Staying with Hardy

[Willy Hamra]

2008/11/18 Neil Winchurst <barnaby at drofle.com>:
> A liitle while ago I decided to move from Edgy Kubuntu to a more up to
> date version. I did a backup of Edgy and then a new install of Gutsy. A
> little tweaking was needed but it all went very well. Meanwhile I had
> read plenty of praise for Hardy and I had the CD's so a while later I
> installed Hardy as a dual boot with Gutsy. So some first impressions.
>
> I made a few changes.
>
> I sorted out the NumLock  problem. That is, I set it to switch NumLock
> on automatically, then found that the  light did not show the correct
> state of the set-up. The light was off when NumLock was on and vice
> versa. A search in Google showed that this was a known problem and also
> showed me how to sort it out.
>
> I prefer to double click the mouse to launch a program so I changed that
> too.
>
> I installed Firefox (version 2) and Thunderbird. I do not like kmail for
> email nor konqueror as a browser.
>
> I installed the Gimp.
>
> I set konqueror to be the default file manager, as I do not like Dolphin.
>
> I installed GnuCash.
>
> I use floppies for small backups. Yes, I know, still in the stone age,
> but I find them useful to backup my accounts in GnuCash. When I tried to
> use them in Hardy there were some problems which I eventually tracked
> down to an error in the relevant line in fstab.
>
> The install had not found my printer properly so I added my printer and
> made it the default.
>
> I added some more programs which I like, eg Opera, Scribus, Abiword,
> Krusader, Kexi.
>
> Now it all seems to be going along nicely thank you.
>
> So my comments ...
>
> all this tweaking was simple enough for me, and I do not consider myself
> to be an expert at all. However, a newbie would get a bit lost I suggest.
>
> I chose version two of Firefox because I have read that there are still
> some problems with version three.
>
> I avoided KDE4 due to all the problems I read about in this list.
>
> I am not considering Intrepid at all as an upgrade after reading about
> so many people who are having difficulties with it, especially KDE4. I
> also do not like the idea of being forced to use Dolphin instead of
> Konqueror. I thought that personal choice was one of the main reasons
> for using Linux.
>
> So, I am happy so far with Hardy (Kubuntu)  and I expect to stay with it
> for a long time to come. If it ain't broke ........
>
> Neil Winchurst
>
>

see everybody? now that's the spirit we need as Linux users! and
that's what i call setting up a system properly, you chose your
default programs, removed those you don't want, added what you need
that wasn't set up automatically, in short, a perfect install and set
up.
now to the point, is there anything you feel missing? i guess not, do
you really KDE4? obviously not. do you necessarily have to upgrade to
intrepid? another not! why the hell bother then? Hardy has been so
far, the best (k)ubuntu version i've used, the most stable, the most
reliable, with the latest software available, special PPAs for those
very new, and much smarter than gutsy in setting up X, fstab, and
other things. unless you are someone who enjoys beta-testing and
experimental software, there is no need to upgrade!
another point that keeps bugging me is the LTS thing. hardy, whether
LTS or not, what difference does it make? supported for 1 year, 2
years or zillion years, what difference does it make? isn't hardy
working now? if it loses it's support tomorrow, it won't boot anymore?
you won't get new security updates, so what? those same security
updates you'll get next month, are not currently installed on your
system, and ur system is vulnerable about them! do you people really
care about these security patches? are you all working in some hostile
environment or something? or living near some very nasty and smart
hackers? most of these security patches cover flaws that really
require some very smart hacker to exploit, remember, this is Linux!
there are no obvious security holes that can be exploited by kids!
so what does this support mean? nothing! unless you are a paying
customer, and buying commercial support from Canonical or it's
partners, support is really nothing. and as far as i can see,
community support never ceases, there are people still using pre-gutsy
releases, and are being helped here!

-- 
Willy K. Hamra
Manager of Hamra Information Systems
Co. Manager of Zeina Computers and Billy Net.