Really Impressed with Ubuntu Linux Ver 6.06

I am really really impressed with Ubuntu Linux.  I am writing this post on my second PC that I have just loaded with Ubuntu 6.06.  For those of you that do not know Linux, Ubuntu is a desktop distribution of Linux that is very easy to install and use.  Here is a great resource.

The things that most impressed me were:

1,    My wireless network card connected with WPA2-PSK with very little difficulty.  I had to use ndis-wrapper and wpasupplicant however both of these were installed with the distro and were configured with a minimum of fuss uisng the copious instructions on the Ubuntu Forums.  Gnome network manager is the key and allows the connection to WPA2-PSK networks like mine.  These are the instructions I used to get ndiswrapper working.  They are for broadcom however I just substitued the drivers for my network card and it worked fine.

2.  All applications worked OK and the update process using debian apt is easy and fast.  All the applications you would need are one click away on Synaptic Package Manager.

3.  The sound worked - no need to say more here.

4.  Samba-client was preinstalled and working so I could connect to the network shares on all my other computers AND connect to the shared printer on my main computer - really impressive.

5.    All the usb devices I connected worked first time.

Things that did not impress me at all:

1.    The video settings.  I am using VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] intergrated graphics and these are a pain to get working.  I could not push the resolution beyond 1024x768 and it took a great deal of mucking around to get it to work.  Some of the resources I used to get it working are here and here.  I eventually settled on this configuration for my Dell 17" monitor after using gtf 1280 1024 65 as a command to get the settings.

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated  Video"
        Driver          "via"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option          "EnableAGPDMA"
        Option          "DisableIRQ"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Generic Monitor"
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       31.5-69.09
        VertRefresh     59.0-75.0
        Modeline "custom" 119.40 1280 1368 1504 1728  1024 1025 1028 1069 -HSync  +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated  Video"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           1
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           4
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           8
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           15
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "custom"
        EndSubSection
EndSection