did upon installing Dapper. The version of Ndiswrapper that came with Gutsy refused to work with my wireless card, and it was a long and frustrating process having to figure out what was wrong and then getting a newer version of ndis installed–via floppy.
Additionally, I keep running into problems with the add/remove programs applications, such as the software update and synaptic package manager. I’m also getting more and more frequent issues with getting applications to open from the taskbar–I have to launch them from terminal more often than not. It might just be my particular hardware (it’s an old IBM laptop), but I never had these problems with Dapper.
And I also have an external hard drive that Gutsy seems to like to randomly unmount. I had this same problem in Dapper, but I’d really hoped they’d fixed the problem in Gutsy, since I know I’m certainly not the only person with this problem.
Gutsy also seems to use far more of my swap drive than Dapper ever did, and I’m having trouble figuring out how to change my boot options to boot in text. All in all, Gutsy has a lot of neat additions over Dapper, but for pure functionality I think it still has a bit of a way to go.
I use Gutsy, but it definately is not perfect. Hibernate and Suspend, which both worked fine in Feisty, no longer work correctly. The screen stays dark. I had to put in a bash script for each in order to get my screen to work. This should not happen. And there are a number of other, less annoying bugs. Ubuntu really needs to freeze further additions for Heron and just fix bugs.
Gutsy Gibbon is good, but still leaves room for more improvements. I recently installed it in my laptop and these are the issues I face -
1. Cannot add VGA=xxx line to the kernel like I do in fedora to get frame buffer boot and text mode
2. Took a great deal of time to change the mode of boot from graphical login to text login. The inittab tab file has been replaced by something else. It was so easy in fedora
3. Most irritating but, every time I change CDs or DVDs after 2 or 3 instances of automounting the CDS Nautilus hangs. The same happens while mounting and unmounting USB Flash drives with FAT-32 file system. Once Nautilus hangs nothing can be done except for restarting and it was such a nightmare during an event where we had to use the laptop to play music, i must have rebooted it atleast 5 times
4. After entering the user name and password at the graphical login, it takes close to 45 seconds to get to the desktop
5. After use for more than an hour the OS gets sluggish
I guess its back to fedora core for me, but I love ubuntu and wish to stay, unfortunately after a lot of posts on fourms and ubuntu forum I have had no help, so its bye bye ubuntu for me, just finished downloading WereWolf will try it now.
OOPS!
I’d just not read all these posts…
Man, a firewall is effectively integrated by default. You can have a gui for it really easily: sudo apt-get install firestarter.
Boom! Done.
Gusty has given me everything I need to make the migration from XP to Linux. Why pay for Vista’s fat bloated posterior when we can have Ubuntu Linux for free.
When I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop, I was impressed. What I particularly liked was the ease of the wireless install, given that my laptop has the problematic Broadcom chipset. Also, it was easy to reconfigure the keyboard layout with Ctrl to the left of the “A” key. But then - as others have noted - things began to break. A frozen system dialog box, startup oddities, and abnormal running of the hard drive. Ubuntu has the feel of a distro that looks nice but is loosey-goosey under the hood, with perhaps some hasty engineering, and/or insufficient testing. (Compare any of the BSDs - they feel rock solid.) I’m still looking for a distro that will let me start getting real work done quickly. Most still feel like hobbyist OSes. I’m not interested in an intimate relationship with my operating system.
Ubuntu comes with a firewall but you can’t see it, it’s called iptables and it was implemented even before Feisty. Just because you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Firestarter it’s not a firewall, it’s just a graphic interface for iptables (the real firewall).
About the firewall.
Gutsy Gibbon comes with one, it’s called iptables and is auto configured.
If you want to configure it yourself just install the Graphical frontend FireStarter.
And thanks for the great review ;)
I tried the new Ubuntu 7.10 and I gotta tell you, I’m not impressed with this release. I tried it out for a few days and I simply can’t stick with it. It pretty much looks the same as Feisty Fawn… just a few minor add ons to the desktop and an ugly *** background which takes the life out of the OS. I’ve installed openSUSE 10.3 on my laptop and it works great! Now I’m just using openSUSE 10.3… webcam works, integrated microphone, sound, etc…
Ubuntu 7.1 is my first try at any new operating system the only other system I used was DOS many many years ago. Gutsy has been a dramatic breath of fresh air! My old tired laptop that has trouble running windows, has morphed from a 98lb weakling to a super hero on steroids. I’m going through a steep learning curve but enjoying every minute, it’s time wells spent. When I find some thing I not able to do, I just do some searching and usually find some very good software that take care of things.
