Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

henrypeck reviewed v19.10 (Eoan Ermine) Beta on Sep 30, 2019

Pros: Great OS.

Cons: No 32 bit

Bottom Line: A great OS but the 32 bit version as been dropped.

lylejk reviewed v18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) on Apr 28, 2018

Pros: Surprisingly fast to install (64-bit in a Virtual Machine) and very fast to boot. Like it that the interface is more like Windows than Apple. :)

Cons: Not sure calling this a con, but this is not Ubuntu; it's LUbuntu. Definitely a difference since LUbuntu is more like Windows (bar on bottome) whereas Ubunta has the bar on top like Apple.

Bottom Line: Worth it to install; I only install LTS versions so this is the one to do so imo. :)

AlphaBetaGamma reviewed v17.10.1 (Artful Aardvark) on Jan 18, 2018

Pros: Wrong one.

Cons: The link downloads Lubuntu 17.10.1

Bottom Line: Not Ubuntu.

Aegis69 reviewed v17.04 (Zesty Zapus) on Apr 18, 2017

Nice to see I was right, too bad they wasted 7 years on trying to shove Unity up everyone's a$$, now they are are abandoning the idiotic idea altogether.

Gnome is, and always was the right choice for them, ubuntu is a great server and dominates in the cloud space, but for desktop I still recommend Debian. With Debian you never have to worry about Canonical having some retarded idea that forces all their users to change to some new stupid thing that they inevitably abandon leaving all those users stranded. My distro of choice right now is Deepin, an amazing desktop distro which leaves ubuntu behind in every way imaginable.

So ya Im never touching ubuntu ever again because they burned me too many times, but at least now they are taking some steps back in the right direction. Having said that, I have seen the pattern now and Im sure they will repeat the Unity debacle in some other form and go down this road all over again.

Aegis69 reviewed v16.04 (Xenial Xerus) Beta 1 on Feb 27, 2016

Hookay disregard Gnome too, all the Linux devs have basically missed the boat on UI and recently 2 new changes have taken place that will change everything.

Remix OS is now free, its a linux based version of Android that can be installed on any dekstop computer. Amazing.

And if you just want the perfect desktop running on Debian, Deepin Linux i now has hands down the bast UI on the most stable distro on Earth. Goodbye Ubuntu, you missed the boat completely.

Aegis69 reviewed v16.04 (Xenial Xerus) Alpha 1 on Jan 6, 2016

You can run gnome on any distro now, and gnome allows customization, ubuntu does not. Not allowing people to change their desktop is the exact opposite of what Linux was meant to be, Ubuntu is therefore the exact opposite of what Linux was meant to be.

4 years after they forced their users to have a dock on the left side that no on wanted, they are finally allowing those of us that dont have a 42 inch wide screen or tablet to move the dock to the bottom. If it takes you 4 years before you listen to your users, you are not worthy of being a linux company Ubuntu. And their other insane quest to get Linux on phones and tablets is not going to work, I mean if a multi billion dollar company like microsh!te could not get their OS on to those devices, what hope does Ubuntu have when they cannot support the android apps and have almost no apps of their own? No one wants this! What we DID want was a replacement for Windows on our desktops, but then they lost that too by trying to capture phone and tablet market.

some guy reviewed v15.10 (Wily Werewolf) Alpha 1 on Jun 28, 2015

it will make a fine Base for MInt,Zorin,and many others ,, just to many flavors of Linux to decide from..
http://distrowatch.com/

FatBastard reviewed v15.10 (Wily Werewolf) Alpha 1 on Jun 26, 2015

Why use Ubuntu whe you can use Mint...?

FatBastard reviewed v15.04 (Vivid Vervet) on Apr 23, 2015

Linux Mint is to much better than this.

Aegis69 reviewed v15.04 Alpha 2 on Jan 22, 2015

Love the distro, HATE the DE. Glad that Gnome finally is looking good and since it has extensions its a very linux like DE, unlike UNITY which locks you into everything and allows No customization whatsoever.

Check out this one simple extension on Gnome that allows the dock to be moved;

https://extensions.gnome...tension/815/simple-dock/

See Canonical, was that so hard? You are losing massive numbers of users due to your insane desktop policies.

SuzzyWoozy reviewed v15.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 21, 2014

the biggest change in 15.04 is not in Ubuntu, but in Kubuntu - this one comes with Plasma 5 as default.

Take the latest from here and enjoy (unetbootin + usb):
http://cdimage.ubuntu.co...untu/daily-live/current/

DaComboMan reviewed v14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) on Oct 26, 2014

Until top panel remains riveted, Linux (Ubuntu flavor) will remain ridged, un-Linux.
Unity panel is acceptable.

As usual, LinuxMint will surely enjoy this "make" to offer us a better build.

some guy reviewed v14.04 (Trusty Tahr) Alpha 2 on Jan 24, 2014

roj well said ! Mint or Zorin

roj reviewed v14.04 (Trusty Tahr) Alpha 2 on Jan 24, 2014

Gonna be a great base for a real distro:

Mint.

Five stars for the engine under the hood, -5 stars for UI.

I'll give it a 3.

gsteele reviewed v14.04 (Trusty Tahr) Alpha 2 on Jan 24, 2014

Works great on a netbook with a SSD. The GUI you have to get used to but after that, it does everything light years faster then Win 8.

Aegis69 reviewed v13.10 (Saucy Salamander) Final Beta on Sep 30, 2013

Elementary OS my friends, it does everything right that ubuntu does wrong. It boots fast, (yes a lot of people care about a computer booting in less than 5 minutes), the desktop looks unified along with the applications, (yes this matters too), and it looks like a real desktop and not a touch screen hybrid frankenmess.

Just go get EOS Luna, and you'll never have to worry about ubuntu screwing up your OS ever again.

some guy reviewed v13.10 (Saucy Salamander) Alpha 1 on Jun 27, 2013

still horrid ugly poor navigation GUI
Zorin OS 7 Core much better built on the back bone of 13.04 ubuntu
screen shot http://zosimg.webs.com/7/7.png
http://zorin-os.com/releasecandidate.html

mancubs reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) on Apr 30, 2013

Its gets better and better been ruining both w/8 /pro. and 13.04 13 is quicker and dose not hang ,

roj reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) on Apr 26, 2013

I can't recommend this release.

I won't be able to recommend the next one either.

The reason is quite simple:

Why would anyone in their right mind (or even their wrong mind) install an operating system that will only be supported for NINE MONTHS??

Bad enough that Canonical did the gadfly "here's a new OS every six months". Stupid? Yes. But at least each version was supported for 18 months, give or take. Now it's NINE MONTHS. That's TRULY intelligent (DRIPPING sarcasm tags). 12.04 did not become stable and usable until after the 12.04.1 release and now Canonical wants to foist an OS on its users that will only get fixes and updates for half the time it was previously supported for.

NOTHING can go wrong with THAT.

Anyone with a modicum of sense will now completely eschew the non-LTS releases and let Canonical beta test their software with other suckers.

Of course the support for visually impaired users remains spotty. Yes, you can enable Compiz Enhanced Desktop Zoom. No, it doesn't support zooming the Launcher because Canonical was too STUPID to take that into account. Yes, you can install MyUnity and enlarge the size of the Launcher icons. No it's not bloody big enough by a longshot.

So, here's my recommendation:

- Completely ignore anything and everything from Canonical that ISN'T a LTS release (including this release)
- Download and use 12.04 LTS until 14.04 LTS comes out.
- Ditch Unity as the failed interface and half baked impairment to multitasking that it is and install Cinnamon (forget MATE: GNOME2 is dead and that's that)
- If you're visually impaired, install gnome-shell-mousewheel-zoom by Tobias Quinn to get Compiz-style desktop zooming for the ENTIRE desktop

ONE star for a complete waste of time and download bytes - a nine month support lifespan is insulting anyone's meaningful intelligence.

Oh and thanks for the interesting Beta, Canonical - but I'll wait for the Final in the Spring of 2014.

Aegis69 reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) on Apr 25, 2013

Sadly ubuntu has jumped the shark, and with it the last hope of linux ever making inroads into the desktop market. If you check google trends, ubuntu peaked around v9.10 or v10.04, when it still had a traditional desktop and amazing performance, but its been all downhill from there and the trends show that clearly. Switching their desktop to a tablet/touchscreen only interface has really killed this OS but thats not the only factor, slow boot times and bad desktop performance have been a factor as well. At the same time Microsoft stepped up to the plate and made a massive improvement to Vista in the form of Win7, which corrected a lot of the performance and UI issues that made Vista such a maligned OS. If ubuntu had capitalized on their position at about the time of v10.10, made the OS even faster, even more responsive instead of making a 90 degree right turn, we might be looking at a far different desktop OS landscape today instead of heading back to the MS dominated future we are headed to. I personally think ubuntu/unity would be great for a tablet, in fact I'd pay real money to get a tablet with a real OS on it, instead of some clunky android toy garbage. But they missed the boat on that one too and we won't even be able to ubuntu tablets till next year probably.

For anyone who still wants and ubuntu based desktop that looks normal and it quite responsive, head over to Elementary OS website and grab that. Or even Linux Mint if you can handle using Cinnamon, which in my experience is just not quite there yet for day to day use.

The ubuntu/unity combo is not only completely dead for desktop computers, but its killed linux desktop in general.

marty reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 2 on Apr 5, 2013

For those that hate Unity - I do to. First thing I do is install Ubuntu-gnome-desktop which is quite good (if you like Gnome3). Also install KDE,LXDE etc etc. Lots of desktops to install. Then install Synaptic or use the Ubuntu Software to get quite a few good apps. Also yo9u can install gnome-tweak-tool or Ubuntu tweak or what and make the Unity desktop to your liking (I don't use it anyway.

some guy reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 2 on Apr 5, 2013

still a horrible GUI "Mint or Zorin my choice"

midfingr reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 1 on Mar 18, 2013

Not a review, but a observation. The download link takes me to 'Kubuntu' --KDE based , which is different than the main Ubuntu distribution.

Other than that. Ubuntu 13.04 (daily) has some nice additions/changes.

Aegis69 reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 1 on Mar 14, 2013

Unity kills this OS for me, its just ... disgusting. And no amount of polishing is ever going than change that.

Check out Elementary OS if you want something that really does 'just work'. Avoid straight ubuntu if you want to keep your sanity.

finnlayer reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Alpha 2 on Feb 16, 2013

It feels light and smooth , the start menu is not the best iv'e seen and would like a linux (Start Menu X)

The inteface and file menus, look like most linux clones, at times i feel like im using a old apple mac. I do see options, two change two other desktop box themes, still i think improvement could be made their for even bettter desktop themes.

Good amount of players, photo tools, cd software, games, if you don't no were the install manger is, you could end up a bit lost. Some sugesstion off putting shortcut two the desktop for a quick find.

I apper two have no sound, even it is listed as HDMI ati, ive tryed linux mint & a over helpfull clones and i still get no sound. I not certian how i fix this issue.

If your looking for some think outa the box, linux is quite well - some think two try if your a litte bord of windows. Daul boot and off you go..

Aegis69 reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Alpha 2 on Feb 15, 2013

Get Ubuntu, install Cinnamon and boom you have a real desktop operating system.

some guy reviewed v13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Alpha 2 on Feb 15, 2013

The work to "make Ubuntu fit on mobile" has advantages for the desktop users and recently, some changes have landed in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail (currently under development) which should reduce the memory used by some default packages
.http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/ubuntu-1304-raring-ringtail-changes.html
more flavors of Linux
http://distrowatch.com/
Zorin and Mint being my favorites for the great G.U.I "general user interface

roj reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) on Oct 27, 2012

Continues to break support for Oxygen HD chipsets which worked flawlessly in 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10 but died in 12.04. That means the Xonar family of sound cards doesn't work. Unity still fails miserably in terms of support for the visually impaired (and as a UI in general) - Compiz Enhanced Desktop Zoom STILL does NOT yet support Dash and the top menu bar.

Regarding interface superiority to Windows 8, if you believe that, you need more effective controlled substances - they BOTH dredge the bottom of the barrel and at least Windows 8 is marginally usable and less vanity-driven.

The web window dressing fluff is insulting at best - the worst kind of golly-gee-whiz glitz I'd expect from cheap commercial software.

Good underpinnings, reprehensible UI.

Download it, excavate Unity and install Cinnamon or tailor Gnome3 Classic with AWN a la Zorin.

THREE stars.

mancubs reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) on Oct 24, 2012

10/10 compared to windows 8

Music4Ever reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) on Oct 19, 2012

Underwhelmed ! You can turn the Amazon search off but you will still be plagued by add-on garbage - A backward step me thinks ?

Aegis69 reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) on Oct 18, 2012

Looks like a tablet OS, and now with more ads from Amazon? Just great, ya this is just what I need AT MY JOB!!

Hey canonical.. maybe you need to branch the OS and make a WORK version that people who have JOBS can use. And then proceed with you other crappy hand held version for people who have no jobs, nothing but money who just spend their day shopping online for crap.

The rest of us have work to do, so please fix this mess.

roj reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Beta 1 on Sep 10, 2012

12.04 was a disastrous bugfest. 12.04.1 has done a fair bit to alleviate that situation but the fact remains that the situation should never have arisen in the first place. Canonical's release schedule is FAR too aggressive. 12.04 should be released when 12.10 is going to be. Now we have 12.10. It will undoubtedly have more glitches and gotchas but in general, the .10 releases have been more stable since the .04 releases contain the golly-gee-whiz stuff and then the .10 releases actually make them work. Sadly, the .10 releases are never LTS Even Though They Should Be Given The Aforementioned Trend.

In terms of UI, my comments are on record. Unity stinks. Torvalds called it spot on regarding Gnome3 - it too stinks. Thanksfully there's Gnome Classic and XFCE Since MATE is likely to be an also-ran and Cinnamon in not ready for prime time.

Ubuntu's main value, and that value is considerable, is in forming a base to build a decent distro with something other than the included UI.

To Music4Ever:

I knew you;d come around. :) Glad you like DeadbeeF. Drop me a line on deviantArt and we'll talk. :)

THREE stars for a distro still in Beta in the hope that the final won't be the beta that 12.04 LTS actually was.

marty reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Beta 1 on Sep 8, 2012

Hard to give this a meaningful rating since it depends on how you customize this OS. I agree that Unity is crappy but as soon as iI install Ubuntu I then install Gnome3. I know people hate it - and I did too - but now that I've learned to use it I like it. Anyway I'v been upgrading since before the alpha and its good if you keep at every day.

midfingr reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Beta 1 on Sep 7, 2012

The link seems to point to Mac OS versions(?)
This one worked for me: http://releases.ubuntu.com/quantal/

I like the additions to 12.10, finding Ubuntu to be overall easiest to setup and maintain; i.e. Arch Linux took a turn for the worse in my opinion.

Music4Ever reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Beta 1 on Sep 7, 2012

Roj: To a ever increasing degree I agree with you Re: Unity:

By the time you've enabled a 'Dodge Unity' patch, & then a 'Classic Start Menu', & then worked out how to enable altering basics like mouse wheel speed which is disabled by default etc, you really need a different distro.

Although I have found the fixes I want for Ubuntu even basic customising features Windows has are removed with each release. The basis of Linux used to be user customisation & that's the one think Ubuntu is anything but good for, it does seem to be run by control freaks. Canonical almost had a nervous breakdown giving users the ability to change the size of the Unity bar without resorting to a fix, you still can't move it though.

I've been messing with Kubuntu which is a bit OTT for me, SUSE & Mint recently, & I still feel Ubuntu is the best solid base around to start from.

The changes in this release are minimal.

BTW DeadbeeF is by far the best sounding Linux player there is thanks for that tip!

roj reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 2 on Jul 2, 2012

From being an industry leader, it has reached the stage where Canonical's best contribution is the base upon which to build a better distro.

For their native offering I remain unchanged in my view:

Still Unity, still crap.

Zorin OS has a far better stock UI - it's based on the Ubuntu core but with an intelligent interface with multiple alternatives. I'll be going from MInt 10 to that - it actually works out of the box the way Mint 10 and Ubuntu 10.10 did. There IS hope for this community after all. :) Mint has fallen prey to the same mess as Ubuntu: it ignores the visually impaired. You can see how if you read my review.

ONE star: excellent underpinning, the rest garbage. Linux is NOT helped by this egocentric UI. It's also not helped by a group that ignores the physically disabled on purpose and repeatedly.

@Music4Ever:

How'd it go with DeadbeeF? Also, regarding Windows 8, I share your view which is why I'm never migrating. It has nothing to offer me or any other user.

@Šbb Kbb:

One of the biggest problems Linux has ever had is the elitist "Linux iz 4 smrt uzrz" rubbish. Easy interfaces == GOOD. Simple interfaces == GOOD. Apps should be intuitive, easy to get to, easy to use. Linux didn't have this until about three years ago. Unity is a step backwards; it is neither simple nor intuitive. Any interface that requires users to type in application names as a primary method to execute them is retarded and Unity typifies that. In trying to be simple, it utterly lost its way. Say what you will, Windows (at least until the 7 generation) and the Mac got it right. The two flagship interfaces for Linux, unity and Gnome 3, are so far off base they have achieved the anatomically impossible. All this to say that making it easy doesn't mean it's dumbed down. The dumb ones are those who decry those easy interfaces.

Šbb Kbb reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 2 on Jul 1, 2012

Once a great distro now being dumbed down for the not so bright Facebook generation :-)
Sadly, its a global phenomenon

Music4Ever reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 2 on Jun 29, 2012

The best Linux distro for me. If you don't like Unity (I do) use something else. There are lots to choose from. You can still use the 'classic menu' with Ubuntu if you really feel the need but you are far better using the likes of Mint which I also like.

Linux would probably do better if it it didn't use such stupid names 'Ubuntu' for starters &' Quantal Quetzal' for seconds, then they wonder why people think of Linux of some sort of weird club. Of course they can call it what they want but then Linux desk still has around 1% share & that's not about to change ~

@Šbb Kbb - That seems to now be infesting all parts of PC software - Just look at Windows 8? I have no idea how I'm even going to start to integrate that piece of app-crap into my life.

roj reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 1 on Jun 10, 2012

@music4never (no, that's not a typo)

Why do I keep reviewing it?

Because other distros are based on it and will inherit the folly of the source, Mint being a case in point.

Why do you not have issues?

Because you're not visually impaired and therefore completely ignorant of them - actually I could have put the period right after the word "ignorant".

For every user that likes Unity there are two more that don't which is why Canonical's market share shrinks and continues to shrink. The "It just works" motto has long since gone the way of the dinosaur and a LTS release that is badly broken for visually impaired users is ample evidence of that.

It's not particularly of concern that you're underwhelmed by the number of machines I have. If I added in the server, the four other workstations, the four laptops (Macbook Pros as well as Wintel beasties), a couple of O!Play devices, the various iPads (three), iPhones and Droid phones, the multiple routers with wireless handoff across three floors... well, it gets a wee bit more complex. Works flawlessly. though.

ONE star.

Your mileage may vary - many others certainly do.

some guy reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 1 on Jun 8, 2012

while I do like the Ubuntu OS I hate the way the User Interface is laid out. I do not like the new menus and the subcategory layout so my favorite pic is still Ubuntu based 12.04 Zorin they did a fantastick job with the user interface
http://zorin-os.com

My second is Linux Mint http://linuxmint.com
both Ubuntu based but the user interface rocks

Music4Ever reviewed v12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 1 on Jun 8, 2012

@roj ~ it's most intriguing you have two machines though don't girt carried away as some people have more so I'm not overly impressed ~

If you don't use or like Ubuntu why keep reviewing it, there are lots of Linux flavors out there, though your ramblings regarding myself are irrelevant ~ To give Ubuntu one star is plain silly if you are a Linux user & says a lot about you as does your racist comment ~

I actually like Unity so 5 stars

EDIT: roj ~ I think you have lost the plot:

Stop blaming planet earth for your problems ~

'It's not particularly of concern that you're underwhelmed by the number of machines I have'

From your huge reply it looks like you are actually ~

mancubs reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) on Jun 6, 2012

hey Roj if you don't like it go use something else ,its called freedom of choice

roj reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) on Apr 30, 2012

EPIC FAIL Canonical, as far as visually impaired users are concerned.

Compiz Enhanced Desktop Zoom does NOT work with Unity elements since the introduction of Unity as the main interface. This situation is typical and symptomatic of the poor planning which produced the haphazard disaster that is Unity. You have now produced THREE releases of the OS where you have not remedied this, one of which is a landmark five year LTS version that locks visually impaired users out of using this OS.

If Microsoft or Apple did this today, they would be flayed mercilessly, yet you feel that this is acceptable. One of the reasons I started using Linux was its excellent support for visually impaired users. You have now on three separate occasions tossed that enviable record right into the toilet bowl.

Thanks for putting us out in the cold after 10.10.

Thank God for Mint, Cinnamon and Tobias Quinn's Gnome Mousewheel Zoom utility.

Music4Ever:

Given that I have two machines, one of which runs Linux and the other Windows 7 and I'm no mindless Linux fanboi, you'll excuse me if I snicker at you. Linux has the market share it deserves because of the actions of its community. It still has no interest in (or simply doesn't understand - take your pick) the consumer space, doesn't cater to it and will not expand market share because of that. A blind guy can see that - this one certainly can - and I call a spade a spade. I also have to say that Microsoft has done FAR more for visually impaired users (the magnification option in Windows 7 is without peer - except on the Mac) than Canonical has. The latter took off into the fantasy of its own delusions of grandeur and left a large percentage of the community (including visually impaired users) behind when it did. The whole concept of "it should just work" died the day Unity was born.

Aegis69:

Stability restored? Are you kidding me? I downloaded and did a fresh install on my test box, updated it and then installed Gnome Shell (another abortion of an interface and one with so-called "accessibility options" that are an insult to visually impaired users, but that's another story). I log in and about 45 seconds after login with the OS Just Sitting There doing nothing, a message from the OS pops up that there is a problem and do I want to continue. Yup - great stability. I'll agree that 10.10 was damned near perfect but that was the last time that Ubuntu amounted to anything worthwhile.

ONE star for a distro increasingly lost in space and a guarantee that I will never again use or recommend it.

C'mon Mint Debian: get up to par soon because we need you!

Aegis69 reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) on Apr 30, 2012

The long nightmare of the 11 series is finally over, U12 has restored the speed and stability of the 10 series finally! You'll have to install gnome shell as Unity still makes no sense whatsoever.

Music4Ever reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) on Apr 30, 2012

I think Ubuntu is for me the best of all distros, & I've tied a few - Each to their own though ~

Give MInt 12 and Cinnamon a try; you likely won't look back ~ I have & still prefer Ubuntu - Sorry roj ~ You wonder why Linux still has market share of 1% when you scathe a very popular flavour just because you happen to prefer another? MS must be laughing at you ~

Five worthy stars ~

roj reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 2 on Feb 25, 2012

Well, Canonical persists in its hubris.

Unity still limps on.

Byte It Canonical, Clem and Mint/Cinnamon have your number. In the short time that Cinnamon has been around it has already surpassed Unity in usefulness and configurability. It took the failed Gnome3 garbage and made it shine. In two years Unity still remains lacklustre and broken.

Canonical, let go the ego and the hubris. You took your ball and went home when the folks at Gnome wouldn't play ball. Look where it got you. If you had one lick of sense, you'd cut your losses and embrace the only alternative that appears to be working: Cinnamon is light, fast, and usable which are three strikes against Unity.

As I've stated before, your underpinnings are great. Your interface stinks. You can't even fix the enhanced Desktop Zoom plugin which visually impaired users rely on, an issue you claimed to be working very hard with the Compiz devs to fix. There's already an app that provides that functionality under Cinnamon thanks to Tobias Quinn.

FOUR for underpinnings, ZERO for interface, resulting in TWO overall.

To readers:

Give MInt 12 and Cinnamon a try; you likely won't look back.

mancubs reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 2 on Feb 4, 2012

Ubuntu rocks , it brilliant

Aegis69 reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 2 on Feb 2, 2012

Ubuntu is now a failed experiment. Linux is still awesome, but if you want the real experience you basically have to go with straight Debian.

egg83 reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 2 on Feb 2, 2012

I certainly hope it does not have that Unity or whatever the interface is called. I have opted to switch distros because of the user interface. Is a painful choice, because it is a really great distro, but having the launcher on the left is a pain!! If they took it and moved it to the bottom, would make a whole lot more sense! Or, if they would allow you to move it to where you like, would be good also.

some guy reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 2 on Feb 2, 2012

well dauh but how does this version run? the last 3 versions have went down hill laggy as crap and video very choppy as hell!
Running Mint due to a better Gui

Uriel reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 2 on Feb 2, 2012

At least Linux 's number one agenda isn't data mining and selling you stuff like Apple and Microsoft. Linux is is a good operating system.

roj reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 1 on Jan 20, 2012

@mancub:

You get what you pay for with MS. And Apple.

What you get with Ubuntu now is a bunch of idiots re-inventing the interface wheel and failing miserably at it. The underpinnings of the OS are solid; the interface is a retroactive abortion.

With MS and Apple you get interfaces that are tried and true, support ease of use and accessibility and in general evolve smoothly and don't suffer from ego and hubris.

Pay? Damned right. Get what we pay for? Damned right. I'm a Linux fan but the community needs to get its head out of its azz regarding interfaces and Unity and Gnome 3 are both prime examples.

TWO stars for a distro that's only fit to be the underpinnings of other distros that actually listen to users: Kubuntu and Mint.

mancub reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 1 on Dec 6, 2011

Is it not amazing all these people are moaning about, Ubuntu 11.10 my advice go back to M S and pay

Aegis69 reviewed v12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Alpha 1 on Dec 1, 2011

Ubuntu is now a failed experiment. Like all people who know NOTHING about computers, the idiot who runs Canonical saw and opportunity to cash in by turning it into a Pad/Phone/Touchscreen operating system. So he ordered his people to make that happen no matter what the cost. Well the cost was that they utterly destroyed the only hope we had for Linux Desktop to ever be taken seriously. Now its a kids toy, and will never be adopted by anyone for anything.

mancubs reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) on Oct 20, 2011

have been running . now for a few weeks , not one problem compared to ms smooth, beautiful dash , easy to use very well thought out , this is the corner stone for me
, using a very up to date comp ,good by ms and your over charging o s blue screen of death reboot slow re ponces ,

roj reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) on Oct 14, 2011

Unity was, is and remains utter garbage.

