Ubuntu, best OS right now?

its name sure is more fun to say than windows 7

maybe i'll check it out then

 

i did some poking around briefly online and it looks like ubuntu 10.04 has better performance than snow leopard. I can't tell if the articles are reading are biased...

Can anyone comment on stability of this OS vs snow leopard? I was an ex windows user turned mac, and the best part of that switch was the system stability imo (very few crashes, hangs). I'd be willing to switch to Ubuntu as long as the stability of the OS is on par to take advantage of the performance increase that I am reading about.

 

I need something lite for some old laptops.

Will this:

-Stream from popular music sites like Pandora?
-Sync somehow with an ipod/iphone?
-Stream video- Netflix, DirecTV, dailyshow.com, etc?

Thanks.

 

i am using Ubuntu Network Remix right now. i have to say, it's one of the best OS i have ever used.

1) free
2) the only driver i had to install was the wireless adapter
3) sync with iPod
4) extensive free software for download
5) it looks gorgeous

installation takes like 10 minutes from my USB drive. i can even find guitar tab software.

 

Gonna have to make a partition and give it a try.

 

At home I'm running Windows 7, Mac OS 10.6, and Ubuntu-64 bit 10.04. I'm running Ubuntu as my main OS because I'm trying to do a lot of shell scripting and python coding for work.

I would say that Ubuntu is kind of a broken OS, and you better like tinkering with computers if you run this system. It's very buggy and I get repeated crashes from programs such as wireshark, playing embeded video in message forums works most of the time, but not always. I may need a new codec but I looked forever to load the one I'm running now.

You have more power over your OS with Ubuntu/Linux, but you get what you pay for as far a a fully functional and supported OS.

 

The answer is no.

 

I'm going to try it out. Thanks!

 

Would you care to elaborate?

I like Ubuntu. It' what I run on my laptop and my work desktop.

 

I prefer Mandriva. Easier to install, easier to use and much, much better system configuration tools.

When I say "easier to install", I mean it's as easy as pop the CD into your drive, it boots into a full live system (so you could actually play around before you install anything), and then when you're ready you just double click the install icon on your desktop, click next a couple of times, wait a little while and your installation is done.

Mandriva for me has always been the best combination of easy-to-use and power-users-dream of all the Linuxes available. The one thing Ubuntu has that Mandriva doesn't is the option to encrypt your home directory (technically you could do it on Mandriva too, but there is no "click here to encrypt your home directory" option box during the installation like Ubuntu has.

 

I dual booted it and 7 for a week on my netbook. I eventually ditched the ubuntu partition completely. Its a great OS, I just feel like Windows 7 offers a lot more.

 

It's been like that since Ubuntu 8.04 I think, so it's really easy to install.

I've been using Ubuntu everyday for nearly 2 years now and I don't regret making the switch from Windows. My laptop is 4 years old and is running 10.04 without any issues.
I use 350MB of ram on average out of my 1.5GB, this would be impossible in Win Vista and 7. I would have had to buy a new laptop if I was still using Win.

 

Your 4 year old pc probably trumps my netbook in specs and yet I still run 7 flawlessly... With Aero enabled too...

 

Meh, only good for netbooks and laptops.

 

Have you seen it on a powerful desktop? The graphical transitions and general eyecandy are mind blowing. Don't get me wrong, I love my 7, but Ubuntu is the closest OS I would come to cheating on 7 with. Heck I did for a while.

 

I just don't want to risk using it as my main desktop since I use a lot of graphical programs/softwares. I would preferred using this on netbook or laptops. They should be aiming for the tablets. Not sure why they are even trying to compete with Windows and OS X at this moment.

 

What work do you do - spec. programs do you use?

 

I mostly write codes in C and IDL to analyze data from large astrophysics simulations (which I run on large clusters, not my desktop). If I have a simulation to run with a non-parallel code (such as N-body gravity codes), I'll sometimes run it on my desktop.

 

One of the best flavors of Linux, yes. Best OS? Nah, not yet. Linux has made some great strides in becoming more casual type of usual friendly, but it'll still be a more of a notch up for users in terms of dificulty and being able to consistently use it.

I use both though. Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04