Planet SUSE: Keeping up with the geeks
Posted by Daniel Stout on Tue 1 Aug 2006 at 7:08 AM
You all know my love for SUSE Linux. It’s my platform of choice. I’m glad too that Novell has switched the default install to Gnome from KDE. As I’ve said before, KDE is like running a Windows clone. Why run KDE when you can run Windows? Gnome on the other hand is superior. It’s a great interface and much more human-friendly than KDE.
At some point, I’m going to have to do a list of links for SUSE-related websites, but there’s one I wanted to point out today. It’s a site called Planet SUSE. Planet SUSE is an aggregator of all the top SUSE developers’ blogs. Planet SUSE pulls all the dev blogs together into one place. You can even subscribe to the Planet SUSE feed. If you look over on the right side, you’ll see a list of all the blogs that the site pulls from. It’s a long list, simply because there are a lot of people working on SUSE Linux. Of course it’s cool to hear about new features before they’re released. Planet SUSE is where you can find out about the stuff going on with the distribution and hear about all the latest developments.
Congratulations go out to my blogmate Faust who is currently trying out Ubuntu. Good luck with that!
Tags: developers · linux · open source · planet suse · suse · suse linux
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I received my Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) CD via ShipIt today. Last night I installed Xubuntu (IPA: /ˈzùbúntú/) on my HP Kayak XM600 (PIII 600MHz/128MB/9.1GB). Save some annoyances with the "disappearing applications menu" and EasyUbuntu, it looks like it is working. I can surf the web, play CDs, and listen to WFMU. I don't really need the Kayak to do much more than that.
Okay, so you've seen it running on an older, feebler box. Are you ready to use it on a production system?
No.
While the Kayak used to be my main workstation, it has long been demoted to the role of an extra computer dedicated to web surfing, CD playing, and ripping and listening to streams. I figured that Ubuntu should let me do those things on that machine at least as well as I could with Windows 2000. So I set out to install Ubuntu.
I couldn't burn the ISO image with Nero without error. I even downloaded it with and without a download manager to make sure the problem wasn't on my side. So, I requested a CD via ShipIt. I tried booting my HP zd7000us with one of the CDs with the errors on it and it booted up fine. When I tried booting from the CD on the Kayak, it wouldn't load. I figured that either the Kayak wasn't up to the task or the error on the CD was keeping it from loading.
After some more looking, I decided to try Xubuntu. The Xubuntu ISO burned just fine and the Kayak was able to boot from the CD live. The performance was sluggish, but I was able to determine that most of the hardware was recognized. So, I decided to try installing it. The install on the live CD was very slow didn't get very far. I gave it an hour to try to load one of the screens and gave up. So I downloaded the alternate ISO with the text installer. That install went very well.
Since the default distribution didn't seem to support playing MP3s, I decided to use EasyUbuntu to install some packages. After the install, the 'applications' menu disappeared. I tried to find out how to restore it, but didn't find anything that worked after a quick Google search. I reinstalled Xubuntu and preformed the system updates before installing EasyUbuntu. Then, EasyUbuntu wouldn't run. I reinstalled Xubuntu again, installed a few select packages with EasyUbuntu, and then performed the system updates. It seems to have worked. I can now play MP3s and the 'applications' menu did not disappear.
The performance is still very sluggish. Firefox seems slower and more prone to crashing than it did with Windows 2000. The media player is slow to start playing streams and takes along time between MP3s and/or CD tracks. I plan to stick with Xubuntu for a while, but might switch back to Windows 2000. Perhaps I simply need to learn more about Xubuntu before I enjoy the kind of performance I desire.
BTW... I used VLC, Zinf, and Real Alternative for media players when I used Windows 2000.
I haven't heard how Xubuntu is from other users, but I have a few thoughts for you. You don't say what apps you're using on Xubuntu. If you use a GTK app you should be fine, but if you're running something from Gnome or KDE that is dependent on those libraries then you're going to see a performance hit because those environments are designed for higher performance computers. Does EasyUbuntu tell you which applications use the GTK 2.0 libraries? Probably not.
It's also important to keep your system updated. From the time the CD was released to the time you install it on your system, there can be a lot of software updates that may affect your mileage in terms of stability. I know there's a new Firefox update (1.5.0.6) out this morning tagged for stability.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you're definitely not limited to Xubuntu. There are a number of "tiny" Linux distributions that may give you a better experience on an older machine. You like to search forums, so I would recommend digging around to see what distributions people are using for their ancient machines. Even SUSE Linux offers a variety of different lo-fi window managers besides Gnome and KDE. The one thing about Linux is that you have options.
My limited experience with Ubuntu says that the installer needs some work. It wouldn't install on my desktop because of video card issues. My experience with SUSE Linux on the other hand has been great, and it's worth a try if other options don't pan out for you.
Here's a starting point.