Also Canonical's abandonment of visually impaired users is abysmally disgraceful and discriminatory. Compiz Desktop Zoom STILL doesn't work with the Unity interface - it zooms the applications but not the interface itself. How STUPID is that design flaw? Apple and Microsoft kick your butt miserably in that department, a department in which you easily were their equal until the half-baked ill-thought out disaster called Unity was released. Video performance is still choppy and that's on a 3.4Ghz Quad Core w/8gb RAM and an ATI 5670 w/1Gb. As Apple had with Leopard and Snow Leopard and Microsoft had with Vista and Windows 7, you had a chance to get it right moving from 11.04 to 11.10.

You Blew It.

Complete ZERO for the interface, FOUR for the underpinnings.

That results in an average of TWO.

This guarantees that I stick with Mint 10 (which I went to when Ubuntu 11.04 was inflicted upon us). Mint 12 uses a half-baked variant of Gnome 3 as a bandaid for that ill-conceived UI and is not suitable for prime time and the MATE interface is a mess since it's alpha code at best.

reddy.shyam reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) on Oct 14, 2011

Been using it since alpha2. Prefer shell over unity and works very well as expected my end.

elitegangsta reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) on Oct 13, 2011

I went to do a minimal installation to build up from scratch (as I always do) and upon downloading the base system, I received NUMEROUS missing package errors and was unable to grab them off the repositories. Either everyone is doing the same thing or these packages are simply not there yet. Unacceptable to me for these are boot loader and other core system files needed to operate properly. Cannot rate a system higher than a failure if I cannot even get past the initial installation!! First time I've EVER written anything but a 5 star review for Ubuntu, very dishartening and frustrating!

roj reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2 on Sep 26, 2011

I'll wait for the Mint variant based on this. All the backend advantages, none of Ubuntu's interface wannabe weirdness (Unity). Good work on the infrastructure though.

FOUR stars.

elitegangsta reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2 on Sep 26, 2011

Excellent as always. I prefer the non Unity based desktop or a Gnome 3 upgrade or even Openbox, but the kernel additions, and backend is perfect as always. Love it.

mancubs reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2 on Sep 25, 2011

I have just down loaded Ubuntu 11-10 I can say without a doubt that this is the corner stone that we have been waiting for. Compared to Windows 7-8 Microsoft you have now met your match...it has passed you in every sense!! I quality, graphics and lay-out!! Response is instant and I salute all those guys and girls that achieved this in their free time. I f I could I would put a "10" to this OS
Microsoft you are only worth a "5" you are past your sale date!! to all the people that criticized it, "take a 2nd look". it is by far becoming # 1 OS and is FREE!

reddy.shyam reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2 on Sep 25, 2011

Guys, I dont like unity too but we have an option. Dont we? gnome. Ubuntu 11.10 comes with 5 environments, GNOME, GNOME classic, GNOME classis (without effects), Unity and Unity 2D. Plenty of variation and choice depending on user taste and system's hardware. So I think its just great!

Richardky reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2 on Sep 25, 2011

very sad , unity is horrid and always will be , i always loved the progression and boldness in change that ubuntu has always taken but this is a major step backwards , im sure of its all geared towards touch screen future but its gonna be a fail ... i still use ubuntu on my laptop but first thing that goes is unity and if the day ever comes i cannot do that then it will be the day ill switch to an alternative .. used to not be able to wait for the next releases but now its like oh no i hope they have not butchered it any further ! sorry .. with all that said i am a ubuntu fan and user i just hope they get back on track just my opinion.

some guy reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2 on Sep 23, 2011

Nice over hall like the Interface, but did not like the structure, of navigation menu,made IT harder to navigate.
still prefer Linux Mint over thios .
UPDATED SCREEN SHOT-Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 2
http://files.myopera.com...9-23%2021%3A55%3A25.png

reddy.shyam reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Beta 1 on Sep 2, 2011

Looks very polished, getting better and getting there! Though unity is coming up well, I switched to GNOME as main UI. I just love it over Unity though it isnt bad at all.

reddy.shyam reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 3 on Aug 5, 2011

Just couple of days ago tried gnome desktop and to my surprise, its stable enough to me. Last time I checked, couldnot do anything with it. This is a great improvement for alpha3. Developers are continuing to improve unity as well but I prefer gnome over unity for eye candy sake.

Poseidyon reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 2 on Jul 13, 2011

Great and versatile distro , everyone should try it !!!

reddy.shyam reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 2 on Jul 8, 2011

Ubuntu 11.10 comes with 3 desktop flavours. gnome3-shell, unity and unity 2d. So user has ample choice. Its not that he is forced to use Unity or anything. At the moment gnome-shell is not usable but its still alpha2. A great distro this is and keeps bringing new stuff all the time. I love it!

Aegis69 reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 2 on Jul 7, 2011

I love linux, its amazing, its the future no question. Mac and Windows will proprietary themselves out of existence and rightly so.

But ubuntu is a dead distro, sorry but they are just like Mac forcing their insane desktop down peoples throats. Sorry ubuntu, but I actually had to go back to windows until I find a better distro. I hope you guys go down in flames now, and I'm fairly sure thats going to happen.

mancubs reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 2 on Jul 7, 2011

ubutu 11.4 is brillant

egg83 reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 2 on Jul 7, 2011

I have found out that when you log out, and switch to classic Gnome, you will have the old familiar interface back! Yes! That Unity, or whatever it is, is too weird for me, they have to tweak it and make it a little more user friendly. Reminds me of the direction that KDE took with their interface, from making it user friendly to something out of a Star Trek movie. Alphas are buggy, so expect some weirdness.

netean reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 2 on Jul 7, 2011

I used to LOVE ubuntu. it was amazing, easily the best Linux distro by miles. Then came 11.04 with Unity - a dogs dinner of usability, poorly thought out, poorly executed interface. An interface for geeks not everyday users . With 11,10 Canonical are doggedly sticking to this utterly poor Unity Desktop paradigm that is fundamentally flawed. After 11.04 I switched to Linux Mint and I'm never going back, Mint is excellent and everything Ubuntu 11.04/11.10 should/could have been

anandee reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 1 on Jun 13, 2011

Unity as desktop manager...
I would have rated 5 stars if they marketed it as an ad to persuade users to switch to Linux Mint!

roj reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 1 on Jun 3, 2011

11.04 was enough to get me to switch to Mint 10.

A dev version of Compiz, the inflexible disaster that is Unity, a broken Enhanced Zoom... Mint is polished, stable and not at all a "let's throw it at the user as a final even though it's a beta and debug it on the fly" affair.

The Ubuntu crew is going to have to go a very long way to get me back - Mint is the polished and tested version their OS should be.

A neutral 3 for 11.10 in the hope that Canonical will get its head together and get past the hubris that made them assume that half-baked unity was a viable fully developed interface (those take years - many of them - to build).

reddy.shyam reviewed v11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 1 on Jun 3, 2011

I would wait for a while before even test this version or upgrade. Too earlier and too buggy. I haven't succeeded in booting so far. Rating is for this Alpha1 release only.

egg83 reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) on May 2, 2011

Hmm. The new interface is different indeed. No more scrollbar, but it has some sort of toggle switch thingy, is alright as long as you look for the hash mark on the side of the window. If you have a rather large file you are viewing, can be fairly hard to find the scrollbar. The program bar is located on the left, is reminiscent of Avant program launcher, but have not yet found how to customise it yet. Installed on my laptop, all devices are detected, have had no stability issues thus far. This thing is bleeding edge, in my opinion, and I would recommend that old school Ubuntu users stick to 10.04 LTS, this distro will not be for those that abhor change.

Uriel reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) on May 2, 2011

Nice but they really need to make it more user friendly.

mancubs reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) on May 2, 2011

Well lets get to the point , i have bought 98/98se mil/xp pro/ vista/ 7uitmate/ and from xp pro its been down hill. AL the way with Microsoft, and a lot of wasted dollars , crashes , blue screen of deaths , complete hard drive , renew with ,Microsoft, lots of recoveries , massive check and scan disk , need I go on , massive up dates and just about any thing else .So I started with Zorine , a good Linux o s , the moved to mandriva/ then to open suse then to Xubuntu now I am in to the 11/04 Ubuntu , it is by far the best o s I have ever used and I am ruining a state of the art comp it is poetry in motion with NO problems what so ever it is much quicker than any thing I have used before , I WOULD LIKE TO SAY A BIG THANK YOU FOR OR YOU GUYS AND GIRLS THAT HAVE BUILT THIS and I am now moving away from Microsoft ,

roj reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) on May 2, 2011

I am so disappointed with Unity. It's got a LOT of potential but another six months of testing would make the difference. I'm visually impaired and 10.10 was completely usable right out of the box. 11.04 isn't usable at all with Unity (the classic interface is but I had to implement completely missing Compiz settings from scratch that were the default in 10.10). This is Canonical's Vista - I didn't expect display corruption when zooming in and out using Enhanced Desktop Zoom and stock drivers. I also didn't expect the default zoom settings present in 10.10 to be absent in 11.04. Finally, I didn't expect the sidebar and top menu bar and search feature (an EXCELLENT search feature BTW) to NOT be zoom-able - that's a really obvious oversight.

Other visually impaired users have reported the same issues and bugs have been opened for some of them. Apparently even open source doesn't learn the lessons Apple had foisted upon them with Leopard and Microsoft with Vista:

Test properly and thoroughly.

Eschew the PR splash in favor of stability and reliability.

Give people features they WANT and not what YOU think they should have.

Here's hoping 11.10 will have a properly tested Unity, considerable more configuration options in same and excellent compatibility with all the apps 10.10 supported.

I won't be switching until those criteria are met.

THREE stars for what could have been a FIVE if the requisite time and effort had been taken.

@mancubs:

You must have some seriously crap hardware. I've been running the MS NT operating systems since NT 3.51 and I have to say that the only things that have ever brought down 7 is seriously junk hardware or drivers.

FatBastard reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) on May 2, 2011

I didn't like Ubuntu before and now without Gnome I like it even less.

elitegangsta reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) on May 2, 2011

@FatBasterd Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu. Being such, Linux Mint is always a trail behind for they have to wait for Ubuntu Final before they release their next version. You can get the same results by installing whatever window manager you like in Mint to your Ubuntu install and it will be virtually identical.

This release is great, just as all the last. Continues to improve and is certainly one of my top favorite distributions.

some guy reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 2 on Apr 15, 2011

mint is based on Ubuntu they just changed the GUI a bit

FatBastard reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 2 on Apr 15, 2011

Ubuntu is ok but Linux Mint is much better IMPO

Nollie reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 1 on Apr 2, 2011

Oh no ... not that old screenshot again ! Now we're never "selling" Ubuntu for free.

Better go to http://www.omgubuntu.co....-beta-released-reviewed/

smanofsteel76 reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 1 on Apr 1, 2011

Natty may replace Windows on my desktop and definitely on my laptop. There's never been a better time to switch to Ubuntu. Natty rocks! Unity rocks!

Aegis69 reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 2 on Feb 7, 2011

I recently bought a new machine, took my old dual boot hard drive out and stuck it in the new machine. Well what do you know, Ubutnu boots up just fine on partition one, but my Win7 partition blue screens on boot (I thought win7 was supposed to be so much better than XP!!??). Since there is no way to fix windows once you get a boot blue screen, (I tried all the methods, believe me) I just wiped out my Win7 altogether and I'm 100% Ubuntu now. Goodbye forever winsh!t, no more reinstalling you whenever I make a hardware change or get a virus. Good riddance.

some guy reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 2 on Feb 4, 2011

good stuff should have a big OL beta news Pick by it but then again they might have not paid B.N their contribution fund!

Nollie reviewed v11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 1 on Dec 4, 2010

Yep, better all the time. But why such an old (standard and ugly) screenshot ?

Real news about 11.04 alpha1 on: http://www.webupd8.org/2...rwhal-alpha-1.html#more

And: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha1

Frostek reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) on Oct 14, 2010

What can I say? I've been running Ubuntu as my only home operating system for the last five years and the 10.10 release continues to work extremely well for me.

Keep up the good work, Canonical!

elitegangsta reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) on Oct 11, 2010

Excellent release as always. I was also surprised and very pleased by the integration of the new Unity interface for the netbook edition of 10.10. Looks to be a lot sleeker and simplified compared to later versions. Great work!!

soldier1st reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Release Candidate on Oct 2, 2010

getting better and better with each new release though it gets a 4 as it is a unfinished product but when the final is released it will be top notch. i have a dual boot ubuntu+windows as i was getting tired of Windows doing it's typical complain from time to time and Ubuntu has some good builtin apps to check various things like your hardware that you would have to install manually and usualy for a price in Windows.

Alpha258 reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Release Candidate on Oct 1, 2010

Been using Ubuntu for about 3 years straight now. Ubuntu is the only OS I have on my PC and its all I need. Since 10.04 Ubuntu is becoming even more user friendly and elegant. I have been testing 10.10 in Virtualbox for quite some time now.

10.10 is going to be a great release... alot of work has gone into improving the new features included in 10.04. Can't wait to install!!

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Release Candidate on Oct 1, 2010

Been testing it since Alpha2. Rock solid my end. NVidia drivers dont work for my old card but thats because NVidia didnot update their drivers. Nothing to do with Ubuntu team.

paranormal.mystic reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Release Candidate on Sep 30, 2010

There's some wonderful work being done with Ubuntu. I'm glad to be a part of it!

Getting better every 6 months and the Canonical team and volunteers; kudos to you all! Great release!

Aegis69 reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Release Candidate on Sep 30, 2010

Ignore the 12 year old troll JackRegan who only uses his computer to play Call Of Duty.

The fact that I can do everything I normally do on a computer WITHOUT microsoft fascinates the hell out of me. Even some things I need Windows for can be done by simply installing Wine. Most of my DX games run in Wine too, but with a little work.

10.10 is a great release, boots twice as fast as Win7, is slicker looking and faster at the desktop level than Win7, in fact in just about every way its better, safer, more secure than any Windows OS thats ever been released.

MY favorite thing, and the one that was the hardest to get used to, is that I no longer have to run maintenance tools like Defragging, Spyware checking and resident Virus Scanners. All those things are not needed with Linux, so if you are a performance freak like I am, this is definitely the way to go. Your morning or weekly routing of checking for bugs, updating the virus checker and then defraging will be a thing of the past. In fact if you are like me you'll have XP or 7 installed in a VirtualBox so you can scratch the defragin itch every now and again.

Contgrats to the whole Canonical team, this is another great release. There is no stopping Linux now.

beelzebub360 reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Beta on Sep 7, 2010

works great minus nvidia drivers. For some reason, So for now sticking to Nouveau drivers.
is getting bloated & slow..
Req. High speed net for softinstall..
so Cannot use on notebooks/laptops on the go..
From 64mb RAM to 512MB !!!!!
Whats next?? 4gb minimum??

JackRegan reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Beta on Sep 6, 2010

Very useless.

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Beta on Sep 6, 2010

marty, unfortunately 256.x is not compatible to 96 drivers. so there is no hope in sight but mine is a very old pc. so no complaints.

Been using maverick since alpha2 without any major issues.

marty reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Beta on Sep 4, 2010

Update from 10.4 via Alt-F2 run Update-manager -d works great after you use suod aptitude to update 230_ files first. As for Nvidia driver you can download v 256.x direct from the Nvidia site and update your driver

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha 3 on Aug 9, 2010

soldier1st, just in case you are not aware, by rating, you are not rating the spammer but the product.

Alpha 3 works great minus nvidia 96 drivers. For some reason, I cannot get my screen resoluion greater than 800x640. So for now sticking to Nouveau drivers.

some guy reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha 3 on Aug 6, 2010

TLees sorry for your bad review, I run a dual boot and in some ways windows is better just for the 3rd party support aps, but linux by far is more advanced OS ,
lets just look at the file system shall we, you never have to defrag like a windows based OS, as the others have stated out of the box it just works, yes if you have a problem it can be hard to find a solution, but they have a great web based forum, and all the people are very nice and friendly, and you will find the answer that you need. ubuntu security blows the doors off windows based. They have updates at least ounce a week VS MS ounce a month if your lucky. as i said I'm not anti windows I run a dual boot but if you know your crap then I will respect your opinion...

Dalek reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha 3 on Aug 6, 2010

Excellent product as usual from Canonical. Just got a dell laptop with no driver disk. Nothing detected with a default windows install. Installed Ubuntu and everything worked out of the box. Switched from Windows about a year ago and haven't looked back.

Alexander-GG reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha-2 on Aug 2, 2010

What I want to see in Ubuntu:

finally the normal videocard support, like in Mandriva. While Mandriva installs the new (2010 year) driver for my ancient nVidia card (173.14.25) Ubuntu installs 7 years old (173.14.22) driver. I do not want even to talk about the other problems with the videocard settings on Ubuntu. First 10 years of 21th century have already passed. Time to think about the proper drivers support. Without this Ubuntu (and other Linuxes) will always stay as just the second desktop for enthusiasts.

What I do not want to see in ubuntu:

Pulse audio. Please, remove that sh*t.

YankeS reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha-2 on Jul 7, 2010

Great, but still no raid (raid0) drivers for Asus M4A89GTD PRO (amd sb850)

soldier1st reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha-2 on Jul 5, 2010

very good for a beta.
TLees: you sound like a MS fanboy and MS Employee trying to downplay Linux. Go home and actualy try Linux instead of saying MS is better n yada yada, Linux is not the same as it was 15 years ago it is actualy better not worse. for Ubuntu it gets a 5 but the MS Fanboy/Employee he gets a 1.

TLees reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha-2 on Jul 4, 2010

Are you all insane Linux is no better today than it was 15 years ago, I.e. COREL LINUX tinkering around the edges and more distros based on other distros is all you Linux people ever do If you want the man in the street to use Linux, make their printers and scanners work, make it so you can have a dual monitor setup, and make it so you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get them working. My gran aged 79 can install windows onto a pc and install her printer plus setup dual monitors just by reading the on screen prompt’s. I’d like to see any of your gran’s do that with Linux.

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha-2 on Jul 2, 2010

Nothing new visually still. Rock solid my end.

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Alpha 1 on Jun 4, 2010

Upgraded from 10.04 to 10.10 alpha1 yesterday. So far so good. NVidia drivers still holding good. Looks stable enough for me. No crashes so far. All programs working as expected. Nothing new visually though.

JEdwardP reviewed v10.04 LTS on May 11, 2010

Three of the four bugs I considered annoying were fixed in this release, and although I agree with many users that moving the minimize/maximize/close window buttons to the left was a ridiculously bad idea, moving them back to the right was far too easy and quick to merit reducing my overall rating.

I've now used Ubuntu as my primary OS for both personal and business activities since July 2007 and have yet to have a reason to regret that choice, so for me, it deservedly retains its five-star rating.

Xenmaster reviewed v10.04 LTS on May 7, 2010

Found a bunch of old PC parts and threw them together
Intel 3ghz pentium 4
2 gigs ddr ram
80 gigs hd seagate 7200.7
Nvidia 440mx 64mb ram
Airlink 101 Wireless N PCI adaptor
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
Ubuntu Linux 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS

Everything worked right out of the install
Able to run 3d games with good performance even though I am using an ancient graphics card. Playing many of the FPS game available through Playdeb.net also installed wine and World of warcraft playing at about 25-45 fps with settings on low..still it works great! My 2 other pcs both with better hardware one with xp and one with vista cant even pull that! I had no idea how to use Ubuntu but there really wasnt a learning curve..even installing and running windows software using wine was far easier then I expected! Im hooked on Ubuntu, dual booting or clean installing it on all of my computers!

Meeky reviewed v10.04 LTS on May 7, 2010

Stuck the window buttons on the left... Sure, it's not a big deal to change but it is a big deal when you put up a poll and the majority of users said they hated it but you implemented it anyways. Way to remove usability in order to be "edgy" and "different", Mark. Changing it back is YET another thing users have to do to make the OS usable. Can't wait until they move the scroll bars to the left too.

spikey27 reviewed v10.04 LTS on May 5, 2010

I recently updated to 10.04, and have had no problems. I haven't tried all its features, but so far everything has worked properly.

to kdplt: Be sure all sets of volume controls are "go" otherwise you will not get sound.

In the upper right corner, about the 5th set of data/icon from the corner is one for a speaker. Click on it and if it says "unmutel" click on it so it shows "mute all". Also make sure the "Sound Preferences" mute box is unchecked, and put the slider somewhere in the middle.

Best wishes.

krgood reviewed v10.04 LTS on May 4, 2010

The last two releases (including this one) seems to not install correctly as previous releases have. Install seems to go fine, no error messages, then when install completes, a reboot is required. Rebooting brings up what appears to be a command prompt (grub>) and it just sits there waiting for me to do something. I have no clue being new to Ubuntu arena. Registered to a Ubuntu support group and asked for help, each time. No response...Ubuntu may be a good system but so far, I cant say that it is...guess I will stick with windows...at lease I can get some help if needed.

kdplt reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 30, 2010

I just upgraded from Karmic to Lucid. I started with Intrepid. I had more problems with this upgrade than with the others. I still can't get any sound from any browsers.

eek-1 reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 30, 2010

ATI's fglrx drivers are not yet available for this one, so Radeon users you might wanna wait longer until it's ready. Otherwise use the open version and not having Compiz fx.

nika27 reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 30, 2010

Bug no.1 in Ubuntu :)

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

Great comment there FB! You hit the nail on the head with this one. Are you being published anywhere by any chance? I want to read more of your insights.

FatBastard reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 29, 2010

Ubuntu never grows up.
It sucks compared to Windows 7 and Mac OS X.

midfingr reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 29, 2010

I'm finding myself using MSFT Windows less often these days; albeit Windows 7 is good, however, the customization and freedom of using a Linux-based operating systems has really come a long way.

I performed a clean install and choose the decrypt home folder option /w password for my login. As soon as I logged in, I was asked to type in a pass phrase to encrypt my user folder--pretty cool stuff. One thing still missing is Empathy does not offer any chat encryption, so it was back to Pidgin for me. Other than that, everything works extremely well and is very responsive, quick boot time, along with a relatively safe computing environment.

I've never been a big fan of Wine, although the efforts are appreciated, my belief is to make use of what Ubuntu has to offer and when you need Windows, then dual-boot if applicable.

As for the memory leak concerning Compiz, I use a simple app to toggle between Metacity and Compiz; Compiz Fusion Icon, which is in the Software Center. Although I haven't noticed anything horrific, regardless.

jcollake reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 29, 2010

@ilev: Their awareness of the bug actually is reason TO trust this version, as you can bet it has been fixed by the release date, or will be fixed in a minor update that will quickly be forthcoming. Perhaps its reason to delay a slight while, but the bottom line is that its better they are aware of it, than to have no problems reported, but some bug lurking (which is often the case with new versions of any software).

As for Ubuntu, I find it a highly valuable contribution to the linux 'sub-culture'. It has introduced many new people to linux and is an easy to use distribution. There are still areas, particularly in third-party hardware support, that aren't quite as smooth as Windows, despite the best efforts of UBuntu.. but that's not their fault, it is the fault of all the hardware vendors who focused only on Windows drivers. Bottom line is that they've done a good job, and it will work well for a lot of people -- not everyone, but a lot.

It also is nice to have an open OS. I don't think every application always needs to be open source, but an OS, being fundamental to the system's integrity, security, and operation is better off open source. It also helps ensure that the OS manufacturer doesn't have an edge when it comes to application development and integration.

And, lastly, WINE /w Ubuntu really does a great job of executing the vast majority of Windows applications out there. Not all of them, and not all of them perfectly.. but its a nice bridge for those with Windows applications that they depend on. It is really smoothly done, IMHO. It basically creates a pseudo-virtualized Windows environment into which you install Windows applications. They run natively, so performance is approximately the same (not including differences in the underlying OS). The small intermediate abstraction layer required is hardly a performance penalty at all with today's processors.

Oh.. and the price can't be beat ;)

Aegis69 reviewed v10.04 LTS on Apr 29, 2010

They need to update the screenshot here;

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_1Q..._Q/SS_Selection_007.png

U10 boots a lot faster than Win7, I have a dual boot and its literally loading in half the time. I get to Firefox a full 50 seconds faster in Ubuntu. In spite of them moving the buttons to the left, I love 10 so far. It faster, smother, slicker, and does everything 95% of computer users will need right out of the box and on a single 700meg CD.

I used to think beating WinXP was going to be impossible, but now Ubuntu is a lot better than both XP and Vista, and its closing in fast on Win7.

ilev reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Release Candidate on Apr 23, 2010

Don't install as there is a memory-leak problem :

Ubuntu 10.04 Is Hit By Major X.Org Memory Leak : http://www.phoronix.com/...news_item&px=ODE3MA

mjm01010101 reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Release Candidate on Apr 22, 2010

I'm a full time Ubuntu user on a personal level now. I no longer trust or use Microsoft or any other vendor (Google, Apple, etc) other than open source providers to store personal data. yay!

I'm a Microsoft IT Admin for 15 years, too!

elitegangsta reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 2 on Apr 12, 2010

GadgetPig's review is pretty dead on. Overall fantastic release as always though!

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 2 on Apr 12, 2010

Fixed all NVidia 96 driver related issues with this release. Very stable and as good as production release.

GadgetPig, you can move minimize/move buttons to right by using ubuntu-tweak tool.

http://ubuntu-tweak.com/

AutoBot reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 2 on Apr 11, 2010

Ran an apt-get update then upgrade to get the latest packages (300+ megs) and the upgrade to beta 2 went smooth, fixed the immediately noticeable bugs. I hope the upcoming kernel upgrade goes as smooth.

No real issues or complaints, but what's to complain about really...