Windows watch out.
Hi, good review of gutsy.
One thing (very minor) I still miss in ubuntu is a few additional backgrounds to choose for (shipped with the CD). Two or three nature landscapes would be nice, and maybe a link to some web site such as art.gnome.org to try a few more.
It’s just my impression, but changing the desktop background to something like this http://art.gnome.org/backgrounds/nature/2190
or this
http://art.gnome.org/backgrounds/nature/2513
and the Human theme to use Clearlooks for widgets (with light beige instead of light gray) makes the OS visually nicer to me.
P.S. Luna6, would it be possible in future articles to use thumbnail images that link to the full versions instead of the mkShutter javascript? I have a slow 56Kbps modem connection and the later is slower for me (and I get resized, blurry images).
ross….
sounds like an odd problem. If the webpage uses java, check to see if you have java 5 or java 6 installed (sun-java5-jre, sun-java5-bin, sun-java5-plugin in synaptic or apt-get with terminal + then in terminal sudo update-alternatives –config java and select sun’s java). Could give Konqueror a shot as well.
I only have one problem with 7.10, I can not after entering the Fidelity website and logging in get myfidelity, which is a customized web page. I am simply stumped by this as both 7.10 computers on the same isp have the problem, which was not in 7.04 and is not on windows xp. I have tried opera, epiphany, and firefox same
results. It has to be some thing in the new Gutsy.
If you a have a suggestion let me know. I have stumped the
Fidelity techs and the forum has not helped either.
Ross
Not including a nice firewall-builder like Firestarter, or something similar, is a big mistake. Yes, Ubuntu installs with no running services. But how many users never ever change anything? Plus security is always a matter of layers; you don’t rely solely on a border firewall. Bad move and poor security practice. In comparison, Fedora has long a firewall configuration tool right in the installer. Very simple, you just click the checkboxes. Post-installation it’s still just click the checkboxes when you need to make changes.
Great review. Unfortunately Ubuntu Gutsy will not install and run properly on my new machine. I am a long time Ubuntu user who recently built a new AMD64 X2 5600+ machine with a Nvidia 8800GTS graphics card. I haven’t tried the 32 bit version yet, but I would like a 64 bit os(currently using Sabayon 3.4f 64 bit–works perfect out of the box, but Emerge & Portato definitely do not compare to apt-get and Synaptic). So far, no other 64 bit distro works properly.
Chris : I can only speak for myself, but I think 7.10 just trounces, bitchslaps, pyledrives, ddts, drop kicks Windows in every way possible.
I even prefer 7.10 over OS X 10.4 - though it’s a closer call. I am eager to check out Leopard when its released later this week. But as of the date of the review I really found Gutsy to be the best consumer desktop o.s. I have used.
Great review, however it is most definitely not “the best current consumer operating system available”. There is way more work required before Ubuntu is as easy to use as a M$ or Mac OS. I would have not argued at all if you would have said “the best current consumer Linux distro available”.
Nice review and some juicy pics to go along with! I’m eagerly awaiting my “free(as in free beer)” Shipit discs to arrive. I’ve been playing around with Ubuntu since Dapper and it’s been really fun seeing the improvements come with each release. I’m thinking that 2008 will be the year I go Linux-exclusive on a new computer build. I just have to play with Wine some so I can get a few apps/games to work right.
No firewall installed? Aren’t we all behing adsl routers/firewalls nowadays? These things block inbound traffic by default don’t they? Or should I hurry up and install a firewall… :S
Just to correct the review article the correct name for compiz settings manager is “compizconfig-settings-manager” and not “compiz-configuration-settings-manager”
to install:
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
Firewall not included by default?
hmm right, iptables is not there….
Come on. I mean, really. Come on.
What I downloaded doesn’t seem to be able to boot as a “Live CD”. Is there a “live” version available of 7.10?
This OS is NOT ready for distribution. Too many errors and strange errors in the install setup process: See link: http://www.dinside.no/php/art.php?id=493028
(Norwegian text) The conclution: Not Ready for Release!
We need to do MUCH better to get rid of XP/Vista!
