[luvly] Wrestling the warthog
A luvly post by Giles Turnbull
Wed, 6 Oct 2004 21:53:06 +0100
When my geek friends came over last weekend, they brought with them a CD burned with the latest release of Debian-based Linux distribution, Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntulinux.org).
We thought we'd try and install this particular build, nicknamed "Warty Warthog", on the rusty old former Windows box that sits under a desk in what used to be my office, getting dustier by the day. It is a noisy, clunky, under-specced old lump of beige plastic, but still capable of doing some things when coaxed into life with one of the more agreeable operating systems.
It's nice having such a box, something with no valuable data of any kind on it, to play around with. So D and I started by shoving in the disk, rebooting, and seeing what would happen.
Ubuntu, if you haven't heard, is supposed to be a new kind of Linux distribution. It is designed to be a functioning, easy-to-use desktop for newbies; but installs everything a pro Python developer would need as well. It packs in a mighty impressive list of stuff, all from one CD.
Unfortunately, there were problems with my machine. The warthog sniffed at the USB hub and didn't like the smell; from there on, things were doomed not to work. E came upstairs from the Room of Doom and tweaked a few things, but neither he nor D could persuade Ubuntu that this was a machine worth running on.
Just before the two of them declared the installfest over and went downstairs for more beer, I caught the briefest of glimpses of the Ubuntu login screen. After the two Linux experts had gone, I secretly logged in to see what would happen. There was no support for my USB mouse, but the machine logged me in and presented me with the gorgeous, minimalist Ubuntu desktop. No icons, just a grey background and some tantalising menus at top and bottom.
The next day, D put Ubuntu on another, more up-to-date machine and I was able to have a little play.
It *is* an excellent system, not bloated with loads of multimedia junk, just with the essential apps that most users are going to need - email, a browser, and OpenOffice.org. The low-key Debian GUI is a pleasure to look at, and always makes everything look so clear-cut and simple. The lack of clutter on the panels is a nice change. I know I'm no expert, but I've seen enough Linuxen now to know that it's sometimes very hard to know where to start.
I'm looking forward to having another go with a future release that might not find my cranky old PC too hard to get along with; or perhaps I'll try installing it on a spare laptop, should one fall into my possession.
The other thing I love about Ubuntu is the distribution model. These guys are so keen for you to try out their distribution, they'll post you some CDs for nothing. All you have to do is sign up (http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org/) and they'll send you as many CDs as you like. You don't even have to pay for postage. I can't wait for my little parcel of disks to arrive through the door.
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