- Greed, politics, and CanSecWest
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- The six month *nix itch: How should I scratch it?
- You can never have too many cores
- Was Vista DOA?
- Windows "Workstation" 2008 results lead to backlash from Vista zealots
- Windows "Workstation" 2008: One week later
- Windows "Workstation" 2008 Clobbers Vista in Benchmark Testing
- Microsoft owns up to Vista's flaws (sort of)
November 09, 2007 | Comments: (0) | TrackBacks: (0)
The Ubuntu Plunge - Day 4: A Small Detour
Those of you who have been following my exploration of Ubuntu as a Windows Vista replacement will note that I've become quite enamored of my newly adopted environment. The ability to “skin” almost every aspect of the UI – combined with the simplicity of the package management system (application “tire kicking” is now a pleasurable experience) – makes it ridiculously easy to explore the wide world of FOSS.
However, they say the “grass is always greener” somewhere else, and I couldn't help but admire the snazzy looking screen shots of openSUSE 10.3. The “SLED” menu system, in particular, attracted me if for no other reason than it reminded me of Vista's Start menu. And since I was planning to take the next step in my exploration – wiping Vista from my primary internal disk and installing Linux directly as my sole boot option - I decided to take a side trip into SUSE-land to see what all the fuss was about.
It was a short trip.
First-off, the installation process is far more involved than Ubuntu. I used the single CD installation method for the Gnome-based version. It's not a “Live CD” so you can't run utilities or browse the web while it's installing. It's also not very well thought out – the installation program wanted to connect to the web to download updates, however, when I tried to get it configure my wireless adapter to access my Linksys router it failed to provide any option for configuring the WEP passkey. Naturally, the attempts to grab a DHCP lease failed and I had to proceed without network updates – annoying (someone should have seen this coming) but forgivable.
What I found to be unforgivable was the convoluted way that SUSE handles nVidia drivers. When I first booted into openSUSE, I found that none off the UI 3D effects were enabled. Attempting to turn them on via SAX2 resulted in a complaint that my video card didn't support 3D. Poking around the web led me to the famous “1-click” installer for the proprietary nVidia driver. However, for whatever reason, the installation didn't take – I'd get the nVidia “splash screen” during X startup, however, SAX2 still refused to accept the card as 3D-capable.
Some more digging led me to a series of terminal commands that forced SAX2 to accept the new driver. However, when I took the next step and tried to enable Compiz I ended up with a UI that had no window frame borders (the title bars, scrollbars, etc., all just disappeared). More hunting and clicking led me to the infamous “white screen of death” (no way to ALT-Fn or CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE your way out of this one). Two or three times down this road and I was done with openSUSE.
I'm now back on Ubuntu, with “Gutsy” x64 taking the place of Vista x64 as my sole boot option. And now I must make a confession: The only reason I decided to nuke Vista completely was because I knew that I could restore the entire configuration in less than an hour thanks to the Windows Image Backup utility. So call me “chicken” if you want – I just feel better knowing that I can go back if/when I hit a brick wall with Ubuntu.
Fortunately, the walls I have encountered so far have been paper thin and easily surmounted. In fact, I'm surprised at how quickly I've been able to get up to speed with the whole Linux way of doing things. I've “modprobed” my kernel. I've downloaded and compiled themes and utilities. I even re-skinned Firefox to make ti compatible with my chosen GTK and Compiz/Emerald selections.
Overall, it's been an easy ride – but not a flawless one. Some of the outstanding issues I've yet to resolve:
1. ACPI Suspend/Resume is a bit twitchy. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I'm forced to hit the BRS and cold boot my Dell XPS M1710. Tweaking the acpi-support file (I added “nm-applet” to the ”STOP_SERVICES” list – it seemed to help somewhat) has become a new hobby, and I hope to eventually achieve a reliable configuration. Given that it took Microsoft nearly 10 years to get it right with Windows (despite being a major driver behind the standard), I'm hopeful that I'll accomplish my goal before my kids are in college.
2. My Ricoh SD card reader has become picky. It'll read and even auto-mount plain vanilla SD cards, however, it won't touch a Memory Stick Pro Duo via the stick's included adapter. I found this out the hard way when my daughter pestered me for some new music for her Playstation Portable. Annoying, but not a show stopper.
