I have been on and off when it comes to Linux, but mostly on after Ubuntu appeared. The last half year I didn’t have to much time, I only ran Ubuntu under Parallels, but with the new Thinkpad T60 I have again installed Ubuntu. I didn’t dare installing the first alpha of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd, but went for Edgy Eft instead.For the first time I ran in to problems installing Ubuntu. I always go for the alternative CD and not the live CD that you can install. The problem was my screen resolution, 1400×1050, and not having a graphic card that was supported out of the box, ATI X1400. The developers behind Ubuntu should improve the Installer a bit, it should give feedback to user, that the Installer has not found any graphic driver and that you are making use of fallback VESA driver, and that a line or two about what screen resolutions are supported in VESA mode. After having installed Ubuntu twice, I found that I could only run it in 1024×768. Installing ATI’s own drivers from the repositories didn’t help either, and I had to visit ATI’s website and download their latest driver from there, just as I have to when installing Windows. Installing it was a breeze, and done in seconds.Edgy Eft runs brilliantly now on the Thinkpad, except for the wireless card. I thought the NDISwrapper would have been installed by default with the neccessary Intel binaries (also the for Intel Pro 3945 ABG), but that was not the case. When you don’t have Windows installed, there is no way to get hold of neccessary binaries for the wireless card. Just after having understood my problem, I came over this article over at O’Reilly.Having Ubuntu up and running, there are a few things that I always install before starting to use the distro:

  • Adobe Reader and Flash
  • AbiWord – I can’t stand Open Office
  • Beagle – Coming from the BeOS world, I am addicted to fast searching
  • Blam – My favourite RSS reader
  • Gossip Instant Messenger – I am not the biggest fan of Gaim
  • Graveman – Cause you need a decent reader
  • Tapioca VoIP – Didn’t get it working on Edgy Eft. Both the default frontend and Landell failed to install
  • Thunderbird – My preferred e-mail client
  • Media applications: Banshee Music Player, GCstar, Last.fm, Listen Music Player, Muine and VLC Player

The biggest con with Ubuntu in my opinion is it’s selection of media applications. The Rythmbox Music Player is a joke, and my take is that there are not many people using that as their default player. A far better option would be including Banshee as a new default player, and then also get rid of Sound Juicer CD Extractor. Nothing wrong with the last one, but a ripper is also included in Banshee. Banshee clearly reminds me about iTunes, has an inbuilt Audioscrobbler and some nice plugins that you should consider using. For instance the Music Recommendations, a Last.fm plugin showing you similar artists and the most popular songs from the currently playing artist. Latest is that the developer behind Banshee is making a radio plugin.I would like to write a few words about AbiWord and Gossip Instant Messenger. The developers behind these two applications are currently implementing the Telepathy framework. What will it mean for you as an user? Gossip now has VoIP and video conference support, and AbiWord is getting collaboration functionality. Tapioca is also currently being rewritten to make use of Telepathy, all three projects are bringing Gnome up to today’s computing. My scientific staff is to travel less, but at the same time involve themselves more in to international projects. Hopefully we will see more applications making use of Telepathy in the nearby future.XGL (or Beryl) works brilliantly on the Thinkpad, and Ubuntu seems to be drawing up menus and their icons quite much faster. Another big pro is the clear and far more readable fonts. I am impressed. I know that I am gonna go fast tired on most of the animations that Beryl gives me, but luckily these can be turned off. I have never liked Exposé in MacOS X, and the same goes for Scale Effect. The Enhanced Switcher is quite nice and the same goes for Desktop Cube and Windows Animations. Transparency is great, but I often prefer to have a clear white background. I will also try to get Compiz installed, as a repository is made for Edgy Eft.I cannot wait for Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd. It will have many improvements that I have been waiting for, zeroconf through Avahi enabled by default, Network Manager will finally be implemented, gnome-power-management (GPM) will get improved, the new ext4 file system and eCryptFS. Two major enhancements for the business market will be the implementation of network authentification services, OpenLDAP and Active Directory!And best of all, it’s all FREE!!!