Let’s get back to the drawing board…
I had a nvidia 6600LE video card, and most of distros (Live CD) install the free “nv” driver. For any reason, this card does not work at all with this free driver, but does (fine and enough fast for me) with “restricted” driver. As I said this happened me with all distros, including Fedora, Mandriva, Mepis, etc. So, sick of it (I wanted compare CD-Lives “from startup”) recently I changed to a nVidia 7300, not so fast, but better supported and quieter.
Have not run final, but last Beta. Ubuntu is ok, but there are some issues. You can not set the VGA=7XX setting in the GRUB Kernel line and have the framebuffer work. Related, you can not boot with kernel messages in framebuffer mode (I still think the boot splash is just so so). Also, I can’t change the color of the blank/colored screen before Gnome starts up. I immediately customize the desktop to more preferable themes, colors. etc. (not a big orangish-brown fan). The fact that the boot sequence has too many jumps and transitions, and some that conflict with the final desired them just doesn’t cut it. I can actually get Fedora looking much more to my liking than Ubuntu, but that is just me. None the less, Ubuntu has a huge selection of software in their repos (thanks Debian), and that is nice. I just like watching all the distros make progress and hope all can learn some tricks from each other in the best open-source/free-software fashion.
John :
I don’t use Vista so not really sure why Vista Disk Management isn’t working for you. If you can’t resize vista through vista disk management, ubuntu can resize the partition for you. During the install “Step 4″ select “Guided - resize …” (don’t select “Guided - use entire disk” that will remove vista), and then when the installer asks how much space you want for the new drive (that refers to your Vista partition) input the size you want for Vista…then Ubuntu will be installed on the remaining space.
Dear luna6, thanks for your swift response.
I tried creating some free space via Vista Disk Management.
There I learned that I have 269GB free space on my c: drive.
However when I tried the shrink tool I was told that whilst my “total shrink size” is MB 476938 my “available shrink space” is only MB 25282.
I’m obviously doing this wrongly. Where is all my free space?
I’d greatly appreciate your help, John Williams
“Firewall application is not included by default.”
I beg to differ. All *buntu releases ship (and install) a firewall by default, it’s called iptables. Don’t all Linux distros ship with iptables? There is, however, a couple of nice gui’s for configuring iptables (firestarter, guarddog) and they’re a simple “sudo apt-get install” away.
However, due to the fact that the Desktop and Alternate cd’s do not install any world-facing servers (nor open any ports), there is really no need to set up a firewall at all.
>What was the model of the TV Tuner card used?
DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold & pcHDTV HD-5500 (both works out of the box)
Just one tiny gripe: you put no firewall as a con. You don’t need a firewall if there are no ports open by default, as I believe is the case with Ubuntu.
Just because Windows includes a software firewall doesn’t mean every other OS should. The firewall in Windows is a cover-up for bad security. :)
Also, I have a hardware firewall, I don’t want a software one wasting processor cycles!
Nice review, good job!
I’ve just installed Gutsy on 3 of my 5 pc’s (the last 2 ones are going to be “processed” tonight) and… wow! This distro is just getting better and better.
2 glitches:
** nv driver didn’t seem to recognize my screen very well (samsung syncmaster 226bw) and the display was not readable; starting in vesa mode and installing proprietary drivers from Nvidia (using the wizard) did the job.
** using the ATI proprietary drivers on my laptop, the desktop effects refuse to startup “unable to activate desktop effects”…
I’ll look for that this WE.
For the rest I’m happy!
Cheers,
Manu
What was the model of the TV Tuner card used?
Thanks for the review. Very informative. I used Ubuntu for a while, and, being a “power user,” I had a few problems, but it’s nice to see that the distro’s improving. Hopefully Compiz Fusion works on my computer. :-)
John Williams : the answer to your question is “Yes”.
While in Windows, Partition some free space (10-20 GB is more than enough unless you plan to save a lot of data to your linux drive).
Then boot up with the downloaded Ubuntu live disc. Install and go through the 7 clicks. During the partitioning portion select “guided - use the largest continuous free space”. Everything will be handled automatically.
Then on reboot you’ll get a boot menu to pick between windows and linux. Also your Windows drive (NTFS or FAT32) will be recognized by Ubuntu and you can read and write to that partition.
