Coming to terms with Ubuntu

Yes, I'm in exile from my favorite, Fedora package, having to slum in Ubuntu. That's right, I say Fedora and you think Micheal Jackson. You say Fedora, and I think Red Hat. We're all a bunch of dorks!

Some like to jump to conclusions and think that I'm somehow belittling Ubuntu, which is not true either. I'm not much of a fan of Debian, which Ubuntu is based on. But Ubuntu is more favorable to me than Debian is. It's a joke, about slumming Ubuntu, and not a very good one, granted! Because people can read things into that comment that really aren't intended, at all. I'm just saying, my CHOICE in an operating system has always been Red Hat products, because that's what I know best- as an old timer, dork!

See, Red Hat was noted for many years of having THE most complete package of software that the consumer could want. Which is not true anymore, just about all Linux offer all the same packages. To get my Logitech webcam working, I jumped into Fedora 11 for a quick test drive, to find out what the program was called that they were so hot on- then added it Ubuntu, and sure enough, it worked just fine in both places. Not that it's worth anything! The point is that the Open Source catalog is the Open Source catalog these days.

What you notice with Ubuntu vs. Fedora, is that EVERYTHING is very brown. While Fedora is very BLUE, and kind of lava lamp trippy. Not that I'm not a earthy guy, after all I hosted Randy's Squirrel Cam for years and years, as a hobby. And I am, a professional wood craftsman too, who lives on the top of a mountain. Earthy should have been my middle name, but thankfully isn't!

Besides color of the desktop, nothing much changes really, once Open Source is Open Source.

However, I do have some issues with Ubuntu and it's selections of software programs that can be added. There are two seperate programs for adding software to the system. The first being the Ubuntu choice programs, I guess (in the Applications menu)? The second being the standard Debian installer (Synaptic Package Manager), hidden in the System/Administration menu. Understanding that there are two programs is important to survivability under Ubuntu, for any old SQL programmer like me.

Apache, PHP, PostgreSQL, and MySQL, are all missing from Ubuntu's choice list, and all essentials in my book. Ubuntu's list is all workstation client things, and not server things. That does not mean that they are not there, and loadable from the Debian side of things. But this version of Synaptic is a lot like finding a needle in a haystack, even using the search tools, and knowing what you want.

However, once I got all I wanted loaded into the operating system, it was fairly painless to get them configured and started. Which is still an article needing to be written, in itself.

My joy was discovering that so many of my Logitech devices are now supported- I seem to have a few. I can't tell you how I squealed like a little girl over my keyboard, kicking the box into sleep mode- NO, I will never power down again, while actually shutting thing off for a change! While being the leaner, meaner, greener, Randy! The restart is blazing fast from out of sleep mode, and everything is just right there, where you left it- vs. Shut Down, were everything is lost, and it has to reboot from Bios on up again, restarting every services, etc. I'll miss my trip for fresh coffee, and the wait- NOT!

Not that I'm really any leaner really, and I might be a little greener, but as an old man I'm sure not trying to become any meaner!

Peace out!
Oh crap, I think I'm a convert?