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Heres some information about Ubuntu:
Installation
The Ubuntu live CD (called 'desktop') comes with a simple graphical installer to put the system onto your computer. I booted both the Ubuntu and Kubuntu desktop CDs and ran the installer by clicking the shortcut on the desktop. It first prompts which language you wish to use - it is good to see an installer with support for many languages. The locale you select here will be mirrored in the final system. The installer asks you to select the time zone and keyboard (where I was able to select 'Macintosh') and then presents the partitioner. Unfortunately, the partitioner does not support logical volume management (LVM), so I could not proceed any further. On other computers that do not use LVM, I was able to create partitions here and set the various mount points. I noticed that each time you make a change the partitioner re-scans the hard drive - this is a little annoying and surely not necessary; after all, none of the changes are yet applied and are just in memory.
Once partitioning has been completed it was time to set up a user. The installer does not seem to protect against weak passwords and considering Ubuntu gives its main user full root access via sudo with the user's password, perhaps this is something that the installer should at least warn against. I ran into two other issues when installing Ubuntu. Firstly, the installer fails to configure the base packages if sharing a /boot partition (it complained it could not find the modules for the Ubuntu kernel), even though this was with Kubuntu and had the same kernel files Ubuntu itself will install! And secondly, when connected to a network where access to the Internet was blocked, the installer became stuck at contacting the repositories and never came back to life.
If installing on a computer with Windows (as I did at work) the installer detects this and displays a list of users on that system. It is able to import their Windows profile across to the Linux install meaning they will still have things like their files, bookmarks and even their wallpaper. Write support for NTFS partitions is also enabled by default. From here the installer proceeds to copy the system to your computer and configure the boot loader. If all went to plan, Ubuntu should be installed and awaiting a reboot!
Back on the MacBook and unable to use the live CD installer, I instead had to boot to the DVD and perform a command line install. Once I had booted to this basic system I simply ran "sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop" (and kubuntu-desktop for that installation) to receive the complete desktop.
Once I had the system installed I had another chance to test out this new release. As with Feisty, suspend to RAM worked perfectly (it even resumes!), as did all of the special keys including "numlock" and the "numberpad". Also, the one-button touchpad worked perfectly with right and middle click emulation working out of the box. The option to disable the touchpad would have been good as it activates when typing with lazy palms. To my surprise almost everything else worked out of the box, too. Gutsy detected the correct screen resolution without needing to patch the BIOS (thanks, I assume, to the new Intel driver), the little Apple remote worked well and even the built-in microphone was configured. Once I copied the firmware from the Mac OS X partition, the iSight camera worked a treat, perfect for Ekiga! Bluetooth worked out of the box and I paired it with my phone but couldn't browse to it for some reason, instead receiving an error that the obex address was not a valid location. The external monitor worked fine with the Mini-DVI cable plugged in, but unfortunately I could not configure this further using the much hyped "Screens and Graphics" tool. Under KDE I could enable the secondary screen, but X refused to start, whereas under GNOME I couldn't enable it at all. Occasionally I was not able to unmount devices because of the inclusion of the EFI partition in /etc/fstab which spat out an error that the line was bad.
As we've come to expect from Ubuntu, support for non-GPL drivers is well integrated into the the system, to the point that it automatically enabled the MadWiFi driver for my wireless card without my approval. Proprietary drivers from NVIDIA and ATI are included on the CD while playing an MP3 file prompted the system to install the required packages, for which I required Internet access. I could not play encrypted DVDs on the system without first manually running the install-css.sh script from libdvdread3.
Package management under Ubuntu is built on Debian's DEB system and uses APT as its primary interface. Installing any package available in the repositories is as simple as searching for it in the "Add/Remove Applications" program, or using Synaptic. If the console doesn't scare you, you can get the full power of APT from the command line. Downloading a DEB package for Ubuntu from the Internet opens it in the package installer, gdebi. This will automatically solve any missing dependencies and install them for you before configuring the package you downloaded. Adding repositories is handled through the "Software Sources" application, something most other distributions also have.
Sitting in the system tray is the software updater, which at the time of my install (10 days since the release of Gutsy) showed that there were 10 updates available for Ubuntu, including Firefox, OpenSSL and tzdata.
On the GNOME desktop
In terms of the desktop, this release of Ubuntu is almost identical to the previous version with the exception of the default desktop wallpaper. When logging into GNOME under Gutsy the user is greeted by a warm, swirly chocolate desktop background. I really liked this as it tones down the desktop and enhances the lighter tones of the Human theme, making them look less orange in colour and more smooth brown. The boot screens are the same as the last release of Ubuntu, with no new surprises there.
