DJ's site

Werewolf vs Gutsy Gibbon

Or 'How Fedora once again disappointed me'.

History

Well, I started Linux with S.u.S.E. (back then they still used the dots in the name) Linux (I think it was a 6.0 evaluation CD that came with "Linux for Dummies" from MIT press).

At Linuxtag 2000 (in Stuttgart, Germany) I got a box of the then just obsoleted RedHat 6.1 distribution. I installed it and was instantly disappointed.

I tried several other distros. Here are the ones I remember, in no particular order:

• Mandriva 7.1 (which I also got at Linuxtag 2000)
• S.u.S.E. / SuSE / SUSE / openSUSE 6.0, 6.3, 7.?, 8.?, 9.?, 10.0
• RedHat 6.?, 7.?
• Fedora Core 4 RC3, 8 ("Werewolf")
• Debian 2.2 ("Potato"), 3.0 ("Woody")
• Knoppix 2.2, 3.?, 5.2
• Slackware 10.0
• Scientific linux (based on RedHat Enterprise Linux) 4.0, 5.0

The less-problematic distro was Slackware. It didn't claim to be so shiny, userfriendly, easy to use, good looking, ... Instead it just worked. It's the most unix-ish Linux I've seen and I really enjoyed using it. Nevertheless, I never got my Palm (or USB in general) to work with it, so I switched to openSUSE 10.0

Some weeks ago

I don't remember the exact date, but it definitely was already 2008. I downloaded the not-so-fresh Fedora Core 8 after having read a few reviews, which stated, how cool and mature it was.

Good

• Installation went without any problems.
• Installing missing packages using yum was fairly easy (I never used the GUI for that).
• Sound worked too. Yeay!
• Installing KDE and XFCE was easy as child's play!

Bad

• Kopete (KDE instant messenging application) always had trouble with the sound device.
• I experienced extremely poor network performance.

Today

The bad network performance (i.e. Google docs' spreadsheet was a pain to use) finally made me switch to Ubuntu Linux 7.10. I downloaded the ISO image and didn't even have to waste a DVD+/-R(W). And for UNetbootin's sake I didn't even have to go through manually repartitioning mounting the ISO image and copying stuff around. Yipeeh!

Good

• Ubuntu 7.10 installed over the web from the local mirror in a fair amount of time. Applications/packages:
  • GNOME desktop
  • firefox
  • evolution
  • openoffice.org
• Sound works.
• No network problems! I.e. Google docs' spreadsheets perform the way I was used to it!

Bad

Setting up evolution put one "fly in the ointment": The frame size of the wizard (which is a nice one, and I usually hate configuration wizards) was too wide and therefore the "next" button was not on screen.

Conclusion

I don't regret the switch to Ubuntu 7.10. The user friendlyness seems far superior to me. It behaves more the way I'd expect. Way to go!