GadgetPig reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 1 on Apr 6, 2010

Testing 10.04 nightly now, I really like the new color scheme and better overall polish than earlier alphas. The shift of the minimize/close buttons to top left corner doesn't bother me at all.

some things to improve the OOB experience:

-make liberation sans/serif/mono THE default web fonts inside Firefox. These fonts are intended to render the web closer to what's seen on Windows and OSX. This is the first thing I change and sites like Craigslist and Google look better.

-install flashplayer 10.1 beta3 (single .so file) to /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.3/plugins

wish-list:

-wish there was an easier way to install DIVX codecs for firefox
-dump evolution and replace with thunderbird+lightning calendar plugin
-lower default sound volume so it doesn't blast your ears on first startup
-more aggressive repository schedule with regards to apps like firefox/openoffice/gimp/etc. I want to be able to update firefox to latest version from official repository (as soon as it's released )without having to wait for the next Ubuntu release or modify sources list.

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 1 on Mar 23, 2010

Getting better and better very test release. Beta finally fixed my ndivia drivers issue which was stopping compiz to activate. Two new themes (Ambiance and Radiance) added. I personally like X-IVi Human Deluxe theme.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/...rk/Incoming/Lucid/X-IVi

AutoBot reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 3 on Mar 21, 2010

I'm not much on Ubuntu, but this release Beta 1 as of 3/21/2010 (running a nightly from 3/20/2010) is quite nice on my Dell XPS M1530 laptop. Everything is recognized and ready to go from the default install, this is just not so in Windows 7 or any other version for that matter.

I have yet to give it a full battery of tests, but my boot times are around 25/30 seconds and shutdown in around 4 seconds...this is slightly better than Windows 7 on the same machine. Sleep works correctly, the Nvidia drivers installed without a hitch, Broadcom Wireless installed without a hitch, Bluetooth working good, these are things that are usually a bia*ch for most users.

This is for the X86_64bit build, not 32bit.

I hate to do it, but as a beta release Ubuntu 10.04 is pushing a 5 star rating and deserving it.

reddy.shyam reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 2 on Jan 18, 2010

Very very stable for an alpha 2. Did a fresh install over weekend and had no major issues so far. Having trouble to get my NVidia graphic card to work but thats because mine is very old card. Worked very well on Ubuntu Karmic. Few patches are coming up already, lets hope it gets resolved soon. Removal of HAL has definitely improved my boot time. Ubuntu Lucid feels very quick and light compared to Karmic, to me. Extra pane in another noticable thing on nautilus.

FatBastard reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 2 on Jan 16, 2010

The Ubuntu people need to update their primitive ugly userinterface ASAP.

ruemere reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 2 on Jan 16, 2010

It's alpha. Not a beta or release candidate. In other words, you're expected to have problems and provide reasonable feedback to developers. You're also expected to look out for problems with new features.

As it is, you should either try 9.10 (latest stable) or wait a few months for the beta.

That said, this is very usable alpha release, with a lot of helpful docs to navigate around issues. The developer response is stellar (with crahs bugs resolved in the course of two - three days). It's also much more stable than alpha release of 9.10. Kudos to Ubuntu for Launchpad and various measures allowing to get out of most problems (it's really hard to reach unrecoverable state under this system).

Summarizing: you get points for trying this release. Just do set your expectations appropriately.

Regards,
Ruemere

Regards,
Ruemere

catchpole reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 2 on Jan 16, 2010

Mepis, Mint, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Slackware, Sabayon, RedHat, Gentoo, Arch, CentOS, xubuntu, mythbuntu....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

krgood reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 2 on Jan 15, 2010

Here we go again. Downloaded ok, installed OK, but when reboot system came up in some command mode telling me to hit the tab key to see available command which mean nothing. This is two in a row now...In order to do any kind of testing, it has to at least boot up. Now, I am sure I will get some wise cracks about it being an alpha...so be it...but it still gets a 2 for downloading, burning and installing...what next??

krgood reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 1 on Dec 13, 2009

Downloaded OK. Burned OK, Installed OK...but when system rebooted, it failed. Get Error message on boot "Out of Disk". Disk is a 500gb empty drive. Reinstall did not help...Not ready for testing... I give it a 2.

Jesterace reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 1 on Dec 12, 2009

Keep in mind it's in an alpha state eh?

catchpole reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 1 on Dec 12, 2009

No thanks.

egg83 reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 1 on Dec 11, 2009

Am reviewing 9.10, am not sure how Ubuntu 10 LTS got on this thread, but anyhow, have been trying several distros for a while, and this one for me is the best Ubuntu ever! Has been very stable, all my hardware devices work (YAY), learning curve not that steep. Jettisoned Windows for this distro, tired of all the crap you have to install just so you can feel "safe" on the net.

some guy reviewed v10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 1 on Dec 10, 2009

why is beta news mixing this will all the version of Ubuntu ? each version should have it's own reviews and not mixed with early versions this goes back to 2004 lol

Galifray reviewed v9.10 on Nov 24, 2009

I really want to like Ubuntu, I do, but this latest version is a big CD sized fail. Some fundamental change between 9.04 and 9.10 renders it unable to run on my laptop computer. It starts and stalls just after asking me what language I want to use. Using Wubi from within Windows results in a fail to install Ubuntu. It simply stops. No error message or anything.

While I can understand Canonical wanting to make 9.10 Windows 7 friendly, it should have kept backwards compatibility to run on older hardware, just like the previous version.

Earwicker reviewed v9.10 on Nov 14, 2009

Hmm, this is the flakiest version of Ubuntu I've ever used, it shows all the signs of having being rushed out before it was ready. It didn't work with my CD-ROM drive so I had to swap with another computer to get the live CD to work, then the installer crashed half way through the install, then Grub froze and didn't respond to the keyboard... OOo is clunky and horrible and the overall performance is slow and generally below par.

Merry Christmas Mr Gates!

thylacine reviewed v9.10 on Nov 2, 2009

Installed Kubuntu 9.10 on a ~2003 Dell Dimension 2400 with 2gb RAM. Very stable, fast, and reliable on an almost 7-year-old machine.

UniversityofKentucky reviewed v9.10 on Oct 30, 2009

In a word ... STABLE.

coover reviewed v9.10 on Oct 30, 2009

Seems to be OK, though I am a bit worried that there may be problems coming up. I installed this "within" Windows 7 ... It is actually a dual boot situation. Two problems encountered so far. When installing, it required a re-boot. The re-boot got to a point where the screen was totally black and this lasted for about 10 minutes. I grew tired of the wait and forced another re-boot. This time, 9.10 actually booted to desktop. The second problem occured when I decided to see if there were any updates. Of course I knew that the chance of updates on the day that the version was released was slim, but I tried anyway. I still don't know if there are any updates as I haven't tried in the last 12 hours or so since install, but at the time, the updating software failed to complete. I tried 3 or 4 times, and I'll probably try again sometime today. If it works, I'll edit this review.

Edit: I have tried again to update and 3 files were added to or modified within the original operating system. Update is now working.

One other problem, however, has raised it's ugly head. When I boot the computer, I get a choice of either Windows 7 or Ubuntu. I expect this window. But after choosing Ubuntu, I get another screen offering me 3 choices, two are Ubuntu and the other is Windows 7. This screen should never come up unless I specifically ask for more boot options. Weird!

some guy reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Release Candidate on Oct 23, 2009

out of the box it rocks found every driver apon install XP- Win7 failed on that part on my triple boot system

ruemere reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Release Candidate on Oct 23, 2009

High quality release. Even better than 9.04. Stellar support.
Very recommended.

Regards,
Ruemere

RitoSwan reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Beta on Oct 8, 2009

I'm not interested in Project System Stall.

buntuDude reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Beta on Oct 8, 2009

I have been testing Karmic Koala for a couple of days now on a 64bit machine and it works great. Boot up is greatly improved (faster), applications are more polished, Firefox is the newest version as is OpenOffice. All in all it is a very good upgrade or will be when it is released. The beta, so far, has not given me any problems though I have not tried it on any other machines. I have read a few other reviews that really like the new netbook interface and the features that have been added or improved. All in all it will be a very much appreciated update to 9.04.

reddy.shyam reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Beta on Oct 5, 2009

A great distro (very stable for beta, having been testing current release since alpha4) but still did not see much changing visually since a few previous releases.

Ubuntu-Dude reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 6 on Sep 26, 2009

As a fluent Ubuntu user, I love it as far as the variety of alternative programs, the GUI, and how versatile that it really is. Wine isnt perfect, but it gets what i need done. And i havent switched to windows in 8 months now and i am doing well.

mancubs reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 6 on Sep 20, 2009

itried it its good but needs little polish to it thought fedora was better also tried suse as well looking at mint ,in all kicks the crap out of Microsoft

Aegis69 reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 6 on Sep 20, 2009

I like Ubuntu, but I use Linux Mint now. Its far more polished and smother, plus it has a lot less bundled enterprise apps which average home uses would never need like Evolution. Thunderbird is a far better/smaller email client and comes standard with Mint.

dhry reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 6 on Sep 18, 2009

Wuh.. Windows is NOT free?? (covers mouth with hand in shock)
And another clarification: Linux went mainstream a long time ago - plenty of giant corporations now run Red Hat Enterprise in their backend servers. I hereby dismiss everything the previous reviewer says as complete sh!te. Ubuntu is great, but I'm sticking with Windows anyway.

bopb99 reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 6 on Sep 18, 2009

Windows is NOT free! Every computer costs 100-200 more just for windows.
(Netbooks get a 3$, non-transferrable, more limitations... licence for WinXP.)

Ubuntu is in fact quite good. The only problem I had was with the bootloader.
Now that GRUB2 is in place, the problem is solved.
With ubuntu currently, I can do everything except running Windows programs.
Wine is very helpful but still doesn't cover everything. With a few more years, wine can be used with Linux to completely replace windows!

Developers can support Linux and Windows without much hassle.
(It's less trouble compared too supporting multiple versions of Windows.)
Here an article about someone who's a developer and did switch:
http://anteru.net/2009/09/14/604/

Although these good qualities about Linux, I think it will take more than five years for Linux to get mainstream. It will take more time to get a good all-purpose package format. Because this is what Linux needs. A package format to distribute binary packages on an easy way. Developers can have the freedom to make their own package that will work for all Linux distributions. This is what current Linux is missing, a good package format.

GadgetPig reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 6 on Sep 17, 2009

One of the better distros out there, would like to see application/menu font sizes better proportioned, still shows up like this:

M Y D E F A U L T I C O N T E X T S H O U L D N O T B E T H I S W I D E BY D E F A U L T

The maintainer needs to get updated apps faster into main repository especially openoffice/pidgin/firefox. I shouldn't have to update distros or edit repository just to get the latest versions of applications. apt is rendered useless if the main repository itself contains outdated apps.

read my words: in 5 years, most of us will still be using windows and/or mac, that's just the reality. I'm not a brainwashed "IWantToBelieve(TM)".
5 years is not magically going to make single UI unification, stable ABi/API, or cause developers to leave profitable platforms and make apps for Linux Desktop. Linux Desktop is fine if you want a simple OS for web browsing/email, and light duty stuff. Otherwise Windows or MAC is still your best desktop all-purpose OS since it comes FREE with almost every new PC/MAC and it has more productivity and games. Using WINE really doesn't make sense, tehre should be more native apps. If viruses terrify you, run everything under sandboxie and get one of the many FREE antivirus out there.

http://limuxwatch.blogsp...ion-count-timeline.html

some guy reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 5 on Sep 3, 2009

you dont have to use that lame default theme, Download Cario Dock and your's could look like mine in a matter of minutes.
http://files.myopera.com.../663346/2Screenshot.png
or
http://files.myopera.com...663346/Screenshot-1.png
or
http://files.myopera.com...s/158222/Screenshot.png
very simple great OS the guy that said it was a bad win 98 copy lol get real!

Ain Soph Aur reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha-3 on Jul 24, 2009

@catchpole
i think you just putt the wrong CD in without realizing...

its really a great os! remember my words, in 5 years you can throw microsoft away

catchpole reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha-3 on Jul 24, 2009

terrible Win 98 copy

Aegis69 reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha-3 on Jul 23, 2009

Ok I almost hate to do this, but here goes. If you are sick of maintaining your friends and relatives WinXP installations, defragging, spyware checking and general maintenance then I have a suggestion. I have done this on several machines and only a couple people have caught on.

Install Ubuntu, (use Wubi, make it easier to get rid of if someone really hates the 'upgrade') use the following guide to make it look exactly like Windows 7

http://my.opera.com/ubun...untu-look-like-windows7

Tell them you upgraded their computer to the newest version, win7 or vista or whatever. Most will be thrilled if you do it correctly.

jkohler2 reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 2 on Jun 13, 2009

I have been or board with Ubuntu since 6.06 and **never** could get a WLAN (wifi) connection with the Acer inboard WLAN adapter. I always used a USB adapter which worked well enough in the coffee shops and libraries. That is, until Karmic Koala. Somebody has created a universal WLAN adapter that works with the most recent Linux kernel. Right on, Ubuntu! Humanity towards all!

BoiseComputerService reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 2 on Jun 12, 2009

I have been very happy with Ubuntu as of late. I do find it amusing that people give a low rating because they don't know what Linux is. As for the comment saying it is a bad copy of Windows 98.... You are really showing your ignorance. If you mean a copy of Windows 98 that won't crash, runs very fast, and as in my case can run Windows 7 in a VMWare instance just as fast as it runs native... Yes. I guess you are right. I don't treat Linux as a gaming machine even though I do play some games on Linux. Last week I upgraded my motherboard/processor from a AMD X2 3500+ processor to a AMD quad core. So a full motherboard/CPU swap and linux booted up with the new hardware without blinking. Imagine doing that in Windows. I didn't even have to reboot after it got loaded up. My VMWare instance of Windows had to reboot even and that is emulated hardware.

some guy reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 2 on Jun 12, 2009

good stuff ouit of the box this bad boy comes pre loaded with what you need.

I wish they would fix the flash issue though

reddy.shyam reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 1 on May 15, 2009

Been using since 7.04 and haven't looked back. 9.10 current release is great to be an alpha1 and very stable. Nothing new visually though. Just the kernel and gnome updates so far and yes, openoffice 3.1 final. Thats all I could see.

Great distro!

thartist reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 1 on May 14, 2009

Since i've tried Linux Mint 7, based on ubuntu 9.04, i laugh at ubuntu itself.
You know, ubuntu feels "better" than most but pretty much never get's to feel "just right" and is kinda unstable.
Mint is a distribution terrifically more finished, polished and improved overall on usability and includes Flash Player and many codecs by default. No b*tching to watch your movies or listen to your music.
I am really not a linux guy, but only with Linux Mint i feel i can barely care about it.

That's my recommendation for users in a mostly-windows forum.

Frostek reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 1 on May 14, 2009

I've been using Ubuntu since 6.06, and it continues to go from strength to strength. Highly recommended!

catchpole reviewed v9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 1 on May 14, 2009

ubuntu (linux) is a very bad win 98 copy.

JEdwardP reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on Apr 28, 2009

The new notify-OSD is highly annoying, but thanks to the brilliant Martin Pitt, can easily be gotten rid of. Upon doing that, I'm left with the best version I've tried of a very fine OS.

Alexander-GG reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on Apr 27, 2009

One of the best OSs I ever have tested. Boot time is much faster than Win XP has. Fast, secure, lite system with all needy applications and with a great customization features. I rate it 5.

budzis reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on Apr 24, 2009

Booting - 3x slower than XP on P4 2,2Ghz and 768MB ram
I do not know why, but Gnome do not start in 70% bootings.
Sound are loosing and returning after few minutes... Well, there is Linux (or Ubuntu?) and hardware problem maybe, with Mint Linux 6 is same story. Windows XP has not this problem

some guy reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on Apr 24, 2009

great OS free comes with all the goodies built in open office , the gimp, cd-dvd burning software, and many other out of the box, I think it beats any other OS.

reddy.shyam reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on Apr 24, 2009

Rock solid! Servers my purpose.

anomoly reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) RC on Apr 20, 2009

If nothing else I just read the latest ati drivers (9.04?) support ubuntu now with a few dependencies of course. I could kick myself for buying that diamond card with it's @#$%^& proprietary drivers.

Landsnes reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) RC on Apr 18, 2009

Unbelievable!

Version 9.04 of Ubuntu is an extraordinary achievement! The speed improvements are extreme and the new notification system is perfect! I've been using the development version for about two weeks now and I've had no problems. Because of the updated kernel, Ubuntu now supports the ext4 file system, which among other things provides better performance, and I've had no problems with it so far.

Pure excellence, full score!

Aegis69 reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) RC on Apr 17, 2009

U9 is pure genius, huge speed improvements over U8

Anyone not giving this a try is missing out, get WUBI to install in windows!

viveksj reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Beta on Apr 8, 2009

One of the best OSs out there. Pick up and works fine with every piece of hardware on my Toshiba A100 laptop. Hotkeys works like charm(after a BIOS update).

One think i still don't like that its total boot time (from beginning to the point of use) is still 15-20 secs more then Win XP. I know i should be comparing this with Vista but XP is still dominating OS out there and can't be ignored. But this issue still can't stop it from being my favorite OS (specially Ubuntu 9.04)

Ryusennin reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Beta on Mar 27, 2009

Best desktop Linux in my opinion. Just don't count on wireless support (WiFi, Bluetooth) as it is positively nightmarish to get working.

If you're running a nifty PPC-based system, get your daily Xubuntu build from here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/ports/

sx66gns reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Beta on Mar 27, 2009

Fantastic OS I've been using it for years on multiple computers. But this recent pull of "display-config" is asinine. And the issue still is not rectified. If the hardware detection doesn't properly detect your LCD or it detects it as a CRT , Your screwed. You'll be running at 800x600.

Detects flawlessly on all my other computers but the one I need it the most on doesn't.

William Grant needs to bring display-config back , bottom line.

btw , PCLOS , SUSE all detect it without issue.

reddy.shyam reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Beta on Mar 27, 2009

Been using Ubuntu since 7.04. Haven't returned to windows so far. I would say 9.04 alpha releases have been very stable. I upgraded to 9.04 alpha 4 and never had to reinstall/downgrade. Video card driver issues still persist but there are work arounds too.

Only sad thing is visually nothing drastically changed since 7.10 or 8.04 but I am not complaining. Its free and well worth it. Only notable change is new USplash.

srrao reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 5 on Mar 6, 2009

Speed a great improvement.

Have had no issues since installation. This is the first time I tried with a Alpha release and am happy.

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 5 on Feb 27, 2009

While I prefer the Kubuntu sibling, the guts are largely the same. I actually have had a much smoother experience with these "alphas" than I ever had with Intrepid. This is likely due in large part to the 2.6.28 kernel. Something I don't quite understand however is why when I install the latest daily build do I still need to download a couple hundred MB of updates?

I've not yet had problems with any of the various nVidia cards that I have access to, but the oldest one I have is a 6600 series. Older cards may have issues I have not run into as nvidia has separate drivers for older models. Lastly, the new ext4 file system is very welcome upgrade. I really couldn't believe the speed boost from ext3.

As much as I love GNU/Linux distros and open source software in general, there's still much work to be done in order for Linux to be widely accepted by everyday users. The problems are not when everything is installed and working as they should be, but rather getting to that point. I've had too many experiences even recently when a non-tech person would have given up. Luckily the improvements that are implemented, even from month to month, are rapidly bringing Linux up to speed.

jspratjr reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 4 on Feb 6, 2009

Why do idiots feel the need to review Vista when reviewing another OS? Think I'll review Vista and join the club - I'll sum it up in two words - love it.

Ubuntu? couldn't tell you but I'll give it a 4 because I'm a nice guy.

Signed,

Another idiot

some guy reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 4 on Feb 5, 2009

i like it but I still can't get my Nvidia drivers to install , they need to make it easy to install a dam video card I don't want to type a paragraph of code to get it to work. Other then that out of the box it's pretty sweet. Come pre built with all the tools cd dvd open office ect..

jprovostla reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 3 on Jan 25, 2009

with Vista, I spent half my time doing maintenance and worrying about viruses and the computer was spending half its resources checking for viruses and enforcing DRM... Vista takes forever to boot up & shut down... Vista's footprint is enormous???

with UBUNTU there's no maintenance whatsoever and no virus fighting ... no DRM enforcement... boots up & shutdown quickly... small footprint... very easy to get familiar with it... tons of free software... no M$ tax every year... infinitely customizable...

what are people doing on Vista??? search me???

cowgaR reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 3 on Jan 20, 2009

installed as 3rd boot... a real Joke compared to Windows Seven beta, too many cons to mention...starting with horrible fonts and ending with childish un-ergonomic GUI

only insane people can compare this to an achievement Windows 7 is nowadays, or students with too much free time masturbating with the "free beer" slogan.
Linux hasn't changed since 2002 when I was supporting its codebase a little (KDE 3.0 alpha though...) and was using it as my main OS for couple of months. I'm glad I've moved to the real world.

ghammer reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 3 on Jan 19, 2009

Fair for an alpha of anything, much less an OS.

BTW- Joco, when you change over to Ubuntu, kindly send me your Vista keys. No sense in them going to waste after all.

Joco reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 3 on Jan 19, 2009

@Reynolds: you were able to use your computer to log into this site and leave a comment. Then you ask what you can do with Ubuntu?

Ubuntu will allow you to use your computer. The same way than Windows or Mac. My daughter had volunteered to switch from XP to Ubuntu 3 months ago. Since then, I no longer waste anytime to clean up her computer. In terms of user experience, she likes better Ubuntu. She is not impressed by Vista and will definitely stay for good with Ubuntu.

I have also setup another Ubuntu machine for my wife to play around. She is more reluctant to changes but is slowly picking up the Ubuntu look & feel.

Next will be me, Vista -> Ubuntu. And we will probably end up 100% Ubuntu at home.

The MAZZTer reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 3 on Jan 19, 2009

Please don't post a review if you're not reviewing, that makes the download rating more and more useless. There IS a "Discussion" tab now.

It's a free Operating System. Many would desire Ubuntu to eventually be in direct competition with Windows. In some ways I find Linux-based OSs such as Ubuntu are already superior (better driver support, superior program/package management tools, better and more flexible command line tools, endless libraries of free software). IMO the main thing Windows has right now is application compatibility... people are simply locked into Windows. The Wine project is getting better at running native Windows apps in Linux, so hopefully I'll be able to ditch the buggy and exploitable Windows OS soon enough.

As for what EXACTLY you do with it... for starters a good thing to do is to use a CD burning program to read the downloaded ISO file and make a CD out of it. Then you can boot your computer and try out the OS without needing to install anything (although you can if you want).

Reynolds Cognag reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 3 on Jan 19, 2009

ok.....so what i do with this?

horsecharles reviewed v9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 1 on Nov 24, 2008

EDIT: be very careful with this first v9 release...we've all been spoiled rotten due to the great Ubuntu past performance of initial releases almost being production system-stable...
________________________
I can't say enough great things about Ubuntu...and the great progress it's made so quickly.

Just a short while ago one needed to be a Linux expert...just updating apps almost required a computer science degree...now it's a breeze.

And that was a great lesson learned: if you aspire to replace windows, or at least not be relegated to niche status, you have to copy some of the methods and ease of Windows.
That's all that Ubuntu(Linux in general) really needed-- as Windows(and or its third party apps) is just not ready for 64bit after all this time.

And once we get the looming 16 / 32 /64GB memory systems into the mainstrem, is when we'll really see Linux shine...just a simple VirtualBox will run all windows apps at the same speed we run them now natively..
I would really love to see some desktops with Cell Processor & Linux....

Many, many kudos to Mark & Canonical for the great work.

Landsnes reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Nov 20, 2008

(8.10 64-bit)

I love it!

This release fixed every problem I had in version 8.04! Awaiting better 64-bit Flash and Java support. Adobe is coming along with the newly released 64-bit flash beta, but Sun is lagging behind.

PagingDrLeoMarvin reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Nov 11, 2008

Excellent, I'll never use Windows again!

nilst2006 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Nov 2, 2008

I give it a 3. There are some quite annoying bugs in 8.10. 8.04 didn't have them. It did upgrade smoothly from 8.04 to 8.10.

idius reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Nov 1, 2008

It seems like they rushed a little too much on this one. I guess it might be a good thing that they stick to their planned release date no matter what happens. After all, you don't have to upgrade to it immediately. It just seems like some people were procrastinating on this one....or they had fewer people working on it.

For some reason they don't have a real-time kernel for SMP systems for some reason (which is basically all systems). So I can't upgrade to 8.10 without losing my real-time kernel.

sx66gns reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 31, 2008

Man , they really dropped the ball on this one. The lack of displayconfig-gtk is just asinine.

There's no way to force ubuntu to use a generic flat panel LCD when the proprietary Nvidia drivers detect it wrongly as a CRT, That's why the thing was there in the first place , hidden , I'm all for saving a meg and a half on the install disc but not when it rips out functionality.

This is what you have to do now when it doesn't detect properly:

[1. Isntall the restricted drivers System —> Hardware Drivers

2. Select the recommended drivers, install and reboot.

3. Backup the original /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

$ sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.org

4. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

$ sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

5. look for the Section “Monitor”

add the following lines[DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE]:

HorizSync 30-81
VertRefresh 60

6. look for Section “Screen”

add the following lines[DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE]:

SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1920×1200_60?
EndSubSection

7. Then do:
$ sudo nvidia-settings

then from X Server Display Configuration select the 1920×1200 resolution
and 60hz

8. Saving the X configuration File [while nvidia-settings is still open]:

$ sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

save file as /etc/X11/xorg.conf

9. edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf if needed be repeat 5 & 6

10. then Reboot and press the autosize button on the LCD

And here is a copy of my working xorg.conf file:

Code:
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Configured Monitor”
HorizSync 30-81
VertRefresh 60
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Monitor “Configured Monitor”
Device “Configured Video Device”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1920×1200_60?
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “glx”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Configured Video Device”
Driver “nvidia”
Option “NoLogo” “True”
EndSection]

zridling reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 31, 2008

Increased driver support. Nice bug fixes. Nothing really major, just keeps getting better and better. Best review is at PolishLinux.org: http://polishlinux.org/l...10-a-positive-evolution/

JEdwardP reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 31, 2008

I've seen some slight slowness in a couple apps. and a couple of mildly annoying cosmetic bugs, but otherwise, this is a very solid release that I can recommend to anyone who isn't completely bound to Windows.

