Ubuntu 9.04 rocks

I just finished installing ubuntu 9.04 64-bit on my Acer Ferrari 4005. Ubuntu has been making steady progress over the years and releases to be the best Linux distro out there.

Comes with GNOME 2.26.1 and the latest FOSS stack.

On top of the desktop edition, I installed the following to get it ready as my worktop:

• Sun JDK/JRE
• VPNC and the network-manager-vpnc plugin
• opie client
• ldap-utils
• flash plugin
  

Specific to the Acer Ferrari, I did the following:

• Enabled b43-fwcutter driver for the Broadcom 4318 wireless network interface. Upon enabling, Ubuntu simply downloaded b43-fwcutter and a few other supporting files and enabled the wireless interface. It was a breeze.

One issue I came across was that the vpnc via NetworkManager did not work immediately upon creating a profile. It kept throwing up a "VPN Secret not found error". I had to restart NetworkManager with "/etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart" and then vpnc started working.

I have been using Linux since the nerdy releases of 1996. Ubuntu takes the cake. It may not be the best performant distro but it is the best in ease of use, quality of the components and user support in forums etc. Any beginner or experience linuxer will love Ubuntu. It transformed Linux from a hobbyist's play OS to something that people would love to have now.

Go Ubuntu team. You deserve the best!