Roy Schestowitz wrote in <2047775.CLiKQ51Wz7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on Fri, May 19
2006 03:25:
>
> Ubuntu Linux, Dapper Drake Flight 7 - How Linux is getting very close to
> mass adoption
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | To be perfectly fair to Ubuntu I had also played with a copy of Vista
> | beta. My sound card was not found, the ethernet adapter was not found,
> | and my graphics has severe issues. So all in all the Ubuntu beta is
> | ahead of Vista right now.
> `----
>
> http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/ubuntu_linux_dapper.html
>
I must say that at the very least, the Kubuntu project has things going very
well for it. I know that the base is the same, and that the only real
difference between the two is KDE vs. GNOME, though I'm not sure if that
means that there are other not-so-subtle differences that I'm not aware of;
I haven't used GNOME seriously in quite some time. I've found that
personally, I rather like KDE because of many different things, including
the fact that configuration of the system is a breeze. Even for someone
like me that knows how to use things like iwconfig and ifconfig and many of
the other Linux system utilities, I rather like how KDE just makes things
happen.
On my Toshiba laptop that I just purchased, I was extremely impressed with
how it picked up everything. The only things on the laptop that I haven't
yet tried to use (because I haven't had a chance to, yet) are the wired
Ethernet port and the modem (which is, admittedly, a softmodem -- It's an
AC'97 based one, though, and it appears to be supported -- I'm hoping to
test it later on today, if I get the chance, since I'm somewhere with a
landline today).
Anyway, it even picked up my ath0 device right out-of-the-box, and I'm using
it to post this article. Configuring the WiFi adapter is a breeze with the
KDE utility that is present to configure it, and so I can switch networks
without issue. And the best part is that this screen seems to be quite
nice, as it doesn't suffer from the problem I've seen in other LCD-based
laptops where you can't read the screen in sunlight. I was just reading a
news article online outside in the sun, and the screen was quite visible --
not related to Linux, I know, but still very nice.
I haven't tried Vista since the first beta release, and I was displeased
enough at that point with it that I have discontinued any further testing
of it down that arena.
Certainly, if people don't consider Kubuntu to be ready for prime-time usage
yet, it will certainly be there, I think, after the KDE 4.0 release.
There's very little in the way of the user interface that I feel is left to
be desired, and I haven't found anything in the base software that
doesn't "just work" as I would expect it to. The only extra configuration
that I had to work with was getting it to play MP3 format items, and that
was easy enough to do.
- Mike
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