# Why Ubuntu?



## sba (Oct 31, 2005)

Yes that is what I wanna know.
*"Why Ubuntu?"*

I have heard so much about Ubuntu Linux that I always want to try it but then the saying comes to my mind "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". I am currently triple booting with Slackware 10.2, Gentoo 2005.1 and Windows XP Pro with Gentoo as my default OS. Everything is to my liking in this setup but I just wanna know what is behind so much hype.

I even googled for "Why Ubuntu" but didn't get anything concrete. I am a gentoo lover and wanna know from some ubuntu lovers that what is it that gives Ubuntu so much of publicity? What are the features that you people think are so great about it?

Will be thankful for any constructive replies


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## Satissh S (Oct 31, 2005)

Be thankful to here,
www.ubuntulinux.org 
Dude, It's linux for human beings. 
Now i'm in the process of installing Several GNU\linux distro's with PC-BSD. Need to spend 3 Boring Holidays  .
Need Help with the partitioning scheme. I have already installed ubuntu. I plan to install Fedora, Gentoo, slackware, Debian, OpenSuSe, PC-BSD, Xandros, ArkLinux, Mandriva .
Now i'm writing from UBUNTU. Iam not particularly fond of Xandros ,ArkLinux and even PC-BSD. What are your opinions on these Distro's.
I have allocated 10 GB for UBUNTU with ext3, 2 GB for swap which will be used universally. What Say?!!

Edit: Forgot to Mention. I have 2 x 40 GB Hdd's . Ubuntu is on /dev/hda1 and Swap is /dev/hda2.


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## vignesh (Oct 31, 2005)

@Satissh Thats whole lot of distros you are trying there.Lets see how many of them get through on your system.I am sure ArLinux won`t work....


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## Satissh S (Oct 31, 2005)

It's just a try.   Actually i got nearly 10 distro's with *Power Linux Bible * . 8)  Ok, I accept Ark is bit Stupid.. Leave it. But what's gonna be the prob with others  vignesh..??
Let's say that fedora doesn't detect the other distro's... So what, we can always configure grub to load the others isn't. The only  problem is that we have to note down the kernel name and the initrd module and the usual options. (e.g: splash ) 
And root  module we can assign as (0,1) etc.,. Did you face any problems when you penta booted. 
Also tell me what would be the best way of partitioning. In suse Release notes they had written that a /boot partition with ext2 FS at the start of the disk wud max out performance. But here /boot has no significance.  
What to do? 
I am dropping Arklinux, Xandros, PC-BSD.


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## sba (Oct 31, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> Be thankful to here,
> www.ubuntulinux.org
> Dude, It's linux for human beings.


What???
I didn't get you. I just wanted to know that which features of Ubuntu is making it get so much hype and you just told me that you are working on god knows how many distros. What did you intend to say?



> 2 GB for swap


You will never use that much of swap. Use 1.5-2 times of your RAM as swap. That is just waste of precious HDD space. Here's my setup of triple boot if it helps


```
genbox sba # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2611    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS (Windows)
/dev/sda2            2612       19457   135315495    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            2612        2709      787153+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            2710       11847    73400953+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7           11848       19457    61127293+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        1959    15735636   83  Linux (Slackware)
/dev/sdb2            1960       30401   228460365    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) (Windows Paging)
/dev/sdb5            1960        5484    28314531   83  Linux (Gentoo)
/dev/sdb6            5485        5582      787153+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb7            5583       13415    62918541    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb8           13416       21248    62918541    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb9           21249       30401    73521441    b  W95 FAT32
genbox sba #
```


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## Satissh S (Oct 31, 2005)

@sba: No Hard Feelings Dude, but features of ubuntu have been discussed many a times. U had asked * Why Ubuntu? * So my answer was based on that question. 

I have 1536 MB (1024 + 512) of RAM and so i use 2 GB of HDD Space as SWAP which is according to red hat installation instructions.

And i never said i donot know to partition disks. I only had asked the views of guys about how to finetune the partitioning, becoz i had studied that having a non journalling filesystem before a journalised Reiser filesystem actually give a slight performance gain.