Dustbin : I appreciate your comment - thanks. About the rapid development cycle - I don’t mind it so much. Users don’t have to update for every release and like you mentioned - there are the LTS releases, the next one coming out in April. For the LTS release there should be more emphasis on bug fixes, as Compiz-Fusion & Restricted Drivers seem to be quite mature now.
cheers…
great review, I’m sold. But would I be able to run it alongside Vista 64x and play my music and movies from vista in Ubuntu without having to copy them and eat my whole disk?
LP6- Again, another good review. Your site is one of the first I look at to see where we agree, and then b—- and moan about the things were we differ.
I pretty much did what you stated: tried the beta version (too buggy), tried the RC (almost there), then apt-get to final. Things are in pretty good shape, but I am worried about one thing. This rapid, push ahead every 6 months without fixing a lot of bugs is getting to be a problem. I know about 6.06 LTS and that another LTS is coming up. but I think it is a matter of time before these bugs are going to bite more users. Maybe it is time to think about going to an 8-12 mo. release cycle, and fixin’ some of those critters!
In the meantime, I’m using 7.10 on a few computers, and I am really glad that I worked up from the RC to final–the mirrors (even for updates) are jammed to the hilt today.
–dB
(K)Ubuntu, Debian, Mepis, OpenSUSE, Fedora user
Wait a minute…
MP3, Kino, Beryl, nVidia drivers, Ktorrent (beats azureus), printing to PDF, K3b, fast user switching…..
I have had this for ages!
But yeah, I use MEPIS with the KDE desktop.
Mmm, where did Ubuntu get its inspiration??
It doesn’t have a firewall installed by default because there is no service listening ou opening ports (again, by default), althrough iptables is allways there. After one day, I’m enjoying it, but let’s see how it will behave on those hard working-stresses-non_stop dog days!
Cheeers to ya all!
A year ago I was railing about how far “behind” Ubuntu is to Sabayon and PCLos, today its exactly the opposite. Although both the latter distro’s tend to focus in on one area (cutting edge, user friendliness), and do it well, Ubuntu, through attention to fine detail, coupled with a vision of creating the first ever free and competitive desktop OS, has come out on top as the clear winner im sure for quite a long time to come. PCLos has basicly committed community suicide with their out of control fanboi’s, while Sabayon will continue on in its “bleeding edge” manner, oftentimes alienating those without the hardware or technical savvy to support that type of distro; it is a geek boys wet dream and probably will remain that way until Entropy gets in gear (soon, I think). Anyway, I do hope Ubuntu remains free and does not lose their current vision/drive to fix Ubuntu bug #1.
I believe IPtables firewall is turned on by default.
The main issue with initial bootup with Live! CD is that AMD chipset has the advance power management system that current Linux don’t seem to understand (probably some switch that needs to be turned on when compiling the kernel)- simply disable the “APIC” in the CMOS setting and the Live! CD should boot up in normal mode. At least that’s my experience here.
>>5 Conny Jonsson Says: October 18, 2007
>>
>>why should they install a firewall as default? There
>>arent anything that needs protection in the default
>>install.
Wait what?
This new release does sound like a must-try. I’m partial to KDE, though, so I wonder if the K desktop is as polished as the Gnome one. Apparently in the past it’s been kind of the poor relative of the default version.
Anyway, very nice review: it pretty much tells us what we need to know to decide whether Gutsy is worth the bother of installing. The one crucial piece of vital info is how it handles wireless Internet. Any improvements there? Sounds like I’m gonna have to try it for myself in any case.
So, what’s the big plus points gutsy has over feisty, except for the minor updates. I would rather stick to PCLinuxOS 2007 till Ubuntu comes with some really great updates.
For VMWare Server, it’s in the commercial repositories of Feisty. So I guess it should appear in the commercial repository of Gutsy when it’s opened. Then it’s just a few click away, and no need to reconfigure it with each kernel update. You can activate the commercial repo from Synaptic options.
why should they install a firewall as default? There arent anything that needs protection in the default install.
Who knows? This really might be the “Year of Linux” that everyone says is right around the corner. I’m going to be dreaming “sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” tonight.
Been running 7.10 beta a couple of weeks, Can not get over how slick this Distro is….Linux at its best!….Just my humble opp.
This looks so good I want to cry. Open up the torrents and mirrors! Also for ftp programs I would recommend kftpgrabber.
Filezilla 3.0 is better than gftp, and its in the Gutsy reps.