Ubuntu Karmic BETA first look

[Copperhead]

Ubuntu's servers have been jammed the last few days, but I was able to get an x64 copy running on VMWare Fusion on a dual core Mac host machine. I gave it a 60 GB drive with 2 GB RAM with 2 processors.


First of all, it is FAST! Load time from the VMWare BIOS screen to desktop was about 15 seconds. I guess you could cut that in half for a physical machine.

I am not a fan of GNOME, so I installed Kubuntu with KDE 4.3.3 running at 1920 x 1200. I liked the interface, but for some reason or another, the text was HUGE. I tried changing it in the Konsole, but with no luck. Just made it look really ugly, and K-Martish.

I am going to give the GNOME Ubuntu a run later tonight. I haven't used GNOME in about five years, but I've been reading that GNOME is the way to go with this version.

All in all, I can see that the developers were definitely trying to boost performance. If that was the case, they succeeded.

[Void Main]

I actually gave up on KDE several years ago. GNOME works just fine for me, especially since I don't care about glitz. I use pretty much the out of the box defaults and leave it at that. I don't even change the background. :) I do use KDE on Solaris at work (Sunray terminal into Sun server) alongside my docked laptop running Fedora + GNOME. I'm not a big fan of the Solaris+KDE combo though.

[Copperhead]

I am pretty much the same way. My GUI is a black screen that says this:

Login:

Then, after I type in some magic words it says:

[copperhead@mail ~]$

LOL

I was just writing about the GUI because I was planning on installing this for my girlfriend so she could FINALLY use Linux. I need a nice, fast, stable, and easy to use interface for her to get familiar with it. She is used to using Windows, and made a transition to OS X with no problem. With Ubuntu, it is a pretty straight forward setup that she should be able to handle with relative easy, and, most importantly, not bother me to "fix" something" She is not as much of a geek as we are, but she is willing to try something new, and any convert to Linux is a good thing. To me, at least, this seems like the easiest version of a distro to get someone going.

I am setting up Ubuntu with GNOME right now in VMWARE via apt-get. I don't know if I have a slow mirror or if their servers are still jammed, but it is taking forever. Will keep everyone posted.

[Calum]

well, i don't have a fancy schmancy computer, but i do use a GUI, XGCE, which i have been using since version 4 came out. However Ubuntu 11.04 tells me that if i upgrade to 11.10 that the intel graphics card in my creaky old IBM M50 desktop "might" not be supported. Fun and games.

PS - my better half uses GNOME when she logs onto this computer, to me it seems slower and more cluttered than XFce. Honestly, since i discovered XFce and switched from Windowmaker, i've not needed another GUI. It's quite funny actually, since XFce puts itself across as the GUI where everything's done with the mouse, you'd think it wouldn't suit a CLI fan like myself, i actually find it's the opposite of that. It's like what GNOME should have been.