Ubuntu is a pretty interesting Linux distribution isn't it? I mean, no other take on Linux has shot so high so fast. Nobody has single-handedly turned the desktop Linux world over on its ear like Ubuntu has. Nobody. What makes it so special? What sets it apart from the hundreds of other distros on the market today? Well, we're here to take a look at the latest pre-release copy of what is to become Ubuntu 6.06... Flight 5.
DISCLAIMER
First off, let me begin by saying I am not an Ubuntu zealot. I do not run Ubuntu on my personal workstation, I do not fly the Ubuntu flag in my front yard, and I do not have Mark Shuttleworth over for dinner and a game of strip poker every weekend. If you care to know, I prefer Slackware over any other distro for my personal use, and to this day am running it at home to do all of my work and play. I like to get that out of the way right up front because I'd hate to be called a zealot if this review goes well... after all, zealotry is for morons. You can take that to the bank with you.
Features
Linux kernel 2.6.15-18 PREEMPT
X.org 7.0
gcc 4.0.3/glibc 2.3.6
GNOME 2.13.94
Firefox 1.5.0.1 web browser
Evolution 2.5.92 email/groupware client
OpenOffice 2.0.2 productivity suite
Gaim 1.5.0 instant messenger
Gimp 2.2.10 image editor
Installation
Consumers are an interesting lot. One a very grand scale, they have common needs in specific sectors. On a more granular scale, those needs can also be quite diverse. Let's take, for instance, the Linux desktop... at least as we know it today. We all agree on very broad concepts such as ease of installation, ease of use, polished look and feel, good/smart application compliment, and overall system stability. We all agree that these requirements make up a huge portion of the Linux-using public, right? If that is true then distros such as SUSE, Fedora, and Mandriva should be at the top of the heap right? Well, it's correct to an extent. Ubuntu lacks a fancy graphical installer and centralized control center as of yet, for instance... two major pluses in this category... and it is currently the most popular desktop Linux distribution on the planet. Go figure. So much for averages.
While the installer might not be what you'd call “newbie friendly”, I do find that it is well organized and easy to follow for the most part. Hardware detection makes up the first portion of the install, and from my experience it was spot on. I had no issues getting it going. You might be saying to yourself that this is pretty much a no brainer in this day and age, but trust me... it's not. I've come across many distros that don't even make it past the initial hardware detection stage, and I usually round file them for that reason. Many distros don't make it to Mad Penguin™ for review because of this very reason.
The most important part of the installation process (aside from the obvious hardware detection and the ability to actually get a working OS on your computer in the first place) in my opinion is how the developers handle gathering the information necessary to complete the operation. Ubuntu is handling this pretty well. It asks just enough to get you through it without any internal bleeding. For instance, it grabs info such as the full name/username/password of the primary user (who coincidentally is added to sudoers so that he/she can run commands as root using sudo), time zone, partitioning information, and very little more to be honest. The first time I used Ubuntu it threw me off at first trying to figure out how the whole root access thing worked. The only reason was that it was different from most of the other distros I'd reviewed up until that time. First of all, you can't log in as root directly from GDM by default, which is a very good thing and should go a long way to discourage people from running as root. Ubutnu has it totally right in this respect... allow the first user created to run commands as root and prompt for password as needed. My hat is off to them for doing this right.
Booting Ubuntu for the first time
All said and done, the total install time for this version of Ubuntu was roughly 20 minutes on an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ system with 1.5GB of RAM. Some might scoff at this as being a lengthy install, but when you look closer it really isn't all that bad. Windows takes longer on similar systems to install and you don't get all of the applications Ubuntu comes with. You get an OS, browser, media player, and a worthless text editor that can't even do basic code highlighting. With Ubuntu, you're getting a full-on system including browser, mail client, audio/video apps, graphic manipulation software, and a productivity suite to rival Microsoft Office. The best part is that it's free. All of it.
If at any time you'd like to take a closer look at the installer, you can See It In Action! by clicking the icon below.