Contrary to a recent review, it does NOT come "without Firefox"; in fact, Firefox 3.03 is its DEFAULT browser, and you certainly CAN log on as root, if you simply enable the feature in preferences.

In addition, if you want to upgrade to OpenOffice 3, adding launchpad's OpenOffice repository to your software sources list is all you need do:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu intrepid main

Richardky reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 31, 2008

A great release, everything works out of the box never a need for driver hunt or even the aggravation of installing drivers including wireless thanks!!

never a need to authenticate a genuine crap !!

never a need for a virus/malware,rootkit,adware,spyware,bloatware,reg cleaner,junk cleaner,and scanners ect ect, again!!

I could keep going ...

DudeBoyz how old are you ? 10 .. you have no clue what your talking about ..

comes without firefox ? huh ? it has the latest greatest 3.03 including the ability to upgrade to the beta that just came out.

openoffice 3.0 is as simple as copy and paste to update to it .. any linux user knows this no big deal

log on as root is disabled by default it doesn't mean you cant do it lol , and i have no clue why you would need to .

Its surprisingly funny how people will downside Ubuntu simply for being easy to use.

no complaint here i would rather be using my computer than working on my system all day .

sjc1963 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

I just reinstalled this and it works right out of the box with my ATI HD2600 Pro Video card!

Alexander-GG reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

@ DudeBoyz

Do you really think that Mandriva is for a "capable users with knowledge"? It's just funny. If you want the "real" Linux try Rad Hat.

The main idea of Ubuntu is to be as friendly as possible. It's pretty good as for newbies as for the well skilled Linux users. There are still some bugs, but I rate it 5.

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

It should have come with Office 3.x already installed instead of 2.4.

For some reason, on my setup, FireFox 3 is not listed in any of the menus or in Adept. Neither is GIMP.

It should have the very latest versions of these apps installed by default:

OpenOffice.ORG Office Suite
Gimp Graphics Program
Firefox Web Browser

At least it has Dolphin included by default.

The frustrations with the disto trying to "protect the end-user" from the impact of a real, mature, professional version still exist.

You should always be allowed to log-in as ROOT by default.

If they are going to be holding the hands of everyone who wants to install it, at the expense of the flexibility that experienced Linux are used to and require, then I think that is to their detriment.

I think a user would be much better off downloading the DVD distribution of Mandrake 2009 and working with that setup.

It can still help insulate inexperienced users to some of the hard core stuff, but can also give experienced users the type of functionality and flexibility that they need to have.

Ubuntu / Kubuntu in it's current 8.10 distro is basically a Neutered Offshoot that gets in the way of users who are looking for a more robust experience.

Try this on for size:

Ubuntu / Kubuntu = Baby Bear
Mandrake 2009 = Momma Bear
OpenSUSE 11 = Pappa Bear

There you have it. In a nut shell, imo.

Juhandra reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

If this Ubuntu is a "fluent" as Open Office, I'll stay far far away from it...

Aegis69 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

Openoffice 3 is VERY simple to get in Ubuntu 8.10, have you heard of google?

http://news.softpedia.co...Ubuntu-8-10-96449.shtml

This version of Ubuntu is great, my non-supported ATI card works with hardware acceleration out of the box with this version, many many other improvements as well.

Satansgeek reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

N.B. Adding the latest releases of major software is really easy...just look for the backports pages to find them...thus OO 3.0 not being in the release is an insignificant issue.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports

pr1xsel reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

Even this official final Ubuntu 8.10 doesn't give out latest Open Office , how could they not give OpenOffice 3.0 ?

Vimes reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

Continues to improve and develop nicely. I had thought that I preferred a KDE interface but I have got to like the Gnome one better.

Even though Ubuntu has done much to improve the Linux experience for many people, which has to be a good thing, there are still too many idiosyncrasies with the OS which can make it so difficult for the new Linux user to overcome. There are at times situations where some knowledge of using the CL is important as the GUI just isn't enough.

Still hopefully as Ubuntu works its way through the alphabet things can only get better...

fredlkrue reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on Oct 30, 2008

Keeps getting better and better...

sps reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Release Candidate on Oct 26, 2008

Development/Release team does not care for users opinions...
Event Sounds do not work;
Suspend does not work;
Hibernation does not work;
Some keyboard layouts do not work;
No Openoffice 3.0

All these bugs were intensively reported by many many users (in launchpad.net and ubuntu forums), also by me, no replies at all:(
The sound bug is easily solved with some updates to libcanberra, but the release team refused to include in RC, probably the fix won't make it to final too:(
It sounds too amateur for me, shame on release team...

blahman2005 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Release Candidate on Oct 26, 2008

just a hacker ripoff of window. All copied from microsoft, desktop idea,interfase.

computershack reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Release Candidate on Oct 25, 2008

Still haven't fixed the Hard Drive Load Cycle bug.
Power management still sux.
Still haven't fixed Windows Network Share browsing in Nautilus which worked in 7.10 but broke in 8.04.
Older nVidia cards are no longer supported for 3D.

If you want a decent version of Ubuntu, go back to 7.10.

wolseleydude reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Release Candidate on Oct 25, 2008

Ubuntu is a great operating system. It is unfortunate that some moron (who obviously never heard of alternative Internet browser and still lives under IE's malfunction), felt compelled to give Ubuntu a one. Ignorance is no bliss.

newruler reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Release Candidate on Oct 24, 2008

I've been running it now since Alpha4 and the Network Manager being able to keep WPA keys for me is wonderful addition that I also appreciate. Running the 64bit version, everything on my Laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad T60) works like a charm. Also printer setup is getting even better with this version as well. Only downfall is OpenOffice 3.0 didn't make it into this version, it won't make it till 9.04 it looks like unless installed separately. Aside from that loving it.

dovel reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 19, 2008

I've had great success with the wifi. I know it was a pain on Gutsy. The only problem I had early in the piece was that the Network Manager was not able to save WEP keys etc in the Password Manager, meaning that I had to keep a copy of the WEP key in a Tomboy note for each time I had to connect. REally annoying. That problem seems to be fixed now, at least I don't have the problem anymore. Overall I love it. Tabs in Nautilus (almost had a flame war with the Nautilus team over that one a year or so ago), Easy wifi etc, nice themes (darkroom is real nice), and in general things work pretty smoothly.

esh3 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 5, 2008

I been trying to run Linux and I found configuring wireless a nightmare on my laptop. Can anybody please comment on the wireless connectivity on this this version. Thank you in advance.

teseglet reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 5, 2008

Been using the Beta for about 48 hours with excellent results. One issue with the previous 8.04 has now been corrected and that was Firefox 3 would not always open in the center of the screen like I have the system set up for it to do. Now it does open in the middle every time. There is also a Rhythmbox Plugin that allows for the window to be closed but the music to keep going. Overall the graphics seem to flow a bit smoother than the previous edition. So far so good.

peispud reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 5, 2008

Excellent OS , no complaints whatsoever . I can't believe some twat gave it a one because their M$ crapware couldn't follow a link . It's a wonder some people can find the power button on their PCs .

Alpha258 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 5, 2008

@nilst2006
Reviews means you actually review the software, not for complaining that MS Internet Explorer is rubbish.
---------------------------------------------------
Review:
------
Well at this stage I have converted from Windows five months ago. I wiped XP completely and I don't miss anything. Ubuntu 8.04 is a great release and 8.10 looks like it has improved on that in every way. I use Ubuntu for everything except games. Luckily Wine runs all my games and runs them even better than my friends Vista PC.

Brilliant!!!

nilst2006 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 5, 2008

Download links doesn't work at all. Error in the header. Internet Explorer was unable to download the file....

yizuman reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 4, 2008

Ubuntu just rocks, I have it on my secondary machine. So I KVM my monitor/keyboard/speakers between the two systems, one windows and other Linux. I can't live without the other.

rilles reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 4, 2008

Known Issues

There are several known bugs that users may run into with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds.

*

A problem that could result in corruption of the firmware on Intel GigE ethernet hardware has led to the disabling of the e1000e driver in the Linux kernel included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. Ethernet devices that use this driver cannot be used with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta; support for this hardware will be re-enabled in daily builds immediately after Beta and this issue will be resolved for the Ubuntu 8.10 final release. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/263555

Jesus Christ reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 4, 2008

Does this beta of Ubuntu 8.10 include a fix for the kernel bug that corrupts the firmware on the gigabit ethernet adapter found in Intel ICH 8 and 9 chipsets? Last I checked, all Linux distributions that use the Linux 2.6.27 kernel have this bug. The only workaround is to remove the "e1000" kernel module which disables the network adapter.

ivaarsen reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

I'm a huge fan of Ubuntu Linux, but Windows will forever be in my life. I know that because I'm in the IT profession.

The way I see it, if someone doesn't know anything about computers in the first place, if they don't know what they're doing, what difference does it make what operating system they use? 90% percent of the world's computers run Windows. What with all the viruses and malware, I would say you do yourself a favor of getting out of that group, ESPECIALLY if you don't know computers so well. Not saying there's no such malicious programs for Linux, but they're certainly not as common as for Windows. I try to tell everybody I know who wants a computer to "only to surf the net, do email, and simple stuff" etc. and I've started telling them, "If that's all you want to do, stay away from Windows."

Need to be savvy? Need to be a geek? ...Maybe a little. You gotta read a little, and know where and how to look. So what? If you ask me, that's a big problem with most computer users anyhow. They don't look at what they're doing, they're not paying attention to their computers. That's how all that malware stuff happens. What it comes down to is - if you're comfortable with how to set up a Windows PC, you won't have any problems with Ubuntu. And there's a world of apps on the internet that are all free. Even the install itself already comes with about 5 times the usability of Windows.

obscur156 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

@thartist
I really dont know what your talking about!!!

I am doing even more with ubuntu 8.04 then Winblows with less bugs lollll.

Ubuntu is doing wonderfull things for me and i am not a geek,just an intelligent person :-)

intrepid is doing what i want it to do ,period.

Long live ubuntu

Best regards.

osric reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

@thartist:
Can you be a bit more specific? As you might be very well aware, the focus of distributions like Ubuntu is on the user and on usability. So, could you detail what kind of usability issues did you face?

thartist reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

Have dropped my hopes on linux, be it ubuntu or any other, be it gnome or kde, because it's usability (beyond starting any app from the menus, duh) is from the caveman ages. Not a software-installing app nor any amount of visual effects will change that. take notice of that.

I see it this way: USER -> OS -> HARDWARE: PRODUCTIVITY. It's impossible to think that the user has to learn a lot of technical content to operate somewhat profficiently the OS, which should be a cotton-smooth :P connection between you and your pc. NO MATTER HOW GEEK ME OR YOU ARE, that's is a horrible misconception. Yeh, and stop pushing the insults to whoever complains on usability.
Plus, with few exceptions, terribly poor/basic/amateurish software doesn't help but to deeper sink the situation.

I love freeware, open source and freedom but this thing isn't beyond mediocre and really, i say it with no hate.

- - -

Anyone can report his experience? Is it better than the slow and buggy 8.04?

idodialog reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

Jeez - I'm hardly a Ubuntu fanboi but some people need to get real. No software! You just have to be kidding. It has polished effective software for literally anything you would want to do. Wine lets you run your missing windows favorites. Visual effects with Compiz-Fusion are second to none, its safer than windows, its stable, it updates better than any other operating system (apps too) and it's free. Its hardware identification is terrific
Yes there remains some issues but it works out of the box.

fuhayer reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

i prefer kubuntu more but Kubuntu has NO desktop icon feature like ubuntu has. also the browser of Kubuntu kongueror and IM applications are better than ubuntu.

sjc001 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

Matador477, where have you been? Much of that is changing all of the time now.

Matador477 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

Except for some tweaking and problem resolving, there's little to be done here, since it's a platform without any real software for it. It's good for geeks fighting boredom, but there it also ends.

twosrd reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 3, 2008

In reviewing any distro of Linux, to a large extend my satisfaction or dissatisfaction depends on how well my hardware is correctely identified and the correct drivers loaded and configured automatically. (I have a HP Pavilion dv8000t CTO Notebook.) Ubuntu did a great job on this beta and seem further along than Mandriva 2009 RC2. There is much to like. I installed it on my notebook with a dual boot Vista/Ubuntu setup. Give it a try. Recommended.

citrus reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 2, 2008

@netean

You, are an idiot. and why the hell would you censor "turd". grow up and use your brain once in a while.

/rant

Ubuntu has come a long way from its conception it has helped a lot of people learn a new OS and only continues to impress. Great work

*****

netean reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 2, 2008

don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is very good, but still.. you can jazz it up all you want but it's still Linux... still very geek.

y'know what they say, you can't polish a t*rd!

some guy reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Beta on Oct 2, 2008

out of the box it beats windows.
if your a program 3rd party wh*** like me then you will want to set up a dual boot. But for free this OS rocks.

photonboy reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 24, 2008

Steadily improving. Useful basic functionality like many Linux distros with OpenOffice, Firefox 3, E-Mail etc.

"Cons"
1) After my initial disappointment with Vista, it has improved significantly. As much as I'd love to switch to Linux and thought I'd end up soon transitioning I just don't see it happening.

2) There are also a lot of little things in Ubuntu (probably all Linux) such as not even having sufficient driver support for a back-button which I love.

3) It's still a hassle to get full Multimedia support.

4) Software packet managment is improving but I still find the mix of KDE, Gnome etc annoying. I love the way Linux searches out dependencies to avoid breaking installations but there's considerable room for improvement.

Summary:
Ubuntu and Linux in general are very useable for many and will fill a definite niche which includes or will include:
-solid OS for everything except high-end games
-portable devices
-inexpensive Home Theater PC's (BluRay, music, ripped DVD's, DivX etc)

*Ubuntu/Linux might do better in the future than you might expect due to migration from the PC to gaming consoles. The Sony PS4 for example will be an amazing piece of hardware. This should encourage many to go with a Sony PS4 plus an inexpensive Linux desktop PC or laptop. Also, we'll hopefully see Linux develop nicely to support the PS4 and beyond.

(It will also be interesting to see if there will actually be a market for many PC-Linux 3D games. Personally, I think the PS4 will begin to sound the death toll for high-end PC gaming.)

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 23, 2008

I think Mandriva 2009 RC1 and openSUSE 10.3 have this thing pretty much whipped.

For business, I'd be all about the openSUSE 10.3. For moderately familiar users, Mandriva 2009 RC1 would be fine.

But if you want a n00b friendly distro, I guess this can fit the bill for some.

improvelence reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 22, 2008

Any idiot can install and use Ubuntu\Kubuntu. That's a good thing. Comes with more functionality out of the box than Windows. If your not a gamer, you should be using this.

elitegangsta reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 20, 2008

Great solid OS that keeps getting better and better. It's simplistic enough for the average end user, and advanced enough for the professional Linux user to love it. Great sources for dependencies and libraries through its package manager. Great choice for exclusive Gnome usage (others installable if you choose). Constantly updated, very secure, very robust. Love it, recommend it. Even great for games through the use of the ever growing WINE application.

morrigen reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 20, 2008

I recently installed on disk,and was very impressed with boot up speed and off from Live disk,and it's overall look and feel and speed compared to XP,ok no security installed whether needed I do not know,but would miss all the windows software,but if use for browser and other general stuff it's a no brainer.

obscur156 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 20, 2008

Very nice OS and YES YOU CAN USE IT AT HOME.I have completely made the switch to ubuntu for almost two years and i love it.

Pretty happy that i have flushed winblows out of my home...

Thats just me.
Best regards,have a nice day.

Nahkanunna reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 20, 2008

Diamond: Why you would think Linux is not ready for home use? Ubuntu & all the other Linuxes are safer for the average Joe's. They come with more and more useful programs pre-installed than windows etc. IF gaming isn't the requirement Linux is better choice than Windows - especially if it comes installed with the computer.

A6 not huge changes for me, keeps getting better as expected.

JEdwardP reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 19, 2008

I see no reason not to run Linux at home if one isn't into gaming. I've been using Linux as my primary OS for both personal and home office use for over a year now, and have had no occasion to regret it.

I still dual-boot Ubuntu and XP pro on the older of my two machines, but the newer, more frequently used machine is Ubuntu-only.

Diam0nd reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 19, 2008

LINUX FOR HOME IS A NO-NO. But, if you still wanna give it a go, THIS is the distributive to stick with. It's the most user friendly of them all, imho.

computershack reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 6 on Sep 19, 2008

Still can't browse windows shares in Nautilus because of the lack of authentication in gvfs. Still has broken laptop HDD power management.

shelb reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 5 on Sep 12, 2008

Linux and Ubuntu run great for home users. Many video games are hard or impractical to get to run, but any other task is easily done in Ubuntu. Your computer will run twice as fast once you switch to Ubuntu, because you won't have to burden it with antivirus software. If you are one of the 10% of Windows users who are using a pirated copy, Ubuntu can relieve your conscience.

Diam0nd reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 5 on Sep 11, 2008

You want to run Linux at home? DON'T.

But if you STILL wanna give it a try (DON'T) then Ubuntu is the ONLY way to go.

UniversityofKentucky reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha-4 on Aug 14, 2008

Don't give up! You can run

linux32 uname -a to resolve the 32-bit app on 64-bit OS.

OR

dpkg -i --force-architecture

Your mileage may vary.

angrykeyboarder reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 on Aug 12, 2008

Ubuntu is the best distro out there for the current majority of users. But there are other excellent ones too (Mandriva in Particular).

However....

Ubuntu (and Debian upon which it's based) have one major flaw.

Unlike Windows x64, Fedora, openSUSE and Mandriva (to name a few) the support for running 32-bit apps on a 64-bit OS is very poor.

Unfortunately because of this, I'm going to have to abandon Ubuntu for the time being. I've got a new computer with 8GB of RAM (most of which would go unused on a 32-bit Os).

Until Debian/Ubuntu get their act together and figure out how to make 32-bit software as easily installable on their 64-bit distro (as the above mentioned competition does) they're going to lose a lot of enthusiasts. And in just a few years, 4GB + of RAM will be the norm. Will they be ready?

Now I just have to make up my mind.. Will it be it openSUSE or Mandriva for my default OS?....

evanr reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 on Jul 26, 2008

I've have Hardy Heron installed, and wow. The wireless network connected right after i entered the WPA key. The nVidia video drivers were found for me right away and it works well. After installing the programs I want, it looks and seems to be a very solid operating system. Very very very impressed. I previously had Vista installed and that was terrible. So slow and crashed so often, even with SP1 installed and all aero features turned off. It wouldn't even install many programs I hold dear. But Ubuntu is much better than vista and it's improved so much over the years. The only problem I had with it was getting Apache to work correctly. Had some httpd.conf problems.

I do have Windows XP installed to dual boot, since I like to play games that don't run so well in Wine and because I'm a big Flash CS3 developer, and that app definitely does not run well in Wine.

For iTunes lovers that are looking for a really good linux altern, i suggest Songbird. It's a little resource hungry but it is spectacular.

Joco reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 on Jul 26, 2008

I find Ubuntu is the most friendly for someone coming from Windows. Trying to learn Ubuntu 8.04 on a VM for now. I am surprise that after the installation from a single CD, Ubuntu is ready for casual usage: Web and Office. There is no need to remove unwanted craps or installing extra antivirus & anti spyware.

The leaning curve is a still steep to transfer the proficiency / habits from Windows. But it sounds like Ubuntu has gained one more user.

kburlington reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 on Jul 26, 2008

This installed flawlessly on my HP laptop, I had immediate multimedia access and connectivity. I had MS Windows running on the same laptop which made it run slow. The Ubuntu installation brought it back to life. Additionally, I have Ubuntu's KDE (Kubuntu)running on my HP desktop for two years without issues such as "lock ups" and "blue screens". The argument that Linux does not have enough applications is very outdated! Installing Ubuntu gives you access to over 20,000 applications from office apps to esoteric science applications. Check out linuxappfinder.com and other sites that map the OS apps. There are also applications that install most MS Window applications in the Linux environment, if you feel you just can't live without sending your money to MS. I have installed several other Linux distributions and this is among the best I've found.

obscur156 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 on Jul 26, 2008

What are you talking about dags35?????

Ubuntu 8.04 is NOT dapper drake,its HARDY HERON!!!
DAPPER is 4 versions ago so 2 years already.

Anyway,ubuntu is great for people who are sick of winblows.I have left winblows 1 year and a half and very happy with it.

Intrepid ibex will be out in september and it will be better than 8.04.

Long live ubuntu.
Giving a 4 because nothing is perfect but i am doing all the same things that i was doing with winblows and more.
Best regards.

dags35 reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 3 on Jul 26, 2008

I have been keeping my eye on linux for over 10 years. Probably once a year I install one of the flavors and try it out, just to see how linux is coming along.
I have Ubuntu 8.04 Dapper Drake installed on one box right now. It recognized all of my hardware including my graphics card and wireless adapter.
Great Job! Even my LAN card, so I was downloading updates right away. Also the package manager is great, it installs most of the updates and optional user chosen software.
I'm really impressed with Ubuntu. That was always the problem in the past was after I installed linux it wouldn't recognize the wireless adapter.
The linux community over with Ubuntu is doing a great job, they have adddressed and overcame some of the biggest drawbacks. (Now if my HP all in one printer would run a bit better) But otherwise it's looking very good!

photonboy reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 2 on Jul 18, 2008

No major issues noted since last update:

news for video gamers:
1) ATI has released the external graphics solution called "XGP" for laptops (google it). I'd wait for a non-mobile version if you are serious. It's also hot-swappable! I don't know if any laptops yet have this, though I'd also wait for a 45nm or lower die size for the CPU.

2) ATI Linux drivers continue to improve

3) Maybe most exciting, there's rumor that developers are considering writing their own version of DirectX software. This means that any such game could run on any system (Linux, Apple, PC) as long as it has the x86 (32 or 64-bit) architecture.

As a computer geek I'm really excited about #3 as Microsoft is really, really pissing me off. (FYI, if you have Windows MCE2005 and do a fresh install and don't uncheck automatic updates it installs Service Pack 3 which kills the Media Center updates including Windows Media Player 11. Sigh! Vista killed EAX (why doesn't the Vista Upgrade tool tell you this?).

(I'm seriously also considering a PS4 with Ubuntu in two years.)

simonjames reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 2 on Jul 14, 2008

I tried this on my laptop and reverted back to windows because I couldn't get the sound to work at the same time as my wireless card (it was one or the other but not both, which is to be expected from "designed for Microsoft Xp" laptops).

I then tried it on my Dell Dimension and everything worked out of the box, mp3 player, memory card reader, network, printer... Since this is pretty rock stable, I have no use for windows anymore. I highly recommend this distro.

ghammer reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 2 on Jul 14, 2008

For a linux distro, this is a nice one.
@elitegangsta- Running limited Windows apps partially, having to work around shortcomings in apps, and the general lack of 'Click here' support leaves linux on only enthusiast machines.
There's a reason China runs on pirated Windows. Wealth of apps? Yep, on Windows.

If linux had the apps in depth that Windows has, why oh why would anyone steal an OS?

I install this for a few weeks every new release. I've seen nice progress, but still roll back to Windows.

elitegangsta reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 2 on Jul 14, 2008

(Psycros), Linux has made drastic steps to becoming more and more common in the home environment, I equate Ubuntu to a lot of that. Even major retailers are now supplying Ubuntu as well as manufacturers of PCs placing Ubuntu as a lower cost O/S. Linux is stable, Ubuntu makes using it simple, and out of the box, this will satisfy 60% of the computer market, Word processing, Email, Internet, disc burning, music and video... and it is all FREE, maintained and developed for FREE. With the new release of WINE 1.1.1, it is also a FREE way to run a whole lot of Window apps without the headaches of Windows... Linux isn't changing much because it is pretty solid as it is now, at least it isn't getting worse with every release like your assumed beloved Winblows... Ubuntu is a SOLID operating system, recognizes MOST existing hardware, runs a WEALTH of FREE (and commercial) software, even WINDOWS APPS and OS X APPS!!!, i encourage anyone to step outside the wrenches of the "normal" computer environment and give this a try, I bet most of you will like it more then you think.

psycros reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 2 on Jul 14, 2008

Desktop Linux continues to go nowhere fast. Why anyone runs this junk I can't imagine. Its not getting any faster, any more stable or user-friendly with each new release. If you have absolutely NO other option, I suppose its better than nothing. The saddest part is that if some real consistency and emphasis on user experience was introduced, they could make it the best OS ever. But that's probably pure fantasy.

zridling reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 1 on Jul 1, 2008

What improvelence said.

I prefer Linux Mint, but since it's based on Ubuntu, it's nearly the exact same. Unlike many, I was glad to see that Ubuntu 8.04 took a conservative approach to this version (unlike Fedora's daring but somewhat unstable version 9), and will tweak it with the coming 8.10. If nothing else, it has allowed me to leave Windows behind permanently and instead of hassles, heck, computing is fun again!

improvelence reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 1 on Jul 1, 2008

@Diam0nd
"linux at home is insane and makes no sense, BUT ubuntu is the best linux there is for this purpose."

that definitely should go on the top 100 dumbest statements on Betanews. what "purpose" are you talking about. if you are going to type something, at least finish your sentence...or in this case...BEGIN your sentence. I use both Windows/Mac/Linux at home, Linux is a great platform for home use unless you are a gamer, which is why I have a windows box. other than that linux does everything i need and Ubuntu is the best. (I prefer Kubuntu)

Diam0nd reviewed v8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 1 on Jun 30, 2008

linux at home is insane and makes no sense, BUT ubuntu is the best linux there is for this purpose.

Earwicker reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on May 27, 2008

Mostly excellent as usual, but Blender won't load for some reason, and I kept getting strange errors during installation. I just get the overall impression it's a bit flakey compared with Gutsy.

