Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

I was wondering if anyone new anything about Ubuntu's Gusty Gibbon that comes out in 4 days. Mostly on the PPC end of the spectrum. Better support?

Better support for what, exactly? At this point, installing wireless in Ubuntu for any Mac is quite easy, but this is potentially-so for other Linux distributions as well. Binaries (applications) with non-free licensing schemes (namely Adobe Flash) are still non-existent for PPC platforms.

Canonical Ltd. (Ubuntu's developer) no longer officially supports PPC, but the Ubuntu PPC Community still distributes releases, and I am sure their release quality is on-par with the official releases. One of the great things about Ubuntu really is its helpful community.

I highly recommend checking-out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ & https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads

The former link will answer more questions than you have, and quite specifically, I imagine.

OK, a bit off topic, but I was talking to someone about Linux the other day, and he was apparently mystified why it hadn't managed to make any impression whatsover on the corporate desktop market.

I had a thoery;

IT guy: Hey boss, what do you think about getting rid of Windows? There is an alternative that is free.

Boss: Yeah? that's interesting. What's it called?

IT guy: Ubuntu gutsy gibbon.

Boss: So when does the new Vista media arrive?

Yeah the name is rather silly. I think if more people start using more open source software than the computer world can be more universal and conforming

jonnyd said:

OK, a bit off topic, but I was talking to someone about Linux the other day, and he was apparently mystified why it hadn't managed to make any impression whatsover on the corporate desktop market.

I had a thoery;

IT guy: Hey boss, what do you think about getting rid of Windows? There is an alternative that is free.

Boss: Yeah? that's interesting. What's it called?

IT guy: Ubuntu gutsy gibbon.

Boss: So when does the new Vista media arrive?

Click to expand...

There are several solid distros without 'silly' names.

I'd say Microsoft Office's dominance may be an enormous part of the lack-of-impact on that particular market. OpenOffice isn't quite ready for prime-time in my opinion, and a solid Office suite is vital to several markets. It's suitable for a good deal of them, but many environments are used to Office's entire feature-set and OOo will need to meet the expectations MSO users possess.

Lycus said:

There are several solid distros without 'silly' names.

I'd say Microsoft Office's dominance may be an enormous part of the lack-of-impact on that particular market. OpenOffice isn't quite ready for prime-time in my opinion, and a solid Office suite is vital to several markets. It's suitable for a good deal of them, but many environments are used to Office's entire feature-set and OOo will need to meet the expectations MSO users possess.

Click to expand...

In that case software like CROSSOVER provide a solution by emulating windows on MAC as well as LINUX and comes at a much cheaper price than a windows license.

I personally don't think that the office suit is the main reason behind going for MS Desktop. IMO it's the AD integration and the comfort most of the novice users on MS desktops compared to linux desktops.

I can't speak to the PPC version of Ubuntu, although the i386 version installed very easy for me. Getting my wireless card took a few hours.

I used to use YellowDog Linux for my old PPC hardware. You might want to check them out, although not sure what they have been up to lately.

Lycus said:

There are several solid distros without 'silly' names.

I'd say Microsoft Office's dominance may be an enormous part of the lack-of-impact on that particular market. OpenOffice isn't quite ready for prime-time in my opinion, and a solid Office suite is vital to several markets. It's suitable for a good deal of them, but many environments are used to Office's entire feature-set and OOo will need to meet the expectations MSO users possess.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not the whole story but it doesn't help.

Linux hasn't been marketed well. To someone whose task is to keep a large network up and running 24/7, the fact it's free and has a cute name isn't reassuring at all.

Linux is coming. Linux will grow, but I can't see it taking over Microsoft yet.

I think it will grow along with the Mac, Microsoft 40% Apple 39.9 Linux: 19%

MBNick said:

Linux is coming. Linux will grow, but I can't see it taking over Microsoft yet.

I think it will grow along with the Mac, Microsoft 40% Apple 39.9 Linux: 19%

Click to expand...

What do those stats refer to? Home / corporate / server / desktop?

Linux has been around for 15 years. It has less than 1% of the desktop market. The only place it has really caught on is webservers, but then it's in the server OS market.

Linux has a lot of work to do before it will be acceptable for the mass market. It is simply not ready for prime time. In the right hands (i.e. experienced) Linux is fabulous. It is fast, configurable and will support most hardware out there. Personally, I love it.

BUT, it is maddeningly difficult to get new hardware to work. It is maddeningly difficult to get your video card set up when you first install (xorg.conf anyone?). It is completely bewildering to get a sound card working if the installer doesn't pick it up the first time. Or, for fun, try getting permissions right on a new external hard drive that you plug in. How about the fstab (and other) entries for ntfs-3g? Almost mind boggling.

All of this stuff is easily enough done once you are in the know, but the average home user will not have the patience or the knowledge to manually dicker with fstab, xorg.conf and dozens of other config files to get things working. Until some Linux distros start arriving fully able to configure themselves on the fly, it will be too difficult for the average user.

Despite the goofy names however, Ubuntu is closest to achieving this. I would rate SuSE a close second. Neither of the above is "there" however. I will install "gutsy" and see if it is any closer in this regard. Every release, I keep hoping...

Well I downloaded it and cant get my either of my CD-Roms to work (although it is a beta) so I have to work on those. My wireless Finally works though (thank you broadcom support!!). So well see what happens next