Ubuntu Linux experiences?

[Jeff Smith]

On 05 Jan 2005 10:13:10 -0500, Travis Roy
<travis at scootz.net> said:
> > Excellent - this is exactly the kind of thing I want to
> hear about. Can
> > you be more specific about which 3rd party packages
> were causing
> > problems?
> 
> Flash, newer version of Firefox, mplayer, to name a few.
> 
> > I was initially under the impression that the distro
> could use any
> > packages from Debian as well. Is that not the case?

I installed Ubuntu after I had some hardware problems
(previously ran a Debian Testing system).  Later, I added
the Debian repositories, and now run a mixed system.  Only
problem I have had is some minor issues with dependencies
(i.e. something in Ubuntu depends on libraries that are
different than the ones in testing that something I want
from testing uses).  This is mainly (I suspect) because
Ubuntu is a modified Unstable - Unstable cleaned up, cut
back, & stabilized.  So there are some library issues, and
the versioning is not done as well as it should be.

My fix has been to sometimes back the Ubuntu version out to
Testing version, other times I'll actually install the
unstable.  Seems to work well so far - and unstable is
mainly stable anyway, but does occasionally break.

> 
> Well, it was causing version and dependancy hell.
> Something most older 
> RH/RPM users are more then familure with. An example was
> for me to 
> install mplayer I needed libraries, but the libraries I
> had were needed 
> for other programs. Because of the conflict between the
> Ubuntu and other 
> apt repositories I was using it couldn't find a happy
> "fix".
> 
> I was using 3rd party Ubuntu repositories. I've heard
> that if you set up 
> to only use debian repositories then do a dist-upgrade
> that would 
> correct most of the problems I had, but I didn't really
> mess with it 
> that much.
> 
> > 
> >>The new debian installer is very nice and very easy to
> follow, you might 
> >>want to give debian another go.

Haven't looked at the new installer, am told it's great
(but then I don't install new OS's much since I started
using Debian - only when I have HW issues).

> > 
> > 
> > I'll consider it, but I'm looking for something that
> can be used as a
> > both a quickly evolving desktop distribution but which
> also has long
> > term support for enterprise applications. Ubuntu
> initially struck me as
> > a single distribution that could do both. 
> 
> Ubuntu from what I've seen and used has a very limited
> package 
> repository by default if you're looking for enterprise
> applications. 
> Hell, it didn't even have an updated Firefox :(

Because their selectively pulling stable stuff (or
near-stable) from Sid /Unstable .  Remember also the real
Ubuntu goal - SW for Africa.  Anything is an improvement
over nothing.

All that said, I found Ubuntu a great way to start Debian,
and now run the mixed system.  I probably would recommend
Ubuntu to a newbie (easy to install, most apps, looks
good), and guess someone with some skill could do what I do
and run a mixed system.  Of course, we all know what
"assume" means ;-)

One nice thing is they've already put xorg in, and so I now
run that instead of xfree86.

jeff