As ever though, it's mostly top notch. Mainly gets used for OpenOffice/GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus, and here it really scores. Support for my X-Fi Prelude would be nice, and I wish someone would write a music player a la Foobar for Linux.

I'm using 8.04 TLS AMD 64 on an Athlon 3200+ machine. Dunno what's up with Blender...

MatthewAPeters reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 30, 2008

This is my 4th version of Ubuntu. I've been using it personally and professionally for about 2 year. As an OS, I am always impressed with where Linux is going, and I am fond of the Debian packaging technology. I have enjoyed working with Ubuntu as it has grown in prominence and popularity. But as an upgrade, Hardy Heron is Hardly Heroic. My NVidia GeForce 6600GT is not feeling the love, and I am stuck with mirrored 600x800 monitors instead of my beloved twinview with high res. I spent the day looking for fixes - everything that was supposed to work, everything that worked in Gutsy, fails. In looking, I found I was not the only one duped by this problem.

I was also unhappy when sudo stopped working because the new version didn't play well with my old /etc/hosts file (which I swear was maintained by NetworkManager). I found the fix for the sudo problem - you need to add your host as an alias to localhost - I guess they decided that fixing the applet was worth while, but not cleaning up the mess from the older version. I didn't discover the fix on my own - other folks had the same problem.

So, as I sit here typing at a resolution that would be clear to the legally blind, I feel I have to knock a point or two off the upgrade - the glory of a Linux Distro is not in its third-party offerings, but in bringing the pieces together flawlessly to the masses. Love the new Firefox, just not happy with how it was delivered.

wat0114 reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 29, 2008

I'm a linux noob, yet I can install Ubuntu including all necessary additional applications, java and flash plugins for Firefox in about a third of the time it takes me to complete a full Windows install with all my necessary apps and updates. I found that installing the nVidia proprietary driver resolved my sluggish video issue. All else is excellent with this release, which I have installed dual-boot with XP, and since I'm not a gamer, I find I can use Ubuntu almost exclusively for my computing needs.

photonboy reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 26, 2008

This was the first Linux (not just ubuntu) release that finally got my HDTV's 1366x768 resolution correct. I use the PC/VGA input so my HDTV's seen as a monitor.

Ubuntu is very stable, secure, well layed out and the software at installation covers many people's needs (with more via package manager). For legal reasons the audio and video codecs are installed when needed but this was incredibly easy.

ATI HD3870 512MB:
My video and sound previously worked fine with my NVidia 6600GT and Audigy 2 so my new HD3870's lack of full driver support is the problem. Issues:

Default drivers: work fine for 2D. Video plays and scales. There seem to be some minor issues though. VLC seems to work best for video and it played a variety of AVI and MKV high definition videos flawlessly whereas MPlayer stuttered.

Unsupported 3D: Actually work pretty well. Desktop and the games I tested work, however it then screwed up Video playback. Sigh. So we're close.

Audio: see Update below

Video card power management: I hear my fan so I don't seem to have video card power management. This was expected, however the power usage in Idle will be about 42 Watts instead of 18 Watts so this may be the killer in my decision to use Ubuntu until I get support.

Summary:
Driver issues aside which are beyond the Ubuntu team's scope anyway, Ubuntu is coming along amazingly and I think many people should consider using it in a dual-boot situation to start getting comfortable with Linux.

**UPDATE: READ ME**
Yep, running the "Hardware Testing" showed "HDMI" from my audio card instead of "Audigy 2."

I fixed my missing audio by going into "Services" and checking "Audio Settings Managment (alsa utils)" which was unchecked for some reason then REBOOT. If you still have issues run the Hardware Testing again and also open "Sounds" and experiment with settings (Alsa or Auto..) This is all within "System."

This is primarily for people with HD38xx or similar video cards with partial audio support. Considering the audio for the HD3870 is only for movies and only works via a proprietary HDMI adapter, AND considering you have to toggle manually between audio options, AND have to have a cable for your regular audio.. what's the point?

JEdwardP reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 25, 2008

The upgrading of both my machines went smoothly. My only complaints are the decision to go with Firefox 3.0b5 as the default browser (none of my three extensions work with it, so I uninstalled it in favor of 2.0.0.14), and the fact that the new Pulse audio engine seems to have a slight issue, the occasional "pop" in my audio.

marty reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 25, 2008

Everything works?? It's partitioner is the worst I've ever seen. Would not install GRUB on an extended partition. No other distro can claim this.
Was able to install LILO - but I don't care for that bootloader. Repositories were not available - maybe overloaded but they should have prepared for the multitudes. I'll work with this distro only in a virtual machine. Went back to Dehian and I'm waiting for the best IMHO which is openSUSE.

anonymouscowturd reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 25, 2008

Just updated from Gutsy and to be honest i was expecting carnage and for the NDIS wrapper and various other things to be kaput at the end of it. To my suprise absolutely everything works. I'm stunned.

reddy.shyam reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 25, 2008

Have been using Ubuntu for over 3 months now. Never looked back. Upgraded to Hardy beta and since then was a smooth upgrade (with everyday fixes/patches) to this release. Suits my purpose. Excellent! Well done team!

JaDa reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 25, 2008

I don't like it. I prefer more Archlinux. Archlinux is an indepedently developed system built from scratch. Archlinux is presented as a much more minimalist design from the installation onward, relying on the user to customize it to their own specific needs. In general, developers and tinkerers will probably like Arch better than Ubuntu, though many Archlinux users claim to have started on Ubuntu and eventually migrated to Arch.

comeoffit reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 24, 2008

Its a straight up windows replacement application, runs all my windows apps and most of my games with WINE.

Genius.

dejavu reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 24, 2008

Well...Here we go again!

Diam0nd reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) on Apr 24, 2008

Best linux around.

Windows > *

mflip reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 21, 2008

Ubuntu 8.04 RC is a nice improvement over the very buggy Ubuntu 7.10. Xorg is finally able to configure itself without the need for a configuration file. Ubuntu 8.04 now uses the new open source ATI graphics driver with ATI graphics adapters instead of defaulting to the VESA Framebuffer driver like Ubuntu 7.10 did. Also, Ubuntu 8.04 fixed a bug in Ubuntu 7.10 that prevented the visual effects (wobbly windows, etc.) from working when using the proprietary ATI graphics driver.

BoiseComputerService reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 21, 2008

Usually am a person that runs Fedora releases on my machines that are not used as servers. I decided to try 7.10 on my gaming machine due to the 64bit Crossover Games version that is only available on Ubuntu. With 7.10 I did have some headaches getting my Nvidia card to work every time. Did the very simple online upgrade to the release candidate and my video problems were fixed without having to run any special programs or having to edit my xorg.conf file. World of Warcraft now runs with a 5 - 10 higher framerate and from what I can tell uses less system resources. Very impressed with the Nvidia support. Seems that many of my Fedora boxes have been getting converted to Ubuntu boxes lately due to 64bit software support. Having mentioned the simple online upgrade I will say that the one click distribution upgrade is much faster, simpler, and safer than the Fedora distribution upgrades.

rla0001 reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 21, 2008

The RC is the best Ubuntu release ever. N-vidia video works flawlessly. Just check the menu set up and be sure screens and graphics is enabled under OTHER. This will get your max resolution going.. Wireless works after install with MadWifi and NDIS Wrapper works without tweaking for Super-G. Those having mounting problems with NTSF partitions should check out the help and addons and read the help files or forums. This is one sweet Linux distro.

krgood reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 20, 2008

Loaded and installed Kubuntu and Ubuntu on different 500gb drives. Impressive, install was problem free with both. However, some problems cropped up that sent me back to XP.
1. Could not connect to my Network Printers on either
2. USB drives recognized, but would not mount on either. Reported issue with drives being active as window drives. Tried to "force" a mount but failed. Tried "Paragon" but it did not work.
3. Samba fails
4. Network access is slow(broadband connection)
5. Could not get dual monitors to work, starts up on both, then shuts down secondary monitor.

On a positive note,
1. Impressive update process, windows could take notice of how efficient updates run.
2. Start/Boot up is fast
3. Shuts down quickly
4. Open Office works nicely

I will definitely keep my eye on Ubuntu. It is definitely headed in the right direction and WILL most likely prevail over Vista if MS does not do a heads up and start taking users as serious as apparently Linux has.

budzis reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 20, 2008

i try install under Windows. It was done well. But best video resolution is 800x600, but when install nvidia drivers - max resolution is 640-480!!!
bad, very very bad :(

some guy reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 20, 2008

up graded from 710 to the 8.04 then my video card was not detected and having a field day trying to get it to install. Says it in installs the the card then when I restart I get low graphic mode. I still like it, it's moving up fast, and worth a try. But I found 710 to be more stable at this time.

mmoak reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 20, 2008

The only problem that I've encountered is the incompatibility with my Nvidia 6200 (256meg) video card. Shoots me down to a 800x600 resolution at 50mhz which I can't change.

When I yank the drivers I can get back to a screen resolution that doesn't have me upset.

Other than that, smooth install, nice configuration of the boot partitions...

brio101 reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 20, 2008

At long last! A linux distro that works (without any additional tweaking) with my Presario's V5000 wireless Broadcom card.

ToeKneeC reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 19, 2008

Just installed, went very easy, found all my hardware, I like orange too. Most of the games are butt ugly though - then again, I don't play card games anymore.
It is very usable. But I'm not as impressed with speed. Let me re-phrase that, it's fast, but so is Vista SP1 (clean install) on the same box. I'm not talking booting up or shuting down (Ubuntu was very quick).
When I run OpenOffice for example, I timed it, the apps are almost dead on in speed to a full open so I can type. And afer you close the app, Vista caches better as it open's almost twice as fast
So while I'm impressed, and Ubuntu is impressive, I expected a little more (speed) and by now, I would have tought better looking opensource (the interfaces are started to look outdated, the great open source programmers need to make some graphic artist friends :)

Diam0nd reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 18, 2008

Best and most user-friendly linux around. And even though I don't think one needs linux at home IF you're decided to try it, this is the only distro to use.

skrzat reviewed v8.04 RC on Apr 18, 2008

Sphinxer - this is beta so don't complain :)
Firefox 3 is also beta and some of extensions may not work, because their developers didn't upgrade it for new Firefox :)

sphinxer reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Beta on Mar 22, 2008

***UPDATE***
Ok, I installed PCLinuxOS 2007 today and it's way better then Hardy and Gutsy.
Much more stable, much faster with 3D desktop enabled and has almost everything out of the box.
After installation it downloaded over 6xxMB of updates and after that everything was up-to-date without a single problem.
I never got my Ubuntu without any problems without any modding, PCLinuxOS looks great and far more stable then Ubuntu for me, and I highly recommend it for any new Linux adopter
************
Updated from 7.10 (64bit) to 8.04 beta.

GL Desktop is MUCH slower, on 7.10 everything was smooth, now scrolling, switching and UI in general is slow and jerky.

Firefox 3 beta4 which is included by default has disabled some of my plugins for FireFox 2 which are incompatible.

Bugs like huge font in the login screen are still not fixed which were reported from the previous release.

Performance in general is an issue for this release, which is a beta for a Long Term Support release expected to be released in one month.

I decided to switch to PCLinuxOS after seeing the way Ubuntu is headed to in this beta. I hope that Ubuntu 9 will be back on the right track and be less bloated.

guitarplayer9999 reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Beta on Mar 22, 2008

This is the first linux distro I have used and I could not be more satisfied. It runs so much faster than windows and it keeps getting better.

GhoS reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Beta on Mar 21, 2008

While Ubuntu isn't quite there for overall usability, it is very close. I have been using it for a month now as my first Linux and I am very satisfied. There are plenty of places to get help if I get stuck with something.
Overall though it is very slick compared to windows, Windows seems so bloated and slow comparatively.

AlbinoAsian reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 13, 2008

I'm a new a new convert to Ubuntu, its amazingly easy to run, and I would dare say that an Ubuntu alpha as stable as other OS's released at beta ... or a Microsoft OS before SP updates

Diam0nd reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 12, 2008

As far as linux goes, this one kicks arse. I mean, I still think that linux doesn't even come close to being a home os. Still, this is the best effort of them all so far. Thumbs up, guys!

stephenstud reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 9, 2008

I played with red hat a little, but then tried this:) Its no wonder why alot of talk is going around about this! It has become very user freindly! I admit, I use more of the other side but this it getting better and better.

UniversityofKentucky reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 8, 2008

De Julien,
What an ignorant comment. You probably made that from looking at the image on FileForum and not installing the OS. You can bring anything you want to the desktop. So were you commenting about the ability to compile source code from repositories? How you can CHANGE your desktop to GNOME, KDE, many other options? How you could use the menu or apt-get or yum to upgrade - and NOT reboot? Give me technical reasons why you don't like this Alpha (and it is an Alpha) and maybe you can get some cred. Otherwise, stick to your Nintendo.

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 8, 2008

Well, my dad uses it and he's a 72 year old mechanic. No problems with it so far. He didn't even have any computing skills before Ubuntu. What's even more funny, is that he doesn't know how to use Windows. Go figure.

And yes, he does know how to install via apt and Synaptic, but not compile (./configure/make/sudo make install) yet.

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 7, 2008

This is by far the distro I turn to for home user installations where the primary user isn't very tech savvy. Gnome is much more to the point and does a decent job of protecting the user from him or herself. For "power users" I personally prefer Kubuntu (especially for Dell machines) or Mepis.

The KDE interface is where it's at and v4.0 is looking like it should give Gnome a serious run for it's money as it matures. I am really hoping that KDE eventually overtakes Gnome as the "preferred" desktop environment.

As I eluded to above, the Ubuntu family of distributions just can't be beat when it comes to Dell computers. Once that deal was done, compatibility with just about any and all hardware found inside a machine with the Dell logo went through the roof.

De Julien reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 7, 2008

Nice empty desktop !

the artist reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 7, 2008

It really opened my eyes to the amount of things this OS lacks against Windows (yes and don't be jumpy) when i started thoroughly reading Ubuntu Brainstorm http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/.

Many of the suggestions are terribly basic and speak so crudely of the immaturity of it. However it is growing very fast and it is to consider that it's only 4 years old by itself.

It is my favourite Linux distro anyways and there are lots of good things coming.

Alpha258 reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 6 on Mar 7, 2008

My favourite distro of all time. Ubuntu really "just works" for me. I have tried many other top distros but none of them in my opinion can compare to Ubuntu.

osric reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 5 on Feb 25, 2008

I'm a home user and I find that Linux doesn't suck ass. It kicks the a** of the other OS.

Diam0nd reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 5 on Feb 25, 2008

For home use linux sucks ass, but it can't really get any better than this.

obscur156 reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 4 on Feb 6, 2008

Just getting better,always using alpha version of each release since febuary 2007 as my main OS.

And you know what,i love it and its more stable then an OS that you are probaly using...

Long live Ubuntu , and thanks to Linus Torvalds and Mark Shuttleworth.

Oh and giving a 4 since nothing is perfect on this planet.Perfrection does not exist.

horsecharles reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 4 on Feb 6, 2008

I echo Photonboy's great review.

Ubuntu is becoming so windows-like & easy to use it's scary... one example: the seamless upgrading & installing of third-party apps... long Linux's biggest Achilles heel.

Ian C. reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 4 on Feb 5, 2008

I'm not a fan of any Linux distro I've tried, but unlike most, *buntu (I prefer KDE) seems to actually get better with every release.

nika27 reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 4 on Feb 5, 2008

Yep! Just like certain people's heads!

TarrantM reviewed v8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 3 on Jan 11, 2008

Installing Xen makes the NVidai driver stop working and I can't get any resolution higher than 640x480.

Without Xen, there is no point having a shiny linux OS since I play so many games on my computer.

Gave it a 4 for the speed and stability and eye candy. Get a decent emulator going (like Xen) perfectly on the OS and I'll give it a 5.

photonboy reviewed v8.04 Alpha 2 on Dec 31, 2007

Ubunutu 7.10 was the very first Linux distro which I found suitable as a complete replacement for Windows for many non-gaming users, especially if you could get a suitable video driver to run the nice interface (though I set it back to Medium).

-Full NTFS support is a big must-have for dual-booting with Windows XP or Vista.

-All my browsing, e-mail and messenging needs are covered in Ubuntu.

-I got full support for my various videos (though this might not be easy for the first-timer).

-The music solution I found worked great.

-many stability and security reasons that surpass Vista or XP that most people wouldn't know about.

If it wasn't for video games I'm sure I would be sticking with XP, dual-booting Ubuntu, then finally switching entirely to Ubuntu.

The lack of game support is still a huge issue with switching. As someone who understands programming I'm very, very impressed at how Ubuntu is progressing and also disgusted with how Vista has turned out after all Microsoft's work.

I did not encounter any problems when running Ubuntu version 8.04 Alpha.

Why did I rate this a "5"?

I am comparing Ubuntu's current stage of development primarily with other Linux distros, but also with the speed and quality at which it is PROGRESSING when compared to Windows.

Flemens reviewed v8.04 Alpha 2 on Dec 26, 2007

I must disagree that Ubuntu is faster than windows on every machine.
I love the Beryl interface and I like the idea behind linux but on my rig:
Athlon 3800 64x2 2048MB RAM Nvidia 8800GTS it is slower than both Vista Ultimate with all the enhancements enabled and XP.
I did all the updates that it suggested, I tried to tweak according to many Howto´s but no go. It didnt get much faster even if I turned off Beryl.

It was a bit disappointing since I´ve heard that everything would be blazing fast even if you have a older computer like me. But I will try it later on again when I upgrade my computer.

tarrith reviewed v8.04 Alpha 2 on Dec 26, 2007

Point Zero,

You comments and rating of this OS defines the complete lack of understanding about this operating system.

For those who know better, this Linux based OS reliable without unnecessary bloatware but is highly configurable that even the most experienced Linux user would appreciate.

When Beryl is installed it makes Vista's 3d task manager look second rate at best.

Ubuntu. It can only get better.

Tarrith

sx66gns reviewed v8.04 Alpha 2 on Dec 24, 2007

Why would one want to try the best OS period?

Reliability , Stability , Freedom , Liberty , Consistency , Speed , Usability , Security , Control , and it's fun.

For the Super noobish , Mint:
http://linuxmint.com/
Is a Ubuntu derivative with the media codecs and the newest "hip" software installed by default , like Amarok.

Ubuntu will soon Achieve Perfection.

zridling reviewed v8.04 Alpha 2 on Dec 24, 2007

Of all the criticisms of Ubuntu, it ain't slow by any measure, unless you're still holding onto to that 386DX machine.

Rakien reviewed v8.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 3, 2007

Partitioned drive, installed and was fully running within a few minutes, much quicker compaired to Windows XP, great for hosting servers and you can still use most of the programs and games that were made for XP using Wine.

Diam0nd reviewed v8.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 3, 2007

tatata! im lovin it! :D

The MAZZTer reviewed v8.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 3, 2007

Slow compared to Windows? That's a laugh, you obviously haven't tried Vista. Or XP. Ubuntu with lots of compiz-fusion effects turned on runs faster on my machine than Vista or XP with everything turned OFF.

Maybe it's a bad driver or something. I'm not a Linux expert so I can't really help with that. I've heard some people have poor success with Ubuntu, while many others (including myself) have no problems and a great experience.

I don't know where you got the impression that Wine was supposed to improve Windows programs. The only way it does so would be to allow you to use them under a stable OS (that's a joke). Wine isn't meant to run the latest Windows games fast. It's meant to run all manner of Windows programs, and right now IIRC the main goal is for compatibility, with speed coming second. Even so, I have found some games such as Team Fortress 2 to run acceptably despite this. However even some old games will not work correctly... and .NET programs are completely out of the scope of Wine. Basically, the best way to run your Windows game is to run them on Windows. I dual boot XP and Ubuntu for this reason.

Flemens reviewed v8.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 3, 2007

I like the graphic enhantsments in ubuntu, thats why I use it now and then, but it is a bit slow compared to windows (even though I have quite powerful machine) It feels a bit squishy and not as responsive. I always thought that Linux should wipe the floor with windows when it comes to being fast on a computer, but it is not in my machine. I dont feel that running windows software in Wine improves anything, I dont dare to think about how Call of Duty 4 would perform in wine.

sjc001 reviewed v8.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 3, 2007

WINE allows you to play most Windows game without too much trouble. Also, some companies are now writing Linux versions of their news games as well. i.e. Quake Wars for one and also Online games like WoW and Eve Online. And when the time comes they will add DX10.x into WINE.

If you just want to play games get a console.

bodean reviewed v8.04 Alpha 1 on Dec 3, 2007

Theres nothing you can't do in Ubuntu that you can't do in windows? Tell me what games you've played lately in Ubuntu, that you can play in Windows? Call of Duty 4? Unreal Tounry 3?
Let me know

Landsnes reviewed v7.10 on Nov 10, 2007

Impressive!

For me, Ubuntu installed without any problems. It was quick simple and easy. On my computer it worked pretty much out of the box, and has a wealth of available programs. Long live open source!

yanike reviewed v7.10 on Nov 1, 2007

Ubuntu 7.10 is the best OS on PC :)

This release is more stable and just works with everything. It definitely replaced my Windows when it came out. Ubuntu in my opinion is now ready to start taking over Windows on the PC platform.

There isn't anything I can't do with 7.10 I couldn't do with Windows. Plus! It runs faster and stabler than Windows :)

If you are looking for a Windows replacement use Ubuntu 7.10.

If you need help, I've created a Linux Thread to help new users with lots of information.

http://www.winmatrix.com...dex.php?showtopic=12163

Enjoy!!!

Here's screenshots of my desktop
http://farm3.static.flic...625712_390b297664_o.png
http://farm3.static.flic...599782_2949ab6018_o.png

artisanicview reviewed v7.10 on Oct 25, 2007

Good Linux distro. And for the Windos users who want to use this without to repartition the HDD, take a look at this Ubuntu installer:
http://fileforum.betanew...etail/Wubi/1184443224/1

wdc reviewed v7.10 on Oct 20, 2007

almost perfect but still buggy and harder than any windows.

Earwicker reviewed v7.10 on Oct 20, 2007

One of the Seven Wonders! Thanks guys, this is most impressive.

JEdwardP reviewed v7.10 on Oct 20, 2007

I've only been a serious Linux user for about two months (I experimented with it several times over the last two years, but made a commitment to it after having worked on a Vista machine).

I tried several distros, and first settled on Mint, though I found I kept tweaking it to look and behave more and more like Ubuntu, especially after testing the Gutsy beta and RC.

I find this release to be impressively stable, remarkably easy to use, and already consider it to be my primary OS for both personal and home office use.

I would encourage any Windows "power user" who isn't into gaming to consider making at least a partial switch to Linux, and to do it with this release of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has become MY Vista.

obscur156 reviewed v7.10 on Oct 18, 2007

Just installed it and i like it very much.Its fast stable and beautiful.

Sarcasm mode on:
Is that the time that Micro$oft will start to colapse???

Best regards.

ModderXManiac reviewed v7.10 on Oct 18, 2007

With all the features this has over 7.04 and considering how enjoyable the .04 experience was, with 7.10, I am dropping Windows entirely.

Diam0nd reviewed v7.10 on Oct 18, 2007

Best linux to date. Thumbs up.

P.S. Even tho linux sucks.

marty reviewed v7.10 on Oct 18, 2007

I am now installing Ubuntu 7.10 as a virtual machine. Actually it is installed but there are some 90+ updates (including a minor kernel update).
Install went extremely well and artwork is a big improvement over earlier versions.

I use BootNG (terrabyteunlimited) an exceptional partition and boot manager and after the updated virtual box is finished I will install this distro on my harddrives and thus will be able to boot:

1) Windows 2008 Standard Server (eval)
2) Solaris 10
3) FreeBSD 6.2
4) openSUSE 10.3
5) Ubuntu 7.10

The last two are in a RAID 0 array and Ubuntu should be exceptionally fast.

Hint for those trying to download the ISO - try the Mexican mirror rather than the overloaded US mirrors.

mjm01010101 reviewed v7.10 on Oct 18, 2007

As a Windows Admin, this is what I use at home.

Nuff said.

horsecharles reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 13, 2007

Installing & updating has become so easy and pleasant on Ubuntu: the improvement per version is so marked, that this latest release is eons ahead since versions 4 & 5... i'm talking from a gui perspective that is.

And yeah, i also can't understand such a review(Ubuntu made to run on real old systems... whereas i can't get Vista to run at decent speed even on the latest mega core & ram systems):

Reviewer: KRome Oct 12, 2007
Version: 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate

I had always thought linux would run faster than windows. my sister bought a laptop with vista and I formatted and put ubuntu on. what a slow disaster. Vista was a thousand times faster. Its a modest Turion dell with 1 gig of ram.

I had to follow a long tutorial to get the wireless card working.

Also, the battery life was horrid under ubuntu vs. vista.

RKOIV reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) best one yet. Installed on laptop , wireless connection perfect no problems--everything works fine.

some guy reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

I run a 3 boot system

1 Xp pro
2 vista
3 Ubuntu

out of the box Ubuntu wins built in open office and so many other programs. The os has the best update system. Best of all its free, I only run Xp due to 3rd party software.

guy below me vista does not run faster in fact vista runs slower Google it. Why would you buy a laptop with vista on it to begin with?

KRome reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

I had always thought linux would run faster than windows. my sister bought a laptop with vista and I formatted and put ubuntu on. what a slow disaster. Vista was a thousand times faster. Its a modest Turion dell with 1 gig of ram.

I had to follow a long tutorial to get the wireless card working.

Also, the battery life was horrid under ubuntu vs. vista.

fatray reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

If you wanna try Linux this is the version to try. Not only does it install without a hitch (unless your wireles), the support forums are the best I've ever been in. You always get an answer no matter how stupid it seems. I know because now that I think back, I've asked a few nobrainers. I've downloaded many small games that keep my kids occupied, all free and all installed from within the OS. No searching the web for free games, just select witch ones you want to install and you get them. That also goes for all the free apps, even DVDshrink.

