As I mentioned earlier, I spent a big part of the weekend upgrading my workstation from Ubuntu Dapper to Ubuntu Edgy.
I think I have a sort of situational amnesia that prevents me from remembering what a pain in the posterior upgrades really are, or I'd probably just make do with the reliable install that is working just fine as-is. But, I want the new shiny, and that comes at a price.
Ubuntu installs a workable set of default applications, but it doesn't install all the stuff that I use every day, so a fresh install has meant a lot of reinstalling and (in some cases) recompiling.
For example: I have sshd running on my workstation, and Ubuntu only installs the SSH client by default. Ubuntu/Kubuntu also do not install dict, cdargs, full Vim, Audacity, YaKuake, Sylpheed, MP3 support, and so forth. So, right after the default install is finished, I have a zillion or so packages to install right away before I can be productive again.
This is, however, far preferable to the Windows/Mac OS X situation. I dimly recall the bad old days of using Windows, and doing a reinstall at regular intervals because that's what you have to do with Windows to keep it functional. Not only would I have to re-install everything, but I'd have to dig out a bunch of disks, find the "keys" to allow me to reinstall games and other assorted programs that required keys, and so forth. At least 99% of the software I use now can be grabbed using APT.
For some reason, I've found that VMware Workstation doesn't like Edgy for some reason and doesn't want to install at all. (Oddly enough, VMware Player installs just fine from the repository...) VMware Server also barfs during setup. (I have no idea right now if this is a VMware issue or Ubuntu issue, or a combination of the two...)
New shiny vs. old dependable
As I mentioned earlier, I spent a big part of the weekend upgrading my workstation from Ubuntu Dapper to Ubuntu Edgy.
I think I have a sort of situational amnesia that prevents me from remembering what a pain in the posterior upgrades really are, or I'd probably just make do with the reliable install that is working just fine as-is. But, I want the new shiny, and that comes at a price.
Ubuntu installs a workable set of default applications, but it doesn't install all the stuff that I use every day, so a fresh install has meant a lot of reinstalling and (in some cases) recompiling.
For example: I have sshd running on my workstation, and Ubuntu only installs the SSH client by default. Ubuntu/Kubuntu also do not install dict, cdargs, full Vim, Audacity, YaKuake, Sylpheed, MP3 support, and so forth. So, right after the default install is finished, I have a zillion or so packages to install right away before I can be productive again.
This is, however, far preferable to the Windows/Mac OS X situation. I dimly recall the bad old days of using Windows, and doing a reinstall at regular intervals because that's what you have to do with Windows to keep it functional. Not only would I have to re-install everything, but I'd have to dig out a bunch of disks, find the "keys" to allow me to reinstall games and other assorted programs that required keys, and so forth. At least 99% of the software I use now can be grabbed using APT.
For some reason, I've found that VMware Workstation doesn't like Edgy for some reason and doesn't want to install at all. (Oddly enough, VMware Player installs just fine from the repository...) VMware Server also barfs during setup. (I have no idea right now if this is a VMware issue or Ubuntu issue, or a combination of the two...)