Another Linux Post

When Mepis 3.3 was released I was ecstatic. I was waiting for that version to be released so I could use it as my Linux distribution of choice on my Acer Travelmate 800 laptop. It was just too bad the Intel Pro Wireless 2100 drivers included with it were apparently compiled for a different version. As a result the bootup would halt every time it tried to initialize my wireless connection. I went back to the 2004.06 version and all was well, but I could not help but loose faith in the SimplyMepis QA process.

Those who follow Linux will have heard of Ubuntu. Previously I gave Ubuntu 4.10 a bad review, but to be fair I probably did not give it a fair chance. Ubuntu 5.04 "Hoary Hedgehog" was released earlier this month so I decided to give it another try.

First impressions are important, and Ubuntu 5.04 gave me a pleasant initial surprise. It is, so far, the only Linux distribution I have tried that has been able to initialize and connect my wireless on initial boot up. In all other distributions the wireless would not connect during boot up and would need to be re-activated manually once in the desktop environment.

While Ubuntu does not give a complete multimedia experience "out-of-the-box" like Mepis does, I found that once the proper packages are installed the video and audio playback surpasses Mepis in every respect. The audio quality is much clearer, the video is smoother, and it even plays videos that would not display under Mepis. I was confused by this because these two distributions are supposed to be using similar Debian repositories to get these packages.

I am starting to wish that I had given Ubunto 4.10 a bit more of a chance back then. I think that one of the reasons I came down so hard on it initially was because I was expecting a KDE-like experience and was unprepared for some of GNOME's interface differences. I also expected apt-get to work properly from the command prompt right away and was unaware that I would have to edit a text file before that would work.

I hereby retract my previous Ubuntu rant and give "Hoary Hedgehog" two thumbs up.