Diam0nd reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

I pesonally don't like linux that much, but this is the best distribution available atm.

anonymouscowturd reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

Absolutely terrible. This has got to be the only version of Ubuntu that has sucked so badly. Most things on Feisty worked fine including video and Beryl. Now video has stopped working, Compiz fusion does even start and to top it all off the the fonts are jagged and uncomfortable to read. What the hell happened? i was really looking forward to this release. The upside is that the wireless now works. If this is anything like the final Gutsy, i'll be either going back to Feisty or switching to Fedora or Mandrake (at least Mandrake 2008 can get both compiz and video working without any hitches at all)

MrFlibble reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

"Millions of users don't have the attention span or the will to learn something different."

"It means a seamless built in capability to run everyone's favorite Windows software for which there is no acceptable Linux replacement."

I think the OS you guys are looking for is called "Windows".

I'm a convert to Ubuntu after just a few weeks. My learning curve has levelled off and I'm looking forward to Gutsy next week.

Maybe I wouldn't have got on so well if I had no attention span or will power, but these are not attributes I'd happily proclaim to all on BetaNews.

And no I can't run Windows' software on Linux, which is why I'm keeping an XP partition for Half Life (and all my anti-virus, anti-spyware programs.) ;-)

bobad reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

Agree with Donzy. There are way too many hoops to jump through to get this software working. It's getting there, but way too slowly. The snail's pace of development is the achilles heel of Open Source. Since many people are dissatisfied and disappointed with Vista, now is the time for the developers to get agressive. Someone needs to step up and create an acceptable "OOBE". There are 3 important things that would win the people over: 1. Ease of installation, 2. Hardware compatibility 3. Software comatibility. The first 2 are obvious. No. 3 does not mean Wine. It means a seamless built in capability to run everyone's favorite Windows software for which there is no acceptable Linux replacement.

brusco reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

Smoother than the head on a pint of Guinness.

Nice!

ravemanson reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

Well said, Donzy.

pforbes reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

I have tried it, and find the developers have made a considerable improvement which deserves a 5. IMO they are in the right path, but still far from achieving the good side of the Microsoft level (avoid the dark side please). I hope they reach it soon and send my best wishes to them, they are doing a great job. Thank you.

butthead reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

Respect to the developers for their efforts. Not so much respect to the localization system used by Canonical/Ubuntu. Bad coordination with debian translaters, virtually anyone can translate => bad translation.

Also, gparted crashes every time i try to prepare the drive for install

Donzy reviewed v7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Release Candidate on Oct 12, 2007

I am a WIN user since my first PC and were tempted to try Ubuntu on an old PC when I upgraded.

The experience left me holding my mouse and be very confused - I reformatted (nightmare) to re-install Win again

My suggestion - don't talk to the WIN user base about "distribution that starts with the breadth of Debian" and "ships with the latest Gnome release" - we don't have a clue what this mean.

Millions of users don't have the attention span or the will to learn something different. "Tried it, no immediate satisfaction, oh well, move on"

There have to be an easier way to migrate many years of using WIN to be identifiable in Linux

The screenshot leaves you with the impression of a WIN kind of an experience - not so

I gave it a 3 based on my experience and not the quality of the program

photonboy reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 30, 2007

Improvements in Windows are slowing down while Linux is continuing to improve. I'm constantly seeing good ideas for Windows, but they seem to be "saving" them to justify future releases. There's a LOT that Vista should have but doesn't. A lot of people will buy Vista just to get DX10 support for games. A LOT!

There's a huge demand for Linux, not necessarily just to be free, but by unsatisfied Windows users.

Gaming still remains a huge problem. Apple also realizes this and has commissioned several game companies to bring some great games to Apple's OS X.

Think about what could happen once the Linux Community sets its mind to making DX9 and DX10(ish) games instead of worrying about porting. Free Windows quality racing, RTS and MMORPG on a free operating system?

Anyway, I keep track of Ubuntu and my money's still on it. It hasn't managed to tear me away from Windows XP, but I don't think I'll get Vista. I'm looking for a solution down the road a few years and I'm betting it'll be using Ubuntu as my primary in a dual-boot with XP as my secondary OS.

Keep up the improvements (thanks for NTFS write).

Diam0nd reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 29, 2007

I hate linux, BUT this is the best one I've seen (ive tried most of the distributions btw). Thumbs up

Alpha258 reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 28, 2007

>Should I upgrade from Feisty Fawn 7.04 to this
Yes, pretty much everything has been improved and you get many new features like
-Compiz Fusion - make Ubuntu look really cool with 3D desktop effects.
-Screen, Graphics, and driver preferences utility.
-Desktop Search.
-Auto Printer Recognition + virtual driver for creating pdf files.
-Firefox Plugin Detection
-Updated Gimp and Openoffice + lots of other software updated.
-Power Consumption Reduced by up to 33%

>and how without a new install?
In about 3 weeks (when final version of 7.10 is released) your update manager will let you know that a new version is available. You just have to click update and leave your computer update, just make sure you have reliable broadband.

Loving Ubuntu and these new features will be brilliant. Just got to wait patiently for those next 3 weeks. :(

shyuep reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

I am writing this review not just of Ubuntu, but partially of Linux in general. I have fairly extensive experience working on Ubuntu 7.04 and Windows machines. Indeed, Ubuntu has been an important contribution to the linux world, making it far more accessible to noobs. Nonetheless, there are still a few things which keep me running a VMWare virtual machine with Windows XP:
i) OpenOffice, while good, is nowhere near the quality of MS Office. Especially so if you are a more sophisticated user. I never understood why some reviewers can claim that OO is as good as Office. OOWord and OOImpress are barely passable while OO Spreadsheet is completely unusable (just try adding more than 1 series to a chart, and you will see what I mean).
ii) Hardware support is still sketchy. It has improved by leaps and bounds, but A LOT of hardware still requires fiddling with drivers and hacks like NDISWrapper and 915resolution. Even with these, getting the correct screen resolution is a touch and go affair, taking hours fiddling with xorg settings. We are not talking about arcane hardware here, but rather fairly common hardware that a significant proportion of the computing population uses.

Some people may say that's the way Linux is intended to be, i.e. built by the geeks for the geeks, requiring geek-skills to work right. I am a geek myself, but I never see usability and stability as a trade-off. I certainly believe an OS can be made as wonderfully stable as Linux, and idiot-proof (or perhaps more, since I see plenty of idiots screw up Windows as well) as Windows.

horsecharles reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

Reviewer: zridling Sep 27, 2007
Version: 7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta

[TC17]: ...Linux will never overtake any operating system as long as major name brand Windows games do not work on it. This is the very reason why Microsoft has a monopoly on the market.
________________________________________________
GNU/Linux isn't looking to "overtake" anyone. Linux truly doesn't care about Windows. On the other hand, according to the monthly spurious Microsoft-funded anti-Linux study, Microsoft has long cared about what GNU/Linux is doing. Besides, Ubuntu is just one flavor, not my fav. But it works, and 7.10 should take laptops to another level of compatibility.
Rating: 5

________________________________________________

I totally agree... all it could take is the cell processor, w/ its supporting Linux variants and its games- to be ported over to consumer desktops; there is much chance of that now that moronic Sony is backtracking out of that picture.

Also, I'm just so amazed how more noob-friendly & Windows-like Ubuntu has become with each release-- by leaps & bounds in such a short period of time.

Keep up the shockingly-fast & fantastic work.

UniversityofKentucky reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

Gentoo was great, but it broke on me one too many times. I was about ready to install SUSE (had already downloaded distro) when I had a personal recommendation for Ubuntu. I read the lit and it was all positive. Been running it since without ANY problems. I run Vista as my main production machine (yes, you may pity me), but run my scanner off my linux box as the scanner is not supported by Vista. GIMP and XSANE took care of that. Run streaming media off Ubuntu, a web server, etc. Go out and buy it! Oh yeah, it's free (smile) .

tbresson reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

Excellent OS. Been using all versions since the beginning, though I still use Windows too on other PC's.

There's still some kinks to work out with Linux but it's getting better and better and most users don't need Windows and Ubuntu is really easy to use, it's got frequent updates, has a lot of mirrors to download patches and software from and it will always be free!

If you not a Windows developer and not playing hardcore 3D graphic games, you should try this.

This precise version is not the stable one, so try 7.04 or wait until October to get the final Gutsy!

04 = means it was released in April, 10 means it will be released in October. There's a 6 months gab between all Ubuntu versions. So there's always improvement :)

sjc001 reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

Should I upgrade from Feisty Fawn 7.04 to this and how without a new install?

zridling reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

[TC17]: ...Linux will never overtake any operating system as long as major name brand Windows games do not work on it. This is the very reason why Microsoft has a monopoly on the market.
________________________________________________
GNU/Linux isn't looking to "overtake" anyone. Linux truly doesn't care about Windows. On the other hand, according to the monthly spurious Microsoft-funded anti-Linux study, Microsoft has long cared about what GNU/Linux is doing. Besides, Ubuntu is just one flavor, not my fav. But it works, and 7.10 should take laptops to another level of compatibility.

gnosis reviewed v7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta on Sep 27, 2007

Games, Games, and MTV.... That is all I ever hear about. Between the two we have almost an entire generation that is Lazy, winy, and ....

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Sep 10, 2007

I love it , Use it for work & home , to many good thing to list , try it.

go to www.ubuntu.com and download 7.04 stable.

TC17 reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 30, 2007

I honestly have not tried this, but have seen reviews of it. If I were to run Linux, I most likely would choose this.

However Linux will never overtake any operating system as long as major name brand Windows games do not work on it. This is the very reason why Microsoft has a monopoly on the market (for the people who seem to think Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly)

Must be nice to be the richest man on the planet because people have no choice but to give him their money.

Dual booting isn't much of an option either. Just a huge hassle to setup, and you still have to pay Bill Gates doing that.

kytechie reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 26, 2007

I am currently running Ubuntu on my system with a virtual machine program (virtualbox). I'm really starting to appreciate Ubuntu and I wish I could use it as my primary OS. The lack of games are the only thing holding me back from making the move. I'm not really what you would consider a "hard core" gamer but I do like the occasional game to relieve some stress and have some fun. That is the only reason I keep Vista as my host OS. I still have to give Ubuntu a 5, the lack of games is a game developer issue, not an Ubuntu issue.

horsecharles reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 25, 2007

This does not taka a back seat 'at all' to Win/OSX.

SwistaQ reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 24, 2007

Great OS for office work :) :)

UniversityofKentucky reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 24, 2007

Sad story with a happy ending. I have a hp scanner. HP, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to provide drivers for my Vista PC. So... I hooked up the scanner to my Ubuntu PC, used xsane, and it worked perfectly. I use GIMP to acquire my documents. It really does "just work". I have Apache set up, Helix for streaming, etc. Another unsolicited testimonial .

some guy reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 24, 2007

just like the guy below me said dual boot awsome, had to dump vista, out of the box Ubuntu blows windows out of the water, built in open office, the gimp paint program, cd-dvd tools. And the updating
is awesome, no please let us scan your system for piracy before you update like Microsoft

fatray reviewed v7.10 Alpha 5 on Aug 24, 2007

I love this, but I'm a gamer. You can't play the latest games in Linux, no matter what you say. Unless of course you don't mind the HUGE performance hit.
I do use UBUNTU all the time now on my dual boot XP/ubuntu. It's a great web surfing OS.

ZenWarrior reviewed v7.10 Alpha 4 on Aug 21, 2007

Nice. Very nice. Even runs well on an old 'puter with 512MB. Give it a try.

coover reviewed v7.10 Alpha 4 on Aug 11, 2007

I really want to run Linux, I really do! So every new "Live" version I run on my computer.

This time, I downloaded Ubuntu's 32 bit and their 64 bit versions to test out on my computer (which is presently running Vista Ultimate on the hard drive).

I ran both versions "live", that is from the CD rather than actually installing them.

My impressions were as before with previous Linux versions ... the applications and games look kind of like Windows 95 or 98 ... the computer ran slow dispite having 2 GB RAM (of course, I wasn't running them from a fast hard drive) ... and some of the drivers didn't work - you'd think that Ubuntu would have that down by now. For example, I had no sound on either version, 32 or 64 bit.

Of course, this was an Alpha version, so what should I expect? I guess I expected more. It looks like my running Linux will have to wait for awhile. I sure hope the Beta Versions are better.

tarrith reviewed v7.10 Alpha 4 on Aug 9, 2007

If you ever wanted to try Linux. THIS IS IT!
It's easy to use and network it. It has most of the features you need for everyday computing. Web browser, Email, Free Office Applications that are compatible with the M$ version pre-installed.

Want more software? There's loads of free software to easily download and install via the add/remove application.

The only disappointment is the lack of development from the major video card manufacturers.

There is an application to even get some Windows apps/games running, even WoW! Check out http://frankscorner.org/

Tarrith

obscur156 reviewed v7.10 Alpha 4 on Aug 9, 2007

I am running Gutsy since the first cd(tribe 1) was available.I am loving it.

It is stable,fast and just working like everybody want an OS to work.Now My webcam is working in Gutsy Gobbon with kopete but is not in Feisty Fawn.There is a lot of new things that have been added but cannot name them all.I like the visual effect but it is not something that makes a good OS.

People that still think that linux is hard to learn,well you have it all wrong.Just remind you when you first tried a computer and add to learn win98 or xp.....

Now the only thing that i am waiting for is driver for my ati radeon x600,because i did not manage to make my tvout working.Hardware makers are only making window$ driver and dont respect customers without delivering driver for linux.I fell like an hostage of M$ and Mr.Gate$.As soon as i am able to make my tvout working,i will wipe out WIN XP.Not using an M$ product is giving me such a HIGH,you cannot imagine.

Sarcasm mode on:
I am missing my defragmentor,adaware,spybot,nod32 and of course i miss so much rebooting after installing a new program. :-)

sarcasm mode off:
Since i am not a gamer,i dont need M$ anymore and dont want to be associate with MR.Gate$ period.Open source is now the way to go for me.Using Ubuntu since febuary 90% of my pc time,so only using xp 10% of the time.

OK i am stopping there because it could be endless...
I am giving a 4 cause it is an alpha and "Nothing" is perfect in this world.Even window$ lolllll.
Keep up the good work Cannonical and ubuntu community.

Dont forget that's just me.
Best regards ,have a nice day.

speedwaystar reviewed v7.10 Alpha 3 on Jul 20, 2007

Does the new live CD properly install 16:9 drivers for widescreen laptops yet?

Klusternisse reviewed v7.10 Alpha 3 on Jul 19, 2007

Still get 'Failed to set xfermode' on this versions, someone know a solution?

Jordanr05 reviewed v7.10 Alpha 3 on Jul 19, 2007

By far my favourite linux distro. Let's put it this way - the add/remove feature makes it so EASY to install thousands of applications that any newbie would feel right at home. Works great, no DRM, and has some very cool 3D compiz effects.

My only complaint is this OS eats through the battery on my Toshiba M70 laptop. Even Vista lasts longer but I'm still giving it a 5.

UniversityofKentucky reviewed v7.10 Alpha 3 on Jul 19, 2007

I needed to make a decision between Ubuntu and SUSE. I chose Ubuntu and never looked back. Yes, I've used Gentoo and it's cool (but breaks every so often), and their are other distros that are fine, but Ubuntu hasn't given me a problem so far. I run Apache, Helix Server, and general apps so far. I needed to run UltraVNC viewer (only Windows). No problem when using Wine - which installs in a snap. I prefer command line and use apt-get, but there's nothing wrong with Synaptic Package Manager. With OO and FF, it really is ready for prime time. As a bonus, you can connect to an Exchange Server using Evolution.

maxxpilot reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-2 on Jul 5, 2007

I have Ubuntu 7.04 installed as a dual boot to windows XP Home on an Dell Inspiron 8600. I tried to upgrade to the 7.10 version but I can't get beyond the partition manager. Clicking on any of the partitions seems to lock up the installation.

I was very much hoping to see the new items. Lets hope they get this corrected next release.

The installation seems just slightly different from the 7.04 it is subtle but there. In 7.04 the fields are ready to go as you go through the steps of the installation. However, in 7.10 you have to select the fields. Not sure if its an older version of the installer or what is happening.

obscur156 reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-2 on Jun 29, 2007

Just installed it,and installled all the other apps that i need and use.
One hours of work and VOILA everything is working fine.I really like the new tribe 2 version,looks stable to me for now, it went smooth for the install and was not hard to do.Now tribe 2 comes with compiz fuzion enabled by default.It looks great and works without a glitch.

Nice piece of OS,i wish a lot more people will be using UBUNTU in the futur.I repeat, it was easy to install and the other apps that i use are easely downloaded from add or remove or even with synaptic manager and the terminal.Waiting for further improvement,i see this becoming a very big THING in the futur. Continu the good work all you ubuntu community.
I am giving a 4 because nothing is perfect in this world.
Best regards,have fun with UBUNTU :-)

zridling reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-2 on Jun 29, 2007

Alex, the Ubuntu site explains the release names (each one is named after an animal). Now run go b*tch at Apple for doing the same.

Alex Stevens reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-2 on Jun 28, 2007

The names were cute at first, but they are really starting to get old. From a Linux standpoint though this is a really good distro. Not my personal favorite but it's easy to use and works well enough.

horsecharles reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-1 on Jun 8, 2007

This is an awesome project whose best achievement has been attaining a slew of windows' functionalities.
Folks may argue about the merits of competing distros, but none other has anywhere the ease of use / familiarity w/ windows... crucial if Linux ever hopes to hit mainstream.

Especially anyone with the latest hardware entertaining trying Vista 64bit should try this first-- they will be blown away.

sohocc reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-1 on Jun 8, 2007

Ubuntu is unlike any other Linux I have tried. It "Just Works"; it's easy to install and easy to use. I made a tool to assist new users, available from http://soholinux.ourtoolbar.com/

robmanic44 reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-1 on Jun 7, 2007

I've been running linux off and on since I received a Redhat disk with the book "Linux for Dummies". At various times I've been told that a new distribution is the answer to my prayers. It hasn't happened. My latest try was with Xandros and while I could easily install it, it wasn't very easy to install other software. If the number of distros gets down to 4 or 5 I might give linux another try. Until that happens I'll stick with Windows.

zridling reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-1 on Jun 7, 2007

fatray, let's learn together! Check out the new serial I started over at DonationCoder.com on one Windows user's journey to Make the Switch.

Software installation is probably the very first head-scratcher for us Windows users coming over, but mind you, it is different than Windows, and heck, it really doesn't get much easier than Ubuntu's Automatix. I'll write about that later, too — all as the n00b I am to GNU/Linux.

fatray reviewed v7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Tribe-1 on Jun 7, 2007

So much better then it was a year ago. I'm keeping it installed now. Still many apps don't just install like they do in windows. And forget about any serious gaming. Playing World Of Padman Linux version I get very low FPS usually below 30. Windows Version in XP I get 50+ FPS on same PC. Yes my Nvidia drivers are running. I'd give it a 4 if I could use my Merc Zboard with it, as it sits the number pad and left gaming keys don't work in Ubuntu. O yea, my wireless card wont get a signal. It worked for a little bit getting a 37% signal (XP gets 96% signal), but never connects. I have to run a cable under my rugs to surf the net. Only reason I'm keeping it is because of Beryl, and I just like to learn new things. In time I assume I’d be a pro at it and love every second, but right now I’m a newb and it’s tough to learn.

zhengx reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" on Jun 3, 2007

Excellent.
I installed on my computer 3 days ago.

photonboy reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" on Apr 21, 2007

I've taken Ubuntu for a test drive. I might have given it a "5" if I hadn't also used PCLinux OS "Big Daddy" which really impressed me.

However, Ubuntu has some money driving it and it appears that even Dell has started to use this version on computers to fill the demand for Linux-only computers (though you better be damn sure you don't want Windows because it'll cost you more money to buy Windows later than with the computer.)

I believe there's a PowerPC version so perhaps it'll make it's way to the Sony PS3 further spreading Ubuntu.

One version of Linux is bound to float to the top and I believe that Ubuntu has a great chance to be that one. Ubuntu does need some work but each new version improves significantly. With some better software and hopefully improved gaming support (DX10 in the future?) this is going to be one fine Operating System in two years and should serve many people now.

I still can't make the switch from Windows but I'll be keeping an eye on Ubuntu. (Damn I hope DX10 gaming support is on the list of improvements.)

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" on Apr 20, 2007

Installs well , hardware recognition is better than xp , plays with others well, runs great on mid-grade systems (for lower spec systems "Xubuntu")easy to work with & get work done, support is top notch , great all around windows replacement or alternative.

zridling reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" on Apr 19, 2007

Fedora is pretty fantastic, especially its installer. However, this Ubuntu version will make a lot of Vista users green with envy, especially the graphics. If you haven't upgraded to Vista yet, take this out for a test drive. You'll soon get really happy with yourself for not being yet another victim of the Microsoft tax.

If Ubuntu's not your thing, do check out Fedora's LiveCD or even Freespire.

ModderXManiac reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" on Apr 19, 2007

Not the best Linux platform ever, it's still very limited in customizing and flexibility options compared to Fedora. This is a very poor implementation of GNOME compared to the feats Fedora has accomplished.

People see this as the most promising version of Linux because it gets the most advertising, it's the most known, but far from the best.

horsecharles reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" on Apr 19, 2007

This is the one OS with any chance vs Windows... albeit more like a FF vs IE(market share-wise)...

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 26, 2007

/me laughs at yokazuna.

Now we can't forget a good disk-defragmenter, can we? I miss using speedisk / defrag.

yokozuna reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 25, 2007

Ubuntu is fine, however, I prefer KDE (thus Kubuntu). I also appreciate that Ubuntu has became a basis for different distros.

I have to admit that I miss installing certain Windows apps on Ubuntu - like Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Norton AV, etc. When will these fine programs become available on Ubuntu? [sarcasm mode on]

PS BTW, the community of Ubuntu needs your help in building the list of working hardware. More about it here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=391081

Vimes reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 25, 2007

Being new to the Linux scene I appreciate distros like Ubuntu, Sabayon and PCLinuxOS, the latter being my preferred choice.

However can still be a total nightmare to work out what has gone wrong and the CLI that must, at times, be used when things have gone wrong is archaic and difficult to use. It is NOT user friendly. Be careful installing it on a syatem where you have multiple hard drive combinations of SATA and IDE with FAT32 and NTFS partitions - just pay attention to any automatic selection of where it wants to go - and pray that Grub goes where it should...!!!

Having used DOS and then Windows for years I am not sure how a new user would struggle with those but it can be so frustrating to try and get a suitable graphics card driver, for example, to install in some distros of Linux.

To help with the above Ubuntu has an excellent forum, one section dedicated to the absolute beginner, and it is needed.

I do prefer to use the KDE desktop - I just can't appreciate the Gnome type, good job that you can either enable it when installed or just get Kubuntu anyway.

A difficult one for me to rate. For shear value for money it would be a 10 all the way, the same with the support from the forums as well.

However this is marred by the underlying problems that you come up against on most Distros of Linux - it has been designed by druids who have a degree in alchemy.

Ubuntu though, I believe, are doing a lot to make the GUI etc much more user friendly.

If I had to rate Linux it would be 2 /3 but with what Ubuntu is doing to simplify it then that goes to a 4.

Rocker3358 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Excellent version I've been using this for 3 years and upgrade every 6 months Good job ya'll although I use Kubuntu just for the KDE version

robmanic44 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Very popular, but I think Xandros is the best of this group. Finally brokedown and went to RedHat. I don't like the fact that Debian based systems don't run legacy software. Gentoo could have been king, but it got its head cut off.

siryak reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

A decent Linux OS. I see it recommended by many.

But to the people saying Vista has no future. I am still laughing. Do you really think the average joe will EVER run something like Ubuntu? Not unless the PC Man. adopt it, which is highly unlikely. Also Vista is not as bad as everyone tries to make it out to be. The average user is looking for simplicity and Linux is anything but that. Mac is starting to get closer though.

DaveGB reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Nice, there is even a PS3 version,..

http://psubuntu.com/installation-instructions/

terminalx reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

This is a good step forward but again Linux will never conquer the desktop if someone wants to use an easier form of Linux they would go with apple er is it bsd? :) Anyways, as someone else mentioned until they slim down the flavors and come to a common ground its not going to be for the average joe.

miltiad reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Feisty > Vista

Floodland reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Good, pretty good. And being free make it even better. It is a new product, and it has their weakness, but everyone should try it because it doesn't cost a peny.
I see some people claiming about Vista, poor boys... Buy Microsoft products and sink with them. Vista has no future it is worst than Windows ME, Micorsorch started from scrap 2 times and want their users to pay for that. They infected the OS with DRM and close it more to the end user. It needs 1gb of RAM to boot.. Ahh, but the icons are nicer, and they say they improved the UI. Hell no: Vista UI is unconfortable and you need to make more clicks every time to do the same. That means that it "rules"? Yeah, sure... And better don't talk about the license you have to accept to use it... It's so funny.
Ubuntu is heading the right direction, good work boys! Keep the work, you are the future!

obscur156 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

3 months using ubuntu feisty herd .way to go ubuntu,just installed the beta 2 hours ago and its perfect for what i am doing with my machine.I am 38 years old so i am not playing games so dont need window$ anymore.Wow and its FREE,i love open source cause this is real file sharing.You can do what ever you want with it.Dont fear the little penguin.I am not giving a 5 because it is not perfect like all other OS in the entire galaxie.

PS:Alex1974BR Vi$ta will be beta until 2009 :-)

Diam0nd reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Great stuff! But Vista pwns! 'D

PC_Fool reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Best of the best and definitely better than Vista

Pensador reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Sexy, user-friendly and free!

osric reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Vista Sucks!!!
http://badvista.fsf.org/

Alex1974BR reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

Vista rules!

caronn reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 24, 2007

It's bloatware!

Squire72 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

Having used Ubuntu since it first came into being, and followed it since, the constant work and improvement is amazing - easily the best Linux Distro out there.