Hope this helps. Absolutely no hard feelings.


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## sba (Oct 31, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> @sba: No Hard Feelings Dude, but features of ubuntu have been discussed many a times. U had asked  Why Ubuntu?  So my answer was based on that question.


No hard feelings here as well but I wanted to know that why so much hype about Ubuntu. Thats all and the official site you link me to is not much of help.



> I have 1536 MB (1024 + 512) of RAM and so i use 2 GB of HDD Space as SWAP which is according to red hat installation instructions.


If you have that much of RAM then you won't be needing much swap. If you don't plan on using software suspend then imho you should just stick with 512-768MB swap partition.



> I only had asked the views of guys about how to finetune the partitioning


I have never heard about this non-journaling fs before reiser giving better performance so will not comment on that but since you are planning to install so many distros, you should install 3-4 maximum at the same time. Format the ones you don't like and then install a new one. That way you will be having big partitions to play with.


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## planetcall (Oct 31, 2005)

Why ???

I feel I am in sync with it  I love it. Its for me. Its for you. Its for everyone and is free. It is rockstable, features SuperCool and stable Synaptic. There are many things to boast about.

I just installed a full suit of JDK 5, Eclipse with plugins, Amarok (the ultimate audio player), VLC (The super media player), Azureus and many more. All the installations went seamlessly and without pain in @%#^#^@#%&% . Try it guys.

Also, I would like to say that Ubuntu is the most popular distro (Source : distrowatch). Though, the most popular might not be the best (ex. Windows) but I think ubuntu is no less to Fedora, the another distro I like.


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## vignesh (Oct 31, 2005)

@Satissh 

A swap partition should be twice the ram size to a maximum of 128Mb.I currently have assingned only 64mb of swap and that itself only 15 % is being used at the max....


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## Satissh S (Oct 31, 2005)

Ok then! I'll Update after i install FC4.


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## kumarmohit (Oct 31, 2005)

Ubuntu only seems to be famous bcoz it hands out free pressed cds to ppl other wise its only a common debian clone


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## Satissh S (Oct 31, 2005)

Ok! FC4 Installed and UBUNTU Configured too. Now trying with SUSE....


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## Satissh S (Nov 1, 2005)

OK Everything Done. 
My final setup reads as,
Suse 9.3
Fedora Core4
Ubuntu Breezy
Xandros OCE
Actually installing anymore distro's is simply a waste b'coz i wouldn't have to use so many distro's.
Had to edit  /boot/grub/menu.lst manually after some tweaking with yast. Here's it.

```
title SuSe Linux 9.3
    kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 vga=0x317 selinux=0  splash=silent resume=/dev/hda2  showopts
    initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp) (/dev/hda3)###
title Fedora Core 4
    root (hd0,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp.img

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-9-386  (/dev/hda1)###
title Ubuntu Breezy
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386
    savedefault
    boot


title Xandros OCE
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
    root (fd0)
    chainloader +1
```
 Xandros has been installed with chainloader config., ie the lilo will start after selecting Xaandros with Grub. How to boot into Xandros entirely using Grub.? 
Any Solns..


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## vignesh (Nov 1, 2005)

That was what I wanted to post id you make a mistake with Xandros...

Happy Diwali ! and I see you got up early and typed this instead of bursting crackers....


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## Satissh S (Nov 1, 2005)

Yes Of-Course, My mother wanted me to get up early @ 3'o Clock, Happy Open GNU\Diwali  to One and All.


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## vignesh (Nov 1, 2005)

So you had a Gnu/Diwali,.....


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## Satissh S (Nov 2, 2005)

Boring Stuff, with Suse and Xandros gonna do some experimenting, I don't wan't Xandros and i'm going to install Debian, Slackware and Gentoo along with SuSe ,Fedora and Debian. I heard that Ubuntu is similar to debian but i'm going to try debian Sarge 2DVD install. I had just ordered it should wait for sometime b4 getting.But I have slackware and Gentoo cd's. In first HDD I have Ubuntu and FC4 installed.   I had heard that slackware and gentoo is for guru's and pro's ,but i'm gonna give it a shot. Any Ideas.. abt partitioning???  
All Data Backed upto UBUNTU 8)


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## vignesh (Nov 2, 2005)

Gentoo is really for people to love to see code compiling all day .I don`t know how to start the installation from the universal cd that I have.