3. OpenOffice is still buggy as hell. The latest installment: Writer hangs solid if you try to access certain functions while displaying one of the alternate GTK themes (e.g. Crux). I found this one out the hard way when I lost a half-hour's work to a Writer crash (I was browsing through the various options, looking for a way to turn of the annoying “auto complete” mechanism, when boom!). I'm not sure how this one slipped past Canonical's QA process, but the good news is that the bug is already well documented and that a small armada of open source hackers are frantically working to fix it – one more example of how the “community” aspect of Linux can be a positive force despite its sometimes ugly public disposition.
So, at the end of my first week running Ubuntu I've managed to carve out a very functional, and highly personalized, workspace. I've overcome some initial configuration and hardware support headaches, and I'm now systematically squashing the few remaining annoyances. In fact, things are going so well that I've dumped Vista entirely and have committed to making Ubuntu work for me as my sole OS environment.
I'll continue to post updates here throughout the next few weeks. My goal is to completely master Ubuntu and to reach a point where, at the end of my 30 day odyssey, I not only no longer need to go back to Windows, but I don't want to, either. And from where I'm standing, that goal looks to be well within reach.
Posted by Randall Kennedy on November 9, 2007 02:41 AM
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Why use a single installation CD when you want a Live CD ?
I've been using SuSE since 8.0 and installed 10.3 a few weeks ago, with nVidia card, wifi route,r etc. and encountered none of the problems you describe...
Posted by: Eerde at November 9, 2007 03:37 AMRandall Kennedy, I'm a Windows Network Admin who is recently (about 1 month now) trying out Linux too.
I do appreciate your articles and in light of your blog title, "Enterprise Desktop", may I request a future series topic from you?
Which version (distribution) of Linux is most productive for the user and most easily managed from a network admin perspective (as Windows environments are manageable)?
If one were seriously considering the FREE Linux route to replace a company's Windows desktops and servers, which "Enterprise Desktop" strain of Linux would you recommend, with emphasis on manageability and functionality.
I realize this is a highly subjective question, but I believe you could offer some objective reasons for your conclusions, which readers could evaluate and make their own decisions on.
Thanks for your help!
Posted by: ER at November 9, 2007 07:32 AMRandall, have you every tried a Vista Tablet PC? If you've not, you really, really ought to try it out. It really revolutionizes the way you can interact with your computer. So many things are much more natural, you really can go "paper-less", and there are so many more things you can do with the computer on a TabletPC.
I've used the XP TabletPC for years now and the Vista TabletPC for a little over a year now, (when it was still in beta...my company was in the Vista TAP RD program).
I too am dabbling with Linux (Ubuntu and Kubuntu) but I'm hesitant to try it on my Toshiba M400 Tablet PC (Intel Dual Core 1.83GHz, 2.5GB RAM, 80 GB HDD).
First, I invite you (encourage you) to try out a Vista TabletPC after your Ubuntu journey and then ask you if you'd dare try to load it with a Linux distro. If you would dare, which one would you choose? Is Ubuntu or Kubuntu up to the task?
Honestly, the TabletPC is far too under-marketed. People who have never tried it really, seriously do not know what they're missing. Everyone I've introduced it to and have purchased one have commented to me that they saw advantages but didn't realize how excellent a TabletPC was until they actually started using it full-time themselves.
If Linux could master the TabletPC features and if it was promoted well (people educated), I dare say that most to all Linux users would opt for the TabletPC form factor when purchasing a new laptop.
Can Ubuntu or Kubuntu do TabletPC? Would you try it? I'd love to hear your results and thoughts on it.
Sincerely,
TabletPC user thinking about Linux
A request for comments:
As administrator for a medical group, I've been thinking desktop Linux for our user community. I've seen many of the "don't" comments, but in our context, they seem not really applicable. The user community here are not power users, so the difficulties of the command line just don't apply to them. The learn the difference between the Big Button and the Little Button. They cold boot every morning, log into their application(s) and that's it. If anything goes wrong, they reboot; if that fails to resolve the issue, they call IT and then (in about 90 seconds, on average) start complaining about the delay in fixing the problem.