Despite bring simplified, which is a plus for non tech users, it's also a VERY solid Debian implementation that has all the features of Debian, with a quick and easy install - along with some of the best update and customization features of any system.

Kudos for the Ubuntu people for putting out a system that simply blows everyone else out of the water, and is far better for both beginners and pros than anything either Red Hat or Mandrake have done.

ModderXManiac reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

Excellent distro for those new to linux(and pretty noobish with Windows as well), but I just can't stand the limited customizing it has, it doesn't measure up to Fedora or Mandriva in these respects at all.

Overrated; anyone who's very familiar with running an advanced Windows environment won't be too thrilled by how limited this OS is, at least skin deep.

Go with Fedora, really.

sjc001 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

I hear that Linspire is going to switch to this as its Linux base.

horsecharles reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

My favorite Linux. And many addons have come out recently to make this distro more hands-free, intuitive & easy to manage...just to name one area: installing & especially updating programs is not the chore it once was.

This project has been very impressive and commendable.

PS Tacc: Vista WGA is real hassle-free these days...so far.....

tacc reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

Richardky > you made me smile :p What you said is sooooo true. Just work, smoothly without lamies as WGA, and now in Feisty with Beryl integrated, the "Wow" is just one click away.

Program86 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

Ultra sexy, fast, intuitive, etc.

The releases just keep getting better.

*nix forever.

mjm01010101 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Beta on Mar 23, 2007

Torrent (which Canonical prefers you use) is here:
http://releases.ubuntu.c...esktop-i386.iso.torrent

Mirrebex reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 21, 2007

is there a version where you can boot from the cd and you don't have to install it?

Richardky reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 15, 2007

runs smooth for me and best of all i dont have to prove my self legit every day :) ... thank you to those that contribute to improve this great OS every day :)

zridling reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 5, 2007

Works great for me and is easy to dual-boot with Vista. As installation and drivers are added, I'll get closer and closer to weaning myself completely from Windows — woohoo! mikefromuk, Ubuntu, Freespire, et al. are working on standardizing installations so that adding and removing apps is as easy as Windows. Along with expanded driver support, Linux will slowly continue its desktop encroachment.

matt2971 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 5, 2007

Oops

Zerbe reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 5, 2007

I have yet to try FF, but I have tried the 6 series and its top in my book for linux distros.

To the toddhd, you do realize this is an alpha build, meaning very immature, lotsa bugs/functionality missing, etc.

mikefromuk reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 5, 2007

Well, I am a window user, tried linux and I suppose I am too used to Windoze evn though at times I hate it. One thing though that does come to mind which, although slated at the time is totally true from Bill Gates.

He Commented that unix was good and so on but that " there was no set standard" and this is true.

There are many Distros of linux, all have there goodand bad points but lack a common pattern.

This would explain then why linux has never been properly adopted as the os of choice by many peeps as it lacks the ease of use and useability of windows.

toddhd reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 on Mar 5, 2007

I tried FF Herd 5 the other day. It has some nice features, for example, it located and displayed the wireless access points that were available, which is a huge step up. It still didn't allow me to set my WPA-PSK conncetion natively however, I had to hack that in by hand.

I also saw that there was a 3D Desktop setting built in, which I think means built in Beryl.

Things didn't go smoothly however - it didn't correctly detect my video card and monitor settings, which Edgy did just fine, so my display looked like heck. The wireless connection didn't setup as smoothly as it should have, and even the partitioning seems to have changed, and was tough to understand.

I like Ubuntu, but I still don't get all the hoopla over it. It is still very immature as far as Linux distros get. Something like Suse or Mandriva (or others) has much better hardware detection, wireless setup, broader software package selection, so on and so on. I think ubuntu somehow managed to get a "coolness" factor that the other distros haven't for some reason, but honestly, there are plenty of mature, stable distros out there that give a "windows like" experience from start to finish. I think Ubuntu will just frustrate the average user (at this point in time anyway) more than help them.

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 23, 2007

Here, I'll say it just once:

Linux is *not* Windows

The only reason why people don't like Linux is because they're used to Windows while Linux does things differently. Children have no problem using Linux at all and I've seen them at it, yet so-called "professionals" continue to push the idea that it is far from user-friendly.

How sad, just because there isn't a "Start" button or control panel, people reject it without even giving it a fair go.

zridling reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 20, 2007

Feisty Fawn works like a rock for me on both an old and new Core-2 Duo system, and it's easy to dual-boot with Vista. Moreover, the Ubuntu community and forum is always helpful. I can boot to Vista if I want, but the more I hang out with Ubuntu, the less I need to.

Richardky reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 20, 2007

you should actually try out what you give a review on BetaNews should remove these bogus reviews that troll thru ...

my rate and review is based on trying and using Ubuntu and its amazing ...switching over from (Vista) without looking back

it has nothing to do with being able to afford a OS or not its about a OS built upon freedom something most wont get or understand - but soon will the hard way as the shaft is getting bigger and bigger :)

this is one of the most advancing distro's deemed for desktop ease of use (not linux noob related) and is about time ... things are changing fast in the world of linux with the average desktop user's along with software, games, ect ect to come ..

toymachine reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 20, 2007

I wish people would review the actual beta itself and not Linux as a whole. Keep fanboyism to yourselves trolls.

I'm not sure why Canonical decided to ultimately leave out the proprietary video drivers for Feisty, I guess to appease the FLOSS gods. Either way Feisty is shaping up to be a good release, it'll probably take them some time to stabilize everything for another LTS.

Another cool thing with feisty is an easy codec install, for all those naysayers and moaners who can't understand how to use automatix. :)

segfaul reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 20, 2007

Ubuntu is just a debian ripoff made by newbies, go for slackware that´s real linux. this distro makes me think of a african with bongo drums or a canibal...

Trolls... yawn, i´ve been using linux for about 13years, i know what i talk about, sad linux ended up like this with all the smart kids in the forums, yeah they are so smart they can live without their head.

phiber0ptik reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 20, 2007

Its hard to rate an OS since there are a few things to consider :p Playing Direct3D games on Linux is not easy for the newcomer, and even for the oldschool haXx0r there are problems. Well, WoW and CS works tho :) But as I said, its not as easy as it is on a windows-system. But thats not Linux fault, its more our own fault for not choosing Linux over Windows from the very first :D But what about other things except gaming?! My choose here is linux, no doubt. Its more secure, have a great amount of apps to use, like OpenOffice (free opensource office-suite) with apps which does the same as Excel, Powerpoint and Word, and a few more). There are many different browsers, mailclients, IM-clients... :) So if your not a gamer, at least give it a try. I'm still waiting for support for Ragnarok Online til I switch for good :) And btw! You can even run Microsoft Office and many more Windows-made applications under Linux with the same emulator used to get those games i mention earlier, to work. For the OS like it is, 5/5, its easy to install, easy to learn and so on :p If there are any problems ubuntu's huge support-forum is the place to go. Or google :) Good luck and I hope you try it out if you havent done so.

johnathonm reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 4 on Feb 20, 2007

I don't need this crap. I can afford a real OS, with full complement of real software with actual support! Not some lame newsgroup or bb.

robmanic44 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Feb 17, 2007

Can't afford Microsoft operating systems? How did they purchase a computer? I run 2 of my systems with linux and I enjoy playing around with them. I don't know any serious gamer who would even consider linux. Maybe Gentoo has a chance, but about 1 out of 100,000 users can handle it.

no13 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 30, 2007

Brusco. PLEASE use Ubuntu ONCE will you?

>> Microsoft Windows Vista is far superior to this software.
Says who? You? Based on what? The sales clerk at the store?

>> Ubuntu is generally for people who can't afford professional versions of MS operating systems, so must settle for less.
Ha ha. What a joke. France is switching to Linux. US Universities are switching to Linux. IBM is switching to Linux. All of them must be poor.

>> -This cannot play WMV, WMA or MP3 files. (or DivX)
WRONG ! It can. You have to download a proper media player for the purpose. Just like Windows can't play Quicktime [QT, MOV] or Real Media [RAM, RM, RA] files right out of the box.

>> -Has very poor Wireless driver support
That's true for the older versions, and it was only because manfuacturers didn't make them. Now that more customers are clamoring, Intel et al are bowing to consumer demands and making drivers.

>> -You cannot use your Plays for Sure device with it.
WRONG! They work just fine. I'm using a Creative MuVo. It works. I've seen Sansa devices work. All you need to remember is that your PlaysForSure device is a USB pen drive in a different shape, and an inbuilt OS to play MP3s and WMAs. Copy the files to the player via the file browser of your choice, and BOOM. Works.

>> -No proprietary software comes with it, at all.
Wow. This is simply FUD. Why would you NEED proprietary software?
OpenOffice works beautifully with all kinds of MS Office files.
GIMP is sufficient for most peoples' photo editing needs.
GAIM is an awesome messenger client [I use it on XP].

>> This is like a seriously stripped down version of Windows.
It's not Windows. Sounds like you WANT windows. Then go ahead and buy it. Along with a shiny new Video Card. And triple your ram. And get a bigger hard drive, a newer motherboard with a newer processor. But remember, not too new because Vista drivers will be having off days for the next year, till SP1 shows up.

To summarize-
You want to play DRM'd music and want appliactions where the formats are so tied up 'proprietally' that you can ONLY use one... ONE application to access or edit them. And you want to pay for it.

The only thing you did NOT mention was the the new Aero/Glass GUI. Ubuntu has XGL/Beryl support forthcoming.

By the way, you're the first guy EVER to have asked for 'proprietary' apps with his OS. EVER.

Here's an extra five just because you were so rude. Flaming troll.

horsecharles reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 17, 2007

i join the lovefest-- amazing distro / outstanding project.

my favorite linux & have no qualms about recommending it to noobs even.

zridling reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 17, 2007

Ubuntu now has more users than OS X. Find out for yourself. This sucker is really rock solid. I put this on my 3.0GHz 4G RAM machine and gave it to my brother with a full OpenCD setup and he assumed it was a Windows machine. Although that was insulting, I knew what he meant!

lokanetra reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 16, 2007

Looks like Brusco is an M$ a$$clown...

Switching *FROM* vista *TO* Ubuntu is fairly easy and a much better idea.

All audio and video formats are supported. All networking works great. Who cares about playsforsure and proprietary software is what people want to get away from. Use open source not M$.

Don't listen to the M$ a$$clown flamebaiters.

anomoly reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 16, 2007

I would happily install this (for all my internet needs) in a heartbeat if a had a second box. Thus enabling the removal of all the bs security software associated with xp. (the other box)

brusco reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 16, 2007

Microsoft Windows Vista is far superior to this software. Ubuntu is generally for people who can't afford professional versions of MS operating systems, so must settle for less.

-This cannot play WMV, WMA or MP3 files. (or DivX)
-Has very poor Wireless driver support
-You cannot use your Plays for Sure device with it.
-No proprietary software comes with it, at all.

This is like a seriously stripped down version of Windows.

Tene reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 16, 2007

Superb distribution for the non-initiated.

I used this (Herd 1) whilst transitioning from a Windows system. The setup is scarily easy, as is the maintenance. However, it's still an excellent transitional learning platform. With due effort, within a few weeks (less if you're particularly dedicated), you'll be Linux proficient.

Now I'm using Gentoo, and after running Ubuntu for a couple of weeks, it all seems pretty simple (and indeed, very intuitive).

Two thumbs up for a great starter distribution.

WebWarp reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 2 on Jan 15, 2007

We know, its says so at their site as the changes too... Check out at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing

phiber0ptik reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 1 on Dec 7, 2006

Love this dist. Easy for an amateur to setup, I bet it wont take long til the amateur manage to configure some advance things and so on :)

One of all the great things about this dist is the support. There is narly 1000 people on the freenode-network, #ubuntu. Well not everyone in there can answer your question but probably 100 of them can :)

For those who are curious about this new version... if you look at the version-number of it, it says 7.04, this means 2007.04 (april 2007). Thats the release date :)

solid45 reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 1 on Dec 6, 2006

Very good distro, but its no OPENSUSE>

linkdup reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 1 on Dec 6, 2006

What the F is new in this version?

IMO this is the best distro out.

yokozuna reviewed v7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 1 on Dec 6, 2006

Cool distro, however, I prefer a fork of Ubuntu named Linux Mint with all the codecs and drivers on board.

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 31, 2006

Excellent release, looks even better when used with one of many different flavours of XGL, like Compiz. For those who love their C64 music, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjII1Ld47zc for an XGL demo.

It even supports all of my digital cameras, printers and scanners without the need for any drivers--about time I had an OS which saves me CD swapping.

Ameba#1 said: "LeXTeRiTY_X sad "Linux has a more flexible and stable programming base." - LOL"

I stand by it entirely. If anyting, it's only particular Linux programs that are unstable, not Linux itself. While no operating system is completely perfect, Ubuntu comes closest to what I need. My guess is that you haven't programmed on either if not both operating systems to know the difference.

Ameba#1 said: "By the way, how many programs there is in Fileforum for Linux ?"

The answer? About 1/10 the number of the Microsoft vulnerability reports on BetaNews.

Orbitration reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 27, 2006

I love this o/s, except for the crappy brown (no pun intended) theme that Ubuntu is famous for. But customizing the whole deal is part of the fun of Ubuntu.
It doesn't look anything like the original now. I prefer a bluish theme, but on Gnome, not K.

I have it running flawlessly it seems on a Core2 Duo / Asrock 775Dual system with a couple gigs of ram, and it's so blazing fast it makes XP feel like it's on a PII.

This version, with some tweaking, reads/writes to my SATA NTFS drive, which I also use for my XP installation on another IDE drive. Rather than dual boot, I go into the BIOS when I want to boot to either system, and select that drive as the boot drive. Just ASIMO. ;)

This is the first version of Linux I'm serious about, as WINE works almost perfectly with Macromedia suite and a number of other apps. I have IE6 installed thru ies4Linux, and now that Adobe got off their collective butts and made an new Flash plugin for the penguin, there's not much I need XP for. Even the AlienSkin plugins work with Fireworks, so the GiMP isn't even an option, except for svg files.
WINE has come a long way. a LONG way. It actually works quite well now, so if you've ever given up in disgust from the empty promises of running Windows apps on Linux, give it another whirl.

UT2004 has issues trying to run from WINE with the serial number, but Quake3 and UT GOTY work great via WINE.
I only have a 6800XT nVid card, too.

On Dapper, I had Beryl/XGL running just wonderfully, but havnig hosed an earlier version of Edgy with it, I'm not trying it on my production box for awhile.

Vista should beware, imho. With Open Office, Macromedia, XMMS, who needs to spend a couple grand on Vista-hardware upgrade-software upgrades ?
Besides corporations who are addicted beyond hope to MS crapware, that is.

If you've ever wondered what the whoopdedoo is about Ubuntu, just d/l a LiveCD.iso and give it a whirl. You may be pleasantly surprised. If you like it, simply hit the Install link on the desktop, and let 'er rip.
With apt-get, you can get almost everything you want, also, by adding the extra repositories.

husky87 reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 27, 2006

@Ameba#1

your joking right? lol

i've tested this out over the months and its come together quite nicely.

toymachine reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 26, 2006

I'll stick with Dapper for now, there just isn't enough reason for me to dist upgrade. I've got Beryl/XGL working perfectly fine on an ATI card and from what I understand people have been having problems with the proprietary fglrx driver and XGL/Beryl.

This is mainly an bleeding edge/experimental release, so it won't hurt anyone to wait for the next LTS release.

morganp reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 26, 2006

Ever since the first Ubuntu release I have always installed it in VMware Workstation so that I could play around with it without having to dual boot. I have always been very impressed with Ubuntu. Yes it has weaknesses but so does Windows XP. While I got frustrated at times trying to get some things to work I thought back to things which frustrated me about Windows when I couldn't get them to work, such as my digital video camera earlier this year. One thing that I really like about Ubuntu is the regular updates. Every 6 months there is a new release. As a hobby it is great, I have learned a lot of things while using Ubuntu and I am sure we will see big things from it in the future. Considering the price tag I don't see why everyone does not try it (if you have dial up they will even post you CDs for free!) to see what they think. After all, you have nothing to lose.

dejavu reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 26, 2006

Maybe the most beautiful version of Linux, but I had many problems with updates crashing a lot of programs. Support for video and sound Codecs are painful too.

twanj reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 26, 2006

metalinks for faster and verified downloads are available at http://www.metalinker.org/samples.html#isos

Ameba#1 reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 26, 2006

LeXTeRiTY_X sad "Linux has a more flexible and stable programming base."

LOL

Linux is the worst scenario for a programmer. Windows programming base is much more friendly for programmers than Linux. Windows has the best programming tools like VS2005 and BDS. MS Windows API, SDKs and MSDN makes windows programming child play. To create rich and powerfull programs for Windows is very easy and fast. Everybody can program in Windows in almost every language. It´s really a democratic programming base, very different from Linux and its dark ages programming tools, base and enviroments. By the way, how many programs there is in Fileforum for Linux ?

A very few...

Frostek reviewed v6.10 "Edgy Eft" on Oct 26, 2006

Remember to always back up your system & personal data before upgrading your OS...

Also available from- http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/

:-)

randal2k reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 22, 2006

I keeep getting a brown screen and movable mouse (end) Does this version have same issues with NVIDIA?
I will try it for fun, but till they get NVIDIA right, Ubuntu is a 3 at best.

anomoly reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 22, 2006

When this first came out, I tried it out, but could never get my hp printer to work, even though it has always been listed in the 'add printer' dialog.
Currently would install & use it immediately in a second box nic'd to my windows box. Ubuntu being the browser/security hardware, & windows as is, minus all the junk it needs to stay secure. I have too many things going on in windows that linux simply doesn't do. I don't want to have to type anything in order to make it work as I am only familiar with xp. It also needs to be able to read ntfs volumes as does the $20 http://www.linux-xp.com/ OS.
With vista slated for late '07 (and it IS a great gui), but alas it will also have the constant security update problems coupled with ms's desire to make everyone on earth pay for & use the same exact software. How pathetic is that?
Go Ubuntu!

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 21, 2006

Been using Ubuntu for years now. Irrelevant to what people say, Ubuntu is the best OS I have tested so far. After programming for years on M$ platforms, Linux has a more flexible and stable programming base.

Still needs to simplify many things to cause mass migration from other OSes, such as a graphical or automated interface for XSANE backends for people who don't know how to edit the scanner .conf files.

Other than the interface, the system itself is excellent. Menus run faster, it boots in less time and the boot splash looks great.

Ubunutu! Ubunutu! Ubunutu!
Oi! Oi! Oi!

phiber0ptik reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 21, 2006

I really like the last part of morganp's review, I totally agree with that. Ubuntu rocks :) When I can play Ragnarok Online under Ubuntu I will leave windows behind :P

Corlis reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 21, 2006

I like this distro very much.
2 days ago came out flash9 plugin, one step ahead.
I give 5

morganp reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 21, 2006

I am really liking what I see with Ubuntu. While it is not perfect it is of superb quality. The development team are doing a great job of making things easier and easier. Having regular updates means that they are continually making progress. Considering how progress has been made already I can foresee Ubuntu being an excellent alternative to Windows in the not too distant future. I do not feel comfortable saying that as I have heard it so many times in the past (going back to the late 90s) however I really think it is possible now. I never believed it back then, but if Ubuntu can fix some of the problems such as dealing with the X server (a nice error screen, not cryptic text for example) and other such things they will start to be accepted as a desktop alternative. Personally I don't mind editing config files or using the command line as I do this in Windows as well, but Windows has grace when it fails most of the time, Ubuntu needs to do the same. I am confident they can do it though. I think choice is great, the better Ubuntu gets the more popular it will be and this will pressure Microsoft into more regular updates of Windows with better features. Choice is great for us, the users, Firefox caused Microsoft to sit up and take notice and sort IE out and I am hoping Ubuntu can do the same for Windows.

If you do decide to try Ubuntu out take some time to learn how to do things and don't just disregard things just because it doesn't work how Windows works. Windows isn't perfect either remember however most of the time you already know how to solve the problem in Windows whereas Ubuntu is a new world and you are going to feel uncomfortable at first. Give it some time, I think you will be surprised at how good it really is.

butthead reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 21, 2006

* still no out of the box, easy WPA and WPA2 support

ds0934 reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 20, 2006

Ubuntu 6 is nice. 6.1 should have some nice tweaks as well. My test lab has Suse 10.x, Fedora 5, and Ubuntu 6 along with Vista and some others. I agree, Linux is walking a strange path. Besides forking into way too many distros and packages, now you've got 3 primary update systems (rpm, dpkg and yast... oh yeah, and automatix for ubuntu... makes 4). They're shooting themselves in the foot! Too bad United Linux fell apart. MS and Apple are laughing. So what if geeks love it, without mainstream acceptance the funds will never propell it higher than where it is.

The problem is Linux zealots (I can call myself one sort of) have two arguments going at once: the first being that it shouldn't be dumbed down for mass acceptance and ease of use, the other being that it needs to compete against (and beat) Windows and OSX. Those two arguments cannot coexist. One must be embraced and the other dropped. The whole debate is getting stupid. All we want are tools that work and don't kill our budgets, and don't come with 100 strings attached.

evanr reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 20, 2006

ive tried 6.06 LTS not the latest version but i saw something annoying so i shall write.

This is a nice Linux distro though I do prefer KDE over Gnome. I also hate the reliance on the internet. MP3 players should work right from installation, not need a MP3 codec. I've always thought that Linux was a slipshod job at putting together free, not very high quality software, and giving out worse drivers (sometimes none at all) than Windows. I'd rather use Apple software than Linux. For a linux distro i give it a four because it's a better slipshod job than other distros. It will never take down Windows though.

smanofsteel76
I'm getting sick and tired of people saying that they are "sick and tired of upgrading [their] hardware every time Microsoft decides Windows needs more resources." Microsoft has always stated what the minimum requirements are. They have always been the same. It's other people like magazine article writers and that recommend you upgrade your computer. A computer should be built and upgraded to your needs not what someone else says.
If you have been running 1 year or older software there is really no need to upgrade your computer. Software will never need more resources later. It's not getting more complex. NEW software WILL need more and more resources.

If you are mentioning Vista, then yes, Microsoft is requiring better and better parts because they keep adding on to it, just like a newer distro of Linux will need more and more resources because it is getting better.

Did i just explain everything well enough? Or should i be more redundant.

And why do u always have to upgrade? How about you upgrade past the minimum requirements so you don't waste time and money? And keep it for at least 8 months.

sn0wflake reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 20, 2006

"Linux has forked too much unfortunately... whenever a team builds their product for Linux platforms they are forced to go with a subset."

Wise words indeed. Linux is useful for kiosk mode or for really old PC's that would otherwise be discarded. Linux will never win as long as only geeks understand it.

The MAZZTer reviewed v6.10 RC on Oct 20, 2006

Very nice, but there are still too many sharp edges in this to see it becoming a Windows killer in the near future.

- Installer decided to roll my clock forward 4 hours for no reason even though I specified the proper time zone.
- When I set my clock back, I was unable to perform ANY administrative actions for four hours (at least I would have, but I found the console fix to reset my sudo timestamp... something an ordinary user would not have been able to do).
- Various minor problems, although admittedly probably caused by my mucking about in terminal trying to understand everything and get things customized the way I wanted them to be.

Of course there are also things beyond Ubuntu team's control:

- The WINE package offered is outdated, and is not installed by default. Building from source is required for the latest version. Furthermore WINE has some bugs regarding MDI support and font support... Windows migrators are going to require better support for Windows apps. Also a related requirement would be a NTFS driver with write support. I understand there's a driver called ntfs-3g that is getting some attention.
- Support for more Windows formats. I can't find a decent MIDI player (I finally found and built a plugin for XMMS... but the quality was horrible. Plus it hung Gnome. Winamp offers superior sound quality right out of the box. Unfortunately Winamp hangs for me under Wine... since others have gotten it to work I'll assume it's a plugin's fault, I have to look into it more). Also I was disappointed GNOME's "launchers" (ie shortcuts) don't support ICOs for their icons, as this meant I was unable to make use of my existing icons for my Wine programs.
- More packages and binaries available without compiling. Linux has forked too much unfortunately... whenever a team builds their product for Linux platforms they are forced to go with a subset. ScummVM, for example, does not have an Ubuntu package of their latest version, so it must be built from source. Packages would have to be kept up-to-date faster to be useful for those who want to be kept up-to-date.

toymachine reviewed v6.10 Edgy Eft Beta on Sep 28, 2006

Everything runs fine with this beta, though I am still looking forward to the final release. :)

smanofsteel76 reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Sep 2, 2006

I am sick and tired of upgrading my hardware every time Microsoft decides Windows needs more resources. Also, I tried almost every popular Unix distribution out there and was unable to commit to switching UNTIL I INSTALLED UBUNTU. I find this very user friendly, its easy to install programs, and has everything I need. If they can make it easier for the novice, I think this could eventually be a Windows killer!!!

Frostek reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 31, 2006

As a (coerced) Windows user for many years, I never thought that I'd be able to run Linux as my main OS without having to fit a second brain.

Ubuntu Breezy and now the even better Dapper has proven me wrong.

A smashing piece of work...

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 22, 2006

Rarely, would any software truly deserve 5 stars--and Ubuntu is an exception. I discovered the distro when PCAuthority did a lab test on different OSes and found Ubuntu to be the one that stood out with these features.

- Linux has had an impressive history in security--for the 10+ years it has been running for, no antivirus software or firewall has ever been necessary. Only recently has Windows realised this and tightened its security internally.

- Many applications have a performance increase when running under Linux. Blender3D improves dramatically as wel as many other OpenGL based applications. Even videos can be played smoothly without Video4Linux - the open-source equivelant to DirectMedia.

- Of all the OSes tested, Ubuntu was the only one to install on just about any system without the need for any external drivers: "out of the box", as they call it.

- In personal experiences, I bought one of the latest Epson CX printer-scanners which was successfully detected, installed, test page printed and scanner working. All of this was done without the need for any external drivers. Had this been any other OS, it would have prompted me to insert the accompanying driver CD. And people out there have the nerve to say this isn't a "plug-and-play" system?