By the way your avatar looks like the default wallpaper of Slax 4.2 live cd....


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## cool_dude_prav (Nov 2, 2005)

Hey satish...

As vignesh said, Swap should generally be double of the size of the Total RAM, though there is no hard and fast rule... since u have 1024+512 I would recommend somewhere near 3Gb as Swap... But the good thing is that all the Linux distros can share the same swap...

Even if u want to risk it, u can have a separate ext3 partition where u can set to be the /home of all the distros but a lot risky, and I am not responsible for loss of data... But a lot of experienced people DO have it like that...

And also, if u have a really good internet connection, that is with unlimited downloads, then u can compile the latest Gentoo on ur system from their website... Well, i said compile and not install coz Gentoo is a Linux distro which does not install itself. But it compiles all the sources one by one on ur PC, and as vignesh told, takes a lot of time... Try it if u r not bored 

I would recommend u take a look at Kanotix... Its a Live CD that can save data onto HDD using some codes called cheat codes (something like in games  )
If u want I can get u a copy... Coz I too live in chennai na...

PS: Vignesh and Satish, where in Chennai r u? Im in Mylapore...


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## it_waaznt_me (Nov 2, 2005)

Hmm.. You people deviated the discussion .. Shall I split those posts and create another thread .. ?

@ Sba .. Part of Ubuntu 's success depends on it being based on Debian _and_ its availablity .. You can get yourself as many Ubuntu cds delivered to you as you like *for free* .. And thats the single phenomenon that has given its edge over other distros ... 
As Ubuntu is very well funded (read Money Talks), it can bear those costs comparing to Debian itself .. 
I hope those links will give you a picture ... I've tried Ubuntu and didnt like it much .. Anyway it was an old version Hoary (alpha or beta I dont remember) and it wasnt such stable .. I havent had the pleasure of using SlackWare yet ..  .. I hope I'll get it someday ..


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## GNUrag (Nov 2, 2005)

sba, you may not need to follow the hype and what others are saying about Ubuntu. You say you're already using Gentoo, then nothing like it, just stick Gentoo.

I prefer Ubuntu to every other Distro coz it simply * Stupid Proof *. You see, the users at my place are like that and Ubuntu gives me any my administrator peace of mind. We are slowly phasing out Windows 98 boxes in my new office and replacing all of them with Ubuntu. 

I'd say, the lack of many options, lack of many software and a simple GNOME -> Applications menu makes it extremely *Stupid Proof.*


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## Satissh S (Nov 2, 2005)

Man.. I'm lovin' linux. I installed Gentoo from their minimal cd (60 mb ISO) using the instructions on their website. Wrote all the commands in a paper and executed them after booting into the shell.   Ran into fdisk for partitoning. It was like building a LFS system. I had to d/l base system using wget and untar it into a temporary dir .and then I had to download the kernel from their website using emerge , tweak it and configure it later using genkernel utility. I had to assign date and timezone myself using date and ln commands .First we have to build a system in a directory and chroot to it. Had to edit fstab and also mount /proc and /devFs filesystems.Compiling the kernel using genkernel --menuconfig all took a lot of time .I had to then download X ,gnome, openoffice and mozilla from their portages using emerge.  

@Vignesh: Got the avatar from my friend. Google is my best friend 

@praveen: I live in chromepet. Let's hope that we meet atleast this time  
@gnurag: Actually , Ubuntu has a lot of apps that can be installed using internet.  I have installed eclipse, mono, anjuta, best , realplayer all using internet.


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## e-freak (Nov 2, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> I have 1536 MB (1024 + 512) of RAM and so i use 2 GB of HDD Space as SWAP which is according to red hat installation instructions.



Dude, you don;t need any swap then!


