eWeek - May 14, 2007

Ubuntu stakes desktop claim

REVIEW: VERSION 7.04 OF LINUX DISTRO BOLSTERS SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT

By Jason Brooks for the product, but fit and is worthy of consider- With com - we did not have ation as a Windows replace-panies and to compile drivers ment. Most ISVs do still individu- for our kernel—as target Windows exclusively, als every- we’re accustomed and even though the Linux-where fail- to doing on other supporting alternatives are ing to find the wow Linux platforms. getting better all the time, in Windows Vista, Instead, Feisty’s this is still a troublesome Apple’s Mac OS X software manage- issue for potential migra-riding iPod sales ment system pulled tors. and snarky com- down the appropri- Once users become ac-mercials to steady ate drivers for us, quainted with the Linux ^growth, ^and ^long-We performed an in-place upgrade from Ubuntu ^making ^it ^fast ^and^applications ^they ^require,time Microsoft part- Linux 6. 10 to Version 7.04 over the network. easy for us to enable however, it’s much easier ner Dell announcing virtualization on our to install and update these plans to market a Linux and managing VPN con- test machine. applications on Ubuntu desktop to the mainstream, nections, has gone from Ubuntu 7.04 is available than it is on Windows. it seems certain that the being an optional add-on to in desktop and server fla- Ubuntu 7.04 is available days of Microsoft’s desktop a part of the default install. vors. The server variant is for free download at www. monopoly are numbered. As implemented in Feisty, solid, but, aside from its ubuntu.com/products/

Granted, that number is however, NetworkManager suitability as a platform GetUbuntu. In addition probably a large one, but as boasts much improved han- for VMware Server, Feisty to the standard Live CD evidenced by eWeek Labs’ dling of static connections, doesn’t do much to rise Ubuntu install disk, an alter-tests of Canonical’s Ubuntu which earlier incarnations above the pack of other free native installation disk that Linux 7.04, the state of the of NetworkManager didn’t Linux server operating sys- features a text-mode version Linux desktop—not to men- adequately address. tem options. of the installer is available. tion that of other Windows Ubuntu’s best features As a desktop option, The text-mode installer loads alternatives—is too strong remain its excellent software Ubuntu 7.04 is an excellent faster than the Live CD and to hold off heterogeneity management tools, its well-forever. organized community and

Ubuntu Linux 7.04, which its large catalog of ready-to-

Dell has chosen to headline install free software applica-its desktop Linux foray, has tions. We’re also impressed made impressive strides with the steps that Ubuntu toward claiming a spot on has taken to work with pro-mainstream desktop and prietary software, which, server machines, both by while more tricky to distrib-piling up advances made ute, is in many cases what’s across the Linux and open- needed to fit the bill. source community, and by We installed VMware’s building in advances of its freely available (but not open-own. source) VMware Server on

For instance, we’re glad to one of our test machines by see that in Ubuntu 7.04—also browsing for and selecting known as Feisty Fawn—the it in Ubuntu’s Add/Remove

NetworkManagerapplication, Applications tool. We did which we like for the way it have to visit VMware’s handles switching among Web site to register and Ubuntu 7.04’s Restricted Drivers tool let us know we were using wired and wireless networks generate a serial number proprietary—and therefore not directly Ubuntu-supported—drivers.