Once again we see the tradition of a sparse desktop continued on with this release. The "Places" menu however shows the default folder structure created for each user, with directories to house documents, videos, pictures and music. Hopefully this will help to keep information organised and desktops clean. Not that an orderly structure really matters though, as Gutsy includes the Tracker search technology which makes finding your files a snap, wherever they might be hiding.
Assuming you have a compatible video card, the other major difference you should notice is the seamlessly integrated CompizFusion, the 3D desktop technology (don't pretend you haven't heard of it). OK, so by default the cube is not activated so it's literally a two dimensional 3D desktop :). But, click on your second desktop and you should see the desktop scoot across. You can also click and drag windows between desktops and all the fancy things you've come to expect from Compiz.
Compiz integration is definitely the best I've seen in any distribution thus far. If you have a supported video card, it simply works - you don't need to select or enable anything. GNOME 2.20 sports the new "Appearance" tool where the theme, icon and cursor settings are all consolidated, but also includes the "Visual Effects" tab. Here the user can configure Compiz, but in keeping with the GNOME ideal of simplicity, there are only three options by default - "None", "Normal" and "Extra". Each of these settings turns on and off certain Compiz plugins. Selecting "Normal" grants the user features like multiple desktops with "Desktop Wall" (but not the famous cube), switcher for a nicer Alt-Tab experience and of course scale for that OS X-like Exposé feature. The "Extra" setting includes all these and adds others, like wobbly windows. Installing compizconfig-settings-manager from the universe repository enables the option to customise Compiz settings from this panel. Here the user can enable other features such as the cube, opacity and paint fire on the screen. Oh yeah!
Gutsy also naturally includes the new GNOME improvements, such as Evolution's attachment warning, backup feature and new message notification; EOG enhancements and Evince's ability to use interactive PDF files; Tomboy note taker additions and the ability to leave a message when someone's away from their computer; the "Appearance" control panel for integrated theming as well as other welcome improvements. Ubuntu have also included a few of their own such as the "Screens and Graphics" configuration tool, which lets users configure X and external monitors. Ubuntu also comes with the built in search tool, Tracker, which makes finding your files and applications a snap. This is well integrated with the rest of the system, including the Nautilus file manager.
All in all the GNOME desktop is tightly integrated and works well.
On the KDE desktop
It could be just me, but Kubuntu looks a lot prettier than it used to. Less "purpley" and more of a deeper, richer blue. It's almost soothing. The KDM login screen and KDE splash are well integrated with the same theme and both look great. The window manager uses the same style, but is the newer blue colour and overall the desktop looks alive, rather than washed out.
The desktop comes with Dolphin as the default file manager, which does take some getting used to. The actions menu (which is accessible with a right click) is now available as a side bar within Dolphin. Unfortunately the feature to convert an image to another format is listed but ends up being blank and the option to create a zip file is missing from the archive section (although bzip2 and gzip are there). There is the option to email a file as an attachment (using KMail) and some other handy tricks.
Some of the items in the program menu have been re-arranged, but essentially the range of packages is the same as it was in "Feisty". It is good to see Kubuntu still enabling the descriptions for applications, more distributions need to do this! Still missing are Firefox (leaving the only browser to be Konqueror) and the GIMP (no doubt two of the first things a Kubuntu user downloads, post install). Aside from that Kubuntu comes with all the other main applications most users will want, including the two best applications ever, Amarok and K3B. Creating a new user is a little different to that under GNOME. Unlike Ubuntu where you can tick tasks by description that you wish your user to be able to perform, under Kubuntu you must know which groups to enable. If you want the user to be able to administer the system, they need to be in the "admin" group. As with Ubuntu, playing an MP3 file caused the system to prompt to install the required packages. This also requires access to the Internet, but I noticed that if the install failed it still said it succeeded. Whoops!
By default Kubuntu is missing some of the new features available in Ubuntu, the biggest of which being Compiz and the 3D desktop. Kubuntu users wanting to get in on that action will still have to perform some manual hackery. Also, Kubuntu does not use Tracker for search, but Strigi. The default link in the KDE menu opens up to a web interface under Konqueror and in comparison, it leaves a lot to be desired. Here you can start the daemon, set preferences and perform a search, but it is cumbersome. Fortunately there is a search front-end built into the taskbar, but this is tucked away under the "Utilities" application group. I shudder to think some users will never find the application and perform their searches through the web interface. This needs to be integrated into a single application, or at the very least the default shortcut changed to the taskbar application where one could right click and still get the web page. Even so, the results come up in the web interface and it seems like a backward step from something like Kerry (even if the backend technology here is better).
Aside from missing some of the neat new features that Ubuntu has and while it doesn't seem quite as well integrated as GNOME, it is indeed a fine KDE system and worthy of an upgrade from Feisty.
Thanks........................
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