u l t r a m o o k i e

Yes, Alice, I installed Ubuntu 6.10 and…I actually like it. Yes, there is still the issue of all the brown. But, it looks like they have toned a lot of it down. There’s a lot more orange (good) and tan (OK) now. Does it impress me? A little bit, but not a lot. Will I keep it? Yea, I think so.

I like how Ubuntu integrates proprietary drivers into the system (most importantly the madwifi drivers for my wireless card). What was annoying was that they do not have NetworkManager installed by default, so it still required me to connect via a wired connection to get the wireless working. This is a lot better than the hacking that is needed to get CentOS 4.4 online with an Atheros card and WPA protection. Also, it is nice that all the software needed to get Ubuntu running is within the official repositories. With CentOS, there is a need to add an outside repository.

It is also nice that small things work. Closing lid puts machine to sleep (suspend to RAM) just like my Powerbook. OpenOffice.org’s Quickstarter works. When I click on the “Insert Link” button in Wordpress, the new window is in focus (in CentOS it never changed the focus). The system boots up incredibly fast (thanks to the use of Upstart). And the startup screen has finally been changed to something that doesn’t look like it came out of the early 90s.

Overall, 6.10 is a nice improvement over 6.06LTS.

Update: The DVD version of Ubuntu 6.10 (found at torrent.ubuntu.com) has a large number of packages from the main repository. One of the packages included on the DVD is the NetworkManager package! So, Ubuntu is officially the OS that works completely out-of-the-box for my Compaq notebook — I can install and get my notebook running with the Ubuntu 6.10 DVD, no wired network necessary.