REFLECTIONS

It has been the talk of noob-town for the past few weeks. And for good reason.

The new incarnation of Ubuntu, the Gutsy Gibbon was launched three weeks back to much fanfare. And it did not disappoint. It is easily the best Linux distro that I have come across. Best because it is truly made for human beings, not for the relatively tiny community of nerds who swear by the command line.

First thing that hits you about Linux is the price difference as compared to Windows. Its is Free. No registration Key. No validation required from Windows Genuine Advantage. Just download or order a free CD/DVD and it is all yours. The price is one of the reasons that draws people away from their beloved (and slow, virus infected) windows systems to try something different.

The installation process is fairly similar to that of the previous versions, and the only time you have a few nervous moments is while selecting the right partition for the installation. This is the single reason why I would still suggest that installing Ubuntu is not for the not-so-geeky. One wrong selection or format command can ruin the data stored on the other partitions. But one just needs a little bit of guidance to get through it. Once the partitions have been selected, the rest of the installation process is a breeze. What really hit me was the installation time. It took like 1/10th the time it took me to install XP. WOW!! Things were already looking good!!!

One thing about Ubuntu that stands out is that there is far less dependence on the command line as compared to some other distros. This, apart from the relative ease of installation, makes it the first choice of many first-time linux users who are scared of getting lost between those un-understandable commands necessary to install programs/drivers or even start an application.

Most of the drivers are now present in the kernel and this saves the effort of getting a wired connection to your computer (especially in the case of a laptop) and setting up the wireless. However the integration for Broadcom wireless drivers is still not upto the mark, whereas the ATI graphics drivers have seen quantum leap in the ease of installation. I vividly remember going nuts trying to install ATI drivers on Fiesty, which required reconfiguring about a hundred files. Gutsy gets it done within a few clicks.

There is lots of eye candy, more than even what vista users can imagine once the graphics drivers are setup and Compiz (which now comes pre-installed with Ubuntu) gets going. Although few of the tools add to productivity, it does make using the desktop a much better experience. You can easily spend over a day trying out the various combinations of Compiz Fusion.

Installing programs is also a whole lot easier now. But this is also the time when Linux’s biggest weakness is exposed – lack of compatible programs. Although many applications are now compatible on Linux, it still has some way to go before it gets close to the Windows repertoire. The necessity to enable the various repositories for installing differently supported programs is a tad irritating. It leaves one confounded when installation of a particular software is rejected when for some vague reason while in fact just one of the various repositories need to be enabled.

The support offered by the various forums online is very good and does a far better job of problem identification/solving than that by Windows Help Center. Even searching for known issues is very easy on the forums and goes a long way towards increasing user confidence.

Even for its vastly superior performance as compared to the Fiesty Fawn, there are a few bugs that need to be ironed out. The most common one seems to be the issue of the computer getting stuck in a limbo while putting it into standby/hibernate. This creates the unnecessary irritation of having to shutdown my laptop every time I want to take it from one place to another.

Will Gutsy send shivers down Microsoft’s spine? Not quite, there are still a wide range of applications that many of us would not do without that are currently not supported in Linux. OpenOffice is still a poor alternative for MS Office, though some of the net based applications like ZOHO and Google Documents & Spreadsheets will make the job easier. But it does show ample promise and will surely draw more than a passing glance from Redmond.

I hope to write more as I keep on using my Linux system more and more. Overall the epxerience has been a good one and I see myself booting my computer in Linux more frequently as time passes.

- Newbie Noob