Forum Moderators: bakedjake
Ubuntu is a Debian-based distribution that seems to be trying to get Sid-like freshness into stable-like stability with a 6-month release cycle. Since they only have to worry about packages breaking on 3 (and not 11) architectures, and supposedly a subset of the various available libraries that their distro focuses on, this seems like a reasonable goal. Chris_D has reported here [webmasterworld.com] that it's got one of the founders of Thatwe running the project. It seems to be doing well - they have a number of the Debian developers on board, and it's reported here [ubuntuforums.org] that they also have some cooperation from Gnoppix and Morphix (not quite like Sun or Novell, but still respectable).
Ubuntu has gotten some good marks with laptop users so I'm looking forward to getting my CD's and sharing the extras. Ubuntu is here [ubuntulinux.org] and the free cd shipping form is here [shipit.ubuntulinux.org].
Checksummed the download file, checked fine.
Frickin' near destroyed my hard drive on install, started getting illegal stack errors, nightmare central.
SuSE installed fine on that machine, and so did the "hack" to install Knoppix Live as a native OS (and that's always a dodgy show).
I'm holding judgement until I get the CDs, though. Even though the download checksummed, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that there was something wrong with the download. I really, REALLY want Ubuntu to work right, because it looks like a very nice distro.
Ubuntu was something I looked at, but although it has the advantage of a (significantly) faster release cycle than Debian and an acceptable 18 month support period for each release, I was a bit nervous about using it in a server environment when it seemed so clearly geared towards being a desktop distro.
Does anyone use Ubuntu on servers? I want to be persuaded ;)
Does anyone use Ubuntu on servers?
From: [ubuntulinux.org...]
Ubuntu for Internet servers
On the Ubuntu installation disk you will find specialised software for databases, web serving, email hosting and DNS name serving, internet cacheing and directory services. ... Ubuntu can be installed in a minimal server configuration optimised for datacenter servers that will not be used as desktop machines.
Sounds like it's got what you need. If we're talking about web serving, it appears to use Apache 2 - I don't know if Apache 1.3 is available in the main distribution or only as an unsupported package.
Ubuntu certainly looks good. They've got clear goals, a business-like approach, good developers and a huge pot of cash to fund it all. I've ordered some CDs, most of which I'll donate to the local library and other such places.
Not gonna blame Ubuntu for my earlier problems. It appears it was a bad CD burn.
You know the old addage: the 1 CD in 100 that fails to burn properly, is the one with the highest potential to cause damage.
Errr,, something like that.
Gonna wait for the clean CDs to come from the nice folks at Ubuntu who are willing to ship them, and even cover the shipping charges.
I really want this to work. Any company willing to do all that for customer relations, (and marketing),... Well, I'm gonna give them the benefit of a few doubts.
Sounds like it's got what you need.
Whilst it's got all the standard server daemons available in the distribution, almost all the discussion and docs that I have seen so far have been about Ubuntu as an enterprise desktop. In fact several people have said Ubuntu on the desktop, Debian on server (because it's stable).
They have a "server team" which is supposed to deal with Ubuntu on datacentre hardware, but I can find little information about them other than that they exist.
What would probably swing it for me is if the security updates were extended to 3 years rather than 18 months - even if the last 18 months was a subscription only service. Maybe that will come later.
I definitely need one more PC :)
In most cases you can get it running, but rarely on the day of release and often with "severe" disadvantages (e.g., Doom 3 came out August 3rd, but surround sound was not implemented until end of November).
I still think Linux would boost my productivity at least 50% :)
