Originally posted July 5, 2006 on my old blog:

I have finally set up a Xubuntu server for myself to play with. The server will be hosting this site, and any other crap I decide to put on it. I’ve asked myself a couple of times why I didn’t just use the default install of Gnome.

Xfce looks just as good out of the box, in my opinion, and works pretty much the same way. After getting everything configured, though, I jumped straight to Blackbox (having invested large amounts of time getting bbLean configured on my work PC).

Regarding Linux on the Desktop, I’m afraid I’ll have to say the same thing that most people are saying who have evaluated the various flavors of Ubuntu: it’s not ready.

If you ONLY want OpenOffice and a browser/email client, then something like Ubuntu might work for you. If you actually want to install anything, however, be prepared to jump to a terminal window. A lot. Note that I am not saying that any Linux installation is limited to this software. Read carefully.

I installed Edubuntu on a machine I’m giving to my daughter for her 5th birthday. Guess what? It’s Ubuntu with the educational packages installed, and a cartoony icon theme. Ho hum. Some of the software is decent, some less so.

So far, it has managed to not load ALSA, which would make more sense to have installed on this box than on the Xubuntu server (which DID manage to configure the sound, incidentally, on an exactly identical box).

Edubuntu is not really what I expected, but it seems I found what I was looking for in it through GCompris. I’ll have to look at that some more when I have time.

The plan is to get Evelyn’s computer up with some kind of software which can introduce her to a computer, without bogging her down with all the tasking crap. I’m also going to paint the case to something appropriate for a little girl. Probably something Disney-princessish. I look thusly for inspiration. It takes a manly man to buy pink paint and ask which markers make a rainbow. I probably won’t go that route though. I’ll just print something onto the side and cover it with clearcoat or something.

Update October 2008: The only Linux to stay on these machines is the Xubuntu installation, which has been stripped of window manager and any GUI-related software, and runs as a pure server.

I had since tried to run Ubuntu Hardy as my primary desktop, which was a supremely awesome failure. After two straight weeks of zero work getting done, I am now happily productive on Windows XP again.

Evelyn’s machine runs Windows XP, and has been running fine since this was posted. I actually found more educational software that worked on Windows, wouldn’t you know?

Tags: desktop, linux

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