Fun with Ubuntu

If you know me & if you are reading this, then you very well know that I'm in love with Linux. If you know this & know what Linux is, then you may also know that I like GNOME very much.

Ubuntu is a new kid in the block, Even though its new it's based on the big dad DEBIAN. whats in Ubuntu that's not available in the other distros out there ? I dunno. I just know GNOME blends pretty well with Ubuntu. I dunno whether GNOME was made for Ubuntu or Ubuntu was made for Gnome, but they really make a good marriage.

I installed Ubuntu for the first time more than a month back, back then I had a bit of probs. X didn't start automatically & I had to make some changes. It was not a probs for me, As I'm a slack user I usually like the adventure in doing everything by hand. The major app that I missed was KPPP. The only reason why I have KDE in my systems. It's such a wonderful dialup tool.

I just uninstalled Ubuntu without even trying to connect to Internet, using the gnome-network tool (it's a good starter but pales when compared to the functionality offered by KPPP). Yesterday, somehow I got the itch to install Ubuntu again. Installed it & to my surprise X started on its own (dunno how). Then I wanted to browse net using Ubuntu. Tried the Gnome-network tool & failed. My modem is one of those for which you should not wait for the dial tone. this option was missing in Gnome-Network tool. Then I found that Ubuntu installs Wvdial.

I used to use wvdial as my connectivity tool, long back when KPPP hadn't matured. But the funny thing was I forgot the options that shud be used to enable "do not wait for dial tone". Then after some trial & error, my brain started working (after a long time:-^)).

Then came the most surprising part, previously sometime back I had lots of problems trying to connect to net using wvdial in SUSE/SLACK mostly 'cause my ISP (BSNL) has some horrible authentication method instead of VSNL (my previous ISP) & It took me a lot of time & effort to fix this.

But y'day once the wvdial.conf was ready, I just ran wvdial & it got connected happily. It was so good. The only hindrance in me using Ubuntu was down. Then I opened the popular (not popular among Slackies) Synaptic, it had a neat interface & was pretty good. That was basically what I accomplished y'day.

Am I gonna replace my Slack with Ubuntu ? NO. But Ubuntu is gonna be my secondary OS & maybe in time Ubuntu might become my primary os, provided it doesn't succumb under the pressure I give to it :-^)

Ubuntu has impressed me so much, that I have downloaded the y'days ISO (development ISO). let us see how it fares.