A look at Ubuntu "Hoary Hedgehog" and Kubuntu [LWN.net]

A look at Ubuntu "Hoary Hedgehog" and Kubuntu

Posted Mar 26, 2005 21:00 UTC (Sat) by tousavelo (guest, #27022)
Parent article: A look at Ubuntu "Hoary Hedgehog" and Kubuntu

I'm a Linux newbie somewhat frustrated by mixed experience with a couple of distros that are reviewed as "Just works" (not including Ubuntu yet).

I read: "for typical desktop use, Ubuntu is ready "out of the box."." If I look at http://ubuntuguide.org/ about Ubuntu 4.10 , it shows a lot of ordinary stuff to be installed by the user (Java, codecs etc). Is 5.04 really any different ?

I read "Ubuntu had no problem detecting all of the laptop's hardware. No manual configuration or tweaking was necessary for X.org or anything else.". Do you mean that suspend to RAM and/or disk do work on your laptop without any tweaking ?

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A look at Ubuntu "Hoary Hedgehog" and Kubuntu

Posted Mar 27, 2005 20:38 UTC (Sun) by smurf (subscriber, #17840) [Link]

Do you mean that suspend to RAM and/or disk do work on your laptop without any tweaking ?

If the laptop firmware and your X11 display driver are not broken: yes, it does work out-of-the-box for some systems. Not all. Yet. :-)

Good explanations but room for improvement

Posted Mar 28, 2005 10:14 UTC (Mon) by tousavelo (guest, #27022) [Link]

Yep.
We have come to understand that these things might be "broken" and hence not functional on Linux. Yet, as Windows user we are used to having those "broken" stuff fully functional. Looking forward for the future. Just a decent choice of laptops guaranteed as "Linux" compliant (including firmware etc etc), including some best deals at the supermarket next door, might be enough to make me happy.

A look at Ubuntu "Hoary Hedgehog" and Kubuntu

Posted Mar 27, 2005 21:35 UTC (Sun) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

> it shows a lot of ordinary stuff to be installed by the user (Java, codecs etc).

Unfortunately, due to copyright and patents, such things often cannot legally be put in the box.

Good explanations but room for improvement

Posted Mar 28, 2005 10:23 UTC (Mon) by tousavelo (guest, #27022) [Link]

Yes indeed, there are good explanations/reasons. I can think also of freetype related limitations/patents.
In my eyes, reviews should not overlook these. If the review is too positive, frustration of newcomers is likely. And I feel that frustrated newcomers might eventually impact Linux image more badly than Microsoft.
If Linux (including installing/configuring/tweaking) is presented as a cool thing for techies, everyone might choose to take the challenge and eventually assess his skills. If it's presented as "it works out of the box" without any warning, I will grow bad feelings if it doesn't.