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## vignesh (Nov 2, 2005)

@Satissh
I came to Tambaram today.If I had known you live in Chrompet then I could have got the cd dude.I am even going tomorrow to college.....Can we met...
The avatar is the default wallpaper in SLax..

@prav
Do you think anyone needs so much of swap...You can always create a pagefile.. if needed.


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## Satissh S (Nov 2, 2005)

Your wish vignesh. I have college till 3:00 pm and when i get back home it'll be 4:30 thro' bus. I'll bring the cd with me. I am in first semester so exam starts only from Jan.


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## e-freak (Nov 2, 2005)

Being an Ubuntu user, I believe that Ubuntu is so getting more and more popular because of these features it incorporates:

* Simple - As gnurag explained, Ubuntu does not have a messy lot of apps...just what you require off a cd. That's why you need just a cd not a whole dvd.

* Fast - Due to its sleek gnome interface and minimal apps scheme, it remains to be one of the fastest gnome distros available...maybe the fastest.

* Stable - Ubuntu allows you to install only the stable kernel and apps available for your architecture.

* Debian - Ubuntu is debian based and supports only Free Software. Use of any propreitary software is not encouraged. Also, deb packages are smaller as compared to the RPMs on other distros. It therefore takes less time to download and install. One more thing, _apt-get_ and Synaptic (Ubuntu's package manager) both are absolutely awesome!

* Size - With a minimal base system and apps, Ubuntu takes up little space for installation and update.

* Gnome - I find Ubuntu's gnome the best and fastest. I guess FC has a better looking gnome but it seems to be heavy and a little slow. Ubuntu's gnome on the other hand is sleek and sturdy.

I guess these are a few of the reasons I love Ubuntu. Its upto you what you prefer. Though, Ubuntu is definately worth a try.


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## Satissh S (Nov 2, 2005)

Just to add to e-freak's comments..
* Ubuntu also has one of the best communities. Help is available if one cares to find..

* Text mode install. Most say textual install wards off newbies, but the debian installer is actually a boon b'coz the installation won't be affected by just due to graphics card.

* Latest software bundling. Ubuntu breezy has O 2.0 (1.9 release candidate) Gimp 2.2 and Firefox 1.07. I have heard that sometimes in debian the software isn't the latest. Is it true??
I agree with all your above points but gentoo should be the fastest..


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## srijit (Nov 2, 2005)

IMO ubuntu is popular because its widely distributed for free. people get abt 10 cds min when the request them and they give them to their friends. moreover the fact that things do work properly out of the box is a huge advantage. 
that being said it can only be considered as a newbie distro. hardcore linux geeks will do well to stick with LFS or gentoo  and the gentoo forums have the most harcore helpers out there. if you can compile s/w for you own computer, you so know quite a lot abt it 
ps: if u can install gentoo then y bother with other distros 
pps: @satish : how long did it take for everything to finih compiling? am downloading the universal cd + the package cd and planning to do a stage 3 install, so just curious


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## GNUrag (Nov 2, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> @gnurag: Actually , Ubuntu has a lot of apps that can be installed using internet.  I have installed eclipse, mono, anjuta, best , realplayer all using internet.


@Satish, lol.. You're telling me that!!
You see, its good that all those software is not bundled. New users dont get confused. Less software means they have a very small learning curve in front of them.


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## GNUrag (Nov 2, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> I have heard that sometimes in debian the software isn't the latest. *Is it true??*


Yes, it is true. Debian's testing and unstable both archives still contain * XFree86 * as their X server. No sight of XOrg which is present in Ubuntu as well as all other distros.


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## vignesh (Nov 2, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> Your wish vignesh. I have college till 3:00 pm and when i get back home it'll be 4:30 thro' bus. I'll bring the cd with me. I am in first semester so exam starts only from Jan.



Which college are you in ?Then maybe later,since I just have to collect my hallticket so I will just be there for some time.Maybe in the Hols..


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## Satissh S (Nov 2, 2005)

@vignesh: Jeppiaar Engineering College
@srijith : I dunno what happened., waited for sometime and went to sleep, morning the kernel was compiled, then i configured system services. such as syslog, using emerge and then rc-update add command. Then created users using useradd, Only prob is soundcard not working. I'm dearly missing sndconfig!


