Question about Ubuntu

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Right, I've downloaded Ubuntu as it seems to be gaining a lot of popularity. Just a quick question, why are distro's like Mandrake, SUSE etc on about 3-4 disks and Ubuntu comes on only on CD. Is this because it doesn't come with all software that normally comes with the other big distro's like open office, server tools and development tools like MYSQL, PHP etc. Is Ubuntu more of a home desktop than a server distro?

I just want to point out I know nothing about Linux (though not through lack of trying ) and really wanted to give it ago rather that keep downloading 2-3GB all the time for other distro releases.

Michael

 

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Good Question, and one to which I have no idea of the answer.

I do know that Ubuntu is supposed to be able to operate as a server platform as well as a desktop one though.

 

Since Ubuntu is a Debian descendent you have the ability to install software from Debian file servers using apt-get. That opens up a huge repository of software for Ubuntu users because you are able to install software directly from them.

The cd from which I install Debian has only 110 megs of data on it. The rest comes from downloads using apt-get. That way I can fully control and customize what it is that I want on my install. If I don't want a gui on a server, I don't install Gnome or KDE. I just install the software for the daemons I will be running and configure the server from the command line. I won't eat up disk space or cpu resources by using a gui.

If I don't want to be able to boot into KDE as I normally use Gnome as a gui, I don't install it. I just install Gnome, and then install any of the KDE packages that I find I use somewhat regularly. (On a default desktop install Debian normally installs both KDE and Gnome.)

The Debian "Sid" respoitories, which are the Debian respositories that Ubuntu is based on, hold somewhere around 18,000 software packages, so don't assume that just because Ubuntu comes with only one cd you are limited in software selection. Because of the power of the Debian package manager you have access to more software than any other distribution packs onto their multiple cd's.

One of the cool things about the way I install Debian is that I have no dated software on my computer at installation time. Here's what I mean. When you install any OS from a CD, unless it's the week the OS is released, you are getting some software packages that have been modified due to having been patched due to someone finding a vulnerability. Thus if you are installing an OS from a CD that was released a year or more ago you have a great number of patches to install to update your computer.

This is not true if you do a network installation of Debian. When you install off the Internet apt automatically recognizes which packages have been updated since the OS was released and installs those packages. Your computer is fully patched at install time. No security updates are needed at that time.