When I recently rebuilt my main machine, I installed Hardy hoping to give Ubuntu another chance. I used to be a huge Ubuntu fan unfortunately, the fandom stops with Feisty.

Bonus to Hardy, that annoying tracker does not install and hog my system by default. The most annoying thing? Lots of support for lots of hardware was dropped. Winfast & Hauppauge TV Tuner cards which have worked wonderfully in linux have all kinds of special issues in Ubuntu starting with Gutsy. MythBuntu equals a big pain in the neck.

I have heard from others who are leaving Ubuntu since the last few releases. Reading through the support forums and the bugtrackers, the community has reverted to the old standard of either not replying, treating people like they aren’t worth the effort to explain things to, or assuming their position on the issue is superior. This is why linux users have always been avoided, because they act like elitist.

Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly and for new linux users. How can you possibly promote that if the community snubs the newbies.

One thread that struck me was about the fact that there was no GUI disk management installed by default.  The very first response to this posting was “no one should need to manually manage disks…” WTF? Seriously?

There are several cases when you need to manually manage disks: 1) the LiveCD does not mount local disks, 2) If you add a new disk to the system. How many people who aren’t major geeks know how to manage their disks from the command line? I know several people I consider pretty geeky who don’t even know how to do it in Windows.

There are apps you can apt-get to enable a GUI access like gparted, but you have to know what it is called & how to install it ~or~ the right search terms to google to learn how. How many newbies are going to know how to do this or not reach maximum level of frustration with this? Ubuntu doesn’t have a utility that kicks off on boot if you have added new hardware either.

Ubuntu is really losing it’s way, and I have to say I cannot recommend it anymore. I am back to vanillla Debian and maybe dabble some more in Arch. Do you have a particular distro you absolutely adore? Let me know what you are using and why you love it and I will give it a whirl.

This guide explains how you can install Apple’s Safari browser on Ubuntu 7.10. As there is no Linux version of Safari, we will run it under Wine. We will use a tool called PlayOnLinux to install Safari under Wine. With PlayOnLinux you can install lots of Windows games and some Windows applications (such as Office 2003, IE6, MS Money, etc.) on Linux. Installing Safari on Linux is good for people such as web designers who have switched to Linux but still need to test their web sites in other browsers.

Installing Apple’s Safari Browser On Ubuntu 7.10 With PlayOnLinux

gOS is built off Ubuntu Gutsy running the windows manager Enlightenment E17 rather than Gnome. Designed to run on low end and affordable hardware, gOS is built on the reliability and stability of Canonical’s Ubuntu without the added bloat included in the latest Ubuntu release Gutsy.

• Visit System76.com and send them a SASE and they will send you free Ubuntu stickers
• Order a free Ubuntu disk from the ShipIt service and it will arrive with a couple of free stickers.

My favorite features:

• NTFS write support
• Encrypted harddisk support
• GUIfied X configuration
• Server side- preconfigured options including mail server, file server, print server and database server (in addition to the previous choices of LAMP or DNS server)

From VentureCake:
“Although Distrowatch may say your mate’s homemade Linux rules the world, we’ve always been Google Trends fans. When reconfirming that the big three – Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSuSE – are still the most popular Linux distros, we noticed that Ubuntu has reached another milestone entirely.”

“Ubuntu is the first Linux distribution to overtake Jesus in Google Trends, establishing a firm lead over the bearded one since the end of Q1 this year.”

You really should go to VentureCake and read the rest. Really, right now…

Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.

Wubi claims there is no partition modifications or bootloader changes to Windows and that is easily uninstallable. While I haven’t tried it yet (perhaps because it will require me to install Windows) , Tom Merrit (the linux hippy) was tweeting about Wubi last week.  If you have used it, please let me know in the comments what you think of it!

Scheduled for October 2007 Launch

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 7, 2007 – Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, announced more details on Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition at Computex 2007 in Taipei.

Following discussions at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Seville Spain and a great response from the developer community generally, the target specifications and technical milestones for the project have been agreed.

Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition will provide a rich Internet experience for users of Intel’s 2008 Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform. To achieve this, Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded will run video, sound and offer fast and rich browsing experiences to the MID target user. Optimized for MIDs based on Intel’s low power processors and chipsets, Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded edition is expected to deliver fast boot and resume times, and reside in a small memory and disk footprint.

“We are delighted with the progress of the Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition” commented Jane Silber, Director of Operations at Canonical. “we have had a great response to our first announcement with many developers showing interest in the project. With a clear roadmap, an active developer community and a date for release – we look forward to bringing Ubuntu to Mobile Internet Devices.”

The first full release of the software will be available in October 2007 corresponding with the normal release cycle of the Ubuntu operating system. Working collaboratively with Intel, Canonical is working to deliver software on actual devices from system manufacturers in 2008.

Read the entire press release…

Reinstalling your operating system is never a fun or welcome task, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Restoring settings and downloaded applications after installing an operating system can take quite a bit of time, so I’ve come up with a shell script to make things a bit easier.

This technique does not take the place of a good external backup. I recommend backing up your important files to a place other than your computer, such as a CD or DVD disc, because with a powerful enough shell script, you could accidentally wipe out hours of work in just a few seconds.

When I installed Ubuntu on my computer, I created a separate partition for the home directory, which is where personal files are typically stored. If you do this, you can reinstall Ubuntu without losing your files, as long as you don’t overwrite the home partition. Since I have the configuration files that reside on my root partition backed up inside my home directory, the files should still be there after I reinstall, so all I have to do is copy them to the correct place.

In addition, I have several programs downloaded from the Internet saved in my home directory as well. After restoring Ubuntu, all I have to do is execute a command to install the programs again. My script can take care of that for me as well.

Learn how…

Shuttleworth was responding to a recent Fortune magazine interview in which senior Microsoft figures sent shockwaves through the software industry by declaring that Linux and other open source software violates 235 Microsoft patents.

But while Microsoft is using familiar tactics to put the fear into Linux users, Shuttleworth argued open source and Microsoft are ultimately on the same side of the software patent issue.

“I’m pretty certain that, within a few years, Microsoft themselves will be strong advocates against software patents,” Shuttleworth wrote. “Microsoft is irrevocably committed to shipping new software every year, and software patents represent landmines in their roadmap which they are going to step on, like it or not, with increasing regularity.”

Microsoft makes the “perfect target” for software patent lawsuits, and the company will pay more for such suits every year until they finally threaten its business, Shuttleworth said.

More at ComputerWorld UK… 

The bug title pretty much sums it up. We need medication and probably group counseling.

Remember, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery…

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