Tim Bowler » ubuntu

Ubunto 8.10 Intrepid update to kernel 2.6.27-12

Tim Bowler — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:49:48 +0000

After upgrading the kernel, booting into it left me with a black screen. The first time that I can honestly say ubuntu has shocked me. The problem is the nvidia 177 driver. To get around it, boot up into the previous kernal and install the Nvidia 180 packages. Once its done, reboot into the latest kernel version.

Ubuntu, php and exim4

Tim Bowler — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:35:52 +0000

Ubuntu 8.04 does not have sendmail installed by default. This was annoying when some of the php web apps that I created rely on sendmail to send out email notifications. But before going ahead and installing sendmail, I thought that I would try exim4. Installing on Ubuntu is very straight forward:

apt-get install exim4 exim4-config

After installation is complete, you must run:

dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

This will allow you to configure the MTA. That is it, php will ‘just work’ because the installation also creates a symlink of sendmail to the exim binary.

If you do not run the above config command, you will see this in your exim/mainlog:

tim@*******.com R=nonlocal: Mailing to remote domains not supported

Ubuntu 8.04

Tim Bowler — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:17:10 +0000

Today I finally installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my Sony vaio sz4. It runs like a dream, better than the SUSE setup which it replaced. My first thoughts are that the system runs very fast and all the components work out of box(web cam, finger print scanner have not being tested yet). I have noticed the wifi throughput has increased, using the eclipse IDE runs like a dream and best of all compiz fusion works on both the laptop and on a dual monitor setup. The synaptic package manager seems more complete overSUSE’s yast package management.

Although it is my personal laptop, Ubuntu (7.10) was rolled out on all developer workstations at Or Media. This was a little shock to some of the developers, but everyone has seen the benefits. Some of which are:

Apps deployed on a Linux system are developed on a Linux system.
Most of the software is free (Although some machines run VMWare with windows installations – QA, Bless them!)
Cheaper machines can be bought
Everyone now has the same setup
Security is tighter

Of course, like all good things, there are certain draw backs. . VMware needed the vmware-any-any-116 hack just to get it working. After that the evaluation license is invalid and therefore had to buy it straight away (well 30 days earlier than needed!).

In conclusion, SUSE in my eyes was pretty good. But the more I use Ubuntu I see that this distro is going to be the de-facto standard. Below are some of the reason why you will agree why Ubuntu is on top and why everyone is changing towards linux:

Dell

BBC’s view

Sweeden moving to linux

Japan’s schools

French parliment

Cross over office helps

An advocate of microsoft windoze(hehe)

There are many many more example that you can find. At the end of the day, money, security and stability all play a key role. Linux is a winner, so if you have not tried to change your OS now is the time to consider.