First impression of warty install

[James Blackwell]

I just purchased a new laptop to replace the one thats currently in the
shop. Going into eat-your-own-dogfood mode, I installed warty on this new
laptop. Below, I mention every little nitpicking detail I could come up
with. Don't get the wrong idea; warty is _excellent_

Screen: 1920x1200x32
Video: ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (linux kernel reports its a 9600)
Memory: .5 gb
Drive as shipped: 80gb, split into 3 partitions 
Docking station: partially supported
Onboard winmodem: I couldn't care less. I assume not.
Onboard wireless: (unsupported) Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG 
Laptop multimedia buttons: unsupported.

Overall impression: 
  Warty is *excellent*, and is going to give established distributions a
  run for their money. 

How the install went: 

Partioning:
  The partitioning step made me a little bit nervous, as I hadn't used 
  that particular partioning program in the first place. The first question
  I asked myself was "Wipe the drive clean? Does _anybody_ do that?
  certainly not by default". Maybe if the question were worded
  differently... such as "Get rid of windows and make this a ubunto only
  machine"

  However, after toying with the partitioning software for 10-15 minutes,
  I was able to get a good feel for how it worked, and set up the
  partitions in a way that I liked, without wiping windows.

  One note: The free software world *really* needs a partitioning utility
  that knows how to talk ntfs. 

Hardware:
  Y (my nickname for ubuntu (think "UBUNTU!!")) set up my onboard nic just
  fine, was able to setup up X at a reduced resolution (1280x1024 instead
  of 1920x1200), and handled the onboard sound with no problems.
  Basically, I ended up with a laptop with Y that was very useful and
  presentable "out of the box"

  But things aren't flawless. The onboard video is a radeon 9700 mobility,
  which isn't supported in 3d mode by the linux kernel.
  
  The docking station is also hit and miss. USB devices plugged into the
  docking station do work, which is good. However, the laptop goes
  silent as soon as the laptop is inserted into the docking station. In
  windows, the desktop speakers take over; in linux, the laptop just goes
  silent. One interesting note: The remote control receiver is built into
  the speakers, and seems to be a usb keyboard. When I press buttons on the
  remote, keys are injected into my keyboard stream.

  Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust the panel backlight. I
  tried using spicctrl, which worked with my previous viaos, but on this
  vaio, the sonypi module refuses to work. I haven't even tried to use the
  TV in/outs yet.

  Of course, excepting the installed resolutions on X, every single one of
  these are kernel issues, not warty issues. I definitely ended up with a
  useful production laptop with a near-to-out-of-the-box experience.

  One last thing - the eject button for the cdrom on my laptop doesn't seem
  to work.  However, I can still get cds out by either running "eject", or
  by hitting a recessed eject button. My guess is that they've turned the
  eject button into a multimedia button (!?)


Default software:

  I was surprised by how many applications I wanted were already there -- 
  postfix was installed, vim was installed, most of the gnome stuff was
  installed, etc. The only thing that was missing, that really should have
  been there, was a compiler!

  I was even able to install uucp, which if it hadn't been available,
  would have been a showstopper for me.

  Oh, another big thing was missing. When I went to the console, I found
  out the hard way that gpm hadn't been installed at all. Though this
  would normally bother me a *lot*, I'm not so bothered this time because
  I haven't managed to get SVGATextMode to handle any sort of useful
  console size. I can get 80xanything, but 80xanything is HUGE.

  Regarding java. To this day, when I install mozilla on a windows
  box, I get to play java games on yahoo. Sure, java is evil, but I'd love
  to be able to get onto yahoo games with a default install. I also
  noticed that by default, visiting joecartoon.com is a nonstarter.

  I already miss kde. I have a set of keybindings that I really like to
  use, which gnome seems to support only partially. Here's the keybindings
  I like: 

      alt-left/right  move to prev/next workspace       works partially
      ctrl-left/right move app to prev/next workspace   works partially
      ctrl-space      start up a terminal               not available
      alt-space       start up "mozilla"                not available

  
  Also, it seems like I can't change the settings for just one gnome
  terminal. If I change one, I change them all.

  Tiny note: The background images are too small for my laptop! I had to
  change the background from "scaled" to "fill screen"

  Warty needs a visible logout button! I was finally able to find the
  logout item in the computer menu, which I placed in the very bottom
  right, next to the mini trashcan.

  I wish that the default install gave me more things to play with. Sure,
  everything I need is already there, but Warty missed a great opportunity
  to win me over by throwing gobs of new (to me) software in my general
  direction. Provide more "productivity" apps, and _show_me_ how
  useful my computer can be, if I weren't such a lazy bastard. 

  For example, sodipodi, while not new to me, would be one of the nice
  intuitive "work apps you can play with" that warty could install by 
  default.

  Gnome really needs more shiny things. Where's all the bouncy icons and
  effects that kde has? 

  One really good thing; every package that I've wanted has been at
  no-name-yet. I haven't had any need to add debian src lines to apt.conf.


Summary:

  Warty is a misnomer, as the default install went smoothly, and very
  closely guessed how I wanted to work. Warty is serious competition for
  distributions that have had the opportunity to spit-n-polish for years.


-- 
James Blackwell          Try something fun: For the next 24 hours, give
Smile more!              each person you meet a compliment!

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