Ubuntu 'Dapper Drake' 6.06 - User Review

[adit_sen]

Well....its been a long long journey. From my first experice with linux way back in 1997 to this date its been nothing but complain complain complain.

Last night all that changed. Ubuntu is now my default OS....

Ubuntu has always been great with hardware detection & general setups, but it had its flaws. With Dapper Drake, I see all that fading away...anyway..here goes...

Instead of the usual two CD's, one live and another install, they've done away with the Install CD, and combined it with the LIVE CD. So you boot up with the live CD, it runs off the CD as its supposed to, and if you want to go ahead and install it, you just click on the 'Easy Install' icon on the desktop. That starts up the installation, and after the few basic questions regarding partitioning, time zone etc, its off on its install.

One thing that impressed me, was while Ubuntu was installing, you could still continue to use the Live Desktop, run apps etc, and let the installation continue in the background. Once the installation was done, a quick reboot, and it was all done.
I had used Breezy Badger 5.10 before, but the first thing I noticed was the stark difference in boot up time. For the first time ever I saw a linux distro boot up quicker than my WinXP installation.

The default desktop follows the Ubuntu 'Human' theme, with one or two small tweaks here and there. In the past, for almost every linux distro I've used, there have always been one distinct set of problem areas, namely, sound, LAN/modem, video, USB devices, wireless.

The only distro that had come close to having 'no problems' was Breezy Badger, but I still had problems with the wireless LAN and PCMCIA devices. Dapper on the other hand has been completely flawless. No problems watsoever with sound, video, CD drives, USB support, network and for the first time (for me) Wireless LAN!! Everything worked like a charm.
Another notable aspect was the support for NTFS write with ntfs-fuse. I've previously been able to mount my windows drives, but never been able to achieve NTFS write support. But no probs here too with Dapper.


Something new was the lil bits of 'advertising / promotion' thrown in. When you boot up with the live CD, the first thing you'll notice is a link called 'Examples'. There you'll find docs / manuals of Ubuntu, music samples, and even short video of Nelson Mandela explaining what 'Ubuntu' means!!
And I was most impressed by the community support that has built up in just 5days of its release. There's a full 'How-To User Guide' put up for Dapper, with everything you need to know to tweak it to the max. (http://krazypenguin.net/Ubuntu_Dapper_Drake_6.06_Guide)

Just for info, I tested this on my laptop & my friend's PC, with the following specs
1. Compaq Presario M2202TU

1.4Ghz Celeron M
256MB RAM
Intel 915GM Chipset
Intel Mobile Extreme Graphics
External 200GB Samsung HDD
Linksys Wireless-G WPC54G

2. Desktop

Intel Pentim IV 3.2Ghz
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon Chipset
(Not sure of the graphics card)

Anyho....This is definitely worth a try...

cheers...
peace..
aditya

[aku]

short and sweet... well dun.. btw. did u dwnload it or uve got it shipped?..

[adit_sen]

I downloaded it of my University's mirror....

[QwertyManiac]

Its not available for shipping yet

[Sourabh]

They are available and requests for the same have been accepted and are currently in hands of the shipping department. I got a confirmation of the same by the end of May. Waiting for my copy to try it out.

[JGuru]

Thanks for the info man. Bravo, Ubuntu guys !!
This is just great. I have ordered CDs, but I haven't received it yet.

[Keith Sebastian]

Thanks Adit. It's in my nature to play around with a random Linux distro every once in 6 months or so. Last time it was Mepis. I'm d/l ing Ubuntu now. Unfortunately, I can't switch to Linux full time as I need a Win PC for work related stuff.

- Keith

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

well i've ordered it too ,