Ubuntu 8.10 released

Conor_3

Vomityspice wrote: »

I'm not sure what you are talking about?

Network sharing works (or at least it does in my configuration!).

Not with Ubuntu as the client it doesn't. Try browsing a Windows network from your Ubuntu machine in Nautilus. You'll get the workgroup showing and if you're lucky, the machine but click on that and it'll do nothing for an age and then come back with an error message.

There is a known bug in gvfs which means it doesn't ask for authentication for password protected shares.

fwor

Conor wrote: »

Not with Ubuntu as the client it doesn't. Try browsing a Windows network from your Ubuntu machine in Nautilus.

I've just tried that from an Ubuntu 8.04 client to a PC running WinXP Pro. I can browse the network, find the workgroup, find the PC and the shared folder. When I try to open the folder I get the expected Authentication dialogue and if I put in the right details I can open the folder, view the contents, and copy and paste files onto my local drive.

You may be right that there are bugs that affect certain configurations, or there may have been initial bugs in 8.04 that have since been fixed, but it certainly can't be "broken" now if it works for me without me having to modify it in any way.

System

I want to try this but when I tried Mandrake about 5 years ago I had nothing but issues, Is this more user friendly? IE will my wireless work ok on my Acer Aspire 5715, Is it easy to install, will it setup all the partitions etc itself? Will I be able to dual boot Vista?

Bob63

nirelandguy wrote: »

I want to try this but when I tried Mandrake about 5 years ago I had nothing but issues, Is this more user friendly? IE will my wireless work ok on my Acer Aspire 5715, Is it easy to install, will it setup all the partitions etc itself? Will I be able to dual boot Vista?

Don't install, virtualise! It's the perfect solution for trying a new OS. Dual boot only makes sense if you need the full power of an OS e.g. 3D apps or CPU-hogging multimedia.

Happy to give advice if you want to know how to set things up.

Conor_3

fwor wrote: »

You may be right that there are bugs that affect certain configurations, or there may have been initial bugs in 8.04 that have since been fixed, but it certainly can't be "broken" now if it works for me without me having to modify it in any way.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cannot+browse+network+shares+ubuntu&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

fermi

nirelandguy wrote: »

I want to try this but when I tried Mandrake about 5 years ago I had nothing but issues, Is this more user friendly? IE will my wireless work ok on my Acer Aspire 5715, Is it easy to install, will it setup all the partitions etc itself? Will I be able to dual boot Vista?

There should be a hardware compatibility list somewhere on the ubuntu site/forums. Plus search the forums to see if anyone has had success or problems with that or a similar laptop.

Wireless can often be a problem. There has only recently been native support in the Linux kernel added for my wireless, and that now works very nicely under Mandriva (formally Mandrake).

If you want to give it a go and have enough space on your windows partitions the you can always try out with wubi for a bit or have a play with a "live" CD.

fwor

nirelandguy wrote: »

I want to try this but when I tried Mandrake about 5 years ago I had nothing but issues,

My first attempt was around 4 years ago, and it was a similar disaster.

The hardware compatibility is so much better now - as fermi says, just give it a try as a LiveCD - if it works Ok like that it will almost certainly install fine. However.... as almost everyone finds, whether your wireless will work is a lottery. Mine wouldn't, but I just use a Gig Ethernet wired network instead.

BTW one neat new feature in 8.10 - in the Admin menu there's a utility which automatically creates a bootable version of any of the Ubuntu variants on a USB pendrive, including a space for persistent user data. This is the first time I've been able to get one of those working properly...

System

Well I am downloading this wubi to see how far I get, should be an interesting evening. I read an article in this months PC Pro magazine which a guy used Ubuntu for a week, He liked it but still prefered Vista

fwor

nirelandguy wrote: »

Well I am downloading this wubi to see how far I get, should be an interesting evening. I read an article in this months PC Pro magazine which a guy used Ubuntu for a week, He liked it but still prefered Vista

Hope it works with your hardware - when I last tried Wubi with 8.04 it wouldn't work, but hopefully it's improved since then.

I confess I still prefer the "feel" of XP, but that's because I used it for years.

If you don't like the look and feel of the desktop - Gnome - that comes as standard in Ubuntu, it would be worth taking a look at the KDE or XFCE desktops of Kubuntu and Xubuntu respectively. I prefer either to Gnome myself...

wolfman

cheesy.mike wrote: »

Don't install, virtualise! It's the perfect solution for trying a new OS. Dual boot only makes sense if you need the full power of an OS e.g. 3D apps or CPU-hogging multimedia.

Happy to give advice if you want to know how to set things up.

No need to use a virtual image. Download Ubuntu, burn it to disc, and you can run it from the disc without it going near your hard drive and existing windows install.

It'll give good indication as to how it will run on your laptop. Personally having had a similar Acer laptop it should run fine without any problems.