Skip to main content

The Ultimate Linux Distribution: Ubuntu

I've now been using Ubuntu for about 2 years. I'm certainly happy with it and would never consider going back to Windows or paying the premium for an essentially equivalent OS (Mac OS X). I, like many users, have come to appreciate Ubuntu as not only a solid replacement OS for Windows or Mac, but for what it truly is: The Ultimate Linux Distribution.

That's a big claim. How can I say such a thing? Aren't all Linux distros essentially built on the same foundation? Well, yes, they are. But then again, all cars run on four wheels. What sets Ubuntu apart isn't the fact that it's Linux or even that it's Debian-based, it's the people behind the effort. Ubuntu's core team, Canonical, is doing something no other Linux distro has been able to do. It's giving guidance on and meeting the expectations of the average user. And it's doing it at a rate that's significantly outpacing all of its competitors.

Ubuntu has been the #1 distribution on DistroWatch since 2005 with its closest competitor being Fedora (which it consistently leads by a 30 to 50 percent margin). To find out more about why it's been able to hold this position and gain ground from both the Windows and Mac markets, read this article: Ubuntu, the Ultimate Linux Distribution. And a further clarification here.

With Lucid Lynx just 6 days away, the soon-to-be 20M users worldwide have again turned to Canonical for direction on the next big thing. And they haven't been disappointed. Read more about the recently announced 10.10, Monstrous Moose Maverick Meercat. While I won't be upgrading from 10.10 for a while on my work laptop, I will be pleased to see more radical changes coming down the pipeline and look forward to testing them out on my non-essential systems.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Black Cursors on Win7/2008 R2 Using rdesktop for Ubuntu 10.04

I recently setup a Win 2008 R2 VM and proceeded to remote connect to it from Ubuntu 10.04. Everything worked perfectly except the mouse cursors were black (and some were corrupt). Solution? Use a newer version of rdesktop that doesn't ship with Ubuntu. There is a handy PPA that can be added using the following command: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ricolai/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install rdesktop [UPDATE] It appears ricolai may have removed the package from his PPA. To remedy the situation, I've uploaded the working binaries for x64. Sorry, I don't have the x86 any longer. More information on the bug can be found here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rdesktop/+bug/385974?comments=all

Remote Connection: Free NX vs. VNC

Apparently, there's some debate in the Linux world about remote connections. I've been using VNC for 8 years or so now. It's reliable, but definitely slow. I've found that NoMachine's NX Server (free edition) suits my needs best. It works even better than Windows' Remote Desktop, and of course much better than VNC (which really stinks). In my case, it opens a new session, when I connect to the server, but I think it can be configured to connect to an existing session as well. You might want to give it a try: http://www.nomachine.com/products.php I'll give it a try and get back to you all... UPDATE: I've installed the server on both my laptop and my desktop Ubuntu machines following the instructions found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeNX . The results are astounding! While not identical in terms of functionality to VNC, I personally prefer the results. It's actually closer to an RDP session. I haven't tested the client to the ful...

Mounting VMware VMDK Disks in Ubuntu (Linux)

Took me a while to find the info on this, but it's fairly simple once you piece together all the information out there. First off, I'm not converting this to VirtualBox. I'm simply accessing the HD as though it were mounted on my local file system (Ubuntu). The VMDK image is for a WinXP virtual machine. First off, verify you have vmware-mount on your system. Drop to terminal, type "vmware-mount". You should get info regarding usage. If not, you need to install VMware Server or VMware Workstation (it's bundled with them). When prompted during the install, say 'Yes' to installing the additional tools packages. Not sure which one it's in, but it's there. Sorry, perhaps someone else can clarify this point. Next, navigate to the location of your VMDK and type "vmware-mount -p .vmdk". This will show you a list of mount points within the file (first column). Create /mnt/ using "mkdir /mnt/ " Next, type "sudo vmware-m...