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## sba (Nov 3, 2005)

From the replies relevant to my question posted by it_waaznt_me, GNUrag, e-freak, Satissh S and Srijit, I have derived the following points that seem to be going for Ubuntu in a nutshell


> 1) Money and marketing (probably the most important)
> 2) Stupid Proof/Simple: Has less number of apps forced down an user's throat thus causing less confusion to new Linux user.
> 3) Stable/Debian back end: I wrote them together as Stable and Debian are probably hand-in-hand with each other.
> 4) Compiled with performance enhancing configurations.
> 5) Lots of softwares from Synaptic.


Looks like I got what I needed to know 
Thanx a lot for all the replies I got. After reading all these replies, I have made my mind that I am not going to move away from Gentoo as it doesn't seem to be having any additional benefits/features but still I might try it some day when I am feeling bored


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## sba (Nov 3, 2005)

srijit said:
			
		

> am downloading the universal cd + the package cd and planning to do a stage 3 install, so just curious


Even though the question was not for me but I would still like to poke my nose.
If you are planning a Gentoo installation then imho please try "Stage 1/3 installation" method by Bob P on Gentoo Forums.
*forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-345229.html
Also do put "nptlonly" as use flag in your make.conf. The tutorial and proper use flags will help you make (probably) the fastest Linux installation you've ever worked on.


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## sba (Nov 3, 2005)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> Only prob is soundcard not working. I'm dearly missing sndconfig!


What is the make/model of your sound card?


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## Satissh S (Nov 3, 2005)

Ok configured, no probs.  
@srijith: If you are installing from universal cd you don't have to d\l stage1 tarball.


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## srijit (Nov 3, 2005)

thanks guys.... will try them out. just a small doubt. why reiserFS?


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## sba (Nov 3, 2005)

srijit said:
			
		

> why reiserFS?


Have a look here
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS
...and especially read this line


> Compared to ext2 and ext3 in 2.4, when dealing with files under 4k and with tail packing enabled, ReiserFS is often faster by a factor of 10–15.


Now even though that is dealing with smaller files but still ReiserFS gives better performance than ext3.


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## srijit (Nov 3, 2005)

thanks for the heads up  have never used reiser so i thought that i'd ask


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## e-freak (Nov 4, 2005)

AFAIk, Reiser is a default option only on Suse, not on others. Others stick to ext3.


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## praka123 (Nov 10, 2005)

Yeahoo   am browsing from Breezy great Distro got last night for d/w from dataone.only thing i dont like is 'sudo' no root user etc.any way i made a root user. 
detected my 915GAV mobo onboard cards/controllers gr8  
Gnome 2.12.1 rocks!


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## vignesh (Nov 10, 2005)

open the root terminal and type passwd to chane root passwd or sudo -s in your terminal.

Then you can use root by issuing the su command.


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## praka123 (Nov 10, 2005)

eak.already set root using 'sudo passwd root' AND in gdmsetup /security allow root to login   as i like as root to do few tinkering...increased gdm login screen font size....


another.... rhythmbox not playing my mp3s.....

installed gstreamer0.8-mad with dependencies    also downloaded 'configure-debian' quite useful..

OK got Playing songs


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## vignesh (Nov 11, 2005)

The totem media player has been refreshed and has a playlist view...


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## e-freak (Nov 11, 2005)

I dont understand why ppl keep saying there is no root user in Ubuntu....I can use root user even in gnome!


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## vignesh (Nov 12, 2005)

In Ubuntu the root user will be disabled and the first user account will act like a root account and can do most of the admin tasks.


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## e-freak (Nov 12, 2005)

Yeah, I know that. The first thing to do after a fresh Ubuntu install is _sudo passwd root_ .


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## praka123 (Nov 14, 2005)

*Ubuntu users*,How do you connect ur adsl (eg dataone) to internet? anybody using some GUIs?(gpppon)i am   have 2 try CLI as 'sudo pon dsl-provider'


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