Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

After straightening out the issues I was having with booting from the last entry, I was able to get everything configured just how I liked it. The next day a new version of Ubuntu comes out, and I'm tempted to start over again.

The new version is an LTS, which means something like Long Term Service. I've had good experience with LTS editions before, downy, the previous server, still runs on the last LTS release ( 8.04 Hardy Heron ). This release, 10.04 Lucid Lynx, will hopefully be just as good.

My impressions so far, the new eye candy is nice. Previously I installed the server version of Ubuntu, which starts with a very bare system and lets you install only the packages you want to install. I liked this for the server, mainly because of the limited horsepower and memory I was working with. Eventually I did install a desktop interface on it, just to make early administration easier.

This time I decided to start with the desktop release. One of the factors was location, this server ( at least for now ), will live in the bedroom, next to Squirrel. This effectively makes it a desktop. I even have my older Dell 1701 17" LCD hooked up to it. I figured it would be nice to have access to a linux desktop, if nothing more than to have a secure workstation to do our banking on.

The new theme is more purple than orange. The change that seems to have polarized the community is the moving of the windows controls from the right ( default in windows) to the left ( default in OSX). This has been called everything from a revolutionary leap forward in HID ( Human Interface Design) to an affront to all things good about Ubuntu and Linux in general. Personally? I haven't decided if I like it on that side or not. A good thing about Ubuntu, it can be moved back if you don't like it.

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