about Ubuntu nobody force you to update every 6 mounths, if the system is stable and customized to your need no much reason to upgrade

Anyway the very last version, on the net from Yesterday is one of the "long term" and will be supported for 3 years

What i prefer in Ubuntu is that even if the official repository may be off date, you could find very often updated packadges in some unofficial repository

Well... if you want to install anything *new* down the road, it can be a bit challenging. Also, if you want old libraries for said new-to-you programs you may suddenly find them unavailable.

I speak from experience. I switched to debian, and never looked back. I suppose it might be different now...



Yes. I tend to re-purpose machines and use them until they die. As I said, Lazy. So YMMV.

And there are reasons not to use Debian. They get weird and political about seemingly arbitrary things (I know they are not, by the way, but if you don't have an exhaustive in depth knowledge about the Free vs. Open software... it really looks random) And so you have to do some of your own leg-work for things like... Flash Player and the like.

And yes, one should always download from the package manager, because dealing with dependencies in your head is more than anyone should have to deal with.

As for on-line searches: was talking about browsing for how-to's and other on-line information. I should have made that more clear. Sorry.

I don't hate Ubuntu. I rather like it actually. I just use Debian because it meets my personal needs somewhat better. For most people, Ubuntu is probably better. So let's just pretend I edited that comment out. It's pretty pointless and just adds drift.

"-Ubuntu comes with the Wacom drivers preinstalled in the kernel. Why do you need to download new ones?" because i had no way of knowing they came preinstalled. yes, I knew how to burn an ISO and have already installed ubuntu. An example off the top of my head regarding installing tarballs is inkscape. When i let the software manager download it it wasn't the current version.

Well, every time I've used Ubuntu, I was able to just plug my tablet in and it automatically worked. I needs minor tweaking to get the aspect ratio right, but it's already there.

GIMP also needs a little tweaking.

I'll try it and see. I need to get the connectivity issue fixed. I can't get it connected to my LAN yet which means no software downloads yet.

Bummer.

Bummer indeed.

Right now I'm completely disappointed with the whole thing. I decided to go all the way and removed the windows partition so now all I have is ubuntu but I simply cannot get it to connect to my gateway. Without being online I can't do anything. Although I'm not a noob in anyway networks are a weak point for me. I can usually get a windows system to work but Ubuntu asks for a LOT more information. I thought I had all of the information right but it won't connect. I've researched it, tried some of the stuff i've found and nothing works. So for right now I have a 30 pound paper weight sitting in my living room.
Unless i can get the wireless connected I'll have to move it to another room and dig an ethernet cable out of my junk box.

For all its worth, I have a Gateway and from what I understand it has to have the windows partition. When I had my big virus crash last year, it wouldn't let me use anything except the disk provided by Gateway. I had a techie working on it, and after several calls to Gateway, they informed him the partitions have to stay. I think Gateway is the only PC that builds computers that doesn't let you install without the partition....

Don't ask me if I know what I am talking about, cuz I don't. All I know the partition couldn't be removed.

http://www.computing.net/answers/window ... 82967.html