Ok, sure Linux doesn't look pretty, I've gotten over that now. I edit sites using a GTK editor while browsing the internet on the libMotif application and publish files through a qt dialogue on the X11 interface. There are over 4 open/save dialogues for me to play with, but I'm willing to sacrafice consistency for improved performance and security.

TheLargeNet reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

I discovered Ubuntu when I need to partition a Windows hardrive, Gparted is an excellent partition tool that comes with many other excellent utilities within this excellent distribution.

After using Gparted I further explored Ubuntu and was amazed how excellent it is, its a fantastic OS, simple for beginners and enough for the more experienced, Ubuntu rocks !

reidyn reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

Idiots such as Ameba#1 should not be using this review area merely as a platform for religious opinions on things they're not even testing. Clearly, you haven't even tried this distribution and probably haven't tried any other distributions in quite some time if ever -- so why exactly are you even posting a comment here????? If you don't like Linux, JUST DON'T USE IT. But don't waste space with idiotic anti-Linux venom in a place where people would like to know the experience of those who are ACTUALLY TESTING THE SOFTWARE. You're the sort of moron who probably has opinions on food you've never tasted, and the comfort of a car you've never driven or ridden in.

My own review: This Ubuntu release is excellent. This brings us closer to a plug & play, no-hassle install than any earlier versions, and holds its own against other distributions. This distribution is currently the easiest I've tried for a just-works desktop installation. Haven't tried the server edition yet, but will soon. My hardware, nothing uncommon, autoconfigures perfectly and works smoothly. I suspect MOST will find this to be true. Sound seems to work more smoothly with an add-in soundcard (SB Audigy 2, for instance) than with onboard sound. Also haven't tried it yet on a notebook, but my brother had a no-hassle install on a Dell notebook.

Prospero424 reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

All I'll say is that I decided to install Kubuntu on an old PIII 450 machine with a PCI Radeon and 256MB RAM a couple of weeks ago, and Dapper runs just fine and quick on it.

Video playback works wonderfully, which was the major goal.

Wireless works perfectly. And yes, I'm using WPA and a rather obscure D-Link wireless adapter.

Performance is much quicker than XP was on it, and memory/swap handling is FAR better.

Heck, even Firefox runs better.

And this is with KDE, which I've seen referred to as a "resource hog". The ONLY thing I'm missing is Flash 9 support, and that's coming soon, acording to macromedia.

RedBoar reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

Breezy is the previous Ubuntu version and it blows Dapper out of the water (no pun intended) in speed, usability and performance. Download and install Breezy on your hard drive, then follow the instructions on the Ubuntu forum to install and run Automatix, and you'll be happy. If you have wireless, stick with Windows, and you'll stay happy.

aredo reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

The last reviewer I have to agree with. There is no Linux distribution that can offer some true plug and play like XP/2003 or OSX.
Also, if you know how to use Unix systems and you need a reliable Unix OS then your best bet is to use Sun Solaris 10 or FreeBSD (or BSD variants). Forget about Linux which is technically an inferior Unix hack.

Ameba#1 reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

Yet another "horrible" Linux distro. Device drivers installation and configuration is very difficult since there are a lot of incompatbilities with the kernel version, the compiler, dependencies and the like. Besides, almost every Linux configuration must be done in text mode which is insane.

I must say that I´m not a M$ Windows or Apple Macintosh fanboy but it´s plug-and-play and GUIs hardware installation/configuration is far better then Linux.

So, as long Linux remains so difficult to get a video card or other hardware working properly I recomend you don´t try Ubuntu and any other distro just because they are all the same.

mjm01010101 reviewed v6.06.1 LTS on Aug 10, 2006

Linky noey workie.

marty reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 5, 2006

I install it with VMware. Wanted Kubuntu but it doesn't give ReiserFS option. Ubuntu does. I found the installer prettier than Breezy Beagle 5.10 but the partitioner was pretty confusing if you don't take the default layout. Speedy indeed but I prefer Fedora Core 5 myself. Unlike Fedora haven't tested out the 64bit version - Fedora is the only 64 bit distro that installs in a GUI in Vmware.

SantaRosa reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 2, 2006

I am a novice Linux user. Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) worked perfectly for me on the first try. (Other Linux distros have been a hassle.) Dapper Drake is tops!

1uk3 reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 2, 2006

Great so far.... downloaded the AMDx64 version and installed very quickly and more over, everything works!

I'm a n00b when it comes to Linux really but quite often give distros a quick look over. This is the first distro that I'm considering keeping. Was up and running in no time. Got my MP3's playing on XMMS and videos playing on VLC.

I've liked openSUSE in the past but had problems with my NVidia graphics card. This distro has no problems with any of my hardware.

The only things I wish for is more multimedia support and nicer looking fonts (this applies to all Linux desktop environments) but for a free operating system it doesn't come any better. :D

AlanS2001 reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 2, 2006

Good, but Fedora Core 5 is better in my opinion.

fair_is_fair reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 2, 2006

"(it should "Just Work", TM)"

"should" is the operative word. Despite trying every new release, I still find the installer buggie and the bootloader install hit and miss.

Ubuntu is not "all that and a bag of chips".

Once installed, it is ok but will still require a lot of attention if you want good media support, java, and flash.

LeXTeRiTY_X reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

Probably the best distro out of all the Linux flavours. My only complaint is that it didn't like installing off the liveCD when there are countless partitions involved.

The 3D enhanced desktop with XGL looks promising.

Don Juan reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

It's ok, for Linux. I prefer BSD though. Any other Linux distro I'd probably give a one or a two at the most.

zridling reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

Fantastic! I wouldn't believe it until I saw Ubuntu in action. Hell, it's even fast running off a freakin' CD. Thanks for the links, twanj.

twanj reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

it's great! try out a live cd now. .metalinks (http://www.metalinker.org) for GetRight 6:

http://www.metalinker.or...ktop_amd64_ISO.metalink
http://www.metalinker.or...sktop_i386_ISO.metalink

kanenas reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

amazing distro everyone should try to install it and become familiar with it
vista and its drm are around the corner

mjm01010101 reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

Desktop linux for the masses is here, June 1, 2006. History is made.

acascianelli reviewed v6.06 LTS on Jun 1, 2006

One of the best Linux distro out right now. Keeps getting better with every release. I've been using Ubuntu since 5.04.

deadmonkey reviewed v6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) Flight 7 on May 8, 2006

asellus: because the companies who own the format charge money for each copy. Ubuntu, being free, cannot afford to pay the price per download. Microsoft just wrap it up into the overall price of Windows, you might not realise it but you PAID for MP3 support by default in Windows, it isn't there for free.

asellus reviewed v6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) Flight 7 on May 8, 2006

The only this distro need is for the installer to install MPEG4/MP3/DVD playback and codecs out of the box.

Why there are no good and free Linux distro with complete multimedia playback and encoding capability right out of the box?

Noremacam reviewed v6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) Flight 7 on May 8, 2006

This distrobution is possibly the easiest "free" linux I've ever seen. The desktop is clean and easy to navigate. I really like the choice of gnome for the desktop. It doesn't feel bloated like other distrobutions.

While setting up proprietary components after installing is a pain on most distrobutions, setting up these components on Dapper Drake was a piece of cake. Setting up my wireless adapter was a breeze with ndiswrapper(included on the cd). The nvidia driver simply had to be loaded from the respository(it's the latest version too!). Installing the codecs, java, and flash player was a breeze thanks to a script I found in their forums called "bumps".

This is the perfect distro for trying out XGL/compiz. I use those tools for showing off the OS to friends. Very fun(if not very productive) tools to have.

What ultimately makes me rate this as a high quality distrobution is the community behind it. The forums as so much more responsive and friendlier than forums for other distrobutions. This is what ultimately made troubleshooting and installing proprietary software easy.

I hardly ever run windows anymore.

adrenaline! reviewed v6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) Flight 7 on May 8, 2006

Polished distribution that comes with all the cream of the crop applications. Download the LiveCD when the final version comes out (June 1st) and see for yourself!

MellonCollie reviewed v6.06 (Dapper Drake) Flight 6 on Apr 4, 2006

Ubuntu is erotic in so many different ways. I love it!

cltx99 reviewed v6.06 (Dapper Drake) Flight 6 on Apr 4, 2006

just doesn't work on my new laptop.

anmol.2k4 reviewed v6.06 (Dapper Drake) Flight 6 on Apr 4, 2006

just work , my @5s
tried it a lot but i was not able to use my modem(dialup) & tvtuner.
i admit it is good but so is suse & mandriva.
if one will ever choose linux over windows then he/she is going to be looking something easy to use, LINUX IS NOT EASY TO USE, for 15 minutes free eye candy desktop looks good but when one really starts using most of us want windows back.

There is only one linux distro which can claim it is easy to use and that is LINSPIRE, i know MR copies a lot but he has got one of the most innovative and creative linux disto around, with linspire he has smoothed out those rough edges of linux, and that is what really matters .

and im not talking about servers

microFawad reviewed v6.06 (Dapper Drake) Flight 6 on Apr 4, 2006

Its much improved than the 5.10. Awesome...

Don Juan reviewed v6.06 (Dapper Drake) Flight 6 on Apr 3, 2006

By far the best Linux distro available. (I despise Linux.) Takes a long time to boot, slowest of any OS I've used. BSD runs Linux binaries faster than any Linux distro, except for the one or two that don't run in BSD, ie: Cedega :(. Linux is progressing very quickly though, especially this distro. Maybe in a year or two it will be on par with BSD.

mjm01010101 reviewed v6.06 (Dapper Drake) Flight 6 on Apr 3, 2006

I still cannot get this version to work on my laptop. Something wrong with the X server config, I don't have time to troubleshoot. :( breezy works fine on the same laptop. I've tried different command lines. (771, VGA, etc) with no luck. Hope they fix this issue by point.

DrSinistro reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight 5 on Mar 15, 2006

Very good. The Flight 5 work better that 5.10 on my Thinkpad A22m (PIII 1GHz, 512MB, ATI Rage Mobility M1). When you make an update the menu bar can become unreachable with the mouse. Will be fixed soon i guess.

christoofar reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight 5 on Mar 14, 2006

I think you mean "Ub!"
A good solid distro bringing Linux to the masses

ds0934 reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight 5 on Mar 14, 2006

Me like-um plenty. Ug!

mjm01010101 reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight CD 4 on Feb 26, 2006

Couldn't get this alpha to work at all on my alienware laptop, constant X server problems. Weird cause the previous alphas of ubuntu have worked fairly well. Will give the final a shot though in a few months.

mikeeberhart reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight CD 4 on Feb 20, 2006

I was pleased with this Alpha release upon testing the Live-CD on my new Dell 9150. I actually used the KUbuntu version (KDE GUI).
This was the first build that correctly detected my built in Gigabit Intel Ethernet. KDE 3.5.1 worked well, and FireFox 1.5 was nice to see included with latest Ubuntu.
The only thing that didn't auto-detect right out of the gate was the NVidia GeForce 6800 (it chose a generic NVidia card), thus I had to restart X to select proper card so I could run 1920x1200 res.

horsecharles reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight CD 4 on Feb 20, 2006

The home page link listed here is erroneous for this particular build: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/dapper/flight-4/

btw I totally support this-- but be forewarned this latest release is still a work in progress-- read here: https://lists.ubuntu.com...06-February/000050.html

(And Ubuntu development is far more along than Kubuntu-- i prefer gnome to kde anyhow.)

That being said, it is nothing major to be alarmed over IMO: not only is it stable enough to use, but the new additions make it way more useful than its predecessors: one can see the potential for this developing into not only the best Linux distro, but really the only one to have any chance of attracting substantial mainstream usage.

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight CD 4 on Feb 20, 2006

Dapper is going to be the best Ubuntu yet! The new support for Xgl/Compiz is great. Its a shame that clearlooks-cairo has be taken out but as long as its stable I'm happy :D

horsecharles reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight CD 3 on Jan 18, 2006

When this is finished it will give windows a real run for the money.

I would recommend to new adopters:
first a warning, this is pre-beta!
second: do NOT install this first-- install first v4 or 5, then go to ubuntu forums and get Automatix: apply all the regtweaks, add & update all third-party apps as needed, then install v6.
Make sure to mount during install each of the main folders to a separate partition-- especially Temp & Swap! This distro is growing by leaps and bounds(make sure you have plenty of space allocated, don't believe those who tell you the opposite: that you won't need a lot), and if the aforementioned are mounted in same partition as home or users folders, and they spiral in size out of control-- you may get locked out of gui on bootup, able to use command prompt only(which usually will coincide with not remembering admin user name & pw).

I also recommend Ubuntu(with gnome) as opposed to Kubuntu(kde).

This is on its way to being the best of the non-comm distros, & will give the rest a run fot their money.

jd142 reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight CD 3 on Jan 17, 2006

I moved from 5.10 to Breezy on my laptop about a month ago and have had only 1 problem since then. KDE has a segfault when I'm shutting down. Really minor since no work is lost or anything.

Other than that, despite being alphaware, Breezy has been working just fine for me.

marty reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 16, 2005

I give it a 5 because of version 5.10. Naming convention is Year.4 or Year.10 (month of release). This is an ALPHA version (should be noted Betanews). I wisely install it first on VMware 5.5. It has a browser like Firefox Deer Park - still under development and a new version of Evolution - also in beta. If you install it to your "real" HD you have been warned. BTW if you do use VMware you need to use a virtual IDE drive rather than the recommended SCSI drive. Experience.

some guy reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 16, 2005

I have tryed the brezzy bagger, one and I liked it but the only thing I had a problem with was it wouldn't work with my mouse, anyone know if this version fixed mouse installation problems?
I would love to put this in but don't want to try it if it locks my mouse up again.

LinasG reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 16, 2005

stop submiting alpha versions as finall!!!!!!!!!!!! The final version will be available only 04/2006!!!!!!!

tremens reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 16, 2005

java doesn't follow the strict open source model of ubuntu

Matrix3000k reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 15, 2005

surfbum4fun:

Try this

apt-get install java

it downloads java and all debendencies and you done.

Anyways I was introduced to ubuntu linux about 8 months ago when 5.0 was out by a friend of mine. I been using Debian, gentoo, and suse linux distros on all my computers but I tried out ubutu and I was really impressed. I have added ubuntu to my linux family on the computers and I will suggest this distro to just about anyone who wants to learn linux or is looking for a good linux distro as well. Keep up the good work Ubuntu Team!!!!!

DigitalSin reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 15, 2005

This is by far my favorite Linux distro. Very good backing and support. Excellent interface (gnome based which I had not previously cared for on other distros).

Keep up the excellent work guys.

horsecharles reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 15, 2005

Note too that they also release periodic or sorta/almost-nightly builds; & Kubuntu-- which uses kde instead of gnome: i much prefer Ubuntu, no k. Btw gnome's simultaneously releasing an update.

I think that now we're fast approaching Linux being ready for prime-time(meaning for the masses who actually have a life).
I'm especially impressed with how seamlessly ALL peripherals(from old legacy ones to newly-released), network & broadband connection are detected-- just as if not faster & easier than windows.

pseudo reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 15, 2005

Note: This is still an alpha release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in April 2006.

DamienMcKenna reviewed v6.04 (Dapper Drake) on Dec 15, 2005

From their website:
Note: This is still an alpha release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in April 2006.

surfbum4fun reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 21, 2005

love this operating system,been using it since last year. only thing that bugs me is that java is not in the install or upgrades.

some guy reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

love it, for anyone that cant afford xp and still uses 98 heres a free os you cant pass up.

GeneralLeoFF reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

Got it all installed and configured the way I like it. Great distro.

"Great as always (well the other 2 times!). Would love to see the installer integrate onto live disc... That'd be the best."

They have the DVD images for that.

wincement reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

Kubuntu is my favorite Linux distro. The only difference is that it uses the KDE desktop instead of Ubuntu's Gnome.

Great stuff as always.

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

Great as always (well the other 2 times!). Would love to see the installer integrate onto live disc... That'd be the best.

mjm01010101 reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

I agree I've never been able to get the livecd's to work on my systems with any reliability. However the disk install is on my main laptop, and I'm loving it.

I love almost everything about this OS. The exception is I had to use a special command line to install on my laptop, as well as the default screen savers have a state of missing data.

My review would be a 4.5, as those are really small issues and I could find the same things to complain about any modern OS.

This is quite simply my favorite desktop linux.

ghammer reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

I'd like to rate this higher, but I tried the 'live CD' and it refuses to load on my system.
Maybe next release...

yokozuna reviewed v5.10 (Breezy Badger) on Oct 20, 2005

clio43, the version 5.20 of Ubuntu will never exist. You can expect versions 6.04 and 6.10 (i.e. 2005, April and 2006, October) and next versions will ship every 6 months.

I have to say that using this distro is as easy as ABC. On the other hand Ubuntu is powerful. I use use the AMD64 version and it runs smoothly.

BTW, you can order Ubuntu CDs for free from http://www.ubuntulinux.org

clio43 reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 8, 2005

Good job, Ubuntu. Can hardly wait for version 5.20 ..... The Seductive Seacow.

yokozuna reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 7, 2005

I love it. It is very easy in maintaining, and surprisingly fast. Well done, Mr. Shuttleworth!

Banquo reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 7, 2005

Sounds better than their last release, the Hoary Hedgehog. What's that all about?

imafurby reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 7, 2005

The Breezy Badger? Jesus.

some guy reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 6, 2005

mouth drops on floor do I need to say more?
I installed this on a clean system and would like to know if I could install this on same hd with xp? will the insaller reqonize and partion?
the hard drive automaticly?
and beta news people you really should have one of your snazzy pics icons on this one!
and if anyone knows the min req for this please email me nacho3232@hotmail.com I would like to put this on a old 200 mhz laptop with 144 ram, yeah its slow as hell but garge sale 7 bucks:) got xp running it it tweaked.... thxs

mjm01010101 reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 6, 2005

Been testing This RC for a week now. it's been averaging over 100 updates a day for this OS, and the improvements are astounding.

I will use this as my first linux OS on my laptop. Great, wonderful release.

Small glitch installing on the laptop, just had to set a command line of "linux vga=771" and it was good to go.

acascianelli reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 6, 2005

Best desktop version of Linux I've ever used. Much better than Mandriva, and in my opinion even better than Fedora.

midfingr reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 6, 2005

Seeing this brings a smile to my face. What great linux distro! I order 7 CDs for free and they arrived in the mail a few weeks later - time to donate ;) I guess one's experience would depend on the hardware Ubuntu is installed on; I'm using an AMD 64 bit machine and it works very well.

Now all I have to do is convince my daughter to install this, but finding an exact replica of MSN messenger is tough - lol.

ModderXManiac reviewed v5.10 "The Breezy Badger" RC on Oct 6, 2005

Aweseome distro, the cd's for it are even free.

Changes can be seen @ubuntulinux.org

Awesome distro, but I still prefer SuSe and Xandros.

CyberHobo reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Jul 17, 2005

A very user friendly version of Linux. Install is friendly. Turned me into a dual-booter. GNU Grub is an excellent boot-loader. Once I hacked ubuntu to login in as root id desired, I immediatley fell in love.

aliyen reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Jul 9, 2005

It's not bad but it's not quite as easy to use as most people say. There are better distros aimed at beginners than this, this is not the distro for a new Linux user. Although it took most of it's codebase from Debian, it does not maintain compatibility and therefore some packages or package versions are impossible to install. I could not read from my Zip drive, yet Fedora and Mandriva have no problems mounting the same drive.

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 10, 2005

Tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu for the first time yesterday and today. I only tried the live cds which are really good! First off was having a live cd specifically for amd64 which I think is a good idea (and resulted in my laptop's first 64bit experience). Secondly I was really impressed by the ability for me to run Kynaptic and install things into the ram disk, and then use these straight away.

I've been trying a few releases lately, and think this might be my favourite distro now. Started with Redhat 7, and continued up to FC3 but got a bit sick it. Personally the best bit of Ubuntu for me is the minimal set of components included. As a base, I'd rather not much installed and then be able to choose what programs I would like for each task. My only problem was the lack of multimedia format support as it couldn't play mp3s straight away. But then I like the philosophy of "use ogg instead" its just a bit impractical considering that most radio stations deliver in mp3

Anyway its probably the best

agent2killa reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 10, 2005

I'm a linux newbie and I tried Ubuntu out of curiousity. The installation is almost painless(I tried Fedora before and it screwed up my windows partition).
Anyway, Ubuntu runs fast and feels solid. I want to award more than 5 stars because it provides free support plus you can also order free CDs at their site.
This distro is highly recommended.

mjm01010101 reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

I love this OS/distribution. This is the first one that has worked flawlessly on my AMD64. Highly recommended. I'm a systems admin and I could easily see people at work falling in love with the philosophy behind this OS, it's design, implementation, etc. Great job on the thousands who contribute to the sweetness that is Ubuntu...

Gracht reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

Ubuntu has a FAST and EASY installer but i have different problems by installing Ubuntu on my Notebook. ISDN-Network installion/connection is bad.

kanenas reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

this distro it can be described as
"debian but with newer packages"
(it is debian based)

Wes reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

The only distro I can stand to use.

popdog reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

Made the switch from Fedora Core 3 and will never look back. Excellent hardware support and with Synaptic its so simple to add any packages you could possibly want! An easy 5 :)

sfo reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

a pleasure to use. Seems well integrated, and it works from the box on my Dell laptop. Can't ask for more (until the next release of course)

Bh420 reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

getting better with every release!!

IoN_PuLse reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 9, 2005

Simply awesome.
As for the lack of Multimedia support out of the box, that is incorrect. It comes with Totem for video and Rhythmbox for music.

Ziad270 reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 8, 2005

Yep...amazing...I am a true Fan of Mandrake (hum...Mandriva)...But i have to admit that Ubuntu...is Excellent (for Desktop...i didn't try to setup Servers)...better at first look than Mandriva...

I love the clean Menu Programs....

I'll wait Mandriva 10.2...I'll try also Ubuntu in server mode... Then...I will maybe have to change my mind/distro...and i dont like that much....

Ziad O'Hanlon

GeneralLeoFF reviewed v5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on Apr 8, 2005

The only Gnome based live CD worth talking about but still with all the common isses every linux distro has.

4 stars for an above avrage distro. One day this will proly be a 5 star distro.

anomoly reviewed v5.04 Hoary on Feb 18, 2005

I like this distro alot. It has corporate support & is free forever.EXCEPT, the 2 times I installed on my pc (xp pro with 1xSata & 2xIde), it would not recognize the ide drives & failed to work with my hp psc 2210 printer, (even though the drivers AND printer were listed!). I will be trying xandros3deluxe next. The first distro to install correctly (printer, sound, etc. ) is a keeper.

jroe reviewed v5.04 Hoary on Feb 18, 2005

I have been using ubuntu 4.10 for several months both on my desktop and on several servers and it works great - I've used Hoary dev release for about the last month and despite a couple bugs expected in a new release it's fantastic also - It's also about the easiest distro I've ever seen so if you can't get through the install something is wrong. It offers a proven security release cycle, cutting edge applications, powerful features for advanced users, and the proven history of debian - all in all my absolute favorite distribution to date!

noredspoon reviewed v4.10 on Nov 17, 2004

Just because YOU couldn't get past the install doesn't make it junk. There could be some problem with your hardware, or maybe the ISO you downloaded or the burn process was corrupted. Flat out calling it junk and giving it a 1 when you really don't know what's wrong isn't accomplishing anything.

That said, this is by far the best distribution I've ever seen. Everything just works.

esh3 reviewed v4.10 on Oct 23, 2004

It should be called Junk Linux. Couldn't get past the install. If you want a true win-like Linux try PCLinuxOS it has everything Firefox, Thunderbird truly the closest to windows yet. But if I wanted Windows I won't be trying Linux. I have a second hard drive just for installing distos and I keep going back to Red Hat. Downloading Fedora 2 now to check it out. Suse is too slow, Mandrake is too cumbersome, now if I could install Koppix to my hard drive I might be in peace.

SFAMonkey reviewed v4.10 on Oct 23, 2004

It looks very goood. All the other comments said it was good so I'm tyring it out. I'm a newbie to linux so hopefully its as good as everyone claims it to be. I add more to this post once it installed.

mjm01010101 reviewed v4.10 on Oct 22, 2004

First impressions were fantastic. I was loaded in about 4 minutes, had my IM accounts running in another 2, I had remote destop'ed in another minute. I could literally do everything I wanted from a windows desktop.

But when I clicked on FF icon the mouse died. When I browsed the system completely dragged, eventually freezing.

Gonna wait another 6 months and see where this one goes. I want it to succeed, as it has a clean and fresh image that I find are missing from many dists. Also there are live dists and regular dists, this review was based on the live dist.

Scythe-Messiah reviewed v4.10 on Oct 21, 2004

Excellent Distro, packed with everything you need as a novice user, with some extra goodies. If you're new to linux, give this a try, its setup is pretty straight forward, and with the ability to have a nearly automated partition/install process, it couldn't be easier to install and run.

Beware of using this distro with MS Virtual PC 2004, as Ubuntu 4.10 starts up in 24-bit, which needless to say, VPC doesn't like. So make sure you change that unless you want a not so pretty login screen. Reconfigure xserver and you'll be fine. Marking it down for that would be heinous, so 5 it is. Took up about 2.5 Gigs as a virtual drive.

Good job to the Unbuntu team, and keep it up.

ask83 reviewed v4.10 on Oct 21, 2004

Ubuntu linux is simply amazing. Everything that I've been looking for in a Distro is IN HERE! No useless programs, just simply Firefox!!!, OpenOffice.org, Gaim, Gnome, and Evolution! Even comes with a Terminal Service Client. If you are looking to switch, start here!

allsiante reviewed v4.10 on Oct 21, 2004

I give it the stars for the purpose and for taking on Debian. I wanted to give a try to 4.1rc but had some broken packages which I had no time to check after. I will try the final and hope it does a better job :)

k3of4 reviewed v4.10 RC on Oct 17, 2004

Haven't used the software as I don't have a machine to run Linux on at the moment, but 5 stars for the name ;)