I've got a number of them using Open Office and Firefox already, on Win 2K or Win XP Pro, so I've got a head start there. Seems to me Linux would offer me better stability, better security, better speed, longer hardware useful life and a LOT less cost.
(For every user, we're currently paying for licenses on Win XP, Win Server Cals, Win Exchange Server, Win SQL Server, Win Terminal Server, Citrix Presentation Server - and all that doesn't get me any applications running. A lot of money goes into the infrastructure software alone.)
My medical applications are available in Linux as well as Windows versions. I can switch at very little cost. My users access these through Firefox now, so their working day wouldn't change except for the funny looking screens before they open their browser.
Am I deluding myself?
Posted by: J Waldron at November 9, 2007 11:30 AMI've used Ubuntu live-cd with a Toshiba Portege M400 and it worked very well. Even had support for the graphics card and did the fancy wobbly windows with no issues what so ever. Also to my surprise Ubuntu had no problem using the pen as a mouse right off of the disc (I didn't try any hand writing recog software so that part may not be there, but the mouse is).
Also why did you bother installing SUSE when you can get the Main Menu program from GNOME on Ubuntu. It is very easy to setup and configure just like any other menu on GNOME.
Posted by: Orrin at November 9, 2007 12:55 PMJ Waldron,
I'm considering the same sort of thing, but I've got some unanswered questions. Have you found answers to any of these, or have you considered these questions?
Have you found software for managing the collective Linux environment as you can with a Windows environment via Active Directory? (I haven't researched that much myself yet, but I wonder.)
Have you tested to see how much a "standard user" (if Linux has such a user classification) can get into and what they can potentially break in the OS? (I'm just starting to test this scenario myself, and do not know the answer yet.)
What if the user tweaks their visual settings and then finds they chose bad settings? Is there a way to restore the visual settings back to the default? (I haven't found a reset yet myself and I resently chose some visual settings that I'm now regretting, and I'm having difficulty finding how to change them back.)
What about viruses and malware? I hear that most won't work on Linux, but will the WINE application which allows Windows Apps allow a Windows virus or malware to work too? I just don't know the answer. What about malware/viruses that are written for Linux...how easy and likely is it that it could infect a "standard" (non-admin) linux user?
If you switch completely from Windows to Linux, what about the email server? Will there be the same kinds of tools available to remove spam, viruses, malware from emails? I suppose spam would be the biggest concern, since some or most of the viruses/malware might not work on Linux. I've tried dabbling with SpamAssassin and it wasn't so effective, in my experience. Basically, I don't want to spend all day tweaking the spam filter and don't want to devote a person to the task either. What would you choose to replace Exchange Server, and what would you use to keep spam, etc. out of the inboxes/server?
How do you determine which hardware to buy? Does Linux or a Linux distribution offer a HCL (Hardware Compatibility List)? It seems like that could bite you...as described in Randall Kenedy's next articles in this series...
MS SQL Server is pretty useable and there is some safety in the number of people that know how to use it. If you switch completely to Linux, then what will you replace SQL Server with? Oracle is not MS SQL Server...there are significant differences in syntax, management tools, etc...though concepts still apply, overall a different knowledge set is needed. MySQL and other Open Source DB's don't sound to be as mature or fully functional as MS SQL Server. What would you pick to replace MS SQL Server?
I'm not shooting down this idea. I'm seriously considering it too. I just have not found all the answer to these questions yet.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
==
-Linux in Enterprise?
Have you tried contacting some IT departments that may be open about their setup like a university? I hate to say it like this but I just don't buy the "damsel in distress" questions that I see Windows guys asking sometimes about setting up a linux shop. I don't see how so many system admins could have years of experience and seemingly have NO experience with ANY flavor of *nix. I can understand the desktop arena but not having any *nix experience or knowledge of security and applications in the server realm boggles me.
Posted by: Phil at November 12, 2007 10:20 AMTheres a "temporary" fix for openoffice (it mostly concerns switching themes from the default human theme)
http://vntutor.blogspot.com/2007/11/is-your-openofficeorg-23-crashing-in.html
its a matter of uninstalling 2 packages using synaptic:
openoffice.org-gnome
openoffice.org-gtk
Posted by: manny at November 13, 